Murder! (1930)

Of the countless motion picture directors that have left a lasting impact in the sands of time in cinema history, "the master of suspense" Alfred Hitchcock is one that stands with his own distinct style. Despite being given the great praise as one of the twentieth century's greatest story men of the celluloid arts this particular picture Murder! does not stand out as one of his best. In fact it was rather forgotten for a number of years left to the deterioration of time before being saved by a media company in resent years. Murder! is a slow methodical film that unquestionably holds some of these quintessential aspects manifested in many Hitchcock pictures seen throughout his long successful career.

Murder! (yes, spelt with an exclamation point) is a murder mystery case picture where a man after convicting a young woman of the hideous crime tries desperately to find all the facts to prove her innocence before the execution. After an opening that puts us right in the middle of discovering the lady with a dazed memory standing over the murdered body of fellow actress we watch as a jury convicts her. One juror Sir John (Herbert Marshall) is not quite convinced of knowing the facts surrounding that night, but is left with no choice other than to presume guilty. The remainder of the picture is Sir John, determined, searching for the missing facts of the actions that night of the murder. Through wordy interviews and clever actions we discover a man that was part of the same acting troope as the two girls is the true murderer, but before his admittance be tragically commits suicide before many onlookers while performing at the circus. This cause immediate ciaos, but ultimately saves an innocent woman's life.

Despite a rather slow picture the final scenes of the film are rather suspense filled as Sir John plays mental games with the true murder. You can see in the eyes of this man that he is the guilty one, but cannot be allege so due to no evidence, until his confession note discovered after his suspenseful suicide. The idea of watching a man commit suicide on screen would have been shocking then as it is to watch it today. We know that man did it by how he carries himself, but to watch the event unfold is creative. Hitchcock does a wonderful job with his actors to get this point across. Yet we watch as the murderer forms a noose out of guilt and jump with it around his neck killing himself in front of hundreds of onlookers, for he knows it will haunt him, especially with Sir John knowing his dark fact. The suspense filled finale makes for a controversial film to watch in that day.

Hitchcock does a wonderful job in staging and cinematography. Being synonymous with planning every aspect of his films before even setting the camera, even being the claimed creator of the storyboard, Hitchcock uses the camera as a art form in many shots, not simply as a recording device. He pans, tilts, zooms, and moves the camera in order to build and reveal the story rather than simply put everything on screen at the same time. With interesting angles of watching a play happen from a stage wing, behind scenery walls, and shots of individuals as the camera pulls back to reveal completely different settings then what you would first think the character was in, Hitchcock manifests his mastery of the story on screen as it could not be shown on any stage production. He would play with his audience, always leaving you guessing before he would surprise you. I say all this because Alfred Hitchcock was a great director, with many of these aspects seen in this picture, but still this was far from a being a great film, lacking much drive for most of the picture.

All of his greatest works were in the future leaving Murder! to be pretty much forgotten in time. Despite having a great little ending the film would be vastly overshadowed by Hitchcock's numerous masterpieces in the coming decades. The film was so forgotten that its copyright would run out and become public domain for a period, while prints deteriorated. Now the film has been bought by a French media company (Canal+) who has restored what is left of it, with some very small number of frames completely lost. It is sad when viewing a modern print of the picture to see the frame go black and still hear audio before the visual returns, but that is how fragile celluloid is. With digital technology of the modern day the best prints will be preserved for future generations of Hitchcock fans eager to see pieces of his older days in England as a younger director.