1931 - RICH AND STRANGE, early Hitchcock comedy/drama

Another interesting restoration of an early Hitchcock picture.  Rich and Strange continues to show Hitchcock's progress as a filmmaker.  His career really doesn't start to take off until 1934 with his film, The Man Who Knew Too Much.

This is a rather typical romantic comedy where the husband and wife on an ocean cruise fall in and then out of love with other people and finally get reunited.  The film contains plenty of Hitchcock's humor and amusing situations.  But I would rate this as a minor Hitchcock film.

There's nothing wrong with restoring Hitchcock's early films but I wish the BFI would lavish some attention on some of his really quirky films like The Secret Agent, Young and Innocent and Sabotage.  These are the some of the most interesting pictures from Hitchcock's British period.  Rich and Strange is enjoyable enough but it would nice to have decent copies of the above mentioned films.

Of interest in this film is the actor Elsie Randolph who plays a very annoying passenger on the ocean cruise.  Randolph shows up again in Frenzy the film Hitchcock made towards the end of his career.

The screenplay is by Hitchcock his wife Alma Reville and Val Valentine.  The running time is 83 minutes.