Alfred Hitchcock

                                                                    Part 3

Here’s another batch from the master of suspense. This week’s list features the runners-up to my five best. All are really good!!

10. In Notorious (1946) the amazingly patriotic Ingrid Bergman is dispatched by the United States government to marry suspected spy Claud Rains, and help agent Cary Grant catch him. But who is doing what to whom, and is everything as it seems? Ben Hecht’s screenplay is tight and compelling and the suspense is palpable all the way to an ending you don’t expect. 

9. A nice old lady simply disappears from a moving train in The Lady Vanishes (1938). As her young companion tries to find her the mystery deepens by the minute. An impostor tries to take the old lady’s place. People act strangely and just when we think things are beginning to clear up there is another plot twist. The splendid Margaret Lockwood leads an intrepid all-British cast into this constantly surprising web of intrigue. This was Hitchcock’s last English outing- he  moved to the U.S. the next year. Beware the 1969 remake by someone else.

8. The 39 Steps (1935) stars Robert Donat as Hitchcock’s patented innocent who is in over his head. Donat unwittingly stumbles on a spy ring and he and Madeleine Carroll have to make a run for it. The witty banter between the stars is a classic. Hitchcock’s touch adds to the suspense. The remakes (1959 and 1978) are ok, but really not in the same class as the original. 

7. Farley Granger and Robert Walker are the  Strangers on a Train (1951). They get to talking and each has someone he wants killed. Why not switch victims, so the murderer in each instance is a total stranger with absolutely no motive? Seems like a good idea to Walker; Granger is reluctant but signs on for the scheme. There are sudden shifts that take us by surprise, and the merry-go-round ending is justifiably famous.  Ruth Roman and Hitchcock favorite Leo G. Carroll join the cast. Look for Hitchcock’s daughter Patricia as Roman’s sister. Raymond Chandler wrote the screenplay and there aren’t many better ones.

6. Psycho (1960) is the film that chased millions of people out of the shower. Janet Leigh is the lonesome traveler who stops at the Bates Motel, run by Anthony Perkins and his mother. She is murdered while taking a shower and Hitchcock leads us by the nose through various turnings to an ending that is shockingly surprising. This is simply one of the scariest movies ever made, but you can’t stop watching. Bernard Herrmann’s oft-imitated theme music adds to the terror. 

Fortunately, all these films are readily available on DVD. There’s nothing in this bunch for kids! Adults only, please. And it is recommended that even grown-ups don’t watch Psycho alone!

        Next time: My top five Hitchcocks

                                                                Alfred Hitchcock

                                                                 Part 2

Now for the second group of good Hitchcock films, numbers 15 through 11. 

15. The Trouble With Harry (1955) is Hitchcock at his most whimsical. A corpse unknown to the locals turns up in a small town. People keep losing him, digging him up and moving him around to suit their own particular fancies. Shirley MacLaine is fine in her first role. Also along for the ride are Edmund Gwenn, John Forsyth, Mildred Natwick and Mildred Dunnock.  

14. Saboteur (1942) is an off-the-wall wartime film about a munitions worker who is falsely accused (a favorite Hitchcock theme) of sabotage and has to run for his life. Robert Cummings is about the only familiar face in the cast. The final scene atop the Statue of Liberty is heart-thumping and justifiably famous. Here’s aTrivial Pursuit winner: Dorothy Parker worked on this screenplay! 

13. Foreign Correspondent (1940) has Joel McRae as Hitchcock’s innocent abroad who unwittingly uncovers a Nazi spy ring. Great cast includes George Sanders, Herbert Marshall, Laraine Day, Robert Benchley and Edmund Gwenn. What’s going on in that windmill, and do people really disappear into thin air? More Trivial Pursuit: Thornton Wilder worked on this screenplay! 

12. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) stars Teresa Wright as a young girl who gradually begins to suspect that her beloved Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) is a serial killer. In typical Hitchcock style, we have her point of view, and we don’t know the truth either!  

11. You will be Spellbound (1945) as psychiatrist Ingrid Bergman tries to untangle amnesiac Gregory Peck’s subconscious. Peck is accused of murder, but he can’t remember a thing! The famous dream sequence designed by Salvador Dali is just one of the delights in this one. More twists and turns than a mountain road. 

If you are new to Hitchcock films, find a picture of him and watch for him to walk through a scene in almost every one of his films. This adds to the fun. All of the films in this column are available on DVD. All are suitable for ages 10 and up. Next time: More Hitchcock goodies.

                                                               Alfred Hitchcock

                                                             Part One

         It’s time to roll out the films of the all-time master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. I started out to do his top 5 and wound up with his top 20. I’ll start at the bottom and work our way up. I promise it will be fun all the way! Alfred Hitchcock directed over 50 films, plus a hugely popular TV show that still surfaces on some of the weirder cable channels. He was the master of suspense, misdirection and whimsy. 

While he had his share of dogs in his kennel, I found at least 20 winners. Herewith Hitchcock’s “bottom five.” 

20. The Wrong Man (1956) is Henry Fonda, a musician falsely accused of robbery. This film lacks the tongue-in-cheek fun of most Hitchcock outings, but is a riveting and harrowing experience. It generates a nice sense of outrage and there-but-for-the-grace-of-God. Vera Miles is excellent as the wife who cracks under the stress. 

19. Rope (1949) features James Stewart and Farley Granger as outwardly normal youths who murder a friend just for the thrill of it, hide the body in their small apartment, then invite various friends and family members over. The suspense builds from the opening credits, because we know where the body is.  Will they be found out? As with all early Hitchcocks, there is not one bit of on-screen violence or gore. Both are suggested rather than thrown in our faces, a device most modern film makers seem incapable of (and which Hitchcock himself abandoned with Psycho in 1960 and his subsequent films).

18. To Catch a Thief (1955) won an Oscar for its beautiful cinematography of the French Riviera. Cary Grant is a suave jewel thief and Grace Kelly the gorgeous love interest (she met her real life prince of Monaco while making this film). There has been a new series of jewelry heists. Grant insists he has reformed and is not the culprit.  So he must find the real thief, hence the title. The fireworks scene is justifiably famous (and copied). 

17. In Suspicion (1941), Joan Fontaine becomes convinced that her husband (Cary Grant) is trying to do her in. Hitchcock uses one of his patented devices:  not letting us know whether Grant is or is not a villain, adding to the suspense and giving the most commonplace incident a double meaning. Fontaine won the Oscar, but the ending of Suspicion won’t win a thing. The Production Code required the dopey ending.  

16. The Birds (1963) is Hitchcock’s nightmarish version of nature gone berserk. While this idea is a favorite of horror movies, the master brings suspense and realism to a film that could have been merely campy. Think how many birds there are. What if they became our enemies, and attacked us? Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette (and you) find out! Remarkably realistic and scary as heck. Not for the squeamish but hang on if you can.

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups. Next time- more Hitchcock!

                                                 GOOD LITTLE KNOWN MOVIES

                                                                 Part 6

        Still leery of the movie theater? Me too. Here’s a nice group of little known movies. Perhaps one of them will lure you into viewing it. 

Love And Friendship was actually in my top 5 in 2016. It is a delicious comedy about trying to move upward in British society by marrying well. It’s based on Jane Austen’s little-known epistolary novel, Lady Susan. Kate Beckinsale shines as the wily, calculating Susan. She is almost penniless but is determined to get for her daughter, and herself, a good match. I thought Ms. Beckinsale should have had an Oscar nomination. I think this movie just came out too early in the year to get much notice. It is a hoot!

Only Yesterday (2016) will be a tough sell to some of you, because (1) it’s Japanese, and (2) it’s animated. But it is a true delight, beautifully drawn with a touching story and a magnetic leading lady. Taeko has a job in Tokyo and decides to spend the summer at her brother’s farm, where she had many pleasant times as a child. Working along with her relatives and others, she develops a strong kinship with the land, a nice young man, and with herself. Give this a try. I believe you will thank me.

A United Kingdom was way up on my list in 2017 In fact, it was number 2, behind only The Post. It stars David Oyelowo (MLK in Selma) as the soon-to-be king of Bechuanaland, a small African country that is now Botswana. Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency fans will recognize it. While studying in the UK he falls in love with a white English woman, Ruth Williams, played brilliantly by Rosamund Pike (the wife from Hell in Gone Girl). This pairing does not play well in either home country. But Ruth’s continuing desire to be of use and to fit in regardless of her skin color is quite winning. And all of this (okay, most of this) really happened!

Wonderstruck is a super good movie with an altogether incredible performance by young Millicent Simmonds. This kid can do more with her face than most actors can accomplish with their whole bodies.  The film is worth watching for her performance alone. But it’s an intriguing tale of two children seeking their parents. However, they are separated by 50 years! Somehow it all works and the ending is truly enchanting. 

Most readers will remember the bombs set off during the Boston Marathon in 2013. In Stronger (2017) Jake Gyllenhaal stars as real person Jeff Bauman, from whose memoir the screenplay is taken. When his girlfriend signs up to run in the famous race he rushes to the finish line to be able to greet her when she crosses. But this puts him in the path of one of the bombs, and both his legs are lost. He is able to give the police a description of one of the bombers. Most of the movie deals with the search for the bombers and with Jeff’s painful and lengthy rehabilitation

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All except the last one are fine for all ages. Stronger Is a little, well, too strong for littlies.