Bruno's a lunatic, sure! But Guy is a lousy heel! (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)

Any sorrow he feels about his wife's death is overshadowed by the mess of trouble he's in.

Not only is he the prime murderer suspect, he's expected to murder someone for real. And he's got a big tennis match coming up.

The way the character of the wife is written, we're not supposed to have sympathy for her. Has there ever been a trampier woman in classic cinema?

She's a married woman, pregnant with another man's child. She goes to the amusement park with not one but two men, and while there, makes come hither glances at at a third man.

If she wasn't this trampy in the novel, I can just see Hitchcock saying to himself, "lets have some fun with this character."


Absurdity: A Statement or belief inconsistent with my opinion.

I agree about Guy. You could interpret him as a social climber who wants to get rid of his low-class wife from humbler days and marry a classy lady whose father can help his political career.

On the other hand, we're told that Miriam is trashy, but (because of 50s censorship?) she's never showed during anything really rotten. Just behaving like an overgrown teenager at an amusement park. And if she knows that Guy wants to dump her for a trophy wife, no wonder she wants to make things difficult for him.

Then Bruno comes up with a scheme to get rid of Miriam, and Guy fails to articulate his opposition. Surprise, surprise.

Another way of looking at it though is that if he had reacted with sorrow it would have just been for show, since he himself had wanted to strangle her the day before. In consequence, viewers wouldn't be able to trust anything he did or said from that point onward since his sincerity would always be in doubt.

On a related note, i found it odd when they discussed how he should continue going about his normal activities (such as playing in the tennis tournament) or else it would look suspicious. But wouldn't skipping a tennis match out of respect to a recently murdered wife seem like a natural thing to do? Especially since most people wouldn't have known that he had actually loathed his wife?

But in any event, my overall impression is that he was intended to be seen as basically a decent guy. When watching a movie (or reading a book) i try to take into account how a character is intrinsically meant be even if at times he does or says things that goes to the contrary. Take for instance a brilliant detective who fails to notice an obvious clue. It's not that he is to be suddenly seen as stupid, it's just that at that point in time the script needed him to be oblivious to the obvious. A fault perhaps in the script but not something that should alter how the character is to be taken.

Similarly, there are things that could make Guy seem not all that great of a person but i don't think that's the impression Hitchcock intended to leave since overall he is shown in a favorable light. Some examples that come to mind: he didn't go to Bruno's house with the intent of killing the father or even of killing Bruno; when confronted by Anne he didn't lie to her, as i imagine many people would do instinctively out of fear for how she might react, but instead he told her the truth; Anne's kid sister and father like him and trust him (in movies that i've seen kid sisters usually have an uncanny knack for divining the character of an older sister's boyfriend); and, finally, despite his good looks and athleticism he never comes across as conceited but instead is usually very polite and friendly.

His more negative aspects i mostly put down to plot devices. For instance, him yelling at and threatening his wife was to build suspense by raising expectations that he might actually go along with the plan, and of course to place him in a bind afterward by making him look like someone angry enough to have contracted a hitman to knock her off.

I really didn't think i could come up with a good signature, but happily i thought of this one.

Simple. His wife was a lying manipulative whore. And thats not me insulting her. I mean the tet a tet between the 2 of them when he returns is shocking even in our modern desensitized morees. I mean she slept with another guy, she was carrying his baby, she told him she was going to get a divorce, then she comes back and says shes going to stay married and tell everybody its his baby and theres nothing he can do. She took his money he had intended to cover her divorce costs!!! Straight pocketed it. And then the chick continues playing the field with other guys on dates after. She is just sickeningly disgusting and I wouldnt cry for 1 minute if she died. Oh and she was ugly too. Heh Usually I wouldnt say that, but for that piece of work she deserves that and 100 other insults.

Where is his sorrow upon receiving news of Miriam's death?