Murder!

Movie Review: Murder!

Year of Release: 1930
Country of Origin: UK
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring, Phyllis Konstam, Edward Chapman

Plot outline: A juror in a murder trial, after voting to convict, has second thoughts and begins to investigate on his own before the execution (IMDb).

An assortment of Hitchcock's greatest early movies are featured in a three-disc collection. Based on a novel and play called Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson, Murder! has the distinction of being Hitchcock’s one and only true whodunit, in the mould of the classic British murder mystery popularised by such writers as Agatha Christie. Hitchcock’s preference for suspense over surprise is evident in this movie which, whilst competently directed and entertaining, lacks the master’s distinctive touch, even though it deals with a familiar Hitchcockian theme: the wrongful arrest of an innocent person. In this movie, his great innovation is the internal monologue, where the audience hears what a character is thinking, not just what he is saying. In common with several of his early work, this movie explores the relationship between life and art – in particular, how the two feed off one another and how it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the one from the other. The exaggerated theatricality seen in this movie (which is taken to almost absurd limits by Herbert Marshall’s overly mannered performance) makes it hard to tell what is real and what is not – reminiscent of what we find in his later movie Vertigo. Murder! is often slow-moving, but it has some good features, and is worth watching the whole way through. (JT)

My judgement: **1/2 out of 4 stars