What a pleasant surprise.
Before starting this, I read a damning review that claimed any of his films that were too much of a departure from Hitchcock's usual fare of suspenseful crime stories fell flat. Whether I agree with that or not is for another time, but I think it is missing the point with Under Capricorn. True, it is not an suspenseful crime story, and the period setting does not instinctively come across as Hitchcockian, however it does exhibit many other traits of Hitchcock's masterworks. The plot revolves around insiders and outsiders, mental instability and and long held secrets, alot which peppers the great man's filmography.
Not to mention there was also some characteristic organic feeling storytelling through camerawork - by which I mean the camera positioning and movement often dictates where our attention is and whose perspective we take through certain scenes. This is nothing new of course, but somehow Hitchcock seems to make it more observable than many others, to the film's credit.
This was less Psycho and more Rebecca - which in my opinion is one of his very finest. Out of the 25 or so Hitchcock films I have seen, this would not get into the top half, but I liked it alot, and despite the underwhelming ratings, I would recommend.
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