Hitchcock

[LennG]

I just can't make up my mind to see if there's anything I care to add.

Jim 

you LOVE Hitchcock and his movies. We have talked about them so much in the past and now you have nothing to add??

[jimv]

Jim 

you LOVE Hitchcock and his movies. We have talked about them so much in the past and now you have nothing to add??

Of course I do.  My two favorites are "Shadow of a Doubt"  and "I confess."

In "Shadow of a Doubt," it wasn't a cool blonde but a young brunette Teresa Wright who was in trouble.  Joseph Cotten was outstanding.

In "I Confess," the main charagcter is a priest who is under suspicion of murder but whose lips are sealed because of the Seal of Confession.  IMO, Montgomery Clift does really well as the priest.

[LennG]

Of course I do.  My two favorites are "Shadow of a Doubt"  and "I confess."

In "Shadow of a Doubt," it wasn't a cool blonde but a young brunette Teresa Wright who was in trouble.  Joseph Cotten was outstanding.

In "I Confess," the main charagcter is a priest who is under suspicion of murder but whose lips are sealed because of the Seal of Confession.  IMO, Montgomery Clift does really well as the priest.

Haq--we just watched Shadow of a Doubt last night. We have a library discussion show about this movie on Wednesday and we needed to rewatch it, so as to be up to date for the discussion..

Funny, I had another Hitchcock movie on my DVR which I watched this AM.'The Lodger' which was a silent movie. I never knew Hitch made silents. It was a decent enough watch--not great, but you can see where he was starting to go as far as suspense and movie making are concerned.

[ozzie]

I just watched "The 39 Steps" last night.
Good movie, neat twist at the end, but I found it loaded with some things that seemed unnecessary.
For instance, after watching it I read that Hitchcock put the whole Richard Donat / Madeleine Carrol relationship in it just to try and make the movie more appealing to female viewers.

[LennG]

I just watched "The 39 Steps" last night.
Good movie, neat twist at the end, but I found it loaded with some things that seemed unnecessary.
For instance, after watching it I read that Hitchcock put the whole Richard Donat / Madeleine Carrol relationship in it just to try and make the movie more appealing to female viewers.

Really doesn't sound like something Hitch would do, but since I don't know and will take your word for it, that's Hollywood. Just for the record, I LOVED the 39 Steps. Hitch seemed to have a thing for movies about innocent guys on the run, with Saboteur and North By Northwest also in the category.

[jimv]

There are several versions of "39 Steps" out there.  There is one of them starring, among others, John Mills that I like better than Hitch's version.

[ozzie]

Really doesn't sound like something Hitch would do, but since I don't know and will take your word for it, that's Hollywood. Just for the record, I LOVED the 39 Steps. Hitch seemed to have a thing for movies about innocent guys on the run, with Saboteur and North By Northwest also in the category.

Lenn, I add this not as an "I told you so", but just as something that might be interesting. It is from the IMDB website. How accurate it is, I don't know....

Spoilers
The trivia items below may give away important plot points.
Though it followed the general outline of John Buchan's book, and captured much of its spirit, this movie version often diverges from the printed one. In the book, the Robert Donat character has a South African background. Here, he's Canadian. The book has no heroine. The Madeleine Carroll character was added to the movie to provide a romantic interest, apparently in hopes of making the story more appealing to female patrons. There are no scenes in a music hall in the book, and thus no "Mr. Memory" character. The explanation this character gives for the term "39 Steps" is different from that provided in the book.

[LennG]

Lenn, I add this not as an "I told you so", but just as something that might be interesting. It is from the IMDB website. How accurate it is, I don't know....

Spoilers
The trivia items below may give away important plot points.
Though it followed the general outline of John Buchan's book, and captured much of its spirit, this movie version often diverges from the printed one. In the book, the Robert Donat character has a South African background. Here, he's Canadian. The book has no heroine. The Madeleine Carroll character was added to the movie to provide a romantic interest, apparently in hopes of making the story more appealing to female patrons. There are no scenes in a music hall in the book, and thus no "Mr. Memory" character. The explanation this character gives for the term "39 Steps" is different from that provided in the book.

Thanks Lou.


What, NO Mr. Memory character? My favorite parts of the movie, and from the movie, he is critical.

[ozzie]

Yeah, it makes me want to read the book to see how things resolved differently than the film!

[LennG]

As I mentioned a few posts back, one of our local libraries has started 'in library' lectures once again and one of them is about Hitchcock movies. They tell you what movie will be discussed, either watch it on your own, or just know if you have seen it, and then we hold a discussion on that movie, among many other Hitchcock things.

So last week's movie was Rebecca, Hitchcocks first American-made movie, and his first in collaboration with David Selznick. To be honest, I know I had seen Rebecca somewhere along the way, but on rewatching it, I basically didn't remember anything of the movie, so it was really like watching a brand new Hitchcock movie for the first time, as we loved it.

For any that also don't remember, Rebecca stars Sir Lawrence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.

Sir Lawrence lost his first wife and meets Ms. Fontaine. She is working for a snobby lady and she is very 'mousy' in a way, but the pair hit it off, marry, and off they go to Sir Lawrences humongous estate in England where Ms. Fontaine is basically overwhelmed, and there she meets Mrs. Danvers, the head of the household and spooky from day one. Where does Rebecca come into this, she was Sir Lawrence's dead first wife and basically dominated the house and everything about it.
The movie dwells on so many deep, dark secrets, especially how the first wife died and subsequent effects.
Just a grand old time with Hitch never letting up on the drama and suspense until the very end.

One thing I didn't realize as we watched the movie and was told at our lecture, Ms. Fontaine never had a name of her own. Before they were married, she was never called by any name, and after, she was always referred to as the second Mrs. so and so.

We really struggled to find Hitch in this movie. Hitch always tried to make it a point to appear at the beginning of his movies as he knew people were always looking for him, and thus were concentrating more on this, than on the movie, so he tried to appear very early, to, sort of, get it out of the way. But in this movie, he appears almost at the end, and we really had to do a search online to find him. If you didn't know exactly where he would be, it was almost impossible to spot him.

Just a great movie (the only movie Hitch made that won a best pix Oscar). If any haven't seen it, or, like me, don't remember a lot of it, it is so highly recommended. even if you aren't a Hitchcock fan. if nothing more than to see these two great actors perform.

Just a bit of trivia. Sir Lawrence was fooling around (living with) Vivien Leigh, star of Gone With The Wind at the time Rebecca was being made. They were both married to others, but why should that stop them. Sir Lawrence lobbied hard for his sweetie to play the lead in Rebecca instead of Ms. Fontaine, but Ms. Leigh was still involved in GWTW and couldn't make it. How much fun would it have been to have 2 real lovers play real lovers on the screen?

[Giant Obsession]

I thought his BEST years were after the Yankees traded him to San Diego.  Oh wait, that was Sterling Hitchcock.  Never mind.  My apologies.

[LennG]

I thought his BEST years were after the Yankees traded him to San Diego.  Oh wait, that was Sterling Hitchcock.  Never mind.  My apologies.

And I thought someone, anyone, was going to contribute to the discussion.

Silly me.