ALL HITCHCOCK, ALL THE TIME. WELL...AT LEAST ON SUNDAYS IN SEPTEMBER.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK - THE MASTER OF SUSPENSE
8/13/1899 - 4/29/1980
Probably the most recognizable of all directors is Alfred Hitchcock. He mastered the art of story-telling in a visual and suspenseful way. I can only think it was professional jealousy because of his popularity with the public that prevented Hitchcock from winning a well-deserved Academy Award for direction.
How many masterpieces can one man have? Sit back, relax and watch every Sunday in September on TCM to find out. As for relaxing, uhmmm, you might find yourself on the edge of your seat.
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WEEK ONE
ROPE ( 1948 ) - SUBVERTING THE DRAWING ROOM COMEDY.
Sweet...sick...tantalizing...twisted. Acting out illicitly in plain sight. We, the audience, are co-conspirators with Brandon. He's showing off to us, the audience, to show us how clever he is. Tell the truth: are you yelling "David's in the trunk!!!" to expose this heinous plot, or are you hoping Brandon gets to the trunk before the maid opens it at the cocktail party.
Interesting dynamic between the real triangle: Brandon - the egomaniacal sociopath; Phillip - the heart, the conscious and the weakest link; Rupert - the Teacher, who talks in the abstract until he sees how his words have power. I love the chess match of wits between Rupert and star pupil, Brandon.
I love the artifice of "Rope" in set and language and acting styles.
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"SPELLBOUND" ( 1945 )
Hitchcock tackles the profession of psychiatry. And ain't love crazy anywhooo?
What more can a gal ask for? Gregory Peck on your couch. << Sigh! >> And he might be a murderer. Who better to unlock the key to a man's mind but Ingrid Bergman. Throw in a little Dali, doors opening to the mind and voila...
The movie's a little talky, but it's all a MacGuffin anyway.
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"MARNIE" ( 1964 ) - PATHOLOGICALLY VIRGINAL.
Here's the second time Hitchcock use psychology as a motif in his film. He includes all the elements one might experience for $50.00 an hour on a shrink's couch. Childhood trauma, a girl and her horse, kleptomania / stealing, fear of men, a parent's approval. Is she the last of the Hitchcock Blondes?
Tippi Hedren is perfect as the repressed woman. The joke to me is casting the most alpha, über-male of the 60's, Sean Connery ( 007 ) to be the iceberg in ( f )rigid waters to run Marnie aground. She represents a challenge that's beyond being a girl who...just ...says ...no.
Purists quibble and rag on the rear screen projection and painted backdrops. But I say you do that at the risk of not seeing the forest for the trees. A shout-out to Louise Latham. ( "Marnie you're achin' my leg." )
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THE BIRDS ( 1963 ) - HITCHCOCK GETS HIS HANDS ON MOTHER NATURE.
If you insist on needing a reason or an explanation for every little thing, you're never going to have any fun. All you need to know is a blonde comes to town and all hell breaks loose.
Suspense is around every corner in Bodega Bay: On the monkey bars, at a birthday party, at the house and the spectacular onslaught at the diner/gas station.
Rod Taylor is rugged, handsome and helpless in the face of the birds. Tippi Hedren need not worry about playing second fiddle to the ghost of Grace Kelly. She's gorgeous in her own right and has a bit of an edge that the Princess lacks. And then there's Suzanne Pleshette who contrasts Hedren. Her silent resignation cuts me to the quick. Her final act of bravery is a heartbreaker.
"The Birds" - Mother Nature gone wild.
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"SHADOW OF A DOUBT" ( 1943 ) - THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME.
Why Hitch, the sly old l'il devil! He takes the snake out of the Garden of Eden, and plops it right in the middle of a small Northern California town in the guise of Joseph Cotten.
It's great to watch the journey of Teresa Wright. The scales of complacency and innocence are removed and replaced with courage and knowledge. She confronts evil, and fights for her family.
...And all under the California sun.
Oh and let me give a warm shout out to "Lost Woman" Janet Shaw, too, who speaks volumes in just one scene.
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"PSYCHO" ( 1960 ) - A BOY'S BEST FRIEND IS....
Hitchcock's masterpiece. He threw in everything including the kitchen sink ( ...and the bathroom shower ) to create this unsettling, unnerving and unseen before 1960 journey into the macabre. ( You can make up your own case for "Peeping Tom" released in England the month before. )
Hitchcock twists and turns the plot with a magician's knack for distraction. I love all the players in this all the way down to Lurene Tuttle ( "...Periwinkle blue." ) Each of the main characters gets more than they bargain for when they run into young Norman Bates. You know, I sometimes ponder Anthony Perkins getting this script for the first time and reading it. What a hat trick by Hitchcock to simultaneously cement and entomb Perkins' place in movie history.
"Who's that woman buried out in Greenlawn Cemetery?" Get the answer here in "Psycho."