BS: Essential Hitchcock Films

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.

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~

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

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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

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~

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.

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

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.

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~

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~

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.

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".

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.:-)

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.

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

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.

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.

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-