Saturday 22 November 2008

Rich and Strange

Movie Review: Rich and Strange

Year of Release: 1931
Country of Origin: UK
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Henry Kendall, Joan Barry, Percy Marmont, Betty Amann, Elsie Randolph

Plot outline: Believing that an unexpected inheritance will bring them happiness, a married couple instead finds their relationship strained to the breaking point (IMDb).

An assortment of Hitchcock's greatest early movies are featured in a three-disc collection. Adapted from a novel by Dale Collins, this atypical Hitchcock effort is a cautionary fable which lends credence to the old saw "Love flies out the door when money flies in the window." Joan Barry and Henry Kendall play a young married couple who suddenly come into an inheritance. Bored with their working-class existence, hero and heroine embark upon a world cruise, and it isn't long before Barry gets romantically involved with a landed-gentry gentleman. Meanwhile, Kendall is swept off his feet by a phony princess, who tricks him out of all his money. Partly a sophisticated sex comedy, partly a grim seafaring melodrama, Rich and Strange had the negative effect of confusing the public in general and Hitchcock's fans in particular, and as a result the movie, which remains one of his best early talkies, died at the box office. (NYT)

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

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