Rich And Strange

This comedy-drama about an average lower middle-class London couple, Fred and Emily Hill (Henry Kendall and Joan Barry) who use an unforseen inheritance to “see the world” and find that money can;t buy happiness is relatively unusual in the Hitchcock oeuvre, having none of the director's typical mystery-thriller elements and a lot more straightforwardly comic ones.

An early sound film, it is a mixed bag of the up-to-date and the out-of-date, Not only is the acting style still relatively histrionic but Hitchcock uses inter-titles to move the story along (and also to tell us that the film’s title comes from Shakespeare’s 'The Tempest'). The editing is quite crude and there is quite a lot of stock footage to represent foreign locations mixed with purpose shot studio recreations. Adapted from a novel by Dale Collins the film is, however, well-written, and for fans of the director at least, it has the occasional visual flourish that will delight.

 

Want something different?