Rich and Strange (1931)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Film Review

Rich and Strange is the film that brought an end to Alfred Hitchcock's mixed association with British International Pictures and also marks the end of a period of artistic and critical decline for the director.  His subsequent cycle of British films, beginning with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) would see a marked improvement in Hitchcock's fortunes and would lay the groundwork for his enormously successful career in Hollywood.

As in the films that preceded it, Rich and Strange amply demonstrates Hitchcock's fascination with and talent for experimental camerawork.  With dialogue used sparsely, the film is closer in form to a silent film, beginning with a highly comical Chaplinesque vignette on modern life and using exterior location photography effectively to bring a touch of the exotic, something which greatly appealed to cinema audiences at the time.  Joan Barry plays one in a long line of notable Hitchcockian cool blonde heroines, working well along side her co-star Henry Kendall.  Hitchcock reputedly had a poor working relationship with Barry, who had previously been engaged to dub Anny Ondra in his earlier 1929 film, Blackmail.

Although the film was a commercial and critical failure on its release, Rich and Strange was Hitchcock's favourite film from his British period, partly because it was a welcome release from the series of play adaptations that had been foisted on him by his producers.  It lacks his trademark suspense and thriller elements but it brims with his distinctive black humour, and includes some of his best jokes.  Hitchcock wrote the film with his wife, Alma Reville, claiming to have based it on a novel by a non-existent writer, Dale Collins.  The couple draw on their own experiences and the film is considered to be Hitchcock's most personal, offering a portrait of conjugal life that is daringly honest and incisive for its time.

Film Synopsis

Office clerk Fred Hill is tired of his humdrum life, tired of never having enough money to enjoy the luxuries than others can afford.  His wife Emily has no such complaint and appears happy to fill her day with tedious chores, such as making her own dresses.  One evening, Fred is surprised to receive a letter from his wealthy uncle offering him a large sum of money so that he can travel the world.  Unable to believe their good fortune, Fred and Emily set out immediately.  They cross the Channel for France and head to Marseilles, where they catch a leisure boat bound for the Far East.  For the early part of the journey, Fred is laid up in bed with chronic sea sickness, allowing Emily to draw the attentions of a very eligible bachelor...