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Murder! (1930)

A common theme in many Hitchcock movies is a character’s search for an identity, either his own or someone else’s.  To symbolize this he often used theater or movies in his films. As is said in this movie, life imitates art and art imitates life.

This film exploits that theme as it is a murder mystery set within a group of actors.  The story follows a man who is acting as a juror on a murder trial.  After being pressured by his eleven other peers, he eventually votes the defendant guilty, though he still has his doubts. 

Racked with guilt, the man, who happens to be a highly acclaimed actor himself, immerses himself in the case to find out who the real killer is. Many Hitchcock fans regard this film with a very high esteem, and one would have a hard time arguing against its merits. But the film is very long, or it seemed so anyway, and looses it’s edge eventually, making the last half difficult to sit through. 

The characters are all fairly bland and the true killer was never identified while the story was being set up, making it an anti-climactic whodunit.  But film was still evolving as an art form at the time and it’s certainly nothing to discredit Hitchcock with. We mean no disrespect. We’ve got nothing but love to give.

(Written and directed by Hitchcock)

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