There is a beauty to this film that is so subtle and so brilliant that you have to be a good viewer to understand it. This is a film where Hitchcock not only makes fun of himself but he also goes directly away from every other previous movie he ever directed. While it is his second comedy, this is no Mr. & Mrs. Smith.<br /><br />The setting in Smuggler's Notch Vermont is a beauty. The cast of Edmund Gwenn & John Forsyth is unique and the premiere of Shirley McClaine was totally surprising. She was discovered working as the under study for another actress on Broadway in "The Pajama Game". Originally, it was the other actress that was being thought of to be cast in this, but when Hitch's folks saw Shirley, she won the part.<br /><br />The comedy is subtle, and the entire cast plays it perfectly. One extreme note of interest, this is one of the very few Hitchcock films which does not have a staircase playing a setting in the film. Staircases always central roles in the action in most of his other films.