Murder!

At the beginning of 1930, Alfred Hitchcock was experienced in working with crime films (after the films The Logder and Blackmail) and was also already familiar with sound film. Murder! is an adaptation of the crime novel "Enter Sir John" (1928) by the authors Helen Simpson and Clemence Dane. Hitchcock collaborated with Helen Simpson many times, first on the dialogue for Sabotage and again choosing her as the author of the source material for the film Under Capricorn. Clemence Dane had a somewhat different career, but along with Helen they also wrote another crime story with an amateur investigator - "Re-enter Sir John" (1932). Murder! is a good film, and film historians love the scene with the internal monologue, while others can calmly follow the individual clues to uncover the culprit, whom the viewer does not know from the very beginning this time. The acting is dominated by Herbert Marshall, who already had one foot in Hollywood, the charming Norah Baring, and of course, Una O'Connor. The theme of suppressed homo(trans)sexuality is a topic for a separate debate, but it has been part of the analysis since at least the 1960s. (24.04.2023)