BEFORE: Another huge day for rain yesterday, which meant another week of canceling getting the roof fixed. That's two weeks we've had the roofer on hold, and it also means we'll be spending Memorial Day weekend at home listening to hammering, or whatever noises he'll need to make to fix things up there. Instead we had Roto-Rooter come out today and snake the main sewer line, which turned out to be great timing, since we had a bit of water in the basement from the sudden storm. If rain comes down too fast it fills the stairwell in the backyard, and it can't drain quickly enough, so under the door it comes. So snaking the line came just one day too late - it's all part of the fun of being a homeowner.
Linking's a cinch again tonight, because it's the third film in a row for Basil Radford.
THE PLOT: In Cornwall, around 1800, a young woman discovers that she's living near a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecks for profit.
AFTER: I thought Hitchcock was on something of a roll, with 4 or 5 relatively modern (for the time, obviously) films about spies, espionage, and intrigue right in a row. Then to turn around and direct a costumed period piece? It seems like a strange left turn in his filmography. But it is about crime in a larger sense, a gang of renegades who cover up lighthouse-like beacons on stormy nights, and then after ships crash on the rocks, they kill any survivors and keep the cargo.
I had trouble staying awake for this one, I was out cold after the first 20 minutes. But then after going to sleep for real, I tackled the last hour of the film again this afternoon. Sure, I could have just read the plot summary on Wikipedia, but I made a pledge to try and finish each film whenever possible, even if it's boring or distasteful in some way. I'm glad I persevered, because this one got real intricate about halfway through.
It comes down to that Hitchcockian way of letting the audience know certain details, but keeping this valuable information from some of his characters. In this case Mary arrives in Cornwall to stay with her aunt and uncle, not knowing that they're involved in this cargo ship scheme. When she finds out they're not very nice people, she seeks solace with the local magistrate (who she happened to encounter on the way into town), not knowing that he's also the criminal mastermind behind the whole thing. According to the IMDB, this fact was revealed in the film much earlier than Hitchcock would have liked, in order to give Charles Laughton more screen time - but I think it went a long way toward establishing more dramatic tension.
The gang suspects Trehearne, one of their members, of skimming off the top, and try to hang him - but Mary takes pity on him and sets him free. They run off together like so many Hitchcock couples do, which indicates that they're meant for each other down the road. But then we learn that he may not be who he claims to be, either.
Oddly enough, this called to mind more modern crime films, such as "The Departed". Two characters who are essentially opposite sides of the same coin - one a member of law enforcement who's really a criminal, and the other an assumed criminal who might be an undercover officer. What's going to happen when they have to work together (or at least pretend to) to take down the gang?
This film also marked the end of Hitchcock's "British" films, after this he signed a contract with David O. Selznick and began making films in Hollywood.
Also starring Charles Laughton (last seen in "Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd"), Maureen O'Hara, Robert Newton (last seen in "Around the World in 80 Days"), Leslie Banks (last seen in "The Man Who Knew Too Much"), Marie Ney, with cameos from John Longden (last seen in "The Girl Was Young"), Clare Greet (last seen in "Sabotage")
RATING: 3 out of 10 rowboats
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