To Terry Hindshaw for both the Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection DVD set (Strangers on a Train; Foreign Correspondent; Mr and Mrs Smith; The Wrong Man; Dial M for Murder; North by Northwest; Suspicion; I Confess; Stage Fright), as well as for Hitchcock’s Lifeboat. I’m a big Hitchcock fan, and I look forward to seeing several of these films for the first time.
Thanks also to Michael Evans for the great noir DVD, This Gun for Hire, with Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd.
Thanks once again to Mark Curtin for both The Caine Mutiny and the Cary Grant Signature Collection (Night and Day; My Favorite Wife; The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer; Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House; Destination Tokyo). I’ve been really looking forward to more Grant comedies (Philadelphia Story and Arsenic and Old Lace are some of my favorites), and watching Bogart go slowly insane is a treat worth revisiting.
And finally, thanks to Thomas Barnes for “The Best Arbuckle Keaton Collection” DVD. To my discredit, I still haven’t caught most of Keaton’s early stuff, but I’m a fan of what I’ve seen. And Arbuckle is woefully underappreciated.
Yeah, you guys rock. I know, I owe you one.
Strangers on a Train: A+
Foreign Correspondent: A+
Mr and Mrs Smith: B
The Wrong Man: B+
Dial M for Murder: B+
North by Northwest: A+
Suspicion: B
I Confess: C+
Stage Fright: A-
Lifeboat: B
“for the first time”!!!
Strangers, Foreign Correspondent and NW/NW have numerous excellent and unexpected shots (and moments). Lifeboat is a bore, but a good way to see Tallulah. I Confess is one of the worst, but a good way to see Clift. Stage Fright would be my sleeper favorite: Alistair Sim is terrific and Marlene’s song (Laziest Gal in Town) is a classic. Enjoy.
I hope at least you have seen “Spellbound” and “Shadow of a Doubt”!
I bought that “best Arbuckle/Keaton” collection, and its only weakness is that Arbuckle was not among the very best of comic film makers. That having been said, there’s plenty of pretty good comedy throughout the set; seeing Keaton double over with laughter in a couple of the films is priceless; seeing Keaton crying (the one that begins at a racetrack – Arbuckle plays a doctor and Keaton his sissifed son) is also priceless; and seeing Keaton do a backflip from a standing position (in “Coney Isalnd”), well…
But you then need to see the shorts that Keaton did a few years later on the same topics (at a garage, backstage at a vaudeville theater, etc) to see how much more skilled Keaton was.
Great stuff all around, though.
I’m curious, which Hitch films haven’t you seen?
Yeah, Keaton’s funny. But Arbukle creeps me out. Coke bottle, anyone? Uh, like a hyperhorny Rush Limbaugh. Yuk. Yuk. And Yuk. But I still guess they get the chix, eh?
I haven’t seen Mr and Mrs Smith or Stage Fright.
And I haven’t seen Shadow of a Doubt (mentioned by Steve, above).
Well, I guess they don’t get the chix, being dead … Oh, and this a thread about Frischcock? Because there are so many potential plotlines……
The Philadelphia Story is my absolute favorite movie and thinking of it always reminds me of another wonderful film: The Young Philadelphians (1959). Even if a young Paul Newman doesn’t make you drool on the remote…
The coke bottle thing was bogus, cynn.
Young girls love him though.
Oh, and sorry for the omissions. English really is my first language, as far as I know.
I have a book that says otherwise, Mr. Dan apologist. I don’t claim absolute authority, but Buster Keaton and the incomparable Harold Lloyd rule.
Keaton knew so much about trains that he could calculate exactly when they’d come to a full stop, which allowed him to create his favorite illusion: reaching out and grabbing the hand rail on the back of the caboose and making it look as if he had stopped the train dead in its tracks.
He could also put both feet up on a bar and somehow hang in midair for what seemed like several seconds, unsupported, before falling on the floor.
If you have the chance, find his appearance on Candid Camera in the fifties, when he went to a diner and ate soup, dropping his toupee in it, spilling a whole shaker of salt in it, getting his spoon tangled up in his suspenders, all while being observed by young people who had no idea who he was.
The General and The Cameraman are my faves…
Sorry, I was replying to Phil, not Dan.
Haven’t seen those 2 either, or I Confess. I’d rate them about the same as steve, except I’d give Dial ‘M’ an A. Shadow of a Doubt is good, I’d say B+.
Does anybody offhand know if there are any collections of Charlie Chase material on DVD?
Your book is wrong, cynn. It was a frame job all the way. And why on earth would anyone be an apologist for him? Oh, that’s right—the jury that acquitted him wrote him an apology.
Coke bottle fraud – Oh I don’t know….Geraldo made a name for himself spending half a million, digging up a 100 year old Chicago basement to find one. worked for him…..
TW Wonder if he at least returned it for the deposit….
The Sadly, No! children will love that. In an Adlerian way.
RAPPEIST!
Holy shit.
I’m probably alone in this, but I think that’s at least in the tossup for best Hitchcock movie (w/ Notorious and Vertigo</i.), and I usually think it’s the best (unless I just watched <i>Notorious or Vertigo).
Unlike those two, its subtleties multiply (rather than fade to metaphor) on repeated viewings. Won’t give anything away, but…it’s great.
I would also say that Shadow of a Doubt is among Hitch’s best—certainly one of the best before the Rear Window-Vertigo-NxNW-Psycho-The Birds period. It’s the one where he really starts to develop the “evil in the midst of normality” theme.
But the best way to have seen Tallulah would have been from the base of the water tank at the beginning of each day’s shooting on Lifeboat, as Ms. Bankhead wasn’t keen on wearing undergarments.
Jeff,
If (in “Bobbysoxer”) Myrna Loy in her silk nightie doesn’t give you at least a partial woody, you’re gay.
I bought The End because Loy was in it. And she’s, like, 80.
So you see, I ain’t gay. But I have other issues.
Seriously, though—Thin Man is one of my favorite flicks of all time. It’s high time we as a culture brought back the 8 martini breakfast.
Myrna was always hot. It was the eyes and the face (it’s usually those, anyway.) A very appropriate woman for the times, also, she worked hard in support of the troops in WW2, and fought hard to get the part in “Best Years of Our Lives”, which to my mind is still the best vet homecoming movie ever made.
Don’t know if you’ve seen it, but Cary Grants
“The Awful Truth” is one of the funniest movies
I’ve ever seen. I liked it far better than the
“Philadelphia Story”.
And I’d also strongly suggest “Double Indemnity”.
One of the best movies I have ever seen.
Regards, Hank
I’m with Hank when he says that “The Awful Truth” is among the funniest movies ever. I also like Howard Hawk’s, “His Girl Friday,” with Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant. My favorite Hitchcock’s are probably “Shadow of a Doubt,” (which Hitch always claimed was his favorite among his American made movies) and “Rear Window.” If you’ve never seen the latter, get it and you will be blown away by how breathtakingly beautiful and sexy Grace Kelly is in it.
At the Dovetonsils’ household, it never left.
Rope, for me.
Keaton’s ”The General”. Watch it first.
Don’t forget Human Desire -Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, By Fritz Lang 1954.
Steamy. And filmed among steam trains. Possibly at the old Taylor RR Yards in Los Angeles.
I love the Awful Truth. And Rear Window is my favorite Hitchcock.
Big fan of Double Indemnity, too—which will finally be back on DVD next month.
Haven’t seen Shadow of a Doubt, but it looks like my kind of flick. Will check it out.
Hard for me to pick favorite Hitchcock but “Shadow” is a good one; I mentioned it and “Spellbound” because they’re ‘40’s BW’s that weren’t in the set, and a lot of people don’t know them (of the ‘30’s BW’s, of course, “39 Steps” and “Lady Vanishes” are terrific.)
The action is basically in small town America (Santa Rosa, CA), featuring a dotty family with an out of synch daughter (Teresa Wright) and, shall we say, her “mysterious” uncle namesake, played by Joseph Cotten (who is terrific.) It’s basically a disclosure movie in which we learn more and more about the Cotten character through the eyes of the Teresa Wright character. Cotten is terrifically creepy. There’s one speech at the dinner table that is just awesome.
(Hume Cronyn made his screen debut in this film as a dotty neighbor of the family.)
An ongoing theme in the film is, What is the source of evil? Basic answer: No one knows, but you have to deal with it when it arises ….. definitely reflecting 1942 USA. Also reflecting 1942 USA is a brief shot of the Pulaski Skyway in the first 10 minutes …..
Jeff, I love Hitchcock. My son’s father in law owns Hitchcock’s old estate in Scotts Valley, California where he is growing wine grapes, just like Hitch once did in the same spot. He had Pat Hitchcock O’Connell (Hitch’s only offspring, a daughter) up to the estate (in Nov 2003)to visit, as she nad not been at the estate in 30 years. Her daughter Terre Carrubba attended as well, as did I.
The first thing I said to Pat Hitchcock was “I very much admired your performance in ‘Strangers On A Train.” She played the cute and kooky little sister of the hero. For years I never knew that little sister was a Hitchcock.
Cool, Stogie.
She also did several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents—including one based on The Lady Vanishes.
Favorite Hitchcock: Rebecca, no contest.
Runners up: 39 Steps, Lady Vanishes, Rear Window and…Shadow of a Doubt. Cotten is fantastic – a really underrated actor. So is Teresa Wright (also charming in the aforementioned The Best Years of Our Lives).
Eight martinis for brekky is kinda stout. No more than four… but then, I have gout.
Jeff, yes I heard that Pat Hitchcock appeared in some of the “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” episodes. She also appeared in “Psycho,” as one of the girls in the office.
Pat recently wrote a book, “Alma Hitchcock, the Woman Behind the Man” which tells how her mom was an essential part of Hitch’s success.
My favorite Hitchcock film is “Vertigo,” parts of which were filmed eight miles from my home in Hollister, CA. I am referring to the Mission San Juan Bautista scenes. The mission and the church that were used in the film are there and my wife and I go to church there occasionally.
My co-grandparents who own the Scotts Valley estate have become friends with the Hitchcock family (Pat, Terre Carrubba & husband)and see them every year at the Hitchcock Golf Tournament in Aptos, California. They are truly nice folks.