BEFORE: Finally, Alfred Hitchcock is my link, because he made cameo appearances in both last night's film and today's. Tonight he appeared as a man standing in front of a NYC drugstore, which means that I don't even have to mention that Cary Grant from "Suspicion" was also in "Arsenic and Old Lace" with Priscilla Lane.
THE PLOT: An aircraft factory worker goes on the run across the United States when he is wrongly accused of starting a fire that killed his best friend.
AFTER: One could easily posit that after the last few films, since World War II was in full swing, there was probably pressure for Hitchcock to get back to his basic plots, about spies and saboteurs to make American audiences aware of the constant threat to the country, reminding them to be vigilant. Also, to focus on the type of person working long hours in factories for the war effort, bringing their sacrifices to light as a patriotic gesture.
This almost allows me to forgive the fact that another man is falsely accused tonight, and goes on the run to prove his own innocence. However, at the same time it's not very patriotic to depict policemen and federal agents who are more interested in closing a case than they are in arresting the right person.
Why doesn't our everyman hero proclaim his innocence more loudly? Or, for that sake, at all? Is it so hard for him to say, "I didn't start the fire" or "I didn't know the fire extinguisher had been tampered with"? I guess if he did, we wouldn't have much of a movie. Nope, the easier solution seems to be to escape from the law (it actually is depicted as easy, which again sells the police of this fine country quite short).
To prove his innocence, he has to track down some rather flimsy leads, but eventually he finds a ring of fascist spies, led by a man who is perceived as being the pillar of his community, so proving that he's dirty is an uphill battle. Eventually he gets involved in another ring, masquerading as the person the press believe him to be (this was a bit confusing) in order to prevent a 2nd act of sabotage at the Brooklyn Navy Yards.
It all leads to a conclusion atop the Statue of Liberty - so the film really represents a California to NYC journey as our hero tries to clear his name. And yes, of course there's a girl that he ends up thrown together with, which is another classic Hitchcock trope. Spend a little time together escaping from the law, and can true love be far behind? Why, it almost seems so idyllic, doesn't it?
Also starring Robert Cummings (last seen in "What a Way to Go!"), Norman Lloyd (last seen in "The Age of Innocence"), Otto Kruger (last seen in "Sex and the Single Girl"), Vaughan Glaser.
RATING: 4 out of 10 circus freaks
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