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BS: Essential Hitchcock Films
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Subject: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Joe Offer Date: 28 Jun 12 - 09:44 PM I have several "missing links" in my cultural upbringing. As a result, I often feel quite clueless when I'm with intelligent people. One of my "missing links" is a lack of exposure to Alfred Hitchcock movies. Everybody seems to know a number of Hitchcock films, but the only one I really know is "The Birds." I've seen "Rear Window" and "North by Nothwest," but I can't really say I know them. I suppose "Vertigo and "Psycho" are also essential Hitchcock films, but I can't remember if I've seen more than just clips from those films. What Hitchcock films do I need to see if I want to be considered to be a cultured person, and what do I need to know about them? -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Jack the Sailor Date: 28 Jun 12 - 09:55 PM I'm sure that the five you listed will get you by anywhere but a Hitchcock convention. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Elmore Date: 28 Jun 12 - 10:21 PM 39 Steps, Rebecca, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Trouble With Harry, Lifeboat, etc., etc. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Big Al Whittle Date: 28 Jun 12 - 10:41 PM My favourites:- Rebecca Jamaica Inn Frenzy Shadow of a Doubt |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Big Al Whittle Date: 28 Jun 12 - 11:06 PM About Rebecca from a novel by Daphne Du Maurier. Upper class lesbian English writer who lived in Cornwall. Hithcock and Olivier's first film in Hollywood. Joan Fontaine's greatest performance - she died of drink problems. Also notable Judith Anderson's scary performance as Mrs Danvers as a frustrated lover/personal servant of Rebecaa - a recently deceased high society lady. Also George Sanders doing his corrupt English aristocrat bit - revisited in All About Eve, The Rebel. and the Picture of Dorian Gray. Jamaica Inn An earlier film. Another Daphne Du Maurier story - set in Cornwall once again. This time 18th century Cornwall. Notable for performances by Charles Laughton , Maureen O'hara. Robert Newton and a young Emlyn Williams( notable playwright who wrote Night Must Fall - a play thriller still much beloved in England. Frenzy A weird one. Hitch returned to England at the start of the 1870's to make this one. On one level a thriller. Much more interest to itch fans is Hitch phoyographing lovingly the old Covent Garden Fruit Market in LOndon, where Hitch's Dad was a porter at the turn of the century. A flawed masterpiece - but hundreds of Hitch's wonderful crazy obsessions on display here. His relish of a grizzly murder, his Catholicism -(one murder victim dies chanting a psalm!). Jon Fich (Polanski's choice for Macbeth) stars along with Barry Foster, Anna Massey...the hits keep coming! Shadow of a Doubt Hitch's lovesong for suburban America. Joseph Cotton as a smooth talking serial killer hungrily stalking a smalltown American community, and being sussed out by a young girl. Faultless. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: katlaughing Date: 28 Jun 12 - 11:09 PM I second The Trouble With Harry. I think I've only seen one of the above in its entirety. I was more into his thirty minute tv show...those were brilliant as was the theme music.. (This one was before my time...I must've seen re-runs.:-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Tunesmith Date: 29 Jun 12 - 02:33 AM I have a real soft spot for "Saboteur" 1941. The central character is played by Bob Cummings who Hitchcock used again in the very entertaining "Dial M for Murder". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Tunesmith Date: 29 Jun 12 - 02:41 AM Of course, I should have mentioned "To Catch a Thief". The film is set in one of my favourite parts of the world: the French Riviera. It stars Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. Although lots of critics say the film is flawed, I think it is wonderful, and both Cary ( at his dashing best) and Grace (looking absolutey stunning) lend the film a terrific elegance. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 29 Jun 12 - 03:24 AM "Rope", in one apparent take, is technically impressive. There are often plot anomalies, as how the hero Scottie knows about 'the Carlotta portrait'& its connection to Madeleine in "Vertigo"; or why the tennis player didn't just lose the match that his life depended on ending quickly in "Strangers on a Train": but Hitchcock's masterly narrative technique usually carries one over these, so that one only notices them on a third or fourth viewing (and then only if you are the 'legendary pedant' I was once described as by a poster friend on another online forum). ~Michael~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 29 Jun 12 - 03:27 AM In previous post re Vertigo: it is Scottie's girlfriend Midge who has no means of knowing about Madeleine & the Carlotta portrait, tho the plot turns on her pretending to dress up as it ~ I got that detail wrong. Sorry. ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Big Al Whittle Date: 29 Jun 12 - 05:29 AM Sorry about my typos. I was up late and I had to tidy up for visitors in the morning. Should have gone to bed, but I was kicking myself awake. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MikeL2 Date: 29 Jun 12 - 06:21 AM hi Two of my favourites not mentioned above are -: Strangers on a Train - thrilling plot with a number of fine actors especially Robert Walker's psychopathic Bruno Anthony. A must see. I Confess - Another thriller starring one of my all-time favourite actors Montgomery Clift. Cheers MikeL2 |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Wesley S Date: 29 Jun 12 - 08:32 AM I don't think "Notorious" or "Spellbound" have been mentioned yet. Or "Dial M for Murder". Be aware that there are two Hitchcock versions of "The Man Who Knew Too Much". One with Jimmie Stewart and Doris Day and one earlier version. If I'm not mistaken the song Doris Day sang in the second movie - "Que Sera Sera - Whatever Will Be"- is only the second Oscar a Hitchcock movie was ever awarded. Rebecca was the only one of his films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. But he never one an Oscar as a director. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 29 Jun 12 - 10:19 AM MikeL ~ I mentioned Strangers On A Train above: v good in most ways; but always worries me because, surely, if one's life depends on getting a tennis match over in quick time, isn't it much easier to lose it than to change one's usual style of play to win in a hurry, with risk of extending the game to full sets? One of those holes in the plot one finds in AH's work if one brings one full intellect to bear, rather than being swept along by the momentum of his plots? ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Stilly River Sage Date: 29 Jun 12 - 11:24 AM Joe, you can't go wrong if you decide to wallow in Hitchcock films for the next couple of months. Quite a few are at NetFlix and several are probably streaming. This is indeed a gap in a liberal education. :) There are the early films he made in the UK, and then there are the later films he made in Hollywood. An interesting comparison is to watch the UK vs Hollywood versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much - venues shift and the story changes as far as the character backstory, but when Doris Day screams, well, it's worth the price of your ticket. I love the feminist (even if it was unintentional) rift in the earlier version. The Lady Vanishes is another one with an extremely strong female heroine. Robert Donat was not in many Hollywood films, he had very bad allergies or asthma, but his early work is sparkling and The 39 Steps is best in Hitchcock's original black and white version (other filmmakers have done remakes). I took a friend to see it years ago in an event on campus; she complained that the film sound was kind of crackly and said she'd leave if it didn't get any better. It didn't improve at all, but she stayed right there in her seat. :) I saw Sabotage many years ago and should dig it out - my ex and I were both National Park Rangers and used to laugh about the Hitchcock Park Series of films, of which this is one. :) If I had one film to take to a desert island it might well be Rear Window. There is so much in there to enjoy. But so many of them, were I to watch it right before writing this post, I'd say the same about North By Northwest, The Trouble With Harry (a dark film chock full of double-entendre), To Catch A Thief, Vertigo, etc. Some of them are leaner cast or set-wise but exquisite, Dial M For Murder (another of my all-time desert island favorites), Lifeboat, Strangers On A Train, and Notorious. (Spellbound and Marnie are in the category of "suspend disbelief" for believability plot-wise). I saw Mr. And Mrs. Smith a long time ago but I think I didn't watch the entire thing - my impression is that it was Hitchcock's nod to the screwball comedy. I've seen Shadow of a Doubt several times, and I swear, every time I watch it it's like a new movie. There is so much going on. Shift your focus and it's a different story. Joseph Cotton was so good as good guys and so good as bad guys. Years ago I saw Torn Curtain and it didn't grab me, but I was a kid and it was shown in fragments every day at school at the noon lunch hour. I should give it a full viewing and then say what I think. I remember Frenzy from about that same time and thought it was rather odd, and should re-watch it. I think he has very unsympathetic characters in there. I have to get back to work now, but I can see a Hitchcock movie-binge in my near future. As my kids were growing up we used to watch movies together, and mixed in were a lot of Hitchcock films. My son wrote a report about The 39 Steps in middle school - probably startling his teachers when the rest of the kids were in their George of the Jungle phase. :) SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Big Al Whittle Date: 29 Jun 12 - 11:51 AM I remember onetime I went out for a skittles evening with the schoolteachers at the school i was working at. The PE teachers grabbed the skittles and no one else had a go all night. The rest of the staff watched morosely sipping their drinks while the 'competitive' types annexed the skittle alley. Thats how it is with sports people Mike. They could no more lose intentionally than fly round the room. Except for thr ones taking a bribe. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: PoppaGator Date: 29 Jun 12 - 01:44 PM "North by Northwest," for one, was recently digitally-restored (correcting faded colors, etc.) and had a limited run in a few theaters in "major American cities." I would imagine that several other Hitchcock classics might be in line for similar treatment. (I'm sure that at least a few others have already been restored). The Turner Classic Movies cable network as been at the forefront of announcing, promoting, and screening this kind of preservation project. They also air plenty of old black-and-white films (including early Hitchcock), which are less likely to need restoration. Browse TCM.COM for more info. One cable network is currently showing the old Alfred Hitchcock Hour TV series from the 1950s (or maybe it's the very similar Alfred Hitchcock Presents from the early 60s). These were weekly one-hour dramas. On contemporary cable television, without commercials, they run about 40-some-odd minutes. Even without the ads, you still get to see Hitch's very droll introductions to each commercial break, as well as the intros and "out-tros" that begin and end each installment. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: PoppaGator Date: 29 Jun 12 - 01:54 PM PS: Joe, are you aware that Hitchcock makes a brief cameo appearance in each of his films? Something to watch for, whether viewing a film for the first time or the tenth... (There may be exceptions, but I'm not aware of any. He may not have started casting himself as an extra from the very beginning of his directorial career ~ I'm not sure whether his earliest British works include his trademark walk-ons.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Wesley S Date: 29 Jun 12 - 02:06 PM Hitchcock is also known for his use of the McGuffin. What a McGuffin you ask? From Wikipedia: In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or maguffin) is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist (and sometimes the antagonist) is willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to pursue, often with little or no narrative explanation as to why it is considered so desirable. The MacGuffin is common in films, especially thrillers. Usually the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act, and then declines in importance as the struggles and motivations of characters play out. It may come back into play at the climax of the story, but sometimes the MacGuffin is actually forgotten by the end of the story. I'm back again. An example would be that everyone is running around looking for microfilm - but they never tell you what's on the microfilm. In a recent DeNiro film "Ronin" everyone is trying to steal a briefcase but the contents of the briefcase are never revealed. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MikeL2 Date: 29 Jun 12 - 02:12 PM Hi Michael Sorry - I didn't spot that you mentioned this earlier. Having been brought up listening to Dick Barton Special Agent I guess my eye for weak plots was tarnished....lol Or maybe I was bedazzled by the lovely Ruth Roman for whom I had a huge crush at the time !!! Regards MikeL2 |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 29 Jun 12 - 02:32 PM Poppagator ~ The most ingenious working of Hitch into one of his own films was Lifeboat. There are only the characters in the boat thruout: but one of them has an old newspaper with AH's photograph illustrating a news item on the front. They are not even really cameo roles: he rarely says anything, just appears for a second; as when one of them steps away from talking to the teller at a bank window, and we just catch a momentary glimpse of the next in line coming up to take his turn ~ & it's guess-who... ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Big Al Whittle Date: 29 Jun 12 - 03:29 PM Adolf Hitler in the mewspaper....? I missed that. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 29 Jun 12 - 04:26 PM Teehee Al. But beware of prosecution under Godwin's Law... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Big Al Whittle Date: 30 Jun 12 - 03:33 PM refresh - its nice talking about Hitchcock. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Charley Noble Date: 30 Jun 12 - 09:20 PM Any of them with Peter Lorre in it, such as The Man Who Knew Too Much and Secret Agent. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 01 Jul 12 - 12:12 AM Funny about Secret Agent: it's based on Somereset Maugham's series of stories called Ashenden; while the film that Hitchcock did base on Conrad's novel The Secret Agent he called Sabotage. Perverse or what! ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Bev and Jerry Date: 01 Jul 12 - 12:40 AM Funny you should mention "Sabotage". We just saw it yesterday for the first time. It's a 1936 film. Got a DVD from our local library. Jerry is recovering from spine surgery (again) and is confined to quarters for about three weeks so we're seeing a lot of old movies for the first time. Bev and Jerry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Big Al Whittle Date: 01 Jul 12 - 03:54 AM They creak a bit those old ones. My sister gave me the boxed set - apart from jamaica Inn - I don't think I've made it right through one of the really old ones. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 01 Jul 12 - 07:02 AM Oh, come on, Al: think of the kitsch interest, of which Hitch was fully aware, of such as The Lady Vanishes ~ or Blackmail {is it?] with the chase over the roof of the British Museum or whatever...! ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 01 Jul 12 - 07:06 AM Thing is, the was master of that hard-to-pull-off sort of Brechtian Verfremdung, whereby it is all dead serious ~ but he was simultaneously sending himself up just the same. ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 01 Jul 12 - 07:13 AM Lifeboat has a lot more to do with that other AH than the mere coincidencs of initials. It is the rare case of a dedicated war propaganda film whose viewers disagree about which side it is for. With some wise words about intentional moral ambiguity in many successful films, and most watchers' determination to ignore it if possible, you can top the discussion. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: GUEST,Georgina Boyes Date: 01 Jul 12 - 08:58 AM "The Lady Vanishes" has got to be a definite for the list - it's one of the few films with a Folklorist/Musicologist as hero and - as well as classic Hitchcock tension - has some great one-liners. Overall, I prefer the black and white Hitchcock - "Rebecca", "The Thirty-Nine Steps", "Vertigo" and "Strangers on a Train". Georgina |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 01 Jul 12 - 09:32 AM ... and of course Psycho, which he chose to do, tho a late-ish one, in black & white for the film noir effect... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Jul 12 - 10:26 AM Vertigo is in color. I thought, for sake of discussion, that I'd mention the film I enjoy that is often referred to as "the best Hitchcock film that Hitchcock didn't make" - Charade. It did seem to have all of the elements. I just looked up Peter Stone who was the writer and director on that: he has quite a few recognizable films to his credit but isn't a household name (at least not in my household). Actually, this fellow probably deserves a thread of his own, when I look at the classic films in his oeuvre. He trod a parallel path with some of his stories (Charade, Arabesque, Father Goose, and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three). SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: GUEST,Georgina Boyes Date: 01 Jul 12 - 04:33 PM Sorry, SRS, I was thinking of "Secret Agent" with John Gielgud but got the title wrong. But does "Vertigo" bring us neatly to "High Anxiety", the (excellent) Mel Brooks Hitchcock tribute? Georgina |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: GUEST,Frank Date: 02 Jul 12 - 02:33 AM They are all good, and part of the enjoyment is looking for his cameo. However, IMHO "the Trouble with Harry" is a film I can watch again and again. My Bucket List includes taking the long trip to view the Autumn colours in the New England States. I am easily pleased. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Becca72 Date: 02 Jul 12 - 11:05 AM I'm partial to 'Rebecca', myself. :-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 02 Jul 12 - 12:14 PM Actually, Rebecca, to anyone who has read Daphne du Maurier's novel, is a great disappointment. Not Hitch's fault, but the wretched requirements of that idiotic Hays' Code which applied at the time. In the book, it turns out that Maxim de Winter had actually murdered the obnoxious Rebecca, with whose memory the second Mrs de W thought she had to compete. But that was not possible in 1940 under the Code, according to which "all criminality had to be punished", and the plot had accordingly to be fudged so that her death was an accident; which of course had the effect of robbing that sardonic narrative of its point. ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 02 Jul 12 - 12:16 PM +, of course, the hints of a lesbian relationship with the insidious Mrs Danvers had to be entirely suppressed... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Jul 12 - 12:54 PM Michael, I think I have to reread Rebecca! But I have to disagree - in the film he did admit to the second wife that he killed Rebecca, as I recall he did in the novel also. I agree, a Mel Brooks sendup is quite an honor - it has been many years since I saw High Anxiety - another one to find on NetFlix. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Jul 12 - 12:58 PM We should put "spoiler alerts" in here - though with 50+ year old films, it's hard to imagine people haven't seen them. Since this is for Joe, Joe, don't read those last few posts. :) SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: GUEST,Stim Date: 02 Jul 12 - 01:29 PM I am in the process of watching all the Hitch films(four shy of finishing), in sequence (well, that didn't quite work). Predictably, I share many of the same favorites with you all, with "I Confess" and "Shadow of a Doubt" topping my list. Given that, on re-watching "The Birds", I realized that, though superficially a "monster movie", it is really a penetrating exploration of the relationships between four women(or should that be "amongst"?)Jessica Tandy was never better, and that, alone, makes it a "must see". "Sabotage", which many, even here, confuse with "Saboteur", though often overlooked, must be his most merciless film, as pulls us through the brutality of a terrorist attack with the ticking of a clock. The suspense comes from knowing what will happen, and watching as it does. If you loved "The 39 Steps", "Young and Innocent" seems almost a second version, a handsome, young man is wrongly accused of murder, abducts a witty ingenue and runs from the the police. It is strictly fun, and one scarcely realizes that Nova Pilbeam is not Madeleine Carroll, and that Derrick De Marney is not Robert Donat. The ending is even....well, watch it and see! Worth it for Hitchcock's appearance. I found "The Paradine Case", which I remembered well, to be rather disappointing, and I kept thinking that Gregory Peck was not very convincing at court, and definitely *not* Robert Donat... I found that even the most familiar of his films held surprises, and I am glad I stayed true to purpose and didn't pass over films I'd seen recently. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: John on the Sunset Coast Date: 02 Jul 12 - 03:13 PM I'm surprised that I did not see ROPE on anybody's post (or did I just overlook it?). It is an intense psychological story--Farley Granger and John Dall have killed a friend and hidden his body in a chest serving as buffet at the party they are giving. Their former professor (James Stewart) is an invited guest They steer the conversation to the morality of homicide in a situational ethics type of discourse. The genesis of the story is the real life, sensational murder, the Leopold/Loeb case. But the most interesting part of the film is Hitchcok's long takes. Essentially he blocked out the scenes into takes utilizing a full can of film as a single shot. While it was neither one his best films, nor, I believe one his mor successful efforts, Rope is well worth the tie spent watching it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 02 Jul 12 - 03:17 PM John ~ I mentioned Rope as impressive on 29 june, 0324 ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 02 Jul 12 - 03:21 PM SRS ~~ "At Selznick's insistence, the film adapts the plot of du Maurier's novel Rebecca faithfully.[3] However, one plot detail was altered to comply with the Hollywood Production Code, which said that the murder of a spouse had to be punished.[3] In the novel, Maxim shoots Rebecca, while in the film, he only thinks of killing her after she taunts him, whereupon she suddenly falls back, hits her head on a heavy piece of ship's tackle, and dies from her head injuries, so that her death is an accident, not murder." Wikipedia ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 02 Jul 12 - 03:40 PM Am I alone in thinking that the incident in Vertigo where Midge dresses up, to Scotty's horror, as the 'Carlotta' portrait derives from the 2nd Mrs de Winter's being deceived by Mrs Danvers, in the much earlier Rebecca, into dressing up for the ball in reproduction of the costume of Rebecca's portrait, which of course, as Mrs D has known throughout that it would, immeasurably distresses her husband Maxim? And I reiterate that this part of Vertigo is an apparent confusion on director's & scriptwriters' parts ~~ Midge has never seen the Carlotta portrait, & knows nothing of the 'Madeleine' side of Scotty's life, or her obsession with the portrait, which is one of the causes of the behaviour of his which she finds so worrying, & is trying to tease him out of with this masquerade. I have never found anyone else who had noticed this, as the narrative momentum carries the moment thru, or could justify this apparent plot-solecism to me. Can anyone here? Or have I overlooked or missed something here? ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 02 Jul 12 - 04:12 PM I remember quite enjoying his last film, Family Plot, tho its reception as I recall was a bit iffy at the time. ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Jul 12 - 04:48 PM The list is getting longer. . . |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: GUEST,Stim Date: 02 Jul 12 - 05:52 PM After Scotty follows Madeleine to Carlotta's grave and the portrait, Midge takes him to see Pop Leibel, who tells the story of Carlotta--so she knew the story from the beginning. Midge doesn't miss much of anything. Incidentally, "Vertigo" is, among other things, a wonderful tour of San Francisco, and most of the places in the movie still exist and still look as they did. If one has a certain tendency, one might make the trip to the Palace of the Legion of Honor to see the portrait of "The Mad Carlota"(who seems to be a fictionalized version of the Empress Carlota of Mexico) which appeared not only in "Vertigo" but also in the "Tales of the City" television series. One will then be gently told that the portrait was strictly a Hollywood prop, which mysteriously disappeared, that the creators of "Tales of the City" had to recreated the portrait for their Vertigo-esque scenes, and that that portrait also mysteriously disappeared. Whether this is true or not, I can't say, but it is delightful to hear on a damp, foggy afternoon. I am also fond of "Family Plot", which was kind of Hitch's tribute to Truffaut. The twisting race along the mountain highway is familiar to anyone who has driven to Santa Cruz as Highway 17, and is also the road to Hitch's ranch in Scott's Valley. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: GUEST,Stim Date: 02 Jul 12 - 06:31 PM But you are exactly right, MtheGM, it is a repeat of the scene from "Rebecca". Watching the films in order, many things reappear--the glasses that Midge wore, for instance, appear nearly as often as Hitch himself. Characters recur--Midge, the love struck intellectual who is a bit to clever for own good, seems much reminiscent of Jane Wyman's character in "Stage Fright", and of Diane Baker's character in "Marnie". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: GUEST,Stim Date: 02 Jul 12 - 10:47 PM Probably ought to SPOILER ALERT this- Here's the scene after the visit to Pop Leibel: EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MIDGE'S APARTMENT - (EARLY EVENING) - LONG SHOT Scottie's car draws up and comes to a s:top. INT. SCOTTIE'S CAR - (EARLY EVENING) - MEDIUM TWO SHOT Scottie and Midge are looking straight ahead. SCOTTIE Here you are. MIDGE You haven't told me everything. SCOTTIE I've told you enough. MIDGE Who's the guy, who's the wife? SCOTTIE Out. I've got things to do. MIDGE I know. The one who phoned. Your old college chum, Elster. SCOTTIE Out! MIDGE And the idea is that the Beautiful Mad Carlotta has come back from the dead, to take possession of Elster's wife? Ah, Johnny! Come on! SCOTTIE (Angrily) I'm not telling you what I think! I'm telling you what he thinks! MIDGE Think? Well, what do you think? Scottie is troubled, lost in thought. Pause. MIDGE Is she pretty? SCOTTIE Carlotta? MIDGE (Evenly) No, not Carlotta. Elster's wife. SCOTTIE Mmm, yeah, I guess... Midge looks up at him from the corners of her eyes. MIDGE (Wickedly) I think I'll go take a look at that portrait. (With a bright smile) Bye! She opens the car door quickly and jumps out. * * * So Midge went to see the painting, and that's why she was able to recreate it, with herself as Carlotta. Wonder what happened to that painting? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 02 Jul 12 - 11:28 PM Ah; at last. Someone who sees what I mean & can explain it. Many thanks! ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Lonesome EJ Date: 03 Jul 12 - 12:14 AM Strangers on a Train. Robert Walker's portrayal of the boyish psychopath with a debt to settle is chilling. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 03 Jul 12 - 01:26 AM Agreed re Robert Walker. & Farley Granger pretty good at the injured innocence caught up in horror-situation not of his own making. I am still bugged, tho, as to why he didn't just throw that tennis match by having a pretend off-day to get away quickly from the courts to save his life, rather than lose so much vital time by insisting on playing it thru to a win! ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: GUEST,Stim Date: 03 Jul 12 - 02:55 AM You or I might have done what we needed to to get away, but Guy Haines' weakness was that he allows himself to be drawn into risky situations; even though Bruno made him uncomfortable, he was drawn into a conversation with him, and then back to his drawing room, and even though he knew meeting Miriam at the record store where she worked could go badly, he allowed her to draw him into the listening room, where she goaded him into attacking her in front of witnesses...and it went on from there.. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MGM·Lion Date: 03 Jul 12 - 04:38 AM Yes: thanks Stim. I suppose it is psychologically consistent and convincing at that. ~M~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: MikeL2 Date: 03 Jul 12 - 05:57 AM Hi Not only did Hitchcock cast himself in most ( if not all ?) of his films his daughter Patricia was in at least 3 that I can recall. She was in Strangers on a Train, and Psycho as Janet Leigh's colleague, and I believe she was in Stage Fright which was much earlier. Cheers MikeL2 |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Joe Offer Date: 09 Jul 14 - 04:35 AM I came across this article (click) today in the Jesuit America Magazine. An excerpt:
Raised in a strict Catholic household, Hitchcock (1899-1980) attended St. Ignatius, a Jesuit high school in England. A lifelong practicing Catholic, he once said in an interview with Peter Bogdanovich that the Jesuits taught him "organization, control, and to some degree analysis." Catholic education gave Hitchcock a great fear of authority figures like policemen, a fear that he playfully evoked in many of his films. Some biographies have claimed that he fell away from the faith at the end of his life. But Father Mark Henninger, S.J., confirmed in a 2012 Wall Street Journal article that Hitchcock was regularly receiving communion and confession in his last days. Father Henninger, one of the Jesuit priests who personally administered the sacraments to Hitchcock, also noted that the great director received a Catholic funeral and burial from Blessed Sacrament Church in Hollywood. Hitchcock's movies deal with recurring moral themes that resonate deeply with the Catholic psyche and imagination: innocent men wrongly accused of crimes, icy blonde femme fatales and seemingly upright people with tragic secrets or hidden flaws. As a Catholic familiar with sin, Hitchcock was uniquely aware of the difference between our public image and our personal dysfunctions, depicting this dichotomy in a way that shocked many filmmakers accustomed to Puritanically simplified "good versus evil" plots from the days of the Hays Code. Nevertheless, many film professors and critics have judged Hitchcock to be the greatest director of all time. Although I have never enjoyed horror movies myself, I enjoy Hitchcock. While horror films depress me, Hitchcock amuses and enlightens and sometimes moves me. He treats unspeakable things with tact, humor and style in a way that is much imitated by modern filmmakers without being fully recaptured... ...If Catholicism sometimes produces neuroses in people like Hitchcock, it also inspires great art. Without the Catholic Church to embrace or kick against, I suspect our collective imagination would not be the same, and we might be likelier to minimize the darker corners of our lives in favor of self-deluding success narratives. Without the church, there might be precious little to remind us that God ultimately controls our destinies—not us. Gee, maybe that's why I like Hitchcock movies. He portrays the messy reality of life, not a sanitized version where only perfect people are acceptable. -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Big Al Whittle Date: 09 Jul 14 - 07:21 AM John Ford was Irish - maybe he was Catholic too. I must say, I can't see Uncle Charlie the merry widow strangler, or Norman Bates getting past the pearly gates. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: LadyJean Date: 10 Jul 14 - 12:29 AM "Strangers on a Train" was my first Hitchcock, and got me hooked for life. He was, apparently a real SOB, who was hard on the women who worked for him. This having been said, "The Lady Vanishes" which features two strong women, is one of my favorites. I also love "Rear Window". I dreamed one night that I was the heroine of a Hitchcock film. I had all kinds of thrilling escapes and exciting chases, but I knew I would be okay, because it was a Hitchcock movie and I was the heroine. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Stilly River Sage Date: 10 Jul 14 - 12:44 PM As long as it wasn't Vertigo. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: GUEST,Tunesmith Date: 10 Jul 14 - 01:47 PM Or Pyscho! But, then I've never seen Janet Leigh as the heroine of that film. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Stilly River Sage Date: 10 Jul 14 - 04:51 PM I had the same thought - Novak is a love interest but not a heroine, but the point being that they're headliners and neither of them fares well. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: LadyJean Date: 11 Jul 14 - 12:37 AM It was more in the mode of "The 39 Steps" I knew I would get away. Let me reccomend "The Trouble With Harry", a lovely movie short on suspense, but entertaining. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Stilly River Sage Date: 11 Jul 14 - 12:12 PM The Trouble With Harry is a dark comedy, and is unique in Hitchcock's oeuvre. The color is also almost surreal (a film that came later that has some of these characteristics is Blue Velvet). |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Thomas Stern Date: 27 Aug 15 - 10:20 AM Interesting thread - I enjoy Hitchcock films, including many of the early British films. YOUNG & INNOCENT is well worth seeing - many themes and images used in later films and a breathtaking tracking shot at finale. A very NON-Hitchcockian film THE FARMERS WIFE is slyly amusing. Hitch's take on Jack the Ripper, starring Ivor Novello is available in a restored print from BFI. Almost everything Hitch directed is available on DVD - though there is one "lost" film THE MOUNTAIN EAGLE(silent, 1927) his 2nd directorial effort, and several very early silent films missing on which Hitch co-directed/scripted/designed... A recent book may be of interest to Hitchcock obsessives: Hitchcock Lost and Found: The Forgotten Films by Alain Kerzoncuf University Press of Kentucky, 2015. What actually prompted me to post to this thread is the release on DVD of THE HITCHCOCK HOUR TV programmes. 3 seasons in 3 box sets from MADMAN in Australia (WHY aren't they available in the US and ENGLAND ???) They are R4, so you need a region free player to play the discs. The HITCHCOCK PRESENTS series IS available worldwide, and is better known. I first encountered the HITCHCOCK HOUR series in a group of 3 VHS tapes with selected programmes released in the UK many years ago. One of the episodes on those tapes was set in a nightclub and has a marvelous performance by BARBARA DANE - knocked my sock off! Also from Australia, a 3-DVD box ALFRED HITCHCOCK DIRECTS THE TV COLLECTION. This includes only the TV episodes actually DIRECTED by Hitchcock from the Hitchcock Presents (17 episodes), Hitchcock Hour (1 episode), and FORD STARTIME (1 episode). Cheers, Thomas. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Mrrzy Date: 28 Aug 15 - 09:58 AM I can't believe nobody has recommended Foreign Correspondent! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: olddude Date: 28 Aug 15 - 10:42 AM North by northwest |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Thomas Stern Date: 29 Aug 15 - 02:32 PM Hi Mrrzy, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT is one of my favorites. Now video - it was UN-available for quite a while which may account for it being less well known than the late British productions, and the American films. A Walter Wanger Production, ownership and distribution rights were in question for a while. IIRC a VHS tape from a small company was available, but A good print was released on DVD by Warner some years back. Last year CRITERION released a remastered version on DVD and BLU-RAY with some interesting extras. Best wishes, Thomas. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: GUEST,Stim Date: 29 Aug 15 - 05:40 PM It's one of my favorites, too, Mrrzy-Joel McCrea is the best, as is the cheerfully homicidal Edmund Gwenn. Herbert Marshall is the seemingly noble but secretly evil father figure, which is a recurring Hitchcock theme. Just looked it up and found that it had an unusually large number of (famous) writers including Robert Benchley, Charles Bennett, Harold Clurman, Joan Harrison, Ben Hecht, James Hilton, John Howard Lawson, John Lee Mahin, Richard Maibaum, and Budd Schulberg--maybe that's why it's so good... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Thomas Stern Date: 01 Sep 15 - 09:54 PM TORN CURTAIN is mentioned briefly above. Anyone else seen it ??? I think it is an exciting suspense story, but I have problems with the morality. If you reverse the nationality of the characters, would you accept or condemn the actions of the Paul Newman character?? There is a brutal murder (at the farm) which is extremely disturbing. On the positive side, the scenes with LILA KEDROVA I found to be very moving. Her character had much of the same characteristic of the role she played in ZORBA THE GREEK. I'd enjoy hearing others reactions, whether in accord or contrary to mine. Best wishes, Thomas. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Essential Hitchcock Films From: Thomas Stern Date: 11 Sep 15 - 08:19 PM refresh |
