THE RING

Hitchcock claimed that, after The Lodger, this is the next ‘Hitchcock’ picture. It’s difficult to disagree. The story of an unsophisticated fairground boxer whose girlfriend falls for the charms of a professional Australian fighter is told with innumerable expressionist visual flourishes, probably attributable to the time Hitchcock had spent in Germany. The title itself is ambivalent, referring to the boxing ring, the wedding ring and the serpentine bracelet secretly given by the Australian champ. This is Hitchcock’s one and only original screenplay but its neatness and economy reveal a director already confident in his control of the medium.