Director:
Produced By Masterpiece Theater as a Masterpiece Classic
Starring: Rupert Penry-Jones; Lydia Leonard; Patrick Malahide
PLOT: A spy on the run accosts Richard Hannay, a former intelligence agent, in his London flat. The desperate man gives him a coded notebook and then is shot dead by German agents bursting into the room. Hannay battles the intruders and escapes. He returns with a constable, who sizes up the evidence and decides that Hannay himself is the killer. Hannay is thus plunged into the cloak-and-dagger intrigue that precedes the outbreak of World War I. Pursued by police, but also chased by German agents who want the secret notebook, he makes his way to Scotland, where a German spy ring is executing a plan that will render Britain defenseless against invasion. Along the way, he is joined by combative suffragette Victoria Sinclair, who at first mistakes him for a liberal politician, but is unfazed to learn that he is an accused murderer and, she thinks, a "delusional maniac" on the subject of German espionage plots. Dangers and surprises lurk everywhere ...
sez says: why a remake of this classic? I guess, like me, people want to see what they have tried to do/new with this fabulous old Hitchcock movie. So you've got something of a built-in audience fueled by the power of Hitchcock's genius. I assure you --this in NOT a better version. The production values (sets, costumes, etc) are all around really good, but the story is silly and veers from here to there based on happenstance and luck -- and then people who were just in the water come out of he water in dry clothing. The end is a real cop-out. I won't say what happens but I can say it made me moan and ask out loud, why did they have to do that. Not much reason to watch this except as a mild diversion when you don;'t want to have to think about wha't going on on the screen. (Grade D+)
Produced By Masterpiece Theater as a Masterpiece Classic
Starring: Rupert Penry-Jones; Lydia Leonard; Patrick Malahide
PLOT: A spy on the run accosts Richard Hannay, a former intelligence agent, in his London flat. The desperate man gives him a coded notebook and then is shot dead by German agents bursting into the room. Hannay battles the intruders and escapes. He returns with a constable, who sizes up the evidence and decides that Hannay himself is the killer. Hannay is thus plunged into the cloak-and-dagger intrigue that precedes the outbreak of World War I. Pursued by police, but also chased by German agents who want the secret notebook, he makes his way to Scotland, where a German spy ring is executing a plan that will render Britain defenseless against invasion. Along the way, he is joined by combative suffragette Victoria Sinclair, who at first mistakes him for a liberal politician, but is unfazed to learn that he is an accused murderer and, she thinks, a "delusional maniac" on the subject of German espionage plots. Dangers and surprises lurk everywhere ...
sez says: why a remake of this classic? I guess, like me, people want to see what they have tried to do/new with this fabulous old Hitchcock movie. So you've got something of a built-in audience fueled by the power of Hitchcock's genius. I assure you --this in NOT a better version. The production values (sets, costumes, etc) are all around really good, but the story is silly and veers from here to there based on happenstance and luck -- and then people who were just in the water come out of he water in dry clothing. The end is a real cop-out. I won't say what happens but I can say it made me moan and ask out loud, why did they have to do that. Not much reason to watch this except as a mild diversion when you don;'t want to have to think about wha't going on on the screen. (Grade D+)
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