Hitchcock -- Unparalled Master of Suspense

I think you're right, Brandon!!! But Lightwizard, you're absolutely right about "Night Must Fall." I was thinking he was a serial killer, but now that I think of it, I guess it was only the one murder he'd commited.

So I've thought of another one -- by Hitchcock -- although this wasn't really an "early" film -- it was done in the... ummm....forties, I think. And that would be "Shadow Of A Doubt." Joseph Cotton plays the charming uncle who shows up for a visit -- and turns out to be the "Merry Widow Murderer." At least, I think that's what they called him.

I especially remember the scene where the niece is in the library, finds the newspaper articles about the "Widow Murderer" and realizes it's her one and only beloved uncle -- then she looks at the inside of the ring he gave her -- and realizes it's inscribed with the initials of one of his victims. While all this is happening, in the background is the sound of the waltz music that was his "theme song."

Great Stuff!

What about the scene in "North by Northwest" where Cary Grany shows the real Lester Townsend a photo in the UN, and at first you think that Townsend has reacted to the photo with extreme surprise, only to find out that he has just taken a thrown knife in the back meant for Grant? Could anyone but CG have done Roger Thornhill so well? I doubt it. Was there ever a cooler movie than this? Doubt that too.

It was perfect Cary Grant material and he even managed, along with Grace Kelly, to make one of the lesser Hitchcock films entertaining, "To Catch a Thief."

Nobody has mentioned "The Rope," which was notable for being the first and maybe only film shot in continuous sequential scenes as if it were a stage play. A few indescernable transition cuts were accomplished by having the camera blocked by a figure and then editing seemlessly back into the film's action. This, of course, was inspired by the Leopold/Loeb murder case.

Interesting movie. Sort of an experiment for Hitchcock, including the need to move walls out of the way to allow the camera to follow characters from room to room, and the simulation of time passing in the arificial cityscape seen through the window, complete with prop clouds.

Oh yes! The Rope! I've only seen that film once, but I did think it was very interesting. I had remembered hearing that it was inspired by Leopold & Loeb. The story concerned two gay men (although, at the time, I guess the nature of their relationship couldn't be openly discussed -- so it was just sort of implied) who commit a murder.

They stuff the body into a trunk and proceed to have a party -- using the trunk as a sort of buffet table for the food and drinks!!

I do remember the big picture window outside of their apartment chronicling the time of the events.

And wasn't there a point where one the party guests -- or someone -- wanted to open the trunk? I remember that being a very tense moment!!

The opening of the trunk is a spoiler as the pair attempt to conceal their crime with one of them having pangs of conscious while the other was steadfastly cold and calculating (pretty much taken from Leopold/Loeb -- see "Swoon.")

I used to fret about plot inconsistencies and an occasional lapse of logic in Hitchock films. For example, the crop duster plane sequence in North by Northwest, while visually stunning, made little sense to me in terms of the plot. Then I read an interview with Hitchcock in which he said something really interesting. (I have paraphrase here as I no longer4 have that interview handy). He said that one shouldn't compare a film to a novel and look for consistencies. Rather, he said, a film is analogous to a painting. Ina novel, the plot needs to needs to make some sense. In a painting, you have only the visual appreciation of what's in front of you. Hitch used the analogy of a still life. You don't, he said, ask what the apple in the painting tastes like. You only admire how well it has been represented. The same would hold true for film. The plot doesn't need to be seamlessly original, as long it holds you, well, "Spellbound."

LW, any comments on the two versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much, the original b&w and the remake with Doris Day?

The original is a better movie but I always liked Doris in anything she did. "Love Me or Leave Me" was her best but Doris as "Calamity Jane" is priceless -- her version of "Secret Love" is one of my favorites.

Hitch loved to cast helpless-looking blondes in the roles of 'damsel in distress.' Doris Day, Tippi Hedron, Janet Leigh. If the dame shows some mettle, make her partially villanous, as with Leigh in Psycho or Ingrid Bergman in Notorious. The only exception that comes to mind is Shirley McLaine, certainly no shrinking violet, in the semi-comical The Trouble With Harry.

"The Trouble With Harry" was Hitchcock making fun with himself. Not my favorite but I guess "Family Plot" is the bottom-of-the-barrel Hitchcock. Even then, it's better than most movies of the genre.

How about Tallulah Bankhead in Lifeboat? I always thought that was an interesting choice for Hitchcock because he was famously intrigued with women who had the blonde "ice queen" look about them (Ingrid Bergman, Kim Novak, Tippi Hedren, Eva Marie Saint, and of course Grace Kelly).

But in Lifeboat, the female lead was the growly voiced red haired Tallulah! Maybe she was the type needed for that particular role, though.

Hitchcock was a great master and made many very good movies. When it comes to thrillers, however, Henri-Georges Clouzot seems to be even better.
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Diabolique (1955) and Wages of Fear (1953) are my favourite thrillers. The latter I can see over and over, it is so outstanding.
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http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/w/wages_fear.html

Both great movies and stylistically quite different from any Hitchcock. I couldn't say Clouzot was better but certainly for fashioning tightly knit thrillers he was extraordinary. The scene in "Wages of Fear" where the truck has to be backed onto a questionably secure wooden platform to navigate around a sharp turn in the road is palm sweating, excrutiatingly tense moviemaking.

And in typical French fashion all four heros are dead at the end of the film.

I recall seeing Diabolique when it was a brand new film and I was quite young. Scared the knickers off me. Don't think I've ever seen Wages of Fear. I'm sure I'd remember if I had.

"Wages of Fear" was remade as "Sorceror" by John Frankenheimer, but not successfully.

I absolutely hated the remake of Psycho!!What were they thinking , there were so many things wrong with it.
Ann Hesh's clothes were horrid, almost laughable.
Vince Vaughn was completely wrong for the role, he was too strong.
When Norman masterbates it completley goes against the whole fact that Norman turns into his mother to SUPPRESS his sexual feellings.


I love Psycho.The overhead shot were really effective when Norman was carrying his mother from one room to another, so the audience couldnt see her face and we were given a feeling of unease being high above them.

Also the way the main character died half way through the film.If the main character dies what on earth will take over from the unexpectedness of that!!

Janet Leigh turned out not to be the main character -- Norman was the main character of the film. It was Hitchcock off-the-map to kill off the main female character but then she wasn't really the typical idealistic blond princess -- she was nearly the same character as "Marnie," both with larceny in their heart (even the transgression was nearly identical).

It is mindboggling how many foreign films have been remade in Hollywood for US consumption.
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The reason might be that Americans can't handle subtitles. I love all movies and subtitles are no problem for me.
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Imitation is the highest form of flattery
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http://www.listology.com/content_show.cfm/content_id.4195