Hitchcock's early films can be culminated in Vertigo. Use the entire movie to leave a huge suspense and finally unravel it with a casual detail to form a complete loopback structure.
The biggest problem with this type of film is that the details that are unraveled at the end can look silly. This is also impossible. For example, "North of the Northwest" is completely unstoppable.
Another Hitchcock approach to filming is The Birds, which drives the film with a deepening of utter horror. And according to Hitchcock's original intention, that movie had no ending at all, leaving a tailless tail, which further enhanced the sense of horror.
This film combines the characteristics of both. The gap in the film is how bad guy Bob gets caught by Richard at the end. But the gap isn't as strong as Vertigo, it's a gap the audience can expect, and it's bound to grab, and in a way that's not too special. Although the way of discovering "Ecstasy" is stupid, the way of grasping is the biggest suspense. Of course, the death at the end of Vertigo is a stroke of genius.
But watching this movie, you will feel more and more exciting, more and more thrilling. The two murders in this film, especially the later corpse search, make the film not a simple loopback, and similar to the several attacks in "The Birds", the sense of terror is getting stronger, and the audience is no longer just waiting for an exit of the plot.
Then again, this movie is a two-line narrative, and the last two lines combine, which has also appeared in Hitchcock's films, but it has never been so natural. In the past, his films would have another part of the rich plot independent of the main line. For example, in "Reaper of Souls", the meeting between the deceased David's fiancee and his ex-boyfriend and the love in the conversation that was elicited.
Another example is "The Psycho", where the linear narrative suddenly swayed, and the protagonist was observed from another angle. Good but too obtrusive.
This time, such a parallel two-line narrative method is adopted, and the several clutches are really superb.
At first, the two were close friends, and Hitchcock went out of his way to show Bob's excessive friendship with Richard. Then the two separated. Later, Bob raped Richard's ex-wife and the bartender. Although there was no direct connection between the two, they had a secret connection, and the connection in the latter was even more brilliant.
Richard's search for Bob's asylum afterward was a miracle. The reconnection at the end is inevitable.
The film's dual-line narrative finally forms a looping shooting method also alleviates the "Vertigo"-style structural flaws.
However, this film is different from all Hitchcock's previous films in that the main focus of this film is the conflict of ideas and ethics. For the first time in his film, the plot is not just a means of putting the audience in a dilemma, this time the audience is caught in an ethical conflict.
This was shown in his previous films "The Deadly Lock" and "The Psycho", but at the time it seemed still immature, and "The Deadly Lock" had only an anti-Semitic speech at the end, which seemed boring. "The Psycho" ends with too much force, too long and deliberately monologue. This one is the perfect one.
The first thing that disturbs the audience is Richard's arrest, which, like The Outsider, depends in large part on prejudice. The secretary's bad impression of him and his sloppy clothes even became the main factor for his crime. This is a questioning of the judicial system, but what lies behind it is a criticism of prejudice and gullibility of human nature.
The critique is stronger in Richard being dumped by a friend. The director took great pains to portray the role of the friend's wife, using long shots to show the conflict in the woman's heart.
She started off with a strong sense of justice and morality. But when she fell into the predicament of being covered up and unable to testify, she chose to leave to protect herself and watch Richard be wronged.
In addition, Richard's revenge also has a deep doubt on the judicial system. Whether he has the right to seek revenge, from his perspective, should he solve himself in a judicial system that has been unable to achieve justice. From the audience's point of view, this undoubtedly has a strong sense of justice.
However, I don't think the absurdity of the ending is strong enough, and if I shoot it, it'll send Richard back to a completely dark room. And then kill Bob and the woman who are having sex and haven't strangled with a tie. At this time, Richard's situation was even more interesting.
There are other speculative passages in the film, the woman reciting verses as she is raped, and even a moment of enjoyment of rape at the end.
For another example, Hitchcock criticized the disregard shown by the world. The two men were chatting nonchalantly. Another example is the conversation between the sheriff and his wife. In the conversation between the two, this serial murder case seems to be just to bring a little interest to her boring life and show her judgment.
Of course, the director also put a lot of effort into the presentation of the wife's uninteresting life and the tragedy above it. In the end, it is deplorable to show this lady's awareness of herself and her life in particular.
From storytelling to thought is an important shift in the style of late Hitchcock, all previous attempts are displayed here, it is really a masterpiece. It seems to be the greatest pleasure to see this and see it in a movie.
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