This movie really doesn't hang together well and there is very little flow. The story is disjointed and you get the feeling that the script wasn't very good, that Hitchcock was a bit bored with the premise and experimented.
The beginning scenes in which Fred leaves work, the umbrellas, and the underground are all highly stylized. The umbrella sequence is like some choreographed chorus line. Very strange.
Fred, the husband, is insufferably boring and unsympathetic from about 2 minutes into the movie until the end. The actions on the subway are enough to make you cringe and think he's an idiotic lout from then and the loutishness pretty much continues the entire movie. Fred makes you feel uncomfortable and itchy on a number of occasions.
If you've looked at the other reviews you know the general outline of the movie. Fred is boring and bored. He gets some money from a rich uncle to take a cruise with his wife who is way out of his league. The cruise just makes the couple find other people to fall in love with.
The only people I felt any sympathy for were Emily Commander Gordon. Emily because she is somewhat pretty and the closest thing to vivacious in the movie, and Commander Gorden for being somewhat distinguished-looking and calling Emily on being a flirt ("are you pulling my leg?") and seeming to want to be decent to her while clearly aware that her husband is on the level of a slug and that Emily and Fred are horrible together.
Meanwhile, Fred falls for "The Princess." There is an intensely awkward and itchy-feeling scene in which Fred is trying to kiss the princess while wearing his ridiculous Arabian Knights outfit and he can't figure out how to get around the veil covering her mouth. This is a great scene that once again illustrates what an idiot Fred is. It made my skin crawl. This is a sort of comedy by making the audience extremely uncomfortable at just how pathetic a human can be.
Though not a sympathetic character, I had to agree with "The Princess" when she later tells Emily that she's stupid not to leave Fred for Commander Gordon.
The elevator and watch scene is outright comic.
Some scenes with Emily and Commander Gordon that show their feet while walking are just odd.
In the end, I was feeling it a bit of a tragedy that the couple stayed together at all. I wondered if Hitchcock really wanted people to be happy or annoyed that they ended up together in the end.
I actually felt there were many scenes that worked well at creating an odd atmosphere and tension with their experimental flavor. At times I was reminded of David Lynch's Eraserhead. For instance, in the scene where the two stay in their cabin while the boat is being abandoned, the loud thumping and running noises nearly drown out the dialog in both loudness and any attention being paid to it. It made me wonder how many of these odd touches were mistakes and how many were Hitchcock trying to do something interesting with a movie that was essentially not that interesting because of plot and character.
This is probably a movie that is worth watching for individual scenes and experiments, but doesn't further the assumed point of the movie. In fact in some ways, Hitchcock seems to try actively subverting any kind of morality-play aspects that might have been implied in the script.
It doesn't hold together as a whole, but there are plenty of interesting experiments to watch. If it's a train-wreck of a movie, at least it's an interesting wreck.
The beginning scenes in which Fred leaves work, the umbrellas, and the underground are all highly stylized. The umbrella sequence is like some choreographed chorus line. Very strange.
Fred, the husband, is insufferably boring and unsympathetic from about 2 minutes into the movie until the end. The actions on the subway are enough to make you cringe and think he's an idiotic lout from then and the loutishness pretty much continues the entire movie. Fred makes you feel uncomfortable and itchy on a number of occasions.
If you've looked at the other reviews you know the general outline of the movie. Fred is boring and bored. He gets some money from a rich uncle to take a cruise with his wife who is way out of his league. The cruise just makes the couple find other people to fall in love with.
The only people I felt any sympathy for were Emily Commander Gordon. Emily because she is somewhat pretty and the closest thing to vivacious in the movie, and Commander Gorden for being somewhat distinguished-looking and calling Emily on being a flirt ("are you pulling my leg?") and seeming to want to be decent to her while clearly aware that her husband is on the level of a slug and that Emily and Fred are horrible together.
Meanwhile, Fred falls for "The Princess." There is an intensely awkward and itchy-feeling scene in which Fred is trying to kiss the princess while wearing his ridiculous Arabian Knights outfit and he can't figure out how to get around the veil covering her mouth. This is a great scene that once again illustrates what an idiot Fred is. It made my skin crawl. This is a sort of comedy by making the audience extremely uncomfortable at just how pathetic a human can be.
Though not a sympathetic character, I had to agree with "The Princess" when she later tells Emily that she's stupid not to leave Fred for Commander Gordon.
The elevator and watch scene is outright comic.
Some scenes with Emily and Commander Gordon that show their feet while walking are just odd.
In the end, I was feeling it a bit of a tragedy that the couple stayed together at all. I wondered if Hitchcock really wanted people to be happy or annoyed that they ended up together in the end.
I actually felt there were many scenes that worked well at creating an odd atmosphere and tension with their experimental flavor. At times I was reminded of David Lynch's Eraserhead. For instance, in the scene where the two stay in their cabin while the boat is being abandoned, the loud thumping and running noises nearly drown out the dialog in both loudness and any attention being paid to it. It made me wonder how many of these odd touches were mistakes and how many were Hitchcock trying to do something interesting with a movie that was essentially not that interesting because of plot and character.
This is probably a movie that is worth watching for individual scenes and experiments, but doesn't further the assumed point of the movie. In fact in some ways, Hitchcock seems to try actively subverting any kind of morality-play aspects that might have been implied in the script.
It doesn't hold together as a whole, but there are plenty of interesting experiments to watch. If it's a train-wreck of a movie, at least it's an interesting wreck.