Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Alec McCowen, Anna Massey, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Billie Whitelaw, Vivien Merchant.
Those who blame Hitchcock for the intensity of the rape/strangulation scene should realize that he wrote neither the screenplay (which was written by playwright Anthony Shaffer, best known for his marvelous comic/mystery "Sleuth") nor the novel upon which it was based ("Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square" by Arthur La Bern)...and that the scene in the film runs exactly the same course, with precisely the same detail as the scene in the book. In fact, now that I think of it, the scene in the film is actually tamer. Hitchcock's film does not, after all, make any reference to the post-mortem insertion of a letter opener. If anything, Hitch showed restraint with his version of the scene. Not as much restraint as is usual for him...but restraint, nonetheless. And he achieved what he set out to do. The scene is absolutely chilling. And not only is it memorable...it's the most unforgettable scene of its kind.
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