Rich and Strange

Funny and clever opening five minute slapstick intro, drowned in an hour-long sea of boredom, nothingness, humorlessness, and snapshots from a journey around the world just like from a bad newsreel. The final twenty minutes still does not work as a romantic movie, or a comedy, but at least something happens. Thanks for that, at least. (01/02/2009)

An expressly pleasant British film. Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville chose the then bestseller by Australian writer Dale Collins and made the adaptation within a year of its release. They were certainly also inspired by the fact that previous films based on Collins' work were made in Hollywood. The interesting exotic setting and ordinary people as the main characters were considered to be in good taste back then. Furthermore, Hitch finally had the opportunity to cast Joan Barry, who dubbed Anna Ondráková in Blackmail. And indeed, the voice is still the same, only Barry simply is not as good an actress. She just looks good and has the right accent. From a historical perspective, the film could be considered a part-talkie. In American distribution it went under the title East of Shanghai, because Rich and Strange obscurely refers to Shakespeare's The Tempest. (03/23/2023)