ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBB. 

USA, 1964.  Universal Pictures, Geoffrey Stanley.  Screenplay by Jay Presson Allen, based on the novel by Winston Graham.  Cinematography by Robert Burks.  Produced by Alfred Hitchcock.  Music by Bernard Herrmann.  Production Design by Robert F. Boyle.  Costume Design by Edith Head.  Film Editing by George Tomasini.  

This middling effort by Alfred Hitchcock is a psychologically sound study into the mind of a frigid, deranged kleptomaniac (Tippi Hedren). At the film’s beginning, Hedren has ripped off yet another big business enterprise that she has been working for, but this time she hasn’t managed to escape notice. The man who spots her crime (Sean Connery) decides that instead of turning her in, he’ll get closer to her and find out what makes her tick. Eventually he marries her and tries to discover what childhood trauma lies behind her inability to let any man in the world touch her. The film succeeds much better in the suspense sequences than it does in the psychological exploration, but since it emphasizes the latter much more than the former it is a mixed bag of entertainment value.