Hitchcock (2012)

Movies about the makings of other movies seem to be a growing trend.  Among these is Hitchcock, a story behind the master of suspense’s struggles while making his (in my humble opinion) greatest film.  In addition to the usual conflicts with studios and Hitch’s (Anthony Hopkins) odd obsession with his actors, a growing conflict with his wife and creative partner in film making, Alma Reville (Helen Mirren), takes center stage and makes Alma Hitch’s most intriguing leading lady.

For a film fan, some of the best scenes depict the production of Psycho.  We see classic scenes come to life at a new angle and in color, with Hitch just off to the side observing quietly or shouting directions like a man obsessed.  Either response seems to hold the same intensity.  His direction of the infamous shower scene is especially fascinating and intense.  And there are some fun Hitchcockian moments, like the beginning and end monologue that mimics episodes of Alfred Hitchcock presents.

However, overshadowing Hitch and all his eccentricities is his real leading lady, Alma.  She is a supportive and ambitious woman who has been at Hitch’s side through his entire film career.  When Hitch is ill, she fills in for him on the set of Psycho and keeps production on track.  But she also has her own projects in the film industry, and writes a screenplay with Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston).  The secluded beach house they write at makes Hitch suspicious of an affair and the idea does not seem to be vacant from Alma’s mind either.  Thing is, with Alma always seeing Hitch spellbound by his leading ladies, we can’t blame her too much for her own temptations.

At the Oscars, Hitchcock only received one nomination and came home with no statuettes. It was was for  for makeup and hairstyling, I assume for making Anthony Hopkins look like Hitch in such an uncanny way.  There were moments where Hopkins seemed to have melted away entirely into Hitchcock.  Amazing! However, at the Golden Globes, Helen Mirren was nominated for her leading performance as Alma.  A deserved nomination, shedding such brilliant light on an important, but often overlooked part of Hitchcock’s life.  How unfortunate that she did not make it to the Oscars.

While I personally love the idea of this film and quite enjoyed it, I feel like it fell short and a bit flat.  It felt as though Hitch and Alma were not balanced, both onscreen and in the story.  The moments in Hitch’s mind, trying to connect with his latest villain, felt out of place, though they had the best of intentions.  Though Hitchcock was not much of an Oscar worthy film, it’s an enjoyable and fun watch, especially for any Hitchcock fan.

“You may call me Hitch.  Hold the Cock.”

Notorious

Premiering in 1946, Notorious was Hitchcock’s second film starring Ingrid Bergman.  It is a spy thriller and a dramatic love story all at once, with Bergman forming a complicated love triangle with Cary Grant and Claude Rains.

After her father is convicted for being a Nazi spy, Alicia (Bergman) is sought out by a young government agent, Devlin (Grant).  With her familiarity with some Nazis that have moved to Brazil, he hopes that she can infiltrate their organization.  While waiting for details of her mission in Rio de Janeiro, the two fall in love.  When Devlin gets word that Alice is to seduce a friend of her father’s and past admirer, Alexander Sebastian (Rains), he tries to convince the others that Alicia isn’t right for the job, but to no avail.  He chooses their mission over their love and pushes Alicia to seduce Sebastian.  But how far can Alicia go along with this false love, and worse, what will happen to her if Sebastian realizes she is a spy?

One of the most memorable scenes, that literally pushed some boundaries, is a love scene between Bergman and Grant.  In the height of their romance, it seems the two can hardly stand to part when Devlin is called to get information on Alicia’s assignment.  For two and a half minutes, Hitchcock uses a long shot, focusing on the two kissing and nuzzling in between a few lines and slowly moving Devlin towards the door.  Since this film was made while the Hays Code was in charge of censoring film, kissing could not last for more than three seconds.  To get around this, Hitchcock had Bergman and Grant break off kissing after exactly three seconds only to start up again and again between breathless lines.

While the film was not nominated for Best Picture, it was not completely forgotten at the Academy Awards.  Notorious was nominated for Original Screenplay and Claude Rains was nominated for Supporting Actor.  His portrayal of a secretive man seduced by an old flame and then realizing her true motives is startling and wonderfully believable.

In the grand scale of Hitchcock films, Notorious may not be one of the most essential films, but I believe that is an important one in Hitchcock’s filmography.  While it’s a taught spy thriller, the element of romance is mixed in stronger than ever.  There are smaller moments of mounting suspense, like Devilin and Alicia’s discovery in the wine cellar, that may not built to big moments, but keep the story moving in a more placid manner.  Still, Notorious is an enjoyable and intriguing film perfect for any fan of Hitchcock, Grant, Bergman or Rains.

“A man doesn’t tell a woman what to do. She tells herself.”

The Birds

The first time I saw The Birds, my dad turned it on television in the middle of the day.  He was so excited, telling me that the birds were going to attack and he was probably waiting for me to jump.  I must have been around seven, maybe eight years old then, so when he said attack, images from Godzilla and King Kong came to my mind.  Part of me was surprised and intrigued that these were not giant or mutant birds and they weren’t terrorizing a big city, but a sleepy little bay town.  It was a very different kind of monster movie, but unlike Godzilla and Mothra, it still scares me.

Based loosely off off Daphane Du Maurier’s novella, Hitchcock begins The Birds like it could become a screwball comedy.  While Melanie (Tippie Hendren) is waiting to pick up a bird from the pet shop, Mitch (Rod Taylor), a lawyer recognizes her from a past mishap she was in.  He lets her pretend she is an employee and she makes a fool of herself letting a bird loose in the store.  While she’s annoyed at him, there’s attraction underneath.  So as a prank, maybe to make her more appealing and mysterious, she drives all the way from San Francisco to Bodego Bay to deliver the pair of lovebirds he was shopping for.  As her plan to regain his attention is working and she is in the middle of practicing her innocent who-me? face, a sea gull attacks her.  That first drip of blood running down her forehead is only the beginning of a terrifying weekend of escalating bird attacks.

The more I see The Birds, the more I love to hate Melanie.  From that first scene in the pet shop, you can tell she’s a girl who has always gotten her way and doesn’t know how to be the butt of a joke gracefully.  Once she is in Bodega Bay, she is obviously a rich fish out of water, showing up in that sports car and fur coat.  These all seem like forgivable qualities, but in the diner just after that first attack, she becomes a compulsive liar, saying that she has known Annie (Suzanne Pleshette), the local school teacher, for years and she was not in town to see Mitch at all.  Maybe these birds have started to attack to punish this spoiled blonde girl with a history of skinny dipping in Roman fountains.  Perhaps she goes into that room full of birds as a self inflicted punishment.  Otherwise she’s just an idiot, which is just as easy to believe.

The big bird filled scenes can range from quietly creepy to explosive, literally.  When Melanie is sitting outside the school yard, we can hear the children inside singing.  They provide the perfectly creepy and repetitive soundtrack for birds to land quietly behind Melanie, who smokes a cigarette nervously.  That image when she suddenly sees all the crows on the playground behind her is amazingly unnerving and gets me every time.  It’s all part of the slow build, until the children run from the school and are violently attacked by the murder of crows.

My favorite scene from The Birds has to be when Melanie seeks shelter inside the phone booth.  A bird has just attacked a man at the gas station, causing him to spill gas and you can guess what happened when a man lit a cigar.  From the phone booth, Melanie has full view of all the chaos as it unfolds all around her.  As the fire spreads, a man driving is attacked by birds and causes a crash.  The firefighters lose control of a hose, spraying wildly at the phone booth.  A man covered in blood runs into the glass, a bird biting at his face.  Just when you think it can’t get any crazier, birds start flying right into the phone booth, breaking the glass, giving Melanie nowhere to run.

I sincerely hope that one day The Birds scares the shit out of my future children.  Even better, this may be the perfect film to introduce any kid to Hitchcock films.  Once the action starts, it picks up with great speed and can keep a child’s attention easily.  It is filled with great moments of classic Hitchcock suspense and the violent horror isn’t too graphic.  Plus, I personally love how this kind of horror feels so grounded into real life.  Something has caused the birds to attack people, and according to the bird expert in the diner, the odds are in their favor.

“It’s the end of the world!”

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is one of my favorite films and has been for many years.  I remember first watching it alone late one night, sneaking around the living room when I was seven years old.  There was a lot that I didn’t comprehend, but the basics were all clear to me and a love of suspense was instilled.  Though this film is great anytime, a chilly fall evening with the haunts of Halloween right around the corner is a perfect time for first-timers to experience the perfect suspense thriller.

Today, it’s hard to have any knowledge of Psycho without some major spoilers, so please, if you have any innocence about this film, stop reading and go watch it.  Psycho starts out with a classic Hitchcockian woman on the run plot and takes an unexpected turn, making it a story of murder where the victim’s family is getting closer to danger while looking for the truth.  It stars Janet Leigh as the woman on the run, John Gavin as her lover, Vera Miles as her sister, and Martin Balsam as a private investigator.

One of my all time favorite film characters is Norman Bates.  At first sight, he seems like a quiet and kind young man, a dutiful son just looking after his sick mother and the family business.  However, even before the murder we can tell there is so much more.  The argument with his mother that Marion overhears is so telling and makes him seem trapped and tormented by her.  The conversation about stuffed birds and his mother, they go together a little too well.  And one of my favorite traits about Norman is his nervous chewing.  Whether Sam is firing questions too quickly or there’s a chance the swamp won’t hide his secrets, he is always chewing.  Why was Anthony Perkins not nominated for supporting actor?

When I first saw the shower scene, it was the most terrifying thing I could have imagined at the time.  I think back to my seven-year-old self, straining to hear the tv I kept so quiet, afraid to wake my parents and face certain punishment.  Things seemed to be turning around for Marion, kind young Norman had helped her realize she could go back and make everything better and that hot shower was washing away her sins.  I was such a good little Catholic school girl.  But suddenly that shadow creeped forward, ripped back the curtain.  Then that scream, and those piercing violins, I couldn’t breathe.  My eyes widened as the shots clipped rapidly between the reaching knife and vulnerable flesh.  Before my mind could comprehend what just happened, the murderous figure was out the door and Marion slipped slowly down that tile wall into a gruesome death.  The blood swirling down the drain helped me relax and I realized my hand was clamped over my mouth.  Maybe I had nearly screamed.  As I looked into Marion’s dead open eye for the first time, I blinked and consciously tried to control my breathing.  I had never seen something so unexpectedly violent in all my seven years and while I had just been scared stiff, part of me loved it.  It has been a rush that I’ve been searching for in great movies all my life.

It was years later that I learned how important Psycho was to the history of film.  Hitchcock put out a campaign that no one would be allowed into the theater after the screening of Psycho had begun.  What Hitchcock made law for Psycho just felt like common sense to me.  Before this time, I guess people just waltzed into the theater anytime within the showing, regardless of what they missed in the plot.  But Hitchcock was a genius and didn’t want to let his audience down, knowing how perfectly he had crafted Psycho.

Today, I hope no one comes in even a minute late to watching Psycho.  There is so much to enjoy from the very beginning.  Being a former art student, I love the opening credits by Saul Bass.  And that first conversation between Marion and Sam.  And the way the cop with the dark sunglasses is so menacing.  And every single moment in the Bates’ house is amazingly tense!  Believe me, you cannot miss one second of Psycho.

“Hate the smell of dampness, don’t you?  It’s such a, I don’t know, creepy smell.”

Rope

I first saw Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope late one night in my old college apartment.  My roommate preferred to get to bed earlier, so I warned her about my movie and tried my best to be quiet.  Within twenty minutes, my vocal excitement had kept her awake and curious enough to see what the hell I was watching.  As I apologized and explained what was going on in the film, she stayed for a few minutes, standing, watching with me and getting just as worked up.  Soon, we were both on the couch, yelling directions at Jimmy Stewart and becoming far too stressed out.  It was a great moment for this Hitchcock fan.

In Rope, two young men, Phil (Farley Granger) and Brandon (John Dall), decide to pull off the perfect murder.  We come in just as they have killed their friend, David (Dick Hogan).  Instead of immediately disposing of the body, they tuck it away in a chest.  They have bigger plans this evening, a party.  What’s the point of pulling off the perfect murder without a little danger?  Guests include David’s mother (Constance Collier), father (Cedric Hardwicke), girlfriend Janet (Joan Chandler), Janet’s ex boyfriend Kenneth (Douglas Dick), and Rupert (James Stewart) whom the murderous boys admire and got their idea from.

Some may consider this Hitchcock’s ultimate longshot film.  It is mostly comprised of 10 continuous shots, edited together to give the illusion of one fluid piece.  Simply put, when the camera ran out of film, the shot dissolved, usually into the back of a character’s dark suit, and the new reel began from there, fading back in without missing a beat.  It gives you the feeling that you shouldn’t look away, or that you’re a silent guest at the party.  However, if you can keep a sharp eye, there are seven conventional edits throughout the film.

The longshots and other elements make the film feel like a play.  All the characters move within one connected setting, revolving around the chest that only Phil, Brandon and the audience can feel the weight of.  Many times, the camera follows characters around, it bounces a bit, feeling a bit like footsteps.  Its focus on different characters in a confined space, or closeups of tell tale objects is what really sets it apart from anything that could be put on stage.

Of course, my roommate and I were not shouting about the inventive camera work, but the suspense.  Whenever someone hung around the chest too long, or looked at it questioningly or *GASP!* was about to open it, levels of chaos exploded in our minds.  All we could do was hold our breath, yell like mad people and slowly exhale.  Over and over.  I think we were both glad the film was only about 80 minutes long, we couldn’t take much more of that thick tension.

It is not all about the chest that creates tension.  While Brandon is surprisingly calm about their perfect murder, Phil slowly becomes a nervous wreck.  Brandon’s grand idea of serving dinner on the vile chest, casually flaunting the murder weapon out in the open and inviting Rupert without Phil knowing is enough to send Phil into a drinking binge.  Surely someone as superior as Brandon won’t be caught because of his friend’s loose lips.

Most Hitchcock films are centered around murder, even a few other than Rope discuss how to pull off a perfect murder.  Here we get a warped philosophy behind a perfect murder.  You see, their old friend Rupert once discussed with them how an elite group could be allowed to pick off those with less meaningful lives.  There’s even a scene where Rupert and David’s mother casually joke about how murder could solve problems like unemployment and overpopulation.  This talk can be all fun and games, but they don’t know that Brandon and Phil have taken it very seriously and intend to prove that they are part of that superior group that can get away with murder.  How awful they must think of poor David.  And some of the ways Brandon justifies his murder are downright disturbing.

Rope is an ingenious murder mystery dinner, where the guests don’t even realize there has been a murder, but they pick up on the mystery.  They keep wondering where David could be, it’s not in his character to be so late.  Meanwhile, we sit on pins and needles, worried sick like Phil or jonesing on the excitement of being so close to danger like Brandon.  And all we can do is pray that Rupert does or doesn’t open that chest.

“By what right do you dare to say that there’s a superior few to which you belong?”

North by Northwest

Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest has been hailed as his most entertaining film.  With a case of mistaken identity putting a man in danger and being hunted across the country, it is an exciting time.  Throw in some planes, trains, automobiles and Mount Rushmore, the thrills take some unexpected turns over and over again.  Top it off with a dash of romance to twist the plot further and that trademark Hitchcock suspense and North by Northwest is nearly perfect.

The story is that of average ad man Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), an unglamorous bachelor complete with a badgering, overbearing mother (Jessie Royce Landis).  He is mistaken by a group of foreign spies as government agent George Caplan, kidnapped and taken to a mansion owned by a Mr. Townsend.  There, his kidnapper (James Mason) forces him to drink copious amounts of bourbon and sends him off down a dark, twisty road in a sports car.  This is got to be one of the most memorable, and thrilling drunk driving scenes on film.  In jail, no one believes the intoxicated Thornhill.  When he tries to prove his story, it seems that his captors have covered everything up and merely posed as Townsend.  Realizing that only the real Mr. Townsend can prove his innocence, Thornhill goes to the UN only to leave there wanted for murder.  He has no choice but to run from both the police and his assailants while trying to track down this George Caplan, which turns out to be one hell of a goose chase.

On the train ride from New York to Chicago, Thornhill finds a companion to keep him busy and even helps hide him from the authorities.  Eve (Eva Marie Saint) is another one of Hitchcock’s blond beauties to watch out for.  While she aids Thornhill and pulls him in with her beauty, she has her own agenda.  But when Thornhill finds out, he still cannot let her go, and his chivalry leads to a daring rescue and chase, scaling Mount Rushmore.

One of the most memorable scenes of this film is the crop duster scene.  After making it out of Chicago, Thornhill is told to wait for a ride, out in the middle of harvested corn fields.  The flat, expansive and isolating scene perfectly depicts the fields of the mid-west.  When a plane in the distance seems to be “dustin’ crops where there ain’t no crops,”  tension builds and it is a kick to see Grant run and dive from a swooping plane.  It’s one of the most iconic moments of the film, and ends with quite an unexpected bang.

I’ve got to say, I love how this trailer shows Hitchcock selling this movie like a vacation package.  In 1959, people were flooding to theaters to see big epic films, like Ben Hur.  That was some fierce competition.  So why not send them from New York, to Chicago and on to Mount Rushmore with some murder and suspense?  I guarantee you will never see that monument the same way after watching North by Northwest.

However, while Hitchcock was selling it, the Academy was not buying it.  In the end, North by Northwest took home no trophies for its three Oscar nominations: Original Screenplay, Editing and Art Direction in a Color Film.

Today, North by Northwest that is an essential Hitchcock film and can still make for a fun time.  When I meet someone that has never seen a Hitchcock film, I suggest North by Northwest along with Psycho and The Birds.  Of those three, it’s the one that is most fast paced, fun and as the plot continually twists, you have to keep on your toes.

“I don’t like the way Teddy Roosevelt is looking at me.”

Suspicion

When Lina (Joan Fontaine) first meets the charming Johnnie (Cary Grant) while sharing a first class car on a train, he is carrying a third class ticket and just happens to be short on change that day.  Right?  He starts courting her and as quickly as he starts the fire, he leaves for weeks without one word of correspondence right after she has enthusiastically told her parents about him.  Just as Lina is most desperate for him, after hearing her parents call her ‘spinsterish’, he comes back, sweeps her off her feet and they elope.  When he takes her home to a big house full of servants, Lina assumes Johnnie has plenty of money.  Turns out, he’s a broke playboy.  He just gambles and borrows money to pay for things.  As money issues pile up, Johnnie becomes more interested in murder mystery novels and seems secretive, especially in his business travels.  When his business partner is mysteriously murdered, Lina wonders if she could be his next victim.

In Suspicion, director Alfred Hitchcock lets the whole plot rests on how we interpret what Lina is thinking.  Her new husband isn’t exactly who she thought he was, what else is he hiding?  When a new clue is found, we look straight to Lina for understanding.  Her big eyes, careful stance, suspicious looks all tell us that we can’t trust Johnnie.  Fontaine drives this film, yet naturally makes us feel like it is all out of her control.  They way she lets us place all our trust and understanding of what is happening on her is perfect and completely deserves that Oscar win for best actress.

Throughout the film, Johnnie calls Lina ‘Monkey-face’ as a nickname.  I love how much I hated that little detail.  It is not just the name, which I find no endearment in, but how he can say it.  If I were Lina, there would always be a wondering in the back of my mind every time he said it, “Is he mocking me?”  Is he?  Does he have this plan to kill her?  My mind started turning the nickname into a horrible device to slowly dehumanize Lina to Johnnie.  Animals are easier to kill than people, right?

Another detail I found absolutely entrancing is the glass of milk.  In one scene, Johnnie brings Lina a nice tall glass of milk as she is sick in bed.  We see him walk across the large open floor and up the stairs in the dark, with beautiful shadows all around, and the milk seems to glow ominously.  Turns out, Hitchcock put a little battery powered light under the glass to give it this effect.  So simple and elegant to make one small detail so sinister.

Unfortunately, Suspicion doesn’t make it on my list of favorite Hitchcock films, but I still enjoyed it.  The story is wonderful and the characters are intriguing, but that ultimate level of suspense I have only found in Hitchcock films was missing for me.  There were hardly any moments to yell at the screen, simply because Lina was too smart to fall for any tricks most of the time.  I feel like an anti-feminist coming to terms with this, but I guess I just love Hitchcock films where he doesn’t give his female lead a decent set of brains.  Oh Tippi Hedren, you knew that room was full of birds.  Thanks for going in there anyway and letting Mr. Hitchcock throw live birds at you for a week.

“If you’re going to kill someone, do it simply.”

Spellbound

Alfred Hitchcock called this film, “just another manhunt wrapped up in pseudo-psychoanalysis.”  While that sums it up pretty well, adding in fun details like a murder-mystery, a love story to cloud judgement and a Salvador Dali inspired dream sequence sets Spellbound apart from Hitchcock’s other manhunt or psychoanalysis inspired films.

At Green Meadows mental institute, Dr. Edwards has just arrived to replace Dr. Murchinson (Leo G. Carroll).  Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) falls in love with the charming new arrival, but realizes inconsistencies in his present self and what she has read about him professionally.  She is the first to realize that this man, only known as JB (Gregory Peck), is an impostor suffering from paranoia and amnesia.  Constance takes it upon herself to treat him and attempt to outrun the authorities looking to charge him with the murder of the real Dr. Edwards.

Along the way, Constance and JB seek refuge in the house of her old mentor, Dr. Alexander Brulov (Michael Chekhov).  By this point in the story, Alex is the only person with a level head on his shoulders able to see the situation without getting personally involved.  He’s a quick thinking man, welcoming his old pupil with a fathering attitude, but sees through her lies and keeps the situation under control.  What I loved most about Alex is his ability to see the bitter truth and tell Constance that her judgement is clouded by her affections for JB.  “We both know that the mind of a woman in love is operating on the lowest level of the intellect,” he tells her.  Viewers who have been swept up in the love story have been brought back to Earth by Alex, who holds some important elements in understanding JB’s condition.  It’s this ability to be kind, charismatic and clear up the lovey-dovey nonsense that will only hinder their progress, that earned Michael Chekhov a supporting actor nomination.

One of the most unforgettable parts of the film is the dream sequence.  At Alex’s request, JB describes a dream he just awoke from, in an attempt to analyze it and see if they can uncover any clues to his true identity.  The images inspired from Dali’s work are stirring, surreal and very creepy.  There are curtains of eyes being cut with giant scissors, a card game won with blank cards and a man with no face dropping an odd shaped wheel.  Alex attempts to put these strange pieces of information together, but it isn’t until the end we find their true meaning.

Spellbound is one of the many Hitchcock movies every film fan should see.  It was one of the first films to deal with psychoanalysis, a theme Hitchcock would later work with often and the Dali dream sequence was ground breaking in film art direction.  With a stars like Bergman and Peck fueling a stirring plot with surprises until the very end, Spellbound is a film any classic film lover needs to see.

“Women make the best psychoanalysts until they fall in love. After that they make the best patients.”

Rebecca

Based off a novel by Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca is the story of a widower, his new wife and the memories of the old wife throughout their mansion.  When we meet the girl (she never has a name until she becomes the second Mrs. de Winter), she is a traveling companion to an aging woman.  In Monte Carlo, she meets Maxim de Winter.  He was gazing over a steep cliff, possibly thinking about jumping.  The girl cries out, making sure he doesn’t and from there on, they meet daily and enjoy each other’s company.  When the girl suddenly has to leave, she goes to tell Maxim goodbye and he proposes marriage.  So away they go, to his enormous mansion, Manderley.  But throughout the entire mansion are reminders of his previous wife, Rebecca, who drowned just a year ago.  The creepy staff members still do everything just as Rebecca wanted, even keep her room in the forbidden West Wing just the same.  With the expectations of living up to become the next Rebecca, the new Mrs. de Winter starts to go mad.  But what’s truly maddening is the wonderful twists and turns Hitchcock expertly adds along the way.

This is Alfred Hitchcock’s second film nominated in 1940, and his only one to ever win the category.  That being said, it’s one of his most different films.  The suspense that he’s so known for is not as present, but instead eerie feeling of self doubt are amplified.  One funny reason this is done so well is that while filming, he told Joan Fontaine that the entire staff hated her because she got the role and Laurence Olivier’s girlfriend had not.   That horrible little lie helped her become more shy and unsure of herself both on and off camera.  Yes, just another wonderful example how Hitchcock treated his actors like cattle.

Though both Olivier and Fontaine were nominated in their best acting categories, the most enjoyable performances is by Judith Anderson, who earns a supporting role nomination in playing the main house servant, Mrs. Danvers.  She was Rebecca’s closest friend and prides herself in keeping the mansion just as Rebecca liked it.  She’s wonderfully creepy in the most quiet and subtle ways and seems to glide around the house, popping up at the most unexpected times and sabotaging the new Mrs. de Winter’s every attempt to do something right.

One thing I could not over look, is how many similarities Rebecca shares with Citizen Kane, nominated just the following year.  The stories are night and day, but they both probe the lives of a wealthy man in a ridiculously huge mansion.  At one point, both their wives in their respective mansions are unhappy.  And, well I hate to give away endings, but those images are extremely similar as well.  I’ve often wondered what asshole didn’t vote Citizen Kane for Best Picture, but I guess you can’t have two films with so many similarities winning for two straight years.

There are so many reasons to see Rebecca.  If you’re like me and love Alfred Hitchcock, it is a must see.  If you’ve ever read the novel by Daphne Du Mauier, see how it compares.  If you were ever as outraged at the loss of Citizen Kane, see if you share my new theory.  And of course, if you love creepy movies with a great unexpected twist by a master of suspense, do yourself a favor.

“Please promise me never to wear black satin or pearls… or to be 36 years old.”

Foreign Correspondent

Europe is on the brink of war and all the usual reporters can get out of politicians are tired and dry ways to say nothing, so armature Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) is appointed to become a foreign correspondent in Europe for a New York newspaper.  Fresh, naive and constantly losing his hats, Jones interviews Van Meer, a leader of a peace movement, but he doesn’t seem to talk about anything more important than feeding the birds.  He also meets a colleague of Van Meer, Mr. Fisher, and falls for his lovely daughter, Carol.  Later in Amsterdam, Jones witnesses Van Meer’s assassination and boldly tracks down the assassin to discover a whole conspiracy.

This is the first of four films by, Alfred Hitchcock (my personal favorite director of all time) to be nominated for best picture.  Now, a majority of Hitchcock’s films follow at least one of two basic formats: man being followed or psychological creep out.  He got nominated for both in 1940, quite a feat.  Rebecca (where I promise to gush more about the master of suspense) is the psychological creep out and Foreign Correspondent is the man being followed.

It seems that Jones is one of Hitchcock’s men who knew too much.  The plot is wonderfully smart, with all the twists and turns, but at times it’s as complicated as being caught in a hedge maze.  Once you’re able to step back and recall the map does it all fit together.  The great thing about getting turned around so much is the surprises around every corner, including a scene that seems like practice for the end of Vertigo, complete with nuns.

My favorite scene was where Jones is inside a working windmill on the outskirts of Amsterdam.  I won’t give away any discovered plot, but I will say that the way Hitchcock uses the cramped vertical space and moving gears to create his trademark tension is beautiful.  And even though I was yelling for Jones to cop out and ride the rotating windmill blade out the window (like we’ve seen in so many other films) Hitchcock is more creative than that, and won’t let the viewer off that easy.

There’s also a surprising amount of action and daring special effects, especially near the end.  Once again, I don’t want to spoil the fun.  Let’s just say, it doesn’t go down in flames and won’t hang you out to dry.

This is a good movie, one of Hitchcock’s better man-being-followed thrillers.  Though, I judge how much I love a Hitchcock film by how much I yell at the characters.  You know, “Don’t go in there you idiot, it’s full of birds!”  Unfortunately, I wasn’t hoarse or angry by the end, but still found it enjoyable and worthy of the Hitchcock stamp of approval.  If you have to choose between Foreign Correspondent and Rebecca, remember, there’s a good reason why Rebecca won Best Picture.

“I think the world has been run long enough by well-meaning professionals. We might give the amateurs a chance now.”