I was watching this very carefully for Annie Coates' editing ahead of the Invisible Women film we'll be making. She really does an incredible job. For example, all the interrogation scenes are edited differently. Thus Anthony Perkins is quite wide, classic shot/reverse shot; Ingrid Bergman is in one, amazing, continuous take of 3 or 4 minutes; Michael York and Jacqueline Bisset is all about close shots quickly cutting between the three of them.
In interview both York and Bisset confess that the denouement scene was torture - to get all the reactions, Finney had to repeat his eight page dialogue scene innumerable times.
Did also notice not just how great Richard Rodney Bennett's score is but how well he themes it - thus the kidnapping has its own queasy strings theme which comes back in significant moments, the train has its own theme.
Also Geoffrey Unsworth's team is just great when you have these big actory close-ups but then the actor rises or sits and the operator's right on it, following them perfectly (Peter MacDonald, who worked frequently with Unsworth). I did notice that Annie does these 'barn door' wipes when an interrogee is referring to a flashback but when Finney refers to the flashbacks they are straight cuts; but I did not notice that in his version of the flashbacks the scene is lit differently and shot though wide lenses. And the murder scene is shot with two cameras, in one take, with one close up on Betty Bacall.
As to Jonathan Bates' sound design, I'm sure I noticed in two places a train whistle which sounds like a child shrieking.
How Lumet got the gig I still have no idea - it was made by EMI. Maybe something to do with the previous year's Lumet / Connery collaboration The Offence. For this film, Connery was such a big star he had a percentage of the profits.
Won BAFTAs for music, Gielgud and Bergman; Finney & Coates nominated.
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