Murder!

Highly inventive, full of perverse touches and clever flourishes. [26 Nov 1999, p.A]

After the introduction of the titular crime and a proto-12 Angry Men jury scene, the film becomes a playful meta-commentary on the inherent silliness of watching actors go through the motions of detective work, with numerous charming visual embellishments.

Hitchcock was still marking out his territory at this point, and the film is heavy and vague around the edges. But it remains a crucial insight into the development of one of the cinema’s greatest artists, and so, essential viewing.

It's more languidly paced than his mid 30s work, and the dialogue is spoken in stage rhythms, but there are inventive moments.

Although Murder lacks some of Hitchcock's signature guile, it's still a fun mystery with one or two flashes of visual brilliance.

Although the final scenes in Murder...do not live up to many that have gone before and there is a strange absence of true psychology in these closing stretches, there are episodes in this picture that are possessed of considerable merit.

Is this not the most Hitchcockian title of all time? Even the exclamation point adds a certain parlor-game fustiness. It’s a pity that the movie’s only so-so.