Light and stylish. I also watched this one at 1.5 times speed. But it seems it still would be entertaining in real time. Not a whole lot there story wise, but it still feels important in the evolution of Hitchcock’s style, with its strong link between the character, the camera, and the audience. His most compelling character since the Lodger in my opinion.
Also more queer coded characters.
The front half is a bit interesting with the crosscutting between the courtroom and the actual event using push ins and pull backs. The back half is a tad messy, more of a straight melodrama. But he does slide in a queer female kiss at the end.
Not only is the only available print awful, the wide screen ratio is cropped to square. So there are many sections where people are talking to each other and there is only a sliver of their face showing. What is still visible is a bit dull, but there is some fun writing and a bit of sword action. Maybe a restoration would make it watchable?
“What if I cultivate him too much?”
“No I want your great aunt from Lesbos”
Kind of like an exploitation version of a bad Goddard movie. Lots of VO over stock footage and a very loose slightly frenetic style of editing. A few moments are wonderful with some splendid images and moments of editing with some great easy going French songs. But a whole lot is mush that a bit of a chore to watch. I feel like Corman did all the real talking scenes to make it somewhat coherent. Dick Miller gets a flash of a cameo. A 20-30 minute supercut could be really great.
