I watched this movie starring Gregory Peck and the lovely Sophia Loren on Retroplex and I find it quite fast paced, some mystery, a spy thriller, and most of all its involves around hieroglyphics and hidden messages too. I consider this one of Gregory Peck's most unusual roles that he done in his career and his teaming up with Sophia Loren as his romantic interest really spices up the movie giving a sexy twist altogether!
It's really a cool movie to watch and that's why I love watching these kind of movies because back in sixties SPY MOVIES were hip and fun to watch and there were quite of few of these type of movies. To me, the sixties was the MOD GENERATION and all of these movies were fun to watch and quite entertaining too.
Oh Hitchcock....my Hitchcock. He's so my favorite director. I love his mind and worldview. I love how he twists and turns and bends love, crime, obsession, confession, romance, murder, the law, mistaken identity etc. I find him to be such a great watch. No doubt, he's forgotten more than I could ever learn. But if I can't execute it in my filmmaking...I can at least write about it.
This is one of Miss G.'s favorite Hitchcocks...but Jack Favell's comment intrigued and spurred me on:
"Rich and Strange just scared the bejesus out of me for some reason. It's the only one that I had a hard time with, because it was so disturbing to me. I think I was literally up on the edge of my seat."
So I decided to check it out and see how "RICH and STRANGE" would effect my own bejesus.
RICH and STRANGE and SPOILED
Fred and Emily Hill are married eight years now. There's a vague sense of dissatisfaction (well... not so vague, actually) especially for Fred. They come into some money and take an extensive trip by ship. And since this is Hitchcock, I got the uneasy feeling that the Hills had made a bargain to shake hands with the Devil.
"Rich and Strange" is haunting my thoughts now. Yesterday afternoon, I spoke to a friend about it, excitedly recommending that she find eighty-two minutes of unbusy time to sit with this film. Hitchcock's commentary on Marriage... Relationships is so very interesting. The way...the little ways he shows their relationship is...so interesting. (I'm afraid I'm being redundant b'cuz I don't quite have command of the words my heart and psyche are feeling). It's early in his career and he's a young director exploring his economical visual acumen; probably also a young husband working things out there as well.
I liked Hitch's vignettes relative to cruise travel. He captured it nicely. I liked his p.o.v. shots and some of his transitions. His choice of shots...his economy. It was funny him cutting to a landmark and then back to the couple looking at it. (He mirrored that "looking" in the end when they saw some horrible things). I liked the Husband dancing with the Spinster and seeing the number nineteen. (If you've seen the film, you know what #19 represents). I liked when the Wife and the Commander go up the stairs to another deck, just to the side of those steps, we see some ship hands playing instruments that will serve to underscore the scene between the Wife and the Commander. ("Saaaay, where's the music coming from???") Hitchcock's got a language with film that speaks to me like no other. I liked his use of title cards. I was unenamored by the spinsterish comic relief. But I really like Emily (JOAN BARRY). By no means am I an oficionado of Hitchcock's early cinematic history, (and am too lazy to do the research), but was Barry the first of the "Hitchcock Blondes"? She reminded me of a lot of Madeleine Carroll; Barry was a gentle and delicate blonde.
Emily falls into her shipboard romance in a very casual comfortable way; almost not realizing she is indeed falling into a very comfortable rhythm in a chaste kind of romance. She falls for Commander Gordon, (PERCY MARMONT), a man who is popular with the ladies but who only wants to be with her. He listens to her and takes her thoughts into consideration. I thought the Commander was very tender with her...unlike her husband Fred.
He is played with infuriating husbandry by HENRY KENDALL. (I know...wrong use of the word). I didnt care for Fred...his condescending smugness. Bleccch! But I suppose He's the one we're watching be taught A Lesson. Hitchcock illustrates this: the way A Man falls into an affair is different from the way A Woman falls. But I guess I can't blame Fred. He succumbs to the charms of a vampish brunette with an accent...a Princess (BETTY AMANN who my friend has been recommending I see in the film "ASPHALT" and whose DVD I've been sitting on since last summer. Sorry Bob). Fred's not discreet, he's obvious. Okay, I'll give him this...much of the time of Emilys dalliance Fred was seasick in their cabin (Landlubber!) The Princess puts the full court press on our little clark. Oh, he might be tentative at first, fumbling with her garment and kissing her on the deck chair. But she invites him to her cabin: Room 19...and he makes it to Room 19...
"My wife doesn't understand me."
Ahhh! I haven't heard that before. When both Fred and Emily are offered a chance to really leave their old life...their life together, they both make different choices. One gets the sweetest love letter... and the other, a 'Dear John' letter. Fred doesn't come to terms with his culpability in his affair; typical, he lays blame elsewhere and reverts to his old self at the first opportunity. Ugh! Infuriating. Has he learned nothing?
Two brief moments struck me with Emily:
1. Fred makes her feel self-conscious about taking her camera along with her sight-seeing. She sadly lays it to the side. And he talks rather brusquely to her, too. Fred goes off with the Princess. Bringing up the rear comes the Commander, walking over to her, ready to escort Emily into town. He offers to hold her camera for her.
2. When in town, as the others go off in a rush to look around (the spinster oafishly buys a rug) Emily just meanders down the street, looking around at the sights and sounds and really taking it all in.
She and Fred are so fundamentally different. What makes a relationship? Do opposites really attract? Why do folks stay. Why do folks go. She has some growth. Her eyes are opened to her own mistake. No, not of having an attraction to the Commander (I can't help but think of the inherent sexism in not letting her go all the way with the Commander, but the husband being allowed to). Her mistake is putting Fred up on a pedestal with her love, instead of seeing him as he really is (...a pompous you-know-what) and still loving him. I liked Emily's anger at herself when she tells Fred this. (And being told this by the Commander...boy, that sealed his fate, didn't it. Oh, the poor Messenger...they always gets it). I could not do what Emily does. Was her new-found knowledge all in vain?
When they thrash out each other's affair, Hitchcock show us that this must be the hard work of Relationships; fighting through recriminations and posturing...loving each other even inspite of the warts we see. Going down with the ship...together. I love Hitchcock's metaphor of this couple truly being adfrift at sea. A Relationship...through good times and bad...and worse.
Fred and Emily are not so much "rescued" as they are jumping ship. And once they're on the junk, I guess I, too, was at the edge of my seat. What the hey...what in the Sam Hill is going on!!! What's going to happen next now that they're with a bunch of seafaring zombies. I'm just waiting for African headhunters to row alongside them.The Hills have eyes and they watch in horror at the Chinese's reaction to events. Surely this will snap Fred and Emily out of their petty bourgeoise notions. But this is Alfred Hitchcock, folks.
Rich and Strange is one of the few Hitch films that scared the "bejesus" out of me. I really found it difficult and disturbing to watch those two innocents getting deeper and deeper into trouble. I practically had my hands over my eyes after they landed on the Chinese junk. I felt just like they did in the final shot, coming back home tired, freaked out, and happy to just have a roof over their heads with a boring life to come back to.
JackFavell wrote:I really enjoy watching Powell go off the deep end in Cornered...it's such a shock. I thought the movie was pretty good. Not as good as Murder My Sweet, but it'll do.
Me too, I prefer Murder My Sweet but I think it's because the script is better. I like him in Pitfall too.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
kingrat wrote:Feaito, you've mentioned some really enjoyable films, like Kitty, The Big Country, Hands Across the Table, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, The Shanghai Gesture, Sons and Lovers, etc. I'd enjoy seeing Sons and Lovers again; it's been a long time.
Kingme, I also like Executive Suite, one of Robert Wise's best, and he made so many good ones, like Two Flags West, recently shown on TCM but quite obscure. At the end of Executive Suite I so wanted William Holden to offer Nina Foch the job of Vice-President that's now available. She's smart, qualified, and loyal, but in the 1950s it was not to be.
"Passengers" (2006). A film directed by Rodrigo García (son of noted writer Gabriel García Márquez) which deals with the traumatic lives of a group of passengers who survive a plane crash. Miss Hathaway portrays the psychoanalist who's hired to help them to cope with this traumatic experience. Patrick Wilson is a very special patient. Atmopsheric and slowly paced, and towards the ending it has a surprising twist!
"A Woman Rebels" (1936) I liked very much this period film with a beautiful Kate Hepburn as a rebelious, independent, free-spirited, feminist lady during the Victorian Era. She rebels against conventions and her father (a stern and strict Donald Crisp). Elizabeth Allan is her younger sister. Van Heflin plays his illicit lover and Herbert Marshall a reliable character who falls in love with her. Very good. It doesn't make sense that Kate was labeled box office poison around this time with such good films as this, "Quality Street", "Stage Door", "Bringing Up Baby", "Holiday" et al. Hepburn looked ravishing during this period. Her bone structure, her flawless complexion, her beautiful eyes and mouth . She was a doll and looked wonderful in period clothes.
"Separate Tables" (1958) Excellent, powerful drama with an all-star cast based on Terence Rattigan's stage play. A group of assorted characters live together in a hotel owned by Wendy Hiller. David Niven, Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, Cathleen Nesbitt, Gladys Cooper are all fantastic. Engrossing and well done. My wife loved it.
feaito wrote:I've seen the following films:
"Separate Tables" (1958) Excellent, powerful drama with an all-star cast based on Terence Rattigan's stage play. A group of assorted characters live together in a hotel owned by Wendy Hiller. David Niven, Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, Cathleen Nesbitt, Gladys Cooper are all fantastic. Engrossing and well done. My wife loved it.
Just to let you know that this movie critics praises my dear Rita Hayworth's performance as Ann Shankland one of her best performances in her career. This is one of sentimental favorites too!
I agree with your opinion Wendy...I don't buy the box office poison stuff
Kingme, Rita, who was about 40 years old when this pic was made, is supreme as the socialite ex-model who goes back to ex-husband Lancaster...they have such a chemistry that the screen is set up on flames whenever the two have scenes together...their kind of "sadomasochistic" relationship is one of the most complexin the film, and one cannot help being sorry for good Wendy Hiller....as attractive and smart as she is, she's helpless against Rita's allure and ole' story with Lancaster....few couples have transmitted such sexual tension as Rita and Burt in this film....Eleanor Parker and Chuck Heston in "Naked Jungle" come to my mind...and I noticed reading the credits that Rita was the only performer who had a special designer for her, no less than Miss Edith Head...She's gorgeous!
feaito ... thanks for sharing additional thoughts about Separate Tables and Rita Hayworth ...I find it very interesting and I did not know that she (Rita) had a special designer. You pay a lot of attention to movies and I appreciate you pointing it out to me!
. She was a doll and looked wonderful in period clothes.