Carey Grant's character is over the top

"The ending battle scene of the movie is ridiculously bad as well."

Could you explain? I grant you it's different, being done mostly in long shots with very few medium shots or close-ups, but if you see it on a big screen in a theater it's pretty interesting. My problem with seeing it in a theater was that the black threads holding up the snakes were really, really visible.

Yeah, that's one of my problems with the movie. I think it's extremely well made, and I disagree about the battle scene, but there's too much broad, silly comedy stuff. The three leads are put into one goofy scene after another and it establishes them as being like the Three Stooges. The movie pretty much makes an agreement with you that it's unrealistic and not to be taken seriously... and then it wants to go back on that agreement in the last twenty minutes and become a heroic, tragic, high drama thing? Nope, can't do it. They've given me cartoon characters, I can't suddenly change gears and feel something when they're in danger and might die.

If they'd cut way back on all the silliness and pranks and comedic brawls and stuff, to give the film a more realistic approach to the material, that climactic battle would have been ten times more powerful. As it stands, they undercut themselves and it robbed it of a lot of power. I can't feel pathos for clowns. It's like Indiana Jones -- I've never liked those movies, either, because you know nothing really bad's going to happen to the guy, he's never in any real danger. I know a lot of people cut movies more slack in that regard than I do, though.

There's still a lot to admire about the filmmaking, and I can see why it's a classic of sorts, but I have to admit to being disappointed by it.