Torn Curtain is considered a lesser Hitchcock film, and it is arguable that although Frenzy had its moments (the pull back out of the apartment, the body in the water) and that the murder in Topaz was a visual treat, Hitchcock’s best work was behind him at this point. There was one moment here however which stuck with me. Paul Newman’s American spy is cornered in a farmhouse, threatened by an East German security agent and forced to kill or be killed. Unlike the numerous one shot kills we have come to expect from spy thrillers Hitchcock takes pains to show us just how difficult it is to kill a man, how hard it is to fight for your life. It is a brutal scene, all the more compelling for its unsophisticated bout of mortal combat.
