Synopsis
A detective (John Stuart) tracks a group of criminals to a deserted house above a rail depot which they are using to escape to the continent. An adaptation of the stage play by
J. Jefferson Farjeon. According to biographer
Donald Spoto,
Hitchcock considered the source material 'a bundle of clichés' and so with writers
Rodney Ackland and
Alma Reville set about sending up the genre, climaxing the film with the chase to end all chases between a bus and a train. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the film is the introduction of what would become a characteristic of
Hitchcock's work: a MacGuffin – in this case a stolen necklace.
