I'm fascinated by early sound films and by how some directors are stopped dead in their tracks by the new unweildly technology. It's amazing that 1930 gave us such a fluid, masterful sound film as "All Quiet on the Western Front" and such a point-and-click snooze as "Dracula" (filmed the same year). Hitch's "Murder" falls somewhere between the two. He's really trying to avoid the camera-never-moves trap of most earlier talkies, but it's obvious he's having a fight. For example, there's an interesting montage of the individual jurors' faces, but the momentum is distroyed by the distracting glue edits and audio clicks caused by the editing. In another jury scene, hiding the microphone must have be a task as a lot of the dialog is hard to hear. Honestly, a better story would have helped a lot, but at least Hitchcock is trying to keep the film moving.
Review of Murder!
