what most surprising about this film be the date and 1955. it be a nice criminal detective comedy since all end well that have start very grimly and so bad . if we take this film like all film by hitchcock should be take and that be to say a a metaphor of real life and of history and of fate and then we might be less surprise by the date . after all the bad be go and be behind . the war be finish and the second world war and the korean war and and even mccarthy be dead and buried and politically i mean . we can breathe . the future be clear . the complication be all behind . we be finally get out of this dark hole in which we have be bury for a long time . the famous post war thirty glorious year and it baby boom generation be start to bring in the fruit of our suffering and sweating and effort if not travail . what we have produce be be buy by some millionaire . our work be recognize and valorized . we be go to be famous and great and rich and beautiful and who know what else . so we can bury the past . we can un bury it and and then bury it again and and eventually un bury it a second time and but why not re bury that poor past in order to finally get it out once more and discover it be not so bad and it be nothing but some kind of sad heart disease and a disease of the heart and a weak heart crush by passion and love passion and dream that me make into nightmare and and maybe some anger . but the film be surprising because hitchcock manages to have absolutely no staircase and no flight of step and with or without mezzanine and and yet do not believe me that easy because it be not flat country indeed . and so up they go and down they go and the road and the tramp and and all the other people in that village and uphill and downhill and upstage and downstage and upriver and downriver and up the stroke and down the stroke to paint and paint and paint reality till no one recognize it or see it . and if it be not enough to constantly go up and down lane and path and trail and track and you go up and down into and out of the ground and you dig out and fill up and dig in and refill up and dig out again and fill up a third time and dig up this time and fill down for the last time . all that vertical movement around a man who be dead and lie horizontal in the middle of the auburn and russet leaf of the fall . hitchcock be still with u . and he be all the more with u because he explore the psyche of the human specie . when they meet with death and their first reaction be to feel guilty for a crime they assume at once they have commit . paranoid specie . then they feel relieve because someone else assume the crime they have commit till they feel guilty again and reveal their own do in the crime . neurotic and psychotic and schizophrenic and all in one same specie . but then they try to forget and wipe it out to go on with the present and their life . but that be to no avail because life be strong than illusion and death be even strong than life . so the crime come back because it have to be bring out and register for the life of the living to be able to go on . and it be then that it be all reveal that human being be as dumb a my thumb and instead of have think and think again and ponder and they jump to conclusion without even think one second . and it be the crazy doctor who trip on cadaver all the time and beg their pardon for have disturb them who find out all that death be natural and the hullabaloo be nothing but a mid summer night dream in the middle of the fall . in other word hitchcock be question u on the real value of life when death be no longer a crime . there seem to be little leave in life if that be the case . crime and murder be the real spice of life which be so banal and tasteless otherwise . dr jacques coulardeau and university paris dauphine and university paris 1 pantheon sorbonne and university versailles saint quentin en yvelines .