A welcome re-release of one of Hitchcock’s most critically acclaimed films – and one of the director’s own favourites – which was loosely based on the popular novel by John Buchan.
As in many of Hitchcock’s films, it features an ordinary man (played by matinee idol Robert Donat) who becomes inadvertently embroiled in the world of murder and foreign agents, going on the run to uncover the truth and clear his name.
He follows a clue to Scotland, where a cross-country pursuit ensues, punctuated by a series of audacious escapes from both the police and members of the spy ring he’s out to break.
Memorable scenes include the chase across the moors while Donat is handcuffed to the feisty blonde played by Madeleine Carroll (“There are 20 million women on this island and I have to be chained to you!”), his impromptu address to a political rally he accidentally stumbles into and, of course, the revelatory and ultimately tragic routine by music hall act “Mr Memory”.
Witty and suspenseful, it also features trademark Hitchcockian flourishes, such as the sound cut between a lady’s scream and the whistle of a departing train.
