The Films of Alfred Hitchcock

[Carolinian]

Jan 2, 2010 6:27:45 GMT -4 Yossarian said:

Rear Window - *sigh* everything about that film was perfect, esp. Kelly's gowns

Oh yes. I saw Rear Window in a theater when it was restored and released sometime in the late '70s. I remembered Grace Kelly's costumes so vivdly that when my husband and I saw it again a few years ago I could describe the costumes to him. The green shantung silk suit! The black and white tea length gown with the black embroidery on the white chiffon skirt! The peignoir and negligee in the Mark Cross case!

[Deleted]

Love Hitchcock. I was also lucky enough to take Dr. Casper's class at USC, which meant that I was able to see many of the films for the first time all beautiful and shiny on the big screen. I could never get over the honest-to-God GASPS in the audience while we watched Psycho, as clearly many were completely unfamiliar with the twists.

I have to give a shout-out to The Man Who Knew Too Much: the always-wonderful James Stewart and Doris Day - Casper loves Doris Day like whoa, so this was like his doubleplusbestever lecture - are great together, there's a kidnapping and subterfuge and assassination and the whole Jo screaming at the concert and then singing "Que Sera Sera" with the whistling - it's just fantastic. Not a wrong note throughout, tense and suspenseful but never unrelentingly so, and some truly beautiful locations.

[margojata]

then singing "Que Sera Sera" with the whistling - it's just fantastic. Not a wrong note throughout, tense and suspenseful but never unrelentingly so, and some truly beautiful locations.

I love that scene. Doris could turn it on and be a dramatic actress. You could feel her anguish as she sang louder and louder.

I LOVE Rope. Jimmy Stewart is fascinating in that part because he's not really ... Jimmy Stewart. He pretty much played himself in all of his movies, but this one was slightly different. Darker, uncomfortable.

And who can beat Joseph Cotten in Shadow? When he turns to the camera after declaring women fat, selfish pigs - eating their money, etc. Chilling .. awesome.

[ahenobarbus]

I think Hitchcock is horribly overrated. The fifties films in particular (which I find unwatchable) are some of the worst examples of Hollywood's decline from the liveliness of the 30s. The dialogue no longer has the slightest connection to the American vernacular. The female leads lack personality. Even the presence of the aging Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant remind you how much more interesting they were a decade or two previous.

The fifties color films are really ugly, too. His black and white films look good, but the color film are even more lurid and waxy-looking than the average fifties film. And by the later sixties he wasn't even trying.

I've heard his early British films are superior, but I've only seen the original Man Who Knew Too Much (which was better than the Jimmy Stewart version, but not all that striking).

[pittipat]

Jan 3, 2010 20:24:57 GMT -4 @kungfuwaynewho said:

I have to give a shout-out to The Man Who Knew Too Much: the always-wonderful James Stewart and Doris Day - Casper loves Doris Day like whoa, so this was like his doubleplusbestever lecture - are great together, there's a kidnapping and subterfuge and assassination and the whole Jo screaming at the concert and then singing "Que Sera Sera" with the whistling - it's just fantastic. Not a wrong note throughout, tense and suspenseful but never unrelentingly so, and some truly beautiful locations.

Yay Hitchcock thread!

I love the suspense in "The Man Who Knew Too Much". I don't think I breathe when Doris is standing at the back of the theater waiting for the cymbal crash.

And I want a Mark Cross case!

[fabrichnova]

The women have all the power in his films, those icy Hitchcockian Blondes, all cool on the surface, but fire underneath. Wouldn't you love to see what he could do with January Jones, Tilda Swinton or Nicole Kidman?

I find the "What If?" game so, so fascinating when it comes to Hitch and what modern-day stars he would have gravitated towards. And not even just the blondes.

Would he have gone to someone like Clooney as a replacement Cary Grant? Or would his outlook have changed with the times, and thus his casting along with it? Or maybe he would have embraced the pop culture homages of decades past (Mad Men, Amy Winehouse/Duffy, etc.) and stuck with a retro motif?

Nicole Kidman reminded me so much of a Hitchcock blonde during "The Others," I'm inclined to think she might have been one of his muses had he been alive today. And perhaps, I could see him having used Sharon Stone circa '92 for a few films.

[margojata]

He was big on the "every man" theme - so I'm thinking Tom Hanks. I could totally see Tom Hanks as "The Wrong Man", or even in the extremely under played "I Confess".

Charlize Theron has Hitchcock blond written all over her.

[Shalamar]

Frenzy. I love everything about that movie. The performances, the story, and oh man, the MUSIC. That music puts chills up my spine.

I still occasionally pronounce "tequila" the way the detective's wife did. "Teh-quee-yah". Hee.

[Deleted]

Jan 9, 2010 20:59:33 GMT -4 fabrichnova said:

Nicole Kidman reminded me so much of a Hitchcock blonde during "The Others," I'm inclined to think she might have been one of his muses had he been alive today. And perhaps, I could see him having used Sharon Stone circa '92 for a few films.

I think Kidman would have been a Hitchcock girl for sure. He could have used that creepy, icy, evilish vibe she has in her (imo) best roles: The Others, To Die For, Golden Compass...

ETA: Just read about his foot fetish! But I still think Kidman would have made a great Hitchcock actress.

I really like Rear Window and Dial M for Murder. Both feel quite "stagey" by today's standards, but they are just so well made. Also love North by Northwest. Vertigo really creeps me out. Something about Stewart being such a weirdo in it gets to me every time...

[Babycakes]

Watched Rear Window tonight, and holy hell, Grace Kelly was fricking beautiful. And the clothes? To die for! Her waist was so tiny. Edith Head was a genius. Raymond Burr was seriously creepy, and reminded me a lot of Ketih Olbermann. Hee! And I am again amazed at the innuendo and bawdy language that they got away with. First in Notorious (1946) and in Rear Window. Tame by today's standards, but wow, for 1946, and 1954 those themes had to be ground breaking.

BBC America is having a Hitchcock marathon next week. Not sure of the line-up, but I hope it includes NBNW. It's the only major Hitchcock film that is on my must see list.