This has to be a joke...

"Yeah, it's almost as if Hitchcock didn't care for realism.

It's a total departure from all his other movies that are completely realistic.

Completely realistic.

All of them."

Funny, Singlwhitemale! And so true.

'We're not in Medford now. We're in a hurry.'

First hour was good if unbelievable. After that it fell to pieces. The scene in the house at the ball was quite ridiculous, and after that, it just got worse. Almost as though Hitchcock stopped caring and was just keen in getting it all over with.

'At the time of filming, The US hadn't entered the war in Europe. Perhaps Hitchcock, whose native England was being bombed daily wanted to scare some Americans while still making them feel patriotic? That would account for the plot and the superpowers of Cummings. See? Even an average Joe can save the world from totalitarianism!!!'

The US had entered the war in Europe when this movie was made. In the last third of the film when the New York docks are seen, you can clearly see a damaged ship on its side. This ship was the 'Normandie' a liner that had recently been converted to a troop carrying ship, and was about to be used when it was sabotaged and set on fire by Nazi agents.

WHY would a man send his niece off alone in a car with a strange man (with handcuffs)?

Blind Man believed that Barry Kane wasn't guilty. So the blind man wanted her to take Barry to the blacksmith to remove the handcuffs.

- The girl didn't turn turn him in because despite her hostility towards the idea he may be a traitor to his country she a) holds great respect for her uncle (hence not telling her Uncle he was a mad old fool and ringing the police there and then) and b) knows that she feels something for him.

- As others have said the old man completely trusts Barry and wants to help him. It's also clear as the film goes on that the girl can look after herself and naturally her unlce would have known this.

- Tobin couldn't kill Barry on his ranch. Even if Barry was a suspected traitor a shooting on his ranch would mean an investigation and he had more than just a little to hide.

- The ship moving quickly is to do with shooting technology not plot. If it was easy to record it moving very slowly then all Hitchcock would have had to do is have Barry keep the guys hand away from the button a few extra seconds.

- So did everybody else. And there's nothing to say she was tired by climbing all those steps... in fact she leans against the pillar as she decides what to do.

- The 'bad guys' dress her up for Mrs. Sutton's party so as not to attract any attention to her. If she was the only one dressed inappropriately she'd stick out like a sore thumb and it would be easy for her to make a scene.

- When Barry asks the business man the time he says it's 10 to and the launch isn't due to happen till half past. So it could have taken 30 minutes to get there before being made to sit in the office for 5 minutes and then impatiently going off on his own. He knows where the 'bad guy' is because they make reference to the Newsreel Van so naturally he checks it.

- Barry is trying to catch Fry himself as he has to clear his name and knows that the girl is perfectly capable of shouting down some stairs.

- As for the patriotism what do you expect? The country was at war. As a matter of fact most audiences now have a difficult time accepting movies that arn't at least proud about the values of their countries even if the government and others are painted as being corrupt.

I mean no offence but it seems you wern't really paying attention or thinking about what might happen between shots. It is true that it hasn't dated as well as a lot of Hitchcock's work but to say it's a 'horrible movie' seems somewhat over the top.

The ending was kinda abrupt. They didn't explain if Kane got off the hook. I was hoping Fry would take the girl hostage and bring to the torch for an exciting climax. instead somehow the villain loses his gun and the good guy gets it? I woul've had the two tussle then the good guy gets it.

I agree that modern film-making produces too much dreck...but then, that's still no excuse for dreck produced 60 years ago...and I don't agree that this film's blatant plot-howlers are merely examples of Hitchcock's imaginative technique. I had not seen this film before catching it the other night on TCM and did not realize that it was an early Hitchcock effort, but when the odd plot twists brought the protagonist to the cabin in the woods occupied by the kindly old blind man, I began to think: hey, wait a minute...this is a silly rip-off of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Then, I noticed elements that were clearly reminiscent of later (and far superior) Hitchcock films...still, it seemed like nothing more than clumsy film-school attempt at a Hitchcockian imitation. That, for me, was best exemplified by the story line premise on which the whole film was dependent: that a saboteur working at a defense plant would feel the need to bring to work an envelope with hundreds of dollars of payoff money and letters linking him to his confederates, their names and addresses...all this in order that he might be accidentally jostled in a crowd and have the incriminating evidence spilled out so that the unfortunate protagonist would know his identity and where to track him down...without that supremely implausible device, the story could not have been advanced.