Under Capricorn

MOVIE #1,981 • SCORE 6/10 • 09.20.24
SERIES: ALFRED HITCHCOCK DIRECTOR FOCUS

So vastly different from his previous (and first 10/10) film Rope: Under Capricorn is a historical period piece/quasi love triangle, this feels like quite the outlier in the Hitchcock oeuvre in general. It's also in technicolor and deploys some use of long takes, though not as striking as in Rope. They're still highly choreographed and have some excellent camera movement. Because it wasn't what audiences were expecting, it didn't do well commercially or critically. There's been some modern takes reclaiming it (and the French seemed to like it at the time) but I couldn't find an in-road here. Like Rope, it's also packed to the gills with dialogue but the period setting and nonstarter plot renders it stodgy. Worth watching only for Hitchcock and/or Ingrid Bergman completionism only.

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⫷ MOVIE #1,980 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,982 ⫸

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Under Capricorn is a 1949 British historical drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock about a couple in Australia who started out as lady and stable boy in Ireland, and who are now bound together by a horrible secret. The film is based on the play by John Colton and Margaret Linden, which in turn is based on the novel Under Capricorn (1937) by Helen Simpson. The screenplay was written by James Bridie from an adaptation by Hume Cronyn. This was Hitchcock's second film in Technicolor, and like his preceding color film Rope (1948), it features 9- and 10-minute long takes. It was released on September 8, 1949.