The Short Night

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From the balcony, Squirrel Island was now clearly visible. He could distinguish a boathouse with a dinghy that had been dragged up the slope, a hut half-hidden among the trees, the inevitable sauna right at the tip of the island, and the water surrounding it. He turned the middle knob of his binoculars. Two boys in bright red shirts and jeans came out of the hut and ran down the winding path, pushed the dinghy to the shore of the lake, jumped in, and roared off towards Hämeenlinna. He followed their erratic course, twisting his body in every possible way to keep pace with the viewer that hung from a strap around his neck, until his field of vision was blocked by the glimmering end of a long, menacing-looking tube, which contained a lens significantly more powerful than his own. For one second, both instruments were aimed at each other, after which they were quickly and simultaneously lowered... About this atmospheric thriller set in Finland, for which Alfred Hitchcock acquired the film rights, the Manchester Evening News wrote, "... a breathtaking story from a born storyteller..."