ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Discussion of the actors, directors and film-makers who 'made it all happen'
RedRiver
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by RedRiver »

I love background music, but I appreciate when there is none. It's different, more realistic. Kind of theatrical too. In live theatre, any music is usually the product of a radio, a musician or a warbling person. It's believable!
Konway
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

Red River, I agree with you. This is one of the reasons why I love The Lady Vanishes and Rope.

SPOILERS (Topaz)

What I love about Topaz is it demonstrates the true feel of tragedy. Topaz is a film where Andre (Frederick Stafford) risks everything to find out who actually Columbine (the leader of Topaz) is. He even loses the woman (Juanita de Cordoba) he truly loved. He also gets into political troubles. He risks everything to only find out that it was his "longtime" close friend who is actually the leader of Topaz. In my viewpoint, this is where the film actually ends. A man who is totally shattered after risking everything. We can associate this true feel of tragedy with the horrifying reaction of Rico Parra (John Vernon) when he finds out that Juanita de Cordoba (the woman he loves) is behind all the plans. The film leads into the tragedy whenever the characters think they are moving towards the solution of problems. That is the case with both Rico Parra and Andre.

Another element is the subject of romance. Hitchcock wanted to go much further into it. But he couldn't do it due to the lack of time. But I feel that he implied it throughout the film about "the true act of love." Although I explained about this before at TCM board, still I forgot to provide the main example that supports this idea. That was my mistake.

One of the things I liked about Topaz was the difference between the relationship of Juanita de Cordoba/Andre and Nicole/Andre. When Juanita finds out that Andre is in trouble through the words of Rico Parra at the dinner, we see that the she "hides" the information in such a way nobody could find it. Juanita wants Andre to be completely safe.

In the second half of the film, we see that Nicole finds out that Andre is in a serious political problem. Claude Jade (Michele) even requests Nicole to help him out. But she refuses to help him out and leaves him. Through Michel Piccoli (Jacques granville), we see the relationship between Nicole and 2 men - Jacques and Andre. Nicole was so close to both men that she could have married either Jacques or Andre. People were wondering whom she was going to chose. So it is implied that she was romantically involved with both of them.

Although Nicole is truly concerned about Andre, still it is revealed through her actions that her romantic feelings lacks depth. I think Juanita de Cordoba's romantic feeling towards Andre is far more stronger due to the fact she saved Andre from a life threatening danger that was far more serious than the political problems he was facing when he met Nicole in France. I believe it is implied that Nicole did have romantic feelings towards Jacques even after her marriage with Andre. That is why she was capable of immediately "starting" a romantic relationship with Jacques after she leaves Andre with his political problem.
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MissGoddess
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by MissGoddess »

Marvelous pieces on the films, Konway. I love The Lady Vanishes, as you know. Topaz I did not particularly warm to, because of the actor portraying Andre. I'm being unfair to the film, I know, but I 'm someone who has to connect just a little bit to someone in the cast, and no one, not even Forsythe, reached me in Topaz. Frederick Stafford really ruined it for me. You should talk to FrankGrimes at TCM's board about it, I remember he really liked that one.

As for the music, it's remarkable that one of the best musical composers, Bernard Herrmann, was responsible for the music-ess yet incredible sound effects of The Birds.

What you wrote of the various foreshadowing scenes of early Hitch films to later ones was very interesting. I have noticed some of those things. I'm always looking at directors' early works, seeking the signs of what would develop more full, later on.

I mean to add that you might also enjoy Max Ophuls' movies, if you have not already explored them.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
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Konway
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

I agree with you about Frederick Stafford in Topaz. I felt that Stafford couldn't give any emotional pain that Andre goes through. I think Louis Jourdan would have played Andre very well if he was casted. Another problem was Hitchcock didn't have enough time to work on the script. Samuel Taylor had to continue writing throughout the shooting. We can understand this extreme difficulty, because Samuel Taylor wrote the wonderful screenplay for Vertigo. But in terms of structure of the story of Topaz, I thought it did have strong points.

Although Frederick Stafford was miscast, still I thought Roscoe Lee Browne (Philippe Dubois), John Vernon (Rico Parra), and Karin Dor (Juanita de Cordoba) were brilliant.

According to Norman lloyd, it was Bernard Herrmann's idea to not have music for The Birds. Bernard Herrmann wanted the realistic horror in The Birds. And Hitchcock agreed with Bernard Herrmann.

I remember watching Max Ophuls' Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) long time ago. But I don't remember much. But I will take a look into the filmmaking of Max Ophuls.

As you know, Selznick insisted that Rebecca must be faithful to the novel. But Hitchcock made some clever changes that Selznick didn't notice. One of the things that is unique in the film is the source of evil. In the novel, the evil and the horror that existed in Rebecca originates from Mrs. Danvers. This is because Mrs. Danvers brought her (Rebecca) up ever since she was a very young girl. Mrs. Danvers is like a jealous mother figure to Mrs. Second de Winter. In the novel, the source of evil is Mrs. Danvers.

In the film, Hitchcock made Mrs. Danvers much more younger. We don't know anything about her past except that she came to Manderley when Rebecca was a bride. In the film, we feel the spiritual presence of Rebecca through Mrs. Danvers and Jack Favell. In the film, the source of evil is Rebecca. We can see this same example of evil in Jack Favell. For instance, we see the evil influence of Jack Favell on Mrs. Danvers through his news about Rebecca's death. I believe Jack Favell is a "physical" demonstration of Rebecca's evil personality. I think the strong performance of George Sanders add a great deal of intensity to it. We know that George Sanders is so good at being so evil.

In Sabotage, the source of happiness, kindness, the innocence and support is Stevie. When Stevie dies, the existence of good begins to die out. This type of subtlety can be seen in Jack Clayton's The Innocents. That's why I started a thread about Jack Clayton.

Another thing that is not in the novel "Rebecca" is the strong use of suspense. For Example, I believe the raining before entering Manderley and meeting Mrs. Danvers is not in the novel.
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MissGoddess
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by MissGoddess »

Konway wrote:I agree with you about Frederick Stafford in Topaz. I felt that Stafford couldn't give any emotional pain that Andre goes through. I think Louis Jourdan would have played Andre very well if he was casted. Another problem was Hitchcock didn't have enough time to work on the script. Samuel Taylor had to continue writing throughout the shooting. We can understand this extreme difficulty, because Samuel Taylor wrote the wonderful screenplay for Vertigo. But in terms of structure of the story of Topaz, I thought it did have strong points.


In an entirely different vein, Samuel Taylor also wrote the original play and script for the charming Billy Wilder comedy, Sabrina. Oddly, that's where I first noticed this writer's name.

Although Frederick Stafford was miscast, still I thought Roscoe Lee Browne (Philippe Dubois), John Vernon (Rico Parra), and Karin Dor (Juanita de Cordoba) were brilliant.


gosh, I hardly remember Roscoe's part, I'd forgotten he was in it. He's always a treat.

According to Norman lloyd, it was Bernard Herrmann's idea to not have music for The Birds. Bernard Herrmann wanted the realistic horror in The Birds. And Hitchcock agreed with Bernard Herrmann.


Norman, what a treasure he is. I've had a couple of opportunities to see him appear and have missed them. It bugs me because I'd LOVE to talk to him. He and producer A.C. Lyles are walking encyclopedias of Hollywood history.

I remember watching Max Ophuls' Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) long time ago. But I don't remember much. But I will take a look into the filmmaking of Max Ophuls.


There is a terrific video essay on Letter From An Unknown Woman here: http://silverscreenoasis.com/oasis3/vie ... er#p113882

As you know, Selznick insisted that Rebecca must be faithful to the novel. But Hitchcock made some clever changes that Selznick didn't notice. One of the things that is unique in the film is the source of evil. In the novel, the evil and the horror that existed in Rebecca originates from Mrs. Danvers. This is because Mrs. Danvers brought her (Rebecca) up ever since she was a very young girl. Mrs. Danvers is like a jealous mother figure to Mrs. Second de Winter. In the novel, the source of evil is Mrs. Danvers.

In the film, Hitchcock made Mrs. Danvers much more younger. We don't know anything about her past. In the film, we feel the spiritual presence of Rebecca through Mrs. Danvers and Jack Favell. In the film, the source of evil is Rebecca. We can see this same example of evil in Jack Favell. For instance, we see the evil influence of Jack Favell on Mrs. Danvers through his news about Rebecca's death. I believe Jack Favell is a "physical" demonstration of Rebecca's evil personality. I think the strong performance of George Sanders add a great deal of intensity to it. We know that George Sanders is so good at being so evil.


ha, I'll say. Though Jack Favell seems more feckless and selfish than outright dangerous. i get the feeling Rebecca was more wicked because she was also courageous, whereas Favell was a bit of a coward and lazy.

In Sabotage, the source of happiness, kindness, the innocence and support is Stevie. When Stevie dies, the existence of good begins to die out. This type of subtlety can be seen in Jack Clayton's The Innocents. That's why I started a thread about Jack Clayton.


That's a beautiful point about Stevie and the "source" of finer feelings in Hitchcock films. The same thing, wouldn't you say, happens in Rich and Strange (money seems to rob the couple of their finer feelings), Shadow of Doubt (Uncle Charlie robs young Charlie of her unadulterated view of life and family; and in The Wrong Man, a marriage and a woman's happiness is nearly destroyed by man's imperfect justice system.

The Innocents is simply too disturbing for me to watch. I think it's brilliant, but it really makes me uncomfortable, especially the last scenes.

Another thing that is not in the novel "Rebecca" is the strong use of suspense. For Example, I believe the raining before entering Manderley and meeting Mrs. Danvers is not in the novel.


You know, I've read Rebecca more than just about any other novel yet at this moment I can't recall if that rain was there or not. I don't think so. I love Rebecca, both the film and the novel. I think it's a perfect adaptation, even if it is not Hitch's idea. It's great. Hitch did well with DuMaurier three times: Jamaica Inn (not the best of the bunch, but it has its moments), Rebecca and The Birds.
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Konway
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

Great points about Rebecca, MissG.

I will look into the link you posted about Letter from an Unknown Woman.
Konway
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

This is a message for everyone. If anyone has Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn DVD, then please make sure how long it runs. Some DVDs only run for 90 minutes. Some DVD runs for 94/95 minutes. Some DVDs runs upto 98 minutes.

But the original running time of Jamaica Inn runs for 108 minutes.This is how it was released in the theatres. Somehow 10 minutes got lost. Here is the information about the missing footage.

http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/wiki/Jamai ... ng_Footage

But 90 minutes version is missing other scenes also. This may explain why some scenes don't make any sense at all.
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MissGoddess
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by MissGoddess »

Konway,
Stepping back a bit to Samuel Taylor, are you familiar with an episode of Ronald Reagan's General Electric Theater which Taylor scripted called "One is a Wanderer"? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0586234/

I have tried to find it online but nothing so far. It intrigues me because the title seems to come from a line from Vertigo, where Scottie tells Madeleine ("Only one is a wanderer. Two are always going somewhere.")
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Konway
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

Unfortunately, No. Hitchcock did tell his writers to add their own personal touches into the film. So Samuel Taylor must have wrote this line in Vertigo and then reused part of this line again for the episode of Ronald Reagan's General Electric Theater episode.

It is just like Hitchcock taking the line "Keep on saying we. You mean you did it." from The Paradine Case and using it again in Frenzy.
Konway
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

For a long time, Hitchcock admirers (Including myself) have been requesting Disney to restore Hitchcock's The Paradine Case and requesting Universal to restore Gromek's Brother scenes and release Bernard Herrmann's recorded cues for Torn Curtain.

But they have no interest at all. Its absolutely terrible what these studio executives are doing. The final cut of The Paradine Case was done by Producer David O. Selznick. He cut several Hitchcock scenes from the film.

These scenes are available at George Eastman House. But Disney (who currently owns The Paradine Case) has no interest in restoring Hitchcock's scenes for The Paradine Case. I even requested Robert Harris (who did restoration for Vertigo and Lawrence of Arabia). He had no interest either. My feeling was like this - "Come on. This is Hitchcock we are talking about."

So I thought I should make a petition. So I made them. Here it is.

This link is for Torn Curtain.

http://www.change.org/petitions/univers ... rn-curtain

This link is for The Paradine Case.

http://www.change.org/petitions/disney- ... adine-case
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MissGoddess
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THE WHITE SHADOW

Post by MissGoddess »


Now Streaming: Rare Hitchcock Film “The White Shadow”
http://www.webpronews.com/now-streaming ... ow-2012-11

Thanks to the efforts of the National Film Preservation Foundation, you can now watch a recently-recovered mid-twenties Alfred Hitchcock film for free online.

Well, kind of and kind of.

Hitchcock is not the credited director of the film, called The White Shadow. That honor goes to Graham Cutts, a popular British director of the era. Hitchcock worked with Cutts on the film, and is the writer, assistant director, editor, and production designer of the 1924 drama.

And the film is incomplete. All that survived were 3 of 6 reels, making for a 42-minute running time. Still, a lot of it is there and it is definitely worth a view for any Hitchcock fans or simply fans of classic cinema.

Originally made in six weeks as a vehicle for star-of-the-times Betty Compson, The White Shadow follows the success of 1923′s Woman to Woman. It didn’t receive the same box-office take, however. From the NFPF:

“Dazzled by their own success, producers Michael Balcon and Victor Saville rushed a second Compson picture into production — The White Shadow — and whisked it to theaters with a conspicuously clunky advertising tag: ‘The same Star, Producer, Author, Hero, Cameraman, Scenic Artist, Staff, Studio, Renting Company as Woman to Woman.’ It also had the same Paris setting, and again Hitchcock’s scenario was based on a work by Michael Morton, this time his unpublished novel Children of Chance. The box-office results were definitely not the same, however: ‘It was as big a flop,’ Balcon wrote in his memoir, ‘as Woman to Woman had been a success.’ This notwithstanding, plans proceeded for three more Cutts-Hitchcock pictures, commencing with The Passionate Adventure in 1924.”

Thought to be lost, the film was discovered in August 2011 among a bunch of nitrate prints which were said to have been left at the New Zealand Film Archive in 1989.

You can watch THE WHITE SHADOW on the NFPF site here: http://www.filmpreservation.org/preserv ... hadow-1924
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Rita Hayworth »

Thanks for posting about the THE WHITE SHADOW ... I going to try to watch it this Thanksgiving Weekend ... Miss Goddess.
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MissGoddess
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by MissGoddess »

Great! I hope you enjoy it. I still need to watch it myself. :)
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
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Konway
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

MissG, Thanks a lot for posting the link to The White Shadow. I will watch it soon. Its sad that the other half of the film is lost. I hope someone will find it someday.

I thought I should add more information about the differences between the novel "Rebecca" and Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940). I looked at the novel "Rebecca". In the novel, there is no raining right before Maxim and Mrs. de Winter enter Manderley and meet Mrs. Danvers.

SPOILERS (Rebecca)

As you all know, Alfred Hitchcock made several changes with Mrs. Danvers and Hitchcock added the film projector sequence where Maxim and Mrs. Second de Winter see their Honeymoon days.

Unlike the novel, Alfred Hitchcock added the raining right before entering Maxim's home Manderley and meeting Mrs. Danvers in the film. The raining made Mrs. Second de Winter cold and shivering when she meets Mrs. Danvers. The cold and shivering makes her gloves fall onto the floor in the film.

In the novel, Mrs. Second de Winter travels with Maxim to London to meet Dr. Baker. In order to increase the tension and the suspense in the film, Hitchcock let Mrs. Second de Winter stay at Manderley instead of traveling with Maxim de Winter to meet Dr. Baker (Leo G. Carroll). Instead of Mrs. Second de Winter, Frank Crawley travels with Maxim de Winter to London to meet Dr. Baker in the film. In the novel, Mrs. Second de Winter is the one who is having an uncomfortable feeling while traveling back to Manderley with Maxim in the end. But in the film, Maxim de Winter is the one who is having the uncomfortable feeling while driving back to Manderley. In the film, Frank Crawley is traveling with Maxim to Manderley.
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CineMaven
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Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by CineMaven »

I know...I know. You've seen 'em all. But just in case you haven't...

Image and Image

Teresa Wright & Dan Duryea back together again ( "The Little Foxes" ) in this Alfred Hitchcock Hour's "Three Wives Too Many." She's particularly saucy and Southern. And Dan Duryea was very funny as well. The second episode stars the great Colleen Dewhurst in "Night Fever" as a nurse who must tend a smooth talking, pretty boy prisoner who has killed a cop. ( Or has he. ) Colleen Colleen Colleen. Kind of forgotten a bit today, she is magnificently chilling. There are very few tv programs today, who can even match not ONE PAGE of an Alfred Hitchcock program's script. That's a sad state of affairs folks. That's why I stick with the classics.
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