Review of The Bride Wore Black (1968) by Jacob M — 22 Jul 2009

*** This review contains spoilers *** I am a huge Hitchcock fan, and I am getting to know Truffaut. I love "Day for Night" and recently really enjoyed Truffaut's other Hitchcock 'homage', "Vivement dimanche!" ("Confidentially Yours").

This film was sloppy here and there, but didn't mind it so much. There were little plot holes that didn't bother me at all. Frequent Hitchcock composer Bernard Herrmann's score is like comfort food. The film's ending, which some people have described as brilliant, a twist, or horrific, to me seemed rather flat and predictable -- however, again... I still enjoyed it.

The piece that I simply cannot move past - the piece that simply was unforgivable to me, was one gigantic plot hole which was the basis for the entire plot of the film. If you have seen Kill Bill, then the plot of this film will be familiar to you, as it seems it was inspired by Truffaut's film (or perhaps the book Trauffaut's film was adapted from). The film's main character, Julie Kohler, is seeking revenge on 5 men, one of whom accidentally (and ridiculously) shot and killed her husband on their wedding day. She makes a list, finds each of the men, and disposes of them, crossing each man's name off her list.

The problem here is: The 5 men were completely unknown to Julie. They were anonymously playing poker and drinking, 5 stories up in a building across from the church. In a flashback sequence, we learn that immediately after the accident, the 5 men flee from the building, all going in separate directions and agree to never see each other again. There is never any explanation as to how Julie discovers the identity of any of these men. Which, to be honest, I could live with -- I don't need every little thing explained to me... the problem is that I cannot think of any plausible way that she could have discovered this information, given the explanation that actually WAS given regarding the fleeing of the men from the scene of the crime. And given the lack of an arrest of any of the 5 men for the shooting leads one to assume that the police had no leads either. It just makes no sense, and I spent the entire film waiting for the pieces to come together... to understand how she knew who these men were and how she found them. It became a distraction from the entertainment.

Seriously. I could forgive all the other little flaws, but this one is just way too big.