Alfred-Hitchcock Movie Reviews
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Exellent Documentary On The Master.
A Hitchcock 101 for those who aren't familiar with him
Classic Hitchcock Double BillThe 39 Steps is perhaps not very faithful to the John Buchan book it is based on, but it is rather more enjoyable. Hitchcock maintains all the mystery of the Buchan original, but he adds his own brand of suspense and humour. With the obligatory added love interest, Hitchcock maintains the humour of the film and adds a degree of salaciousness and even sado-masochistim in the plight of the potential lovers handcuffed together. Of course they can't stand each other, but their experiences lead them to fall in love. The 2 travelling lingerie salesmen who share the train carriage with the fleeing Hannay are wonderfully funny, but also menacing, as they hold the newspaper that declares his "crime" on the front page. The film has several great set pieces which are justifiably famous in cinema history - including Hannay hanging from the Forth railway bridge, the evening at the mean Scottish crofter's house and the Music Hall finale.
The Lady Vanishes also blends mystery and suspense with romance and humour, based around a paper thin plot of "spies". The story is a classic journey on a train in "middle Europe" at some point where Europe is on the brink of war and the vanishing governess who is really a spy. Of course noone believes her companion that she was on the train, but we and she know that she was and that she will be found and rescued. The plot is engaging and some of the clues tantalizing, but the real joy comes from the eccentric cast of British characters.
As the main coup takes place at 5 in the afternoon in the refreshment car, the British are all trapped together having tea. They behave with typical British phlegm and courage for the most part, apart from the cowardly adulterous barrister, who tries to surrender to the enemy rather than fight to protect his mistress and fellow characters. He is, of course, shot.
Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave are entertaining as the sparring lovers who start off hating each other and end up in love. And Dame May Witty is so delicious as the spinster spy you really could eat her.
But y favourite characters are Charters and Caldecott two dim-witted Englishmen abroad whose only interest in life is cricket. Their cameo performance was so popular they later appeared in other British films, not directed by Hitchcock.
Mystery Solved!....Four British Hitch Films to Savor....I love Mysteries. Most especially anything directed by the Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock.I am also happy to be able to solve the mystery of what is included in this wonderful 4 boxed set for those other Hitch lovers that have found themselves here.(As of today there is no list of the films contained).
This set contains four of his best British works from the 1930's:
From 1934.."The Man Who Knew Too Much"(He remade this one in 1956). A great thriller about a carefree family on a winter holiday, who unwittingly become involved in an assassination plot.The Lawrences are having a wonderful time, but when their dear friend is shot, he reveals to them a plot to assassinate an important statesman before he dies. The would be killers kidnap the young daughter of the family in order to ensure their silence.Working with the police is out of the question and the Lawrences must take matters into their own hands as they try to rescue their daughter and stop the murder, which is to take place at the glorious Albert Hall. Hitch keeps the suspense going through out with an edge of your seat climatic scene.The film stars Leslie Banks and Edna Best as the Lawrences, and Peter Lorre as the baddest of the bad guys!
Where's Hitch: Sorry Hitch watchers, there doesn't seem to be any appearance by the master in this one.
Next is one of his masterpieces! From 1935.. "The Thirty Nine Steps" has Hitch's trademark style all through it.An innocent man gets involved with spies and counter spies. He is at the music hall, watching a "Memory Act"(which is quite a scene in itself),there's a gun shot, panic erupts and everyone runs out. A mysterious woman attaches herself to him and comes home with him. She reveals she is spy and others are after her. She mentions the mysterious "Thirty Nine Steps", and the next morning he finds her dead. He goes on the run for fear he will be implicated in the murder and in order to prove his innocence he must uncover this spy ring on his own. His path is fraught with danger, suspense and of course a beautiful woman. It stars Robert Donat,Madeline Carroll(you know how Hitch loved those beautiful cool blondes!), and Lucie Mannheim(as Annabela the spy).Also look for his trademark staircase scene.
Looking for Hitch: Less than 10 minutes in, you'll spy him. What a litter bug!
From 1936..."The Secret Agent". You'll find Hitch's unique sense of humor well intergrated with the suspense in this terrific film about espinoge at the onset of WWI. A recluctant spy is recruited to kill an enemy spy. He is given a false name and a fake wife to keep up appearances. He goes after the target, but does he have the right man? Could there be another who is the real culprit? And what a cast.. John Gielgud stars with Madeline Carroll,Robert Young and Peter Lorre as his very strange accomplice.Other notables to look for include Lilli Palmer and Michael Redgrave.
Where's Hitch.....alas, no appearance by Sir Alfred here either.
Last, but defintely not least is from 1938.."The Lady Vanishes".
This was the most captivating one for me. A train trip is the setting for this mystery. A woman's traveling companion has dissapeared. Where could she be. The train is only so big? She tries desperatly to find her friend, but is alone in her quest. No one seems to believe that she even had a companion to start with.All seem to have their own mysterious reasons for denying her any help.
Finally one man is convinced to help, and together they try to solve this possible crime. There are lots of tense sequences to keep you in suspense, and your heart pounding. Again Hitch mixes up the thrills with his marvelous sense of humor and his wonderful trademark style.Wonderful performances by the likes of Dame Mae Whitty, Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave add to the enjoyment of this one.
Looking for Hitch:....You must be patient. Check Victoria Station almost at the end of the film.
The films all seem to be in pretty good shape as far as picture and sound quality, considering their age. Don't expect anything like a remastered DVD.These VHS tapes are all easily viewable though and a great addition to the library of any Hitchcock or classic film collection.
Enjoy......Laurie
The BEST of the BEST
Henry Fonda is perfectly cast as the financially struggling nightclub musician who is mistakenly identified as a robber when he attempts to cash in his wife's life-insurance policy to pay for her much-needed dental work. Vera Miles is equally superb as the suffering wife, who ultimately cracks under the pressure of her husband's wrongful accusation and the drawn-out process of proving his innocence. Through all of this, Hitchcock pays close attention to the mundane details of police procedure, intensifying Fonda's desperation and the narrative tension that was Hitchcock's directorial trademark. As it happens, the strict adherence to factual detail--no matter how absurd or incredible--also renders The Wrong Man somewhat weaker than Hitchcock's classic plots, since in this case truth is decidedly stranger than fiction. Nevertheless, this is still a riveting film that fits quite nicely alongside Hitchcock's better-known films of the 1950s. (Interesting trivia: Miles--who would later appear in Psycho, was Hitchcock's first choice for the Kim Novak role in Vertigo, and Hitchcock was vocally annoyed when Miles's pregnancy prevented her from taking the role that could have made her a star.) --Jeff Shannon
WRONG MAN RIGHT FILM!!With Fonda's superb low key style you will find he isnt acting at all.. he IS Manny Balestrero !. Fonda's inner rage is completely under control..and one wonders if it will ever explode..this fact sets up the tense drama to a breaking point.
The emotional breaking point is visited on his wife played by Vera Miles. The films plot has overtones of another film called " Call Northside 777" with the Police on one side and the rest of the characters on the other.
One of a kind film experience !
CP
Is the DVD coming out soon?
A great thriller!
Henry Fonda is perfectly cast as the financially struggling nightclub musician who is mistakenly identified as a robber when he attempts to cash in his wife's life-insurance policy to pay for her much-needed dental work. Vera Miles is equally superb as the suffering wife, who ultimately cracks under the pressure of her husband's wrongful accusation and the drawn-out process of proving his innocence. Through all of this, Hitchcock pays close attention to the mundane details of police procedure, intensifying Fonda's desperation and the narrative tension that was Hitchcock's directorial trademark. As it happens, the strict adherence to factual detail--no matter how absurd or incredible--also renders The Wrong Man somewhat weaker than Hitchcock's classic plots, since in this case truth is decidedly stranger than fiction. Nevertheless, this is still a riveting film that fits quite nicely alongside Hitchcock's better-known films of the 1950s. (Interesting trivia: Miles--who would later appear in Psycho, was Hitchcock's first choice for the Kim Novak role in Vertigo, and Hitchcock was vocally annoyed when Miles's pregnancy prevented her from taking the role that could have made her a star.) --Jeff Shannon
WRONG MAN RIGHT FILM!!With Fonda's superb low key style you will find he isnt acting at all.. he IS Manny Balestrero !. Fonda's inner rage is completely under control..and one wonders if it will ever explode..this fact sets up the tense drama to a breaking point.
The emotional breaking point is visited on his wife played by Vera Miles. The films plot has overtones of another film called " Call Northside 777" with the Police on one side and the rest of the characters on the other.
One of a kind film experience !
CP
Is the DVD coming out soon?
A great thriller!
Years after making Stage Fright, Hitchcock claimed that because the villains were just as frightened as the heroes, the film did not carry the requisite quota of menace. But it has received a good deal of attention in recent years and is worth a fresh look. The director did admit that he was proud of the movie's most astounding plot twist, though no commercial filmmaker since has been bold enough to let the camera lie so eloquently. --Raphael Shargel
A Kind of Battle of AngelsStage Fright is a murder mystery based on the Selwyn Jepson novel, and I would do the new viewer the greatest injustice by beraying even a little of the plot. Outside of the particulars of the homicide in question, this is a movie about deception and betrayal within the context of the Theatre and its tradition; of theatrical people and their lives which, to an outsider, seem to be little more than imposture and artifice. The film then, is an elaborate structure of mirrors, smoke and lies.
Among the aspects of STAGE FRIGHT which set it apart from other films of the period, is the exceptional musical score by an obscure composer, Leighton Lucas. So sophisticated and expressive is it at working to enhance the story, one is reminded of later Hitchcock films like VERTIGO. First class work.
The costuming is superbe. Dietrich as Musical Star and Comedienne, Charlotte Indood, wears Dior throughout, and the coutourier created for her two dresses which play a key part in the articulation of the crime. Both dresses are made of some ineffably gauzy silken stuff, so insubstantial and smoke-like, that one of them -- a pale, probably blue dress and absolutely plain -- can be balled up with one hand by Dietrich's lover, Richard Todd, and stuffed into his sportscoat at the armhole without beraying even the slightest bulge. That dress' twin is dark, and probably a navy blue.
I mention this incidence of the two dresses because although dresses have important messages to deliveer about the women who wear them in Hitchcock movies, in no other film of his does costume, wardrobe and dressmaking play so crucial a part in defining the roles of the actresses, as they go back and forth within the story, altering their appearances and changing their identities to suit their frequently devious purposes.
The dark-haired Jane Wyman, who often played in American films with her hair bleached and permed, here plays with a very simple bob. Her makeup is quiet, but not austere. Her clothing is classic, in that it is anglo-saxon clothing as we've seen it for half a centrury or more. It is conservative in cut, modest and discreet. She wears, for example, in the scene where she lures a detective into a confidential chat, what appears to be a double-breasted camel's hair coat which, to the casual observer appears to be nothing out of the ordinary, but upon closer inspection appears to be of the finest goods, and could be worn today, some fifty-two years later, without apology, anywhere.
One could go on and on about the clothes the actresses wear, and use all available time and space without mentioning the supporting actors in the piece, from Kay Walsh, Alister Sim, Michael Wilding and Richard Todd, to Dame Sybil Thorndike, Charlotte Greenwood, and the incomparable Miles Malleson. If any movie depended on perfect character work, and demonstrated it well, this movie does just that. The secondary characters alone are worth the price of admission; even Hitchcock's daughter. In fact, the English cast is so fine, one is often tempted to wonder what this movie might have been like if Hitchcock had cast instead of Dierich, Googie Withers, or Gertrude Lawrence, Vivian Leigh or Valerie Hobson in the Charlotte Inwood role. Certainly it would have been different, and there was no shortage of talented, beautiful actresses in London, then, as there is no shortage today. But, however she got the role, Dietrich brought with her one invisible ally none of the others possessed, and perhaps one which even Hitchcock did not expect. She brought her voice, and with it, just occasionally, she managess to tie together what might have seemed to her to be a somewhat too flabby, too comfy assemblage of little gray people, by displaying unexpectedly and to great effect, a shining thread of ironic sarcasm like a skien of stainless steel, holding the project together, and reminding all of us with the crack of a whip, that this is, after all, a story about a calculated murder.
This film is rather like one of Goya's etchings; a study in lights and darks, an intimate entertainment, meant to be looked at closely and quietly, and savored. Stage Fright is adult entertainment, in the very best sense of the term.
exellent Hitchcock movieEve Gill (Jane Wyman) seizes the acting oppertunity of a lifetime when her boyfriend Jonathan (Richard Todd) is framed for murder. She poses as the maid and goes to work for her boyfriend's accuser, stage great Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich). In her attempts to prove Jonathan's innocence, Eve has to question wether it is true......
Featuring Michael Wilding, Kay Walsh, Alistair Sim and Dame Sybil Thorndike, STAGE FRIGHT is a rollicking adventure from beginning to end.
Don't be frightened of this movie!
Years after making Stage Fright, Hitchcock claimed that because the villains were just as frightened as the heroes, the film did not carry the requisite quota of menace. But it has received a good deal of attention in recent years and is worth a fresh look. The director did admit that he was proud of the movie's most astounding plot twist, though no commercial filmmaker since has been bold enough to let the camera lie so eloquently. --Raphael Shargel
A Kind of Battle of AngelsStage Fright is a murder mystery based on the Selwyn Jepson novel, and I would do the new viewer the greatest injustice by beraying even a little of the plot. Outside of the particulars of the homicide in question, this is a movie about deception and betrayal within the context of the Theatre and its tradition; of theatrical people and their lives which, to an outsider, seem to be little more than imposture and artifice. The film then, is an elaborate structure of mirrors, smoke and lies.
Among the aspects of STAGE FRIGHT which set it apart from other films of the period, is the exceptional musical score by an obscure composer, Leighton Lucas. So sophisticated and expressive is it at working to enhance the story, one is reminded of later Hitchcock films like VERTIGO. First class work.
The costuming is superbe. Dietrich as Musical Star and Comedienne, Charlotte Indood, wears Dior throughout, and the coutourier created for her two dresses which play a key part in the articulation of the crime. Both dresses are made of some ineffably gauzy silken stuff, so insubstantial and smoke-like, that one of them -- a pale, probably blue dress and absolutely plain -- can be balled up with one hand by Dietrich's lover, Richard Todd, and stuffed into his sportscoat at the armhole without beraying even the slightest bulge. That dress' twin is dark, and probably a navy blue.
I mention this incidence of the two dresses because although dresses have important messages to deliveer about the women who wear them in Hitchcock movies, in no other film of his does costume, wardrobe and dressmaking play so crucial a part in defining the roles of the actresses, as they go back and forth within the story, altering their appearances and changing their identities to suit their frequently devious purposes.
The dark-haired Jane Wyman, who often played in American films with her hair bleached and permed, here plays with a very simple bob. Her makeup is quiet, but not austere. Her clothing is classic, in that it is anglo-saxon clothing as we've seen it for half a centrury or more. It is conservative in cut, modest and discreet. She wears, for example, in the scene where she lures a detective into a confidential chat, what appears to be a double-breasted camel's hair coat which, to the casual observer appears to be nothing out of the ordinary, but upon closer inspection appears to be of the finest goods, and could be worn today, some fifty-two years later, without apology, anywhere.
One could go on and on about the clothes the actresses wear, and use all available time and space without mentioning the supporting actors in the piece, from Kay Walsh, Alister Sim, Michael Wilding and Richard Todd, to Dame Sybil Thorndike, Charlotte Greenwood, and the incomparable Miles Malleson. If any movie depended on perfect character work, and demonstrated it well, this movie does just that. The secondary characters alone are worth the price of admission; even Hitchcock's daughter. In fact, the English cast is so fine, one is often tempted to wonder what this movie might have been like if Hitchcock had cast instead of Dierich, Googie Withers, or Gertrude Lawrence, Vivian Leigh or Valerie Hobson in the Charlotte Inwood role. Certainly it would have been different, and there was no shortage of talented, beautiful actresses in London, then, as there is no shortage today. But, however she got the role, Dietrich brought with her one invisible ally none of the others possessed, and perhaps one which even Hitchcock did not expect. She brought her voice, and with it, just occasionally, she managess to tie together what might have seemed to her to be a somewhat too flabby, too comfy assemblage of little gray people, by displaying unexpectedly and to great effect, a shining thread of ironic sarcasm like a skien of stainless steel, holding the project together, and reminding all of us with the crack of a whip, that this is, after all, a story about a calculated murder.
This film is rather like one of Goya's etchings; a study in lights and darks, an intimate entertainment, meant to be looked at closely and quietly, and savored. Stage Fright is adult entertainment, in the very best sense of the term.
exellent Hitchcock movieEve Gill (Jane Wyman) seizes the acting oppertunity of a lifetime when her boyfriend Jonathan (Richard Todd) is framed for murder. She poses as the maid and goes to work for her boyfriend's accuser, stage great Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich). In her attempts to prove Jonathan's innocence, Eve has to question wether it is true......
Featuring Michael Wilding, Kay Walsh, Alistair Sim and Dame Sybil Thorndike, STAGE FRIGHT is a rollicking adventure from beginning to end.
Don't be frightened of this movie!
Photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) is, in fact, a voyeur by trade, a professional photographer sidelined by an accident while on assignment. His immersion in the human drama (and comedy) visible from his window is a by-product of boredom, underlined by the disapproval of his girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly), and a wisecracking visiting nurse (Thelma Ritter). Yet when the invalid wife of Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) disappears, Jeff enlists the two women to help him to determine whether she's really left town, as Thorwald insists, or been murdered.
Hitchcock scholar Donald Spoto convincingly argues that the crime at the center of this mystery is the MacGuffin--a mere pretext--in a film that's more interested in the implications of Jeff's sentinel perspective. We actually learn more about the lives of the other neighbors (given generic names by Jeff, even as he's drawn into their lives) he, and we, watch undetected than we do the putative murderer and his victim. Jeff's evident fear of intimacy and commitment with the elegant, adoring Lisa provides the other vital thread to the script, one woven not only into the couple's own relationship, but reflected and even commented upon through the various neighbors' lives.
At minimum, Hitchcock's skill at making us accomplices to Jeff's spying, coupled with an ingenious escalation of suspense as the teasingly vague evidence coalesces into ominous proof, deliver a superb thriller spiked with droll humor, right up to its nail-biting, nightmarish climax. At deeper levels, however, Rear Window plumbs issues of moral responsibility and emotional honesty, while offering further proof (were any needed) of the director's brilliance as a visual storyteller. --Sam Sutherland
the ultimate Hitchcock classicThat is exactly what Jeffries is. Jeffries (James Stewart) is a wheelchair-bound photographer who spends his time cooped up in his apartment, peeping in on the neighbours across the courtyard. He comes up with "names" for them; Miss Torso the ballerina; Miss Lonely-Hearts; The Newly-Weds and so on. His only contact with the outside world is his girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) and his wisecracking nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter).
Unknowlingly witnessing the murder of Mrs Thorwald, he, along with Lisa and Stella, set out to expose the truth about Mr Thorwald (Raymond Burr) and uncover the mystery of her quick disapperance.
A beautifully-restored print by James Katz and Robert Harris (also responsible for the beautiful new renderings of MY FAIR LADY and VERTIGO), is the highlight of this DVD. The original negative was severely faded and turning green when Universal aqquired the entire Paramount film library. Color-correction and shadow detail are now back to their original state, as is the soundtrack featuring Franz Waxman's sparkling score.
The ULTIMATE Hitchcock thriller, with more than a touch of romance and comedy.
Look Out Your Window
One of the best Hitchcock movies
Photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) is, in fact, a voyeur by trade, a professional photographer sidelined by an accident while on assignment. His immersion in the human drama (and comedy) visible from his window is a by-product of boredom, underlined by the disapproval of his girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly), and a wisecracking visiting nurse (Thelma Ritter). Yet when the invalid wife of Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) disappears, Jeff enlists the two women to help him to determine whether she's really left town, as Thorwald insists, or been murdered.
Hitchcock scholar Donald Spoto convincingly argues that the crime at the center of this mystery is the MacGuffin--a mere pretext--in a film that's more interested in the implications of Jeff's sentinel perspective. We actually learn more about the lives of the other neighbors (given generic names by Jeff, even as he's drawn into their lives) he, and we, watch undetected than we do the putative murderer and his victim. Jeff's evident fear of intimacy and commitment with the elegant, adoring Lisa provides the other vital thread to the script, one woven not only into the couple's own relationship, but reflected and even commented upon through the various neighbors' lives.
At minimum, Hitchcock's skill at making us accomplices to Jeff's spying, coupled with an ingenious escalation of suspense as the teasingly vague evidence coalesces into ominous proof, deliver a superb thriller spiked with droll humor, right up to its nail-biting, nightmarish climax. At deeper levels, however, Rear Window plumbs issues of moral responsibility and emotional honesty, while offering further proof (were any needed) of the director's brilliance as a visual storyteller. --Sam Sutherland
the ultimate Hitchcock classicThat is exactly what Jeffries is. Jeffries (James Stewart) is a wheelchair-bound photographer who spends his time cooped up in his apartment, peeping in on the neighbours across the courtyard. He comes up with "names" for them; Miss Torso the ballerina; Miss Lonely-Hearts; The Newly-Weds and so on. His only contact with the outside world is his girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) and his wisecracking nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter).
Unknowlingly witnessing the murder of Mrs Thorwald, he, along with Lisa and Stella, set out to expose the truth about Mr Thorwald (Raymond Burr) and uncover the mystery of her quick disapperance.
A beautifully-restored print by James Katz and Robert Harris (also responsible for the beautiful new renderings of MY FAIR LADY and VERTIGO), is the highlight of this DVD. The original negative was severely faded and turning green when Universal aqquired the entire Paramount film library. Color-correction and shadow detail are now back to their original state, as is the soundtrack featuring Franz Waxman's sparkling score.
The ULTIMATE Hitchcock thriller, with more than a touch of romance and comedy.
Look Out Your Window
One of the best Hitchcock movies