Have you noticed yet that I have a thing for Hitchcock movies? And this one is simply fabulous. In it's own way, it is even more absurdist and surreal than Vertigo.
With a masterful "criss-cross" motif, we get to see two men on wildly divergent paths and the disaster that results when they interact. Guy is your typical American type -- straight forward, honest, successful, handsome, hard working but a social climber. Bruno is his exact opposite -- gay, decadent, destructive, listless, scheming. Bruno's life is one of repetition, circularity, whereas Guy moves straight ahead. It is Bruno's achievement to move Guy into his realm (represented by the merry-go-round) and force HIM to transgress.
Bruno's transgression turns the world topsy-turvy. Whenever Guy is the main focus, he is filmed straight, with conventionally romantic music. But whenever Bruno intrudes, the atmosphere becomes carnivalesque, bizarre and much more fun.
Loads of suspense are lightened with splashes of black humor (Bruno in the audience at the tennis match, his teasing suggestive comments to Guy, and his mother's ridiculous paintings). This is a movie that take multiple viewings to catch all the little tricks and twists that Hitchcock throws in, and also all the jokes -- he pushes it to the line with the censors, and it's wicked in a fun, early 1950s way.
But what is really interesting is how Hitchcock makes the audience root for a psychotic murderer. While his actions and final words may damn him, you like him better than you do the white bread Guy.
Simply sublime.
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