The purest distillation of Hitchcock’s bold camera style. This one might contain the most individual clever camera trickery, from the intercutting at the start to the carousel climax, with the nightmarish shots up at the horses. And I loves me bold camera tricks. The lengthy buildup to the murder of Guy’s wife is so full of visual flair all by itself it’s almost pretentious on a DePalma level. When Bruno finally strangles Miriam, it’s shown through her dropped glasses so everything looks twisted like her neck. There’s also the tense scene where Guy has to play aggressive tennis while Bruno tries to retrieve a dropped lighter he hopes to plant at the crime scene.
In a delicious performance, Robert Walker plays Bruno much like a child (or a mama’s boy). While he’s silly, the logic to his plan is very sound and Hitchcock shows that Miriam’s death actually is a great relief to Guy. Plus there are the little character moments, like when Bruno pops a kid’s balloon.
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