I know, my brain is killing me from all this thinking!
I've about run out of thinkability.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK
-
JackFavell
- Posts: 11926
- Joined: April 20th, 2009, 9:56 am
Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
But I do feel a need to recharge coming on...let's talk about something simple, like Demetrius and the Gladiator.
I gotcha...no worries. Click on Vic. 
-
JackFavell
- Posts: 11926
- Joined: April 20th, 2009, 9:56 am
Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
I'm older than you.
Cinemature! Remember when you were usually one of the younger people in the room? Now, as often as not, I'm the oldest! Where did the time go?
Cinemature! Remember when you were usually one of the younger people in the room? Now, as often as not, I'm the oldest! Where did the time go?
Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
CineMature? Ha! That's not what my friends'd say. As I went through college, kids in class started getting younger and younger.
[u][color=#800000]RedRiver[/color][/u] wrote:...Where did the time go?
Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
I went to Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall last night to see “The Art of the Score: Film Week at the Philharmonic.” Yesterday they featured the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Actor Sam Waterston introduced each film segment.
The Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Constantine Kitsopoulos masterfully and PERFECTLY performed excerpts of scores from Hitchcock’s films. The orchestra sat underneath a gigantic screen and performed to scenes from “To Catch A Thief” ( scored by Lyn Murray ) “Vertigo” ( scored by Bernard Hermann ) “Strangers On A Train” ( scored by Dimitri Tiomkin ) “Dial M for Murder” ( scored by Dimitri Tiomkin ) and “North By Northwest” ( scored by Bernard Hermann ). I was torn between looking at the images onscreen or watching the orchestra play. Watching won out.
Thrilling is how I'd describe this experience. I was surrounded by the music. I felt it in the base of my throat. I saw harps and horns and deep resonant cellos playing in harmony; love watching the synchronized bows...and those violins pulled and tugged at me. I loved the lilting woodwinds and the big bold pronouncement of the timpani. All the music was great. Hearing “North By Northwest” was rousing, and “Vertigo” - hauntingly romantic. I’ve seen all these movies several times and have the soundtrack albums which I’ve played often. The orchestra was faithful to the composers. It literally was the music from the movies. No doubt, Hitchcock directed masterpieces. But at Lincoln Center last night, MUSIC was KING. The musicians had to be just as moved playing this beautiful music, as I was listening to it. The audience in the theatre totally showed their appreciation.
* * * * * *
My creative idea of a poster.
* * * * * *
LINCOLN CENTER - Avery Fisher Hall by Day. Avery Fisher Hall by Night.
* * * * * *
She's got a ticket to ride, she's got a ticket to ri-i-i-ide...
* * * * * *
The New York Philharmonic Orchestra will be sitting under neath the gigantic screen and their music will fit the hall.
* * * * * *
A view from the top in a sold - out house. The orchestra prepares to play.
* * * * * *
Yours truly. A selfie inside Avery Fisher Hall.
* * * * * *
A blurry Sam Waterston hosts the program. I had to act quick. No pix allowed. Shhhhh. Don't tell the cops!
* * * * * *
Me and the ghost of Bernard Hermann at Lincoln Center's "The Art of the Score: Film Week at the Philharmonic."
The Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Constantine Kitsopoulos masterfully and PERFECTLY performed excerpts of scores from Hitchcock’s films. The orchestra sat underneath a gigantic screen and performed to scenes from “To Catch A Thief” ( scored by Lyn Murray ) “Vertigo” ( scored by Bernard Hermann ) “Strangers On A Train” ( scored by Dimitri Tiomkin ) “Dial M for Murder” ( scored by Dimitri Tiomkin ) and “North By Northwest” ( scored by Bernard Hermann ). I was torn between looking at the images onscreen or watching the orchestra play. Watching won out.
Thrilling is how I'd describe this experience. I was surrounded by the music. I felt it in the base of my throat. I saw harps and horns and deep resonant cellos playing in harmony; love watching the synchronized bows...and those violins pulled and tugged at me. I loved the lilting woodwinds and the big bold pronouncement of the timpani. All the music was great. Hearing “North By Northwest” was rousing, and “Vertigo” - hauntingly romantic. I’ve seen all these movies several times and have the soundtrack albums which I’ve played often. The orchestra was faithful to the composers. It literally was the music from the movies. No doubt, Hitchcock directed masterpieces. But at Lincoln Center last night, MUSIC was KING. The musicians had to be just as moved playing this beautiful music, as I was listening to it. The audience in the theatre totally showed their appreciation.
* * * * * *
My creative idea of a poster.
* * * * * *
LINCOLN CENTER - Avery Fisher Hall by Day. Avery Fisher Hall by Night.
* * * * * *
She's got a ticket to ride, she's got a ticket to ri-i-i-ide...
* * * * * *
The New York Philharmonic Orchestra will be sitting under neath the gigantic screen and their music will fit the hall.
* * * * * *
A view from the top in a sold - out house. The orchestra prepares to play.
* * * * * *
Yours truly. A selfie inside Avery Fisher Hall.
* * * * * *
A blurry Sam Waterston hosts the program. I had to act quick. No pix allowed. Shhhhh. Don't tell the cops!
* * * * * *
Me and the ghost of Bernard Hermann at Lincoln Center's "The Art of the Score: Film Week at the Philharmonic."
-
JackFavell
- Posts: 11926
- Joined: April 20th, 2009, 9:56 am
Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
Wow, You described it perfectly, Maven, or what I imagine to be perfectly anyway! It must have been something to feel like you were inside the music, hearing it live like that, BIG.
Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
WEEK TWO
ALL HITCHCOCK, ALL THE TIME. WELL...AT LEAST SUNDAYS IN SEPTEMBER.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK - THE MASTER OF SUSPENSE
8/13/1899 - 4/29/1980
I love the guy. I do. He has a visual style which lends itself to story telling. But he also takes hold of a theme - family, courtroom, infidelity, voyeurism, mistaken identity and a bunch of other etceteras, and pretzels these themes until you scream. I marvel at that most of all.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“I CONFESS” ( 1953 ) - DIVINE BURDEN
Confession is good for the soul? In Hitchcock's world, I dunno. An unstoppable force ( the State ) meets an immovable object ( the Church ), two forces in the grip of Hitchcock. With the State...the law...the police, they let you know that anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. They’ll give up all your secrets in a heartbeat. But if you confess to a priest...
How galling it is to see a man taunt a priest with his confession of murder by saying: “you can’t tell, you’re a priest!” Montgomery Clift is perfect, in his beauty and sincere integrity, as a priest whose faith prevents him from giving up the murderer; even if it means he will be charged with the murder himself. Clift is shackled to his conscience, but he bears it nobly. How ironic that the galling little murderer condemns Clift for talking, ( Clift has not ) when it is he who suffers and bursts from not talking. For we walk by faith, not by sight.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“THE WRONG MAN” ( 1956 ) - KAFKA AIN’T GOT NUTHIN’ ON HITCH
Hitchcock has explored the wrong man theme before, but this time, he really has...the...wrong...man.
Is this one ever a downer. But it’s still Hitchcock, and he shows one man’s world turned upside down. Forces of the law work against HENRY FONDA as a man accused of a crime he didn’t commit. With no lawyer and not even that one ( Constitutionally allowed ) phone call on his side, Fonda is ground through the legal system like sausage. The police are oppressively not so law and order doing their due diligence. It certainly doesn’t bolster my confidence in the system, especially today as a New Yorker in Mayor Bloomie’s questionable “Stop & Frisk” era police state. We get a play by the numbers policier with this film.
I like how all the bricks of Fonda’s alibi and whereabouts are laid out clearly aforehand. We see the truth while The Law only sees what things look like instead of what they are. How honestly and innocently he answers questions - a man with nothing to hide. How terrifying events turn against him when all his actions come to look suspect to fit people’s perceptions. But worst of all is the collateral damage done to his family, specifically wife VERA MILES. She loses hold of her sanity as Fonda goes deeper and deeper into this Kafka-esque rabbit hole. Hitchcock takes us to a very deep dark place. You don't want to be there.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“SABOTEUR” ( 1942 ) - LIFE HANGS BY A THREAD
The Police. Do they ever get it right? Geez!! The wrong man has been Hitchcock’s theme in many of his movies. And "SABOTEUR" uses it as well. Airplane factory worker, ROBERT CUMMINGS is wrongly accused of setting fire to the plant. We know he didn’t do it, but the police weren’t sitting next to us in the audience, so they haven't a clue. With just the flimsiest of leads, Cummings goes on the trail for the real saboteur. Cummings is good. He's clean cut, earnest, all-American and believable. It wouldn’t be a “wrong man” film, if Hitch didn’t have ‘The Disbelieving Girl’ by our hero’s side, who comes to believe and love him. And yes, she is a blonde. Fitting that bill very nicely is PRISCILLA LANE. She’s shamed by a community of circus folk into giving our hero a break. In fact, Cummings is shown interacting with “just-plain-Americans” giving him just that inch of a break. Hitch shows examples of our American character back then: fair, helpful, giving a fella an even break that’s warming to see:
* the circus people
* the trucker
* the kindly blind man ( reminiscent of the blind man in “The Bride of Frankenstein )
Hitchcock also gives many satisfying jolts of suspense throughout “Saboteur”:
* cutting the handcuffs
* police questioning the circus caravan ( include muzzling that weasel who wanted to squeal )
* escaping a fancy dress ball
* the pièce de résistance - the Statue of Liberty ( that seam unravelling is killer; I’m sure tailors all over the country were aghast. Hitch's humor is on the macabre side )
Of course I must give a shout-out to a great Hitchcock villain. I’m not meaning NORMAN LLOYD who was wonderfully serpentine as Frye. He’s a beady-eyed villain you could see coming from a mile away and was very good saying very little. This time I’m actually talking about the capitalist named Tobin played by OTTO KRUGER. Kruger plays Wealth itself with big house, swimming pool and a network of tentacles that keep his own hands clean. When Robert Cummings says to him: "Why is it that you sneer every time you refer to this country. You've done pretty well here. I don't get it," Kruger replies:
"You're one of the idle believers. The 'Good American.' Oh there are millions like you. People that plod along without asking questions. Hate to use the word stupid, but that seems to be the only one that applies. The 'Great Masses'. The 'Moron Millions.' Well there are a few of us that aren't willing to troop along. A few of us who are clever enough to see that there's much more to be done than just live small complacent lives. A few of us in America who desire a more profitable type of government..."
Interesting how Hitchcock keeps Kruger in a long shot delivering this speech, as he cuts the camera closer and closer to Cummings. I love Otto Kruger's voice. Yes, he might’ve had a magnificent obsession with Dracula’s daughter but here Hitchcock uses Kruger in all his condescending sibilantly-spoken glory as the villain you don’t see coming ( a la Joseph Cotten, James Mason, Claude Rains or use your own etceteras. ) Kruger may be the kindly grandpa or the well-respected, well-heeled high society guy. But his villainy is more insidious. He not only wants to explode America from the outside with fires and bombs, but he wants it to implode from within. Hitchcock's done it again. From the out of the past of 1942, this movie sounds very current to me.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT” ( 1940 ) - “It’s true then, what I wouldn’t believe.”
What a nifty little movie “Foreign Correspondent” is. JOEL McCREA stands in for America in this thirty-seconds-before-WWII-begins thriller. A Dutch ambassador has The MacGuffin and the bad guys want it...by any means necessary. And here stumbles plain ol’ beat reporter, McCrea. His newspaper upgrades him to the level of correspondent but Kronkite and Murrow, he ain’t. Broad twangy monotone voice, cavalier attitude towards world events. Heck, it ain’t our fight. Besides our misunderstood hero, two more Hitchcock ingredients are needed: a feisty and pretty girl and a smooth sleek cultured villain. Well he’s got that: LARAINE DAY and HERBERT MARSHALL. There’s a slight twist...they are father and daughter. Now I never quite really buy them as father and daughter no matter how Day says ‘cahnt’ instead of ‘caint.’ But what the hey...why spoil my fun. He cares very much for his daughter and she can be used as a pawn against him. I love GEORGE SANDERS in this as a journalist wanting to join forces with McCrea. He’s fast-talking and free-wheeling.
Hitchcock has all sorts of set-pieces in “Foreign Correspondent” as it moves along in a clip:
* a chase underneath a sea of umbrellas
* a windmill turning the wrong way ( mind your trenchcoat Joel )
* an assassin sent in as a body guard
* that spectacular plane crash
Two aspects in “Foreign Correspondent” are explored a little more fully in two later Hitchcock films. After the plane crash, the cast is cast at sea in a roiling ocean. This brings to mind “Lifeboat.” And if I might stretch this a bit further, the father daughter relationship in “Foreign Correspondent” could be the preamble to the relationship Alicia Huberman had with her father in “Notorious” that we don't see; we do see her aftermath of that relationship when she gets involved with Cary Grant and Claude Rains.
Hitch’s work is a many layered thing...enough for him to mine it for its parts.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“NORTH BY NORTHWEST” ( 1959 ) - TO BE or NOT TO BE THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
A case of mistaken identity takes a boring Madison Avenue advertising exec on a journey across the United States, hooking up with a cool blonde and chased over the mountainous face of monuments. I haven’t seen this movie in its entirety in like forever. It just wasn’t one of the ones I ever wanted to watch repeatedly. Sunday I asked myself: “Why not, silly?”
The movie starts off with a rousing score by Bernard Hermann over opening credits by the great Saul Bass that gets you going. What I like about what Hitchcock sometimes does is his “Show & Tell.” He shows us a little of the plot, then has a character tell us what we’ve just seen, then he shows more of the plot. At least that’s how “North By Northwest unspools for me. And I just love Hitchcock’s little nuggets. You know, when he reveals some extra little thing about the plot or a character that makes you go “Ahhhh!” James Stewart finished his work with Hitchcock with “Vertigo” and now it’s CARY GRANT’s last time at bat in Hitchcock’s ballpark. And it’s his most physical role with the director. This is not a 1930’s Cary “Gunga Din” Grant, but a 54-year old actor who is fit as a fiddle and still gorgeous as all get out. His character, Roger Thornhill, stumbles into his mistaken identity thanks to two henchmen who mistake him for secret agent George Kaplan. Grant’s denying he’s the spy they’re looking for falls on deaf ears, so he must find the real Kaplan to get him out of this mess. Bad guys want to kill him dead. His search for the elusive Kaplan only gets Grant in deeper and deeper.
Hitchcock villains are almost if not better than those in James Bond. Heading this team of villains is JAMES MASON. He’s wonderful ( a-hem, for a Hitchcock villain, that is. )
“North by Northwest” is filled with double cross, betrayal, plot twists and crop dusting where there ain’t no crops. It also contains Hitchcock’s most iconic scene, a chase in South Dakota...on top of Mount Rushmore.
WEEK TWO
ALL HITCHCOCK, ALL THE TIME. WELL...AT LEAST SUNDAYS IN SEPTEMBER.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK - THE MASTER OF SUSPENSE
8/13/1899 - 4/29/1980
I love the guy. I do. He has a visual style which lends itself to story telling. But he also takes hold of a theme - family, courtroom, infidelity, voyeurism, mistaken identity and a bunch of other etceteras, and pretzels these themes until you scream. I marvel at that most of all.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“I CONFESS” ( 1953 ) - DIVINE BURDEN
Confession is good for the soul? In Hitchcock's world, I dunno. An unstoppable force ( the State ) meets an immovable object ( the Church ), two forces in the grip of Hitchcock. With the State...the law...the police, they let you know that anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. They’ll give up all your secrets in a heartbeat. But if you confess to a priest...
How galling it is to see a man taunt a priest with his confession of murder by saying: “you can’t tell, you’re a priest!” Montgomery Clift is perfect, in his beauty and sincere integrity, as a priest whose faith prevents him from giving up the murderer; even if it means he will be charged with the murder himself. Clift is shackled to his conscience, but he bears it nobly. How ironic that the galling little murderer condemns Clift for talking, ( Clift has not ) when it is he who suffers and bursts from not talking. For we walk by faith, not by sight.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“THE WRONG MAN” ( 1956 ) - KAFKA AIN’T GOT NUTHIN’ ON HITCH
Hitchcock has explored the wrong man theme before, but this time, he really has...the...wrong...man.
Is this one ever a downer. But it’s still Hitchcock, and he shows one man’s world turned upside down. Forces of the law work against HENRY FONDA as a man accused of a crime he didn’t commit. With no lawyer and not even that one ( Constitutionally allowed ) phone call on his side, Fonda is ground through the legal system like sausage. The police are oppressively not so law and order doing their due diligence. It certainly doesn’t bolster my confidence in the system, especially today as a New Yorker in Mayor Bloomie’s questionable “Stop & Frisk” era police state. We get a play by the numbers policier with this film.
I like how all the bricks of Fonda’s alibi and whereabouts are laid out clearly aforehand. We see the truth while The Law only sees what things look like instead of what they are. How honestly and innocently he answers questions - a man with nothing to hide. How terrifying events turn against him when all his actions come to look suspect to fit people’s perceptions. But worst of all is the collateral damage done to his family, specifically wife VERA MILES. She loses hold of her sanity as Fonda goes deeper and deeper into this Kafka-esque rabbit hole. Hitchcock takes us to a very deep dark place. You don't want to be there.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“SABOTEUR” ( 1942 ) - LIFE HANGS BY A THREAD
The Police. Do they ever get it right? Geez!! The wrong man has been Hitchcock’s theme in many of his movies. And "SABOTEUR" uses it as well. Airplane factory worker, ROBERT CUMMINGS is wrongly accused of setting fire to the plant. We know he didn’t do it, but the police weren’t sitting next to us in the audience, so they haven't a clue. With just the flimsiest of leads, Cummings goes on the trail for the real saboteur. Cummings is good. He's clean cut, earnest, all-American and believable. It wouldn’t be a “wrong man” film, if Hitch didn’t have ‘The Disbelieving Girl’ by our hero’s side, who comes to believe and love him. And yes, she is a blonde. Fitting that bill very nicely is PRISCILLA LANE. She’s shamed by a community of circus folk into giving our hero a break. In fact, Cummings is shown interacting with “just-plain-Americans” giving him just that inch of a break. Hitch shows examples of our American character back then: fair, helpful, giving a fella an even break that’s warming to see:
* the circus people
* the trucker
* the kindly blind man ( reminiscent of the blind man in “The Bride of Frankenstein )
Hitchcock also gives many satisfying jolts of suspense throughout “Saboteur”:
* cutting the handcuffs
* police questioning the circus caravan ( include muzzling that weasel who wanted to squeal )
* escaping a fancy dress ball
* the pièce de résistance - the Statue of Liberty ( that seam unravelling is killer; I’m sure tailors all over the country were aghast. Hitch's humor is on the macabre side )
Of course I must give a shout-out to a great Hitchcock villain. I’m not meaning NORMAN LLOYD who was wonderfully serpentine as Frye. He’s a beady-eyed villain you could see coming from a mile away and was very good saying very little. This time I’m actually talking about the capitalist named Tobin played by OTTO KRUGER. Kruger plays Wealth itself with big house, swimming pool and a network of tentacles that keep his own hands clean. When Robert Cummings says to him: "Why is it that you sneer every time you refer to this country. You've done pretty well here. I don't get it," Kruger replies:
"You're one of the idle believers. The 'Good American.' Oh there are millions like you. People that plod along without asking questions. Hate to use the word stupid, but that seems to be the only one that applies. The 'Great Masses'. The 'Moron Millions.' Well there are a few of us that aren't willing to troop along. A few of us who are clever enough to see that there's much more to be done than just live small complacent lives. A few of us in America who desire a more profitable type of government..."
Interesting how Hitchcock keeps Kruger in a long shot delivering this speech, as he cuts the camera closer and closer to Cummings. I love Otto Kruger's voice. Yes, he might’ve had a magnificent obsession with Dracula’s daughter but here Hitchcock uses Kruger in all his condescending sibilantly-spoken glory as the villain you don’t see coming ( a la Joseph Cotten, James Mason, Claude Rains or use your own etceteras. ) Kruger may be the kindly grandpa or the well-respected, well-heeled high society guy. But his villainy is more insidious. He not only wants to explode America from the outside with fires and bombs, but he wants it to implode from within. Hitchcock's done it again. From the out of the past of 1942, this movie sounds very current to me.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT” ( 1940 ) - “It’s true then, what I wouldn’t believe.”
What a nifty little movie “Foreign Correspondent” is. JOEL McCREA stands in for America in this thirty-seconds-before-WWII-begins thriller. A Dutch ambassador has The MacGuffin and the bad guys want it...by any means necessary. And here stumbles plain ol’ beat reporter, McCrea. His newspaper upgrades him to the level of correspondent but Kronkite and Murrow, he ain’t. Broad twangy monotone voice, cavalier attitude towards world events. Heck, it ain’t our fight. Besides our misunderstood hero, two more Hitchcock ingredients are needed: a feisty and pretty girl and a smooth sleek cultured villain. Well he’s got that: LARAINE DAY and HERBERT MARSHALL. There’s a slight twist...they are father and daughter. Now I never quite really buy them as father and daughter no matter how Day says ‘cahnt’ instead of ‘caint.’ But what the hey...why spoil my fun. He cares very much for his daughter and she can be used as a pawn against him. I love GEORGE SANDERS in this as a journalist wanting to join forces with McCrea. He’s fast-talking and free-wheeling.
Hitchcock has all sorts of set-pieces in “Foreign Correspondent” as it moves along in a clip:
* a chase underneath a sea of umbrellas
* a windmill turning the wrong way ( mind your trenchcoat Joel )
* an assassin sent in as a body guard
* that spectacular plane crash
Two aspects in “Foreign Correspondent” are explored a little more fully in two later Hitchcock films. After the plane crash, the cast is cast at sea in a roiling ocean. This brings to mind “Lifeboat.” And if I might stretch this a bit further, the father daughter relationship in “Foreign Correspondent” could be the preamble to the relationship Alicia Huberman had with her father in “Notorious” that we don't see; we do see her aftermath of that relationship when she gets involved with Cary Grant and Claude Rains.
Hitch’s work is a many layered thing...enough for him to mine it for its parts.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“NORTH BY NORTHWEST” ( 1959 ) - TO BE or NOT TO BE THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
A case of mistaken identity takes a boring Madison Avenue advertising exec on a journey across the United States, hooking up with a cool blonde and chased over the mountainous face of monuments. I haven’t seen this movie in its entirety in like forever. It just wasn’t one of the ones I ever wanted to watch repeatedly. Sunday I asked myself: “Why not, silly?”
The movie starts off with a rousing score by Bernard Hermann over opening credits by the great Saul Bass that gets you going. What I like about what Hitchcock sometimes does is his “Show & Tell.” He shows us a little of the plot, then has a character tell us what we’ve just seen, then he shows more of the plot. At least that’s how “North By Northwest unspools for me. And I just love Hitchcock’s little nuggets. You know, when he reveals some extra little thing about the plot or a character that makes you go “Ahhhh!” James Stewart finished his work with Hitchcock with “Vertigo” and now it’s CARY GRANT’s last time at bat in Hitchcock’s ballpark. And it’s his most physical role with the director. This is not a 1930’s Cary “Gunga Din” Grant, but a 54-year old actor who is fit as a fiddle and still gorgeous as all get out. His character, Roger Thornhill, stumbles into his mistaken identity thanks to two henchmen who mistake him for secret agent George Kaplan. Grant’s denying he’s the spy they’re looking for falls on deaf ears, so he must find the real Kaplan to get him out of this mess. Bad guys want to kill him dead. His search for the elusive Kaplan only gets Grant in deeper and deeper.
Hitchcock villains are almost if not better than those in James Bond. Heading this team of villains is JAMES MASON. He’s wonderful ( a-hem, for a Hitchcock villain, that is. )
He’s attractive, cultured sophisticated and unruffled. And that smooooooth voice of his... He doesn’t need to get his hands dirty with all this spy business. That’s what MARTIN LANDAU is for.Has anybody ever told you you overplay your roles very severely? Seems to me you fellas can stand a little less training from the FBI and a little more from the Actors Studio.”
I love him in this film, the ever-watchful Leonard. Always in the background, he’s like a guard or an Iago. He’s the man who deals with the dirty details of murder. Continuing his quest for George Kaplan, Cary Grant’s search takes him far from New York, out west to Chicago. It’s on his way to Chicago Grant bumps into the Hitchcock Blonde: EVA MARIE SAINT. She’s no Grace Kelly.Call it my woman’s intuition.”
And she doesn’t need to be. She coolly sizzles in her own right. She is soft and silky and straightforward. In the train’s dining car scene, she really puts it out there. She's not coy. She makes no bones about what she ( and every woman alive, past present and future ) wants from Cary Grant. It's a titillating and very refreshingly modern scene.How does a girl like you get to be a girl like you?”
“North by Northwest” is filled with double cross, betrayal, plot twists and crop dusting where there ain’t no crops. It also contains Hitchcock’s most iconic scene, a chase in South Dakota...on top of Mount Rushmore.
If anyone can do it...Hitchcock can. It’s all pulled off believably by Cary Grant, who goes from unwitting pawn...to hero, without turning him into a daredevilling James Bond. It’s a movie to see again. And again.My wives divorced me. I think they said I led too dull a life.”
-
MissGoddess
- Posts: 5072
- Joined: April 17th, 2007, 10:01 am
- Contact:
Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
You really do have a way, CinemAva. Those were wonderful capsules of just a few Hitch classics. I love finding the threads that connect one movie to another in a director's career and you snagged a few of them that I hadn't considered (the parent-child relationships in Hitch are always interesting, but I never thought to compare the fathers and daughters in Foreign Correspondent and Notorious. That's food for thought next time I watch either of them).
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
-- Will Rogers
Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
Thanks so much Miss G. My mind works in such a zany way where movies are concerned. I'm glad I'm making some kind of sense as I put pen to paper. I can only hope folks enjoy what I have to say. Now let me ask you...is that your boy Rod in your latest avatar? You find the most genius moments to post!! ( Rod and Nancy Kwan? If I tell you I saw "Fate Is the Hunter" in the theatres......aye yi yi! AARP, here I come! )
-
MissGoddess
- Posts: 5072
- Joined: April 17th, 2007, 10:01 am
- Contact:
Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
I think you should be a TCM Morlock or have your own review blog/site, you write so vividly and you incorporate images perfectly. It's not easy to say a lot about a movie's plot, backstory or history while at the same time conveying a personal and defined opinion for the subject. You are unique.
Yes, that's Roddy getting chewed out for being so mean as to catch an innocent fish. Nancy is the feisty Icthyologist. I envy you seeing Fate is the Hunter in theaters! I've asked Twilight Time if they will re-release it on DVD as I wasn't able to afford it when it came out a couple of years ago. They replied that it will be coming to Blu-ray in 2014. Great movie---a disaster film that is philosophical and thoughtful as opposed to action-oriented. To some that equals boring but it's my cuppa! Rod is so good he steals the show from Glenn Ford, the nominal star, and that's not easy to do.
Yes, that's Roddy getting chewed out for being so mean as to catch an innocent fish. Nancy is the feisty Icthyologist. I envy you seeing Fate is the Hunter in theaters! I've asked Twilight Time if they will re-release it on DVD as I wasn't able to afford it when it came out a couple of years ago. They replied that it will be coming to Blu-ray in 2014. Great movie---a disaster film that is philosophical and thoughtful as opposed to action-oriented. To some that equals boring but it's my cuppa! Rod is so good he steals the show from Glenn Ford, the nominal star, and that's not easy to do.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
-- Will Rogers