I would count this as a good, but not great Hitchcock film. Let's take all the good things about it as read; here I will just mention what I took to be a couple of flaws. First, when the two main characters have just fought the magician in the storage car of the train, and they are trying to figure out in whom to confide, it is obvious that they should go find the ambiguously gay English twosome. But instead they choose the odd brain doctor. This struck me as a transparent ploy to drag out the plot. Maybe I am being overly critical here, but still, this seemed pretty out of place for a film that is supposed to be such a masterpiece of suspense-building.

More troubling to me was the film's didacticism in the shootout scene near the end, with its over-the-top allusions to the war. The one character says that they should just surrender to the authorities, and then he gets shot down with his white flag in hand. This is the second Hitchcock film I've seen in a row (the other was "Rope") that overdosed on preachiness near the end.

Both of these things are not to say that I didn't thoroughly enjoy watching this--I just wouldn't rate it among his best work.

6/10