ALFRED HITCHCOCK

[MissGoddess]

I'm with Wendy, that example with the waitress...that scene always stands out for me, and her zombie like performance. It's the underworld within the sunny world of Santa Rosa. In a way, this movie is very much in keeping with movies of the period that were examining the increasing crime and vice in small communities that were once the bastions of safety and family havens. This is the psychological probe vs. the more documentary like exposes (The Phenix City Story, The Captive City, et al). After all, criminal elements (from any level of society) do "suck the blood" from orderly communities.

[CineMaven]

...After all, criminal elements (from any level of society) do "suck the blood" from orderly communities.

Ahhhh yes.

[JackFavell]

That scene is such a shock, after experiencing the rest of Santa Rosa - the library, Charlie's house and family, the cop on the street corner, all the familiarities of a small town. Then we are brought here, and this bar is not a friendly neighborhood bar, it's a real place of iniquity, and it IS frightening... there is something wrong there. How they give us that feeling I don't know, but I can't remember a more evil seeming bar ever being portrayed in the movies. Maybe there is one in It's a Wonderful Life? Not sure.

[Konway]

SPOILERS

Thanks, Mr. Arkadin. I am posting new information about Shadow of A Doubt here.

Alfred Hitchcock's middle name is Joseph. Like Hitchcock, we don't see "Joseph" Newton (Henry Travers) driving the car. We see Young Charlie driving the car. Unlike Hitchcock, Hitchcock's wife Alma loved driving. Like Roger, Alfred Hitchcock was youngest out of three children. Uncle Charlie's bicycle accident happened to Hitchcock when he was young. Ann Newton reads the book of Ivanhoe. Alfred Hitchcock knew the story of Ivanhoe by heart when he was young. Emma Newton (Patricia Collinge) is the mother of the family. Alfred Hitchcock's mother's name is Emma Hitchcock. But Hitchcock made the mother in Shadow of A Doubt exactly the opposite of his mother. Unlike Collinge's character Emma, Hitchcock's mother was very strict.

Another point is Uncle Charlie can be connected to all three children. Uncle Charlie is very close to Young Charlie. Like Ann, Young Charlie was always reading until the bicycle accident. Like Roger, Uncle Charlie is the youngest in the family.

In I Confess, I don't know if anyone noticed this. Dolly Haas (Alma Keller in I Confess) resembles Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville.

[CineMaven]

Konway, I don't really know "STAGE FRIGHT" as well, so I've got to go back and investigate that. But your extrapolation of "SHADOW OF A DOUBT" with the story of "DRACULA" is really intriguing. Now, I don't know about number 7. I just think that's the nature of the leading man. But all the other references seem spot on to me. Just when I thought I had this movie all figured out...you've given me a smorgasbord for thought. The idea of the undead waitress is "brilliant" (I've always liked her and when I spot her in other movies I say "the waitress!!"I also like the two comments from J.F. and Miss G.:

It's the underworld within the sunny world of Santa Rosa.

This bar is not a friendly neighborhood bar, it's a real place of iniquity, and it IS frightening... there is something wrong there.

This'd be a perfect bar in "OUT OF THE PAST" or "THE SEVENTH VICTIM" but here...

Welcome to the Oasis, Konway. I hope you find it such.

[Konway]

SPOILERS
Thanks, Cinemaven. We know that Uncle Charlie kills women. Aside from that, I used No.7 just to remind Uncle Charlie's relationship with women. Remember the female character Mrs. Potter in the bank scene. We see how she is attracted to Uncle Charlie.

I consider Stage Fright as one of his best, because its a small picture with lots of intense elements in it.

[JackFavell]

This'd be a perfect bar in "OUT OF THE PAST" or "THE SEVENTH VICTIM" but here...

This is a bar for the lonely, the outcast, and the tormented. Those on the 'other side'... kind of like hell.

[MissGoddess]

I definitely noticed the resemblance to Alma in I, Confess. In fact, I always presume that whenever a female character appears wearing glasses, that Hitch is nodding to either Alma or Patricia. It's so cute.

speaking of resemblances, here are some snaps of the actors in the new production about Hitch and the making of Psycho, including Scarlett Johanssen as Janet Leigh, Anthony Hopkins as Hitch, Helen Mirren as Alma and Jennifer Beal as Vera Miles.

[Rita Hayworth]

Thanks for posting these pictures Miss G. ... Anthony Hopkins is perfect as Hitchcock ... uncanny resemblance :!:

[CineMaven]

This'd be a perfect bar in "OUT OF THE PAST" or "THE SEVENTH VICTIM" but here...

This is a bar for the lonely, the outcast, and the tormented. Those on the 'other side'... kind of like hell.

Now you're scaring me Edgar Allan Favell...you big show-off!

Konway, sometimes with movies, a cigar is just a cigar. And then you've given us Montecristoes!

[Konway]

Thank you, Cinemaven. Like Hitchcock, I always liked Hitchcock's wife Alma's seriousness in the structure of the story. She was a brilliant critic. I also liked Bernard Herrmann, because he also works with writers with the story of the film.

That's why he ended up arguing with Roald Dahl about the structural problems of The Night Digger. To me, I have to take stories seriously. I believe that the only way you can defeat death is through living. That's what Hitchcock, Alma, Bernard Herrmann, Lubitsch, Anthony Asquith, Mulligan, Raucher, and many geniuses did when they were alive. They showed their love to their works by expressing their breath of life. When you express the breath of life to a work, it will have a life form of its own and it will live among millions and millions of people.

That's what Teresa Wright said. Some films will live on. Shadow of A doubt is one of them. It was her favorite film.

These geniuses are gone from this world. But what they have done still live in us.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Enjoyed reading all the 'citiques' and interpretations of "Stage Fright".... As most (or some) of you know, I'm not a great movie goer or watcher, just a picker compared to all of you.
But, I do acknowledge the very intelligent comments of people who see all these plot characteristics in different scenes in various films....
Thank you Konway for giving me (and us) new insight(s) into this one....

When this picture first came out, a critic in London said it all had to do with "mendacity"... Everybody in the thing was a "liar".... That became my new word of the day, so to speak - the education of an 8 year old...

But, I liked this movie for the plain & simple platform of superficially being a "fan of movie stars"....
Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Richard Todd, Michael Wilding, Alistair Sim, Sybil Thorndyke and Joyce Grenfell - all stars as far as I'm concerned and good actors too!!!

BTW, did yo all know that Marlene was having an affair with Michael Wilding at this time. She sort of "took him" from Margaret Leighton, who then took up with Laurence Harvey.
Elizabeth Taylor then married Michael Wilding; and after they divorced Michael married Margaret, whom Laurence had divorced by then!!!!!!

Larry

[knitwit45]

geez, you need a score card or a diagram to keep up with all of this!!! Thanks Larry, you always add a great personal note to the proceedings...

[JackFavell]

From what I've read, Margaret Leighton probably needed her own personal scorecard just to remember everyone she ever um....shall we say 'was intimate with'. But then maybe she didn't want to remember some of them...

None of these ladies was a slouch in the attraction department.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Dear Margaret Leighton - I believe she followed the rule, "Change partners, and dance!!".... Only she and others didn't just dance.....

Some of you may remember my telling you about Lana & Fernando and Lex & Arlene and how they did dance and then exchanged partners and married each others husbands/wives....
Ironically, after Lana divorced Lex, Margaret took up with him after Laurence divorced her.... Oh the joys of Hollywood.....

Now, back to Alfred Hitchcock:
My favourite Hitch movie is "To Catch a Thief" (1955).
Simply because of Jessie Royce Landis, who I knew and adored.
My superficial contribution to this thread and this movie is:
During the party scene at the end, Jessie inserts her favourite line from real life, "Avez vous BOURBON?"....
Hitchcock looked at the script and was about to protest, when his wife, Alma, chuckled and overrode him and said, "Leave it in. it's great".......

Larry