Word: hitchcocked
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...Alfred Hitchcock describes most movies as "pictures of people talking." But he considers his own films "pure cinema," meaning storytelling through montage, the art of putting shots together to convey an idea to his audience. Hitchcock emphasizes this visual concept of film-making whenever he discusses his own films, and in seeing his fiftieth, Torn Curtain, it would be wise to take the hint...
...least the first hour, Torn Curtain is one of the most visually complex and subtle films ever made. The Master establishes suspense, atmosphere, and minute characterizational detail with editing and color camerawork. In manipulating the reactions of the audience he knows so well, Hitchcock quietly (and romantically) uses point-of-view shots to switch character emphasis, soft and distorted focus to heighten tension, soundtrack modulation to isolate the important, and back-projection (when a scene is played in front of a projected background) to subtly increase intimacy...
These are only a few of the devices in Hitchcock's immense technical vocabulary. To see how he uses them--and his 42 years experience--you have to keep your eyes open. Since Hitchcock is probably the consummate artist in the field of narrative film, any student of Torn Curtain is well-rewarded for his effort...
...first time since 1950 (with Stage Fright), Hitchcock has filmed a B-picture script. Screenwriter Brian Moore fails to create a well-motivated plot, or even convincing cloak-and-dagger device. Like most of Hitchcock's "adventure" films, as he describes them, Torn Curtain's script is built around set-pieces: climactic scenes like the Mt. Rushmore sequence in North by Northwest or the music-hall finale in The 39 Steps. But with one magnificent exception, a grisly murder scene that borders on the hilarious, Torn Curtain's set-pieces don't work...
...chase that Hitchcock milks for suspense fails because the audience's attention is allowed to wander from the heroes, Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, to the previously unseen leader of an underground group. Also, the suspense menace (another pursuing bus) is not made convincingly menacing. The climactic theatre sequence where Newman and Andrews avoid the East Berlin police by creating a fire disturbance shows Hitchcock efficiently going through his paces--he has filmed variations of the same scene in four earlier pictures--but without his usual inventiveness. The final ocean-liner scene, where the fleeing physicists are found hiding...