well and this be about as good a they come . there be argument about whether hitchcock be only a master of commercial suspense or maybe a compulsive technician or be he really deep . nobody know precisely what term like that mean and but it legitimate to ask if and at his best and he could not have be all three thing at once . in this one he seem to be about at his peak . hardly anything in it be accidental . it abound with doubt and ambiguity and and wit . and the story be engross and patricia highsmith apparently have complex similar to hitchcock own . i be sure the plot have be thoroughly outline elsewhere so i would not bother go into it . i will just point out five on screen incident that hitchcock be undoubtedly responsible for . bruno antony ( walker ) have follow miriam ( laura miller ) and her two boyfriend to a carnival at night with the intent of murder her . she notice his attention and be innocently flatter by it . 1. laura and her two friend rent an electric boat to go through the tunnel of love and then to an island in the center of the lake . walker be right behind them and smile and in his boat pluto . pluto . it not an allusion to the walt disney cartoon character . it a reference to pluto and also call hades and a god of the underworld in greek and roman mythology . this tiny touch can not be an accident . and the underworld that walker represent be not just a literal hell and but the underworld of the human mind . i hate to say he a jungian shadow but that what he be . ( do carl jung see this movie . he be alive at the time of it release but probably not . ) 2. now and this be a deadly serious sequence and right . walker be a lunatic who be about to murder a woman he doesn not even know . imagine the way this would have be lay out by most director . a night time stalk through a crowded carnival and steal from shadow to shadow and the killer peering from behind the canvas wall and and so forth . what do hitchcock show u . when walker first come through the gate and concentrate on his victim and a little boy in a cowboy suit and hold a balloon and run up and shout and bang . bang . youre dead . walker jerk his head back in surprise and glare down indignantly at the kid . and when the kid start to walk away and walker dart his cigarette at the balloon and pop it and then continue his pursuit without another glance . that one way hitchcock treat impend doom . 3. the famous strangling reflect in the fallen eyeglass and which have be ape innumerable time . 4. miriam and her friend stop at one of those device that you pound with a big mallet and send a kind of hockey puck up the shaft to measure the strength of your blow . one of her boyfriend whams it and the puck doesn not reach the bell at the top . under miriam delight and admire gaze and walker smile and rub his hand together and then pick up the mallet and slam it down and and the puck bang against the bell . she thrill . he put the mallet down and look at her and grin and and waggle his eyebrow at her like a ten year old showoff . 5. after the discovery of miriam body and while whistle blow and people shout and walker leave the carnival and encounter a blind man wait at the curb . walker take the old fellow by the arm and lead him across the intersection and gravely hold up his hand to stop the traffic . a macabre joke . these incident and others all take place during the ten or fifteen minute of the carnival visit . ( robert walker performance be exceptional throughout . ) it essentially a kind of invitation to be noirish . ( cf represent ride the pink horse ) but the menace of the scene be undercut by hitchcock insistence on irony and distance . none of the familiar noir technique be employ . there nothing really creepy about it . and the murder itself be hardly a savage one . i do not think that any director other than hitchcock would have handle it the way he do . it would have be all menace and shadow and hide place and abortive attempt and scowls instead of grin . not that it an entirely flawless movie . a flawless movie be not yet with u . some of the middle section be a bit slow go and farley granger and although a nice guy and be stolid and dull and and rather stupid . his new girl friend be just dull . hitchcock be to treat the misattribution of guilt with deadly seriousness in the wrong man . i be not sure hitchcock ever think about the difference between legal guilt and moral guilt . the latter be impose on him at an early age by his catholic education . original sin youre bear with it and all that . in filmed interview and he always glibly explain away his fear of the police and of authority generally by tell a story about his father take him to the police station to put a scare into him after some peccadillo . be justify in ask if that be only what psychoanalysis call a screen memory . i hope you get the pun . i know and i know . it strain and inept but i spend a good deal of valuable time think it up .