DownGoesFrazier Posted June 3, 2010 Share Posted June 3, 2010 They also love Jerry Lewis in France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnm001 Posted June 3, 2010 Share Posted June 3, 2010 > {quote:title=misswonderly wrote:}{quote} > The only two Hitchcock films I actually don't like are *Topaz* and *Under Capricorn.* I love *Topaz*, but am with you on *Under Capricorn*. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redriver Posted June 3, 2010 Share Posted June 3, 2010 The point of the whole film is Richard lightly brushing Pamela's silky smooth leg with the back of his hand. In the end, stories are about relationships. Everything else is dressing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronxgirl48 Posted June 4, 2010 Share Posted June 4, 2010 > {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote} > I haven't heard your feelings about The Thirty Nine Steps before, red. > > I thought it was visually stunning - one of the most beautiful and visual of his films. I was wishing I could screencap it, there were so many scenes and set ups that caught my eye. They were all appropriate and never so over the top as to be distracting. Hitch really was the master, letting the eye of the camera describe everything to us - letting us know who is looking at some particular seemingly insignificant detail from across a room, or a moor. > > But what I love most of all about the movie is watching Hitchcock watching us watching him. > > I just can't get over the sheer romance of the movie. The point of the whole film is Richard lightly brushing Pamela's silky smooth leg with the back of his hand. True love is right at the end of your fingertips, if you you have fingertips. Back to those stockings.... ooooh....their love hate relationship and silly banter is sooo fantastically light and breezy and comfortable. Donat is superb at tossing off goofy dialogue as if it were the most normal thing in the world for him to be handcuffed to a beautiful blonde in a Scottish Bed and Breakfast. He puts her at her ease, and I love him for it. I love the way the final shot of the film shows the camera dollying away from Mr. Memory (his ending speech always makes me tear up - "Thank you sir. Thank you. I'm glad it's off my mind, at last." - with the dancing girls, and happy music playing in the background) - and again we see the handcuffs, and Richard and Pamela's hands reaching out to find each other. sigh. "Oh look, a flock of detectives" Jackie, I cannot agree with you more about this movie, and you're saying it better than I could ever dream of -- I'm in awe! It's one of my favorite Hitchcocks, it might even be number one, his most ingratiating, thanks to ROBERT DONAT, who is everything you've described as an actor and a romantic leading man in this story, so full of decency, charm, humanity, humor. You are right -- THE 39 STEPS is extremely romantic due not only to the alchemy of Bob and the lovely Madeleine Carroll as a couple sharing adventure and danger across the haunting Scottish countryside but also Hannay's picturesque "idyll" at the crofter's farm and the poignant character of Margaret his wife, who understands feelings of being trapped and vicariously experiences a sense of freedom by helping Hannay escape, and how Hitchcock's camera beautifully and almost delicately weaves his moral compass in the scenes with Peggy Ashcroft, John Lurie, and Donat. And YES -- the film is visually stunning, almost Fordian in a lot of ways! I always jump a little at the sinuous, spider-like way Lucie Mannheim as Annabelle takes hold of Hannay's arms as she's trying to emphasize her seriousness. It's a very stylized, almost German Expressionist silent-movie quality of movement that never fails to creep me out, lol. I enjoy the lingerie salesmen on the train. They're an earlier, more middle-class version of Caldicott and Charters from THE LADY VANISHES. EASY VIRTUE was mildly interesting. The domineering mother, a Hitchcock bete noir, was given sinister camera shots and reminded me very much of things to come re: NOTORIOUS. A nice touch was Isabel Jeans's character not played as competely sympathetic or likeable. I was surprised to see Franklin Dyall as her husband, because he's the father of Valentine Dyall, who made such an unforgettable impression on me when I was young as the unearthly lover of witch Patricia Jessel in HORROR HOTEL, lol. ("Help her, Lucifer!") Val's in I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING and BRIEF ENCOUNTER. (Trevor Howard's superciliously shocked roommate) But to me he'll always be Jethro the warlock. Edited by: Bronxgirl48 on Jun 4, 2010 12:10 AM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redriver Posted June 4, 2010 Share Posted June 4, 2010 I enjoy the lingerie salesmen on the train I was in lingerie for a while. Kept getting strange looks on the subway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cujas Posted June 4, 2010 Share Posted June 4, 2010 *Under Capricorn* was an embarrassment even for Ingrid Bergman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissGoddess Posted June 4, 2010 Author Share Posted June 4, 2010 >> EASY VIRTUE was mildly interesting. The domineering mother, a Hitchcock bete noir, was given sinister camera shots and reminded me very much of things to come re: NOTORIOUS. A nice touch was Isabel Jeans's character not played as competely sympathetic or likeable. I was surprised to see Franklin Dyall as her husband, because he's the father of Valentine Dyall, who made such an unforgettable impression on me when I was young as the unearthly lover of witch Patricia Jessel in HORROR HOTEL, lol. ("Help her, Lucifer!") Val's in I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING and BRIEF ENCOUNTER. (Trevor Howard's superciliously shocked roommate) But to me he'll always be Jethro the warlock. Jethro the warlock??? Did he have sister named Ellie May? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFavell Posted June 4, 2010 Share Posted June 4, 2010 That was so beautifully said Bronxie! You succinctly put into words the scene at the crofters - and really capture Peggy Ashcroft's sweet and poignant moments completely - it never occurred to me why she helped him, but yes! it is her way of escaping.... that last look of hers as he leaves is so bittersweet. It makes you remember her and wonder about how she continued her life there after... It IS Fordian! No wonder I like it! Lucie Mannheim really stood out for me in this watching. I loved every nuance, her humor at the beginning when she is explaining her situation - and then her switch into a weary demeanor when Hannay doesn't believe her. She is terribly understanding of his ignorance. >I enjoy the lingerie salesmen on the train. They're an earlier, more middle-class version of Caldicott and Charters from THE LADY VANISHES. Absolutely! I got confused when he got on the train and it wasn't Caldicott and Charters! I realized I muddled my train movies. Oh, god! Valentine Dyall's character is so _awful_ in Brief Encounter - he's the man I love to hate - UGH! He's amazing. He's on the screen for all of maybe 2 minutes, tops, and you already know he is a hypocrite and that there is something not right about him. What a nasty piece of work.... Edited by: JackFavell on Jun 4, 2010 2:20 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
konway87 Posted June 4, 2010 Share Posted June 4, 2010 Unlike Bergman, Margaret Leighton liked Under Capricorn. Anyway, back to The 39 steps. Here is an interesting article about The 39 steps. In Find The Director, (The University of Georgia Press, 1992) Thomas M. Leitch points out:In the course of the film (Hannay) pretends to be a milkman, a motor mechanic, a marcher in a parade, a political speaker, and finally (for the benefit of Pamela whom he is trying to bully into submission) a hardened criminal. . . . This succession of disguises begins by emphasizing the dangers to Hannay--he borrows the milkman's outfit to escape two assassins just outside--but gradually subordinates Hannay' s danger to his adaptability, inventiveness, and finesse. It could also be pointed out Hannay pretends to be a Lothario, a lover leaving a married woman's bedroom, in order to convince the milkman to give over the uniform. There is where the pretending begins in earnest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFavell Posted June 4, 2010 Share Posted June 4, 2010 Great thoughts on Hannay's adaptability, Konway. I like the circular nature of the film too - Hannay starts the film as a member of the audience and ends it as a member of the audience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
konway87 Posted June 4, 2010 Share Posted June 4, 2010 SPOILERS I agree about the circular nature of the film. This is one of the reasons why I like films like The 39 steps, Under Capricorn, Vertigo, The Paradine Case (Original Cut), Stage Fright, and other Hitchcock films. As you know, I pointed out some of the circular nature in Under Capricorn. Let me show another example. This is from a scene in Vertigo. After saving from San Francisco Bay, Scottie follows Madeleine like usual in his car. He follows her and ends up at where he started (his home). Its the scene right before Madeleine talks to Scottie about thanking him for saving her life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rohanaka Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 Hiya Ms Favell.. I am sorry it has taken me a few days to get back in here, but wanted to respond(finally) to something you mentioned earlier. So how did Hitch get us to identify with or like Hannay so much that we instinctively want to safeguard him? I mean , that is pretty early in the film, we barely know the guy! He really does a great job building our feelings for Donat, I think it's because he adds those scenes of common decency in without making them too special - this man just does the right thing as a habit. He's a good guy. He saved Miss Smith from the theatre crush, and he tries to tell the cops about the murder.... but we see his struggle, back and forth, should he tell or not? and the way people look at him.... he hasn't got a chance You have it exactly right. He is so doggone likeable.. just from the start. I mean.. think about how the audience was almost making fun of Mr. Memory by asking him ridiculous questions (some of them bordering on "lewd" almost) and not taking the show seriously at all, but DONAT's question was one that showed he was not so "low" in his character as some of his other fellow audience members. He really was there to be entertained and not just "act up" and be part of the crowd. At first it was almost as if he stood out like a sore thumb.. and I thought HE was the spy imparting some secret message to Mr. Memory.. ha. (I am so suspicious.. ha) But turns out he was just a guy. Just a ""good" guy, as you say. And I agree, he struck me as the sort who did the right thing as a habit. (Oh where have all of THOSE people gone these days.. but don't get me started, ha) OH, and going back to one other thing you said, And really, he didn't have to go through with the mission - his innate goodness made him want to help save his country, even if it made him look like a murderer That impressed me too. He could have just let the "message" die with "the messenger" and move on.. it wasn't HIS job... but he was a better man than that. It was one of those "greatness thrust upon you" kind of moments, and although PART of the reason he kept going and going was because he was accused of murder.. the reason he went in the directions he DID also included some very selfless reasons as well, I believe. I liked that about him a lot. True love is right at the end of your fingertips, if you you have fingertips. HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now wouldn't it have been something if they had used THAT as some sort of tag line at the bottom of the movie poster???????? ha. Edited by: rohanaka on Jun 6, 2010 12:05 AM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronxgirl48 Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 > {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote} > That was so beautifully said Bronxie! A great compliment, Jackie, thank you. > > You succinctly put into words the scene at the crofters - and really capture Peggy Ashcroft's sweet and poignant moments completely - it never occurred to me why she helped him, but yes! it is her way of escaping.... that last look of hers as he leaves is so bittersweet. It makes you remember her and wonder about how she continued her life there after... Another version of THE FARMER'S WIFE. I can't imagine why Margaret married him. Apparently she was also religious but didn't know what a wolf-in-sheep's clothing the husband would turn out to be. Remember how she enscribes her tender feelings to Lurie in the prayerbook. (that would ultimately save Hannay's life) > > It IS Fordian! No wonder I like it! Moi aussi. > > Lucie Mannheim really stood out for me in this watching. I loved every nuance, her humor at the beginning when she is explaining her situation - and then her switch into a weary demeanor when Hannay doesn't believe her. She is terribly understanding of his ignorance. Yes, I can't take my eyes off her either. > > > >I enjoy the lingerie salesmen on the train. They're an earlier, more middle-class version of Caldicott and Charters from THE LADY VANISHES. > > Absolutely! I got confused when he got on the train and it wasn't Caldicott and Charters! I realized I muddled my train movies. And what is it with Hitch and trains... Guess what? I just saw the 1959 Kenneth More remake on YouTube! It's like an Eastmancolor Disney version of THE 39 STEPS, pleasant (big plus is the authentic, splendid Scottish Highlands-in-summer scenery) but rather bland, devoid of all that messy human-nature stuff, lol. It could be on a double bill with Walt's TREASURE ISLAND. Yet it's also an homage, with similiar camera set-ups as the Master, and there are some veteran British character actors around to spice things up, but unfortunately direction is pretty slack. Taina Elg is wooden and has no chemistry with Moore at all. Her legs are better than Madeleine Carroll's in the stockings-and-fingertips scene which they recreate with some updated erotic flavor but none of the true romantic charm of the original. They also include Mr. No Top-Joint, Mr. Memory (with the dancing girls) but alas, no crofter farm and wife; instead the redoubtable Brenda de Banzie as a flirtatious phony spiritualist who runs an inn with her compliant husband. I understand the 1978 film is truest to the novel, but I couldn't find it If you haven't already seen this, here's part one and two to start you off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR-YD6rvoC0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVzwGPVaEoc > > Oh, god! Valentine Dyall's character is so _awful_ in Brief Encounter - he's the man I love to hate - UGH! He's amazing. He's on the screen for all of maybe 2 minutes, tops, and you already know he is a hypocrite and that there is something not right about him. What a nasty piece of work.... Yeah, I couldn't stand his attitude either. And Dyall always had a weird face and strange voice to me -- no wonder they cast him later on in a horror movie as a warlock. Edited by: Bronxgirl48 on Jun 6, 2010 2:22 AM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronxgirl48 Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 > {quote:title=MissGoddess wrote:}{quote} > >> EASY VIRTUE was mildly interesting. The domineering mother, a Hitchcock bete noir, was given sinister camera shots and reminded me very much of things to come re: NOTORIOUS. A nice touch was Isabel Jeans's character not played as competely sympathetic or likeable. I was surprised to see Franklin Dyall as her husband, because he's the father of Valentine Dyall, who made such an unforgettable impression on me when I was young as the unearthly lover of witch Patricia Jessel in HORROR HOTEL, lol. ("Help her, Lucifer!") Val's in I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING and BRIEF ENCOUNTER. (Trevor Howard's superciliously shocked roommate) But to me he'll always be Jethro the warlock. > > Jethro the warlock??? Did he have sister named Ellie May? HA! And up from the ground came a-bubblin' Satan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackFavell Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 > {quote:title=Bronxgirl48 wrote:}{quote} > HA! And up from the ground came a-bubblin' Satan. spit take! Really! Oh, my poor keyboard! I'll try to check out Treasure Islan....I mean The Thirty Nine Steps fifties remix version soon... I still haven't watched Gaslight with Anton yet! I am very slow.... Poor Kenneth More. I really feel for him and Patrick Macnee. They came to movies just this much too late, and ended up in some awful stuff....I wonder what they would have done had they started in the thirties? Luckily, they each did some marvelous stuff too...mostly for TV. I just love Kenneth's Young Jolyon in *The Forsyte Saga*. He has the right mix of thoughtful rebel, old world Victorian, and romantic weakness that makes the character memorable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
konway87 Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 SPOILERS As you all know, Hitchcock used many of Oscar Wilde's ideas. We know that one of them was "You destroy the thing you love." We see this idea in films like Shadow of A Doubt, Under Capricorn, I Confess, Psycho, and Marnie. I would like to point few other examples. In Vertigo, Scottie (Stewart) enters the hotel himself and asks the manager (Ellen Corby) to tell him who is renting the room. The name she gives him is Carlotta Valdez. Scottie asks her not to say anything to her tenant about his visit, but she tells him that Miss Valdez hadn't been there that day. Scottie insists that he just saw her walk in. The manager maintains she had been putting olive oil on her rubber plant leaves and wouldn't have missed her. Besides, her key is still on the rack. Scottie presses her to check the room. She does, and the room is empty. Even Madeleine's car outside has vanished. I think this scene has some connections to Oscar Wilde's short story "The Sphinx without a Secret." Here is the wikipedia link to the story . http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/SphWit.shtml Someone pointed out on Imdb Board that Bruno's mother's gruesome painting in Strangers on a Train (1951) was possibly a mini-homage to The Picture of Dorian Grey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 konway, I have a treasured copy of Wilde's writing, and I'll look up that story. I didn't know Hitchcock's ideas had ever been compared to Oscar Wilde's. That's really interesting. I always thought Hitch just stuck to pulp fiction for his story ideas. Took dross and turned it into gold. But Oscar Wilde is already gold! Your other reference to an Oscar Wilde/Hitchcock connection -via the painting in *The Portrait of Dorian Grey* and the one Brunos' mother had just finished in *Strangers on a Train* -was something I'd always noticed. I remember the first time I saw that painting in *Strangers*, and how I exclaimed, "that looks just like the painting in the *Portrait of Dorian Grey* ! " Both must have been done by the same artist. They're both so diabolical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 konway, I have a treasured copy of Wilde's writing, and I'll look up that story. I didn't know Hitchcock's ideas had ever been compared to Oscar Wilde's. That's really interesting. I always thought Hitch just stuck to pulp fiction for his story ideas. Took dross and turned it into gold. But Oscar Wilde is already gold! Your other reference to an Oscar Wilde/Hitchcock connection -via the painting in *The Portrait of Dorian Grey* and the one Brunos' mother had just finished in *Strangers on a Train* -was something I'd always noticed. I remember the first time I saw that painting in *Strangers*, and how I exclaimed, "that looks just like the painting in the *Portrait of Dorian Grey* ! " Both must have been done by the same artist. They're both so diabolical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 double post! sorry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
konway87 Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Don't worry about the double post. I accidentally do that sometimes. misswonderly, Have you seen Stage Fright? if you have seen it, then I will be happy to explain the influence of this film on many of Hitchcock's later films. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Bogle Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 I've always noticed a number of parallels between The Soul of Man under Socialism and Rear Window. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 This is definitely the week for me to a) be humbled by several reminders of how much I don't know and be motivated to look things up -in this case, my volume of The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde. C.Bogle, I suspect your message was posted with your tongue firmly in your cheek, but until I actually check out The Soul of Man Under Socialism I'll believe you. I didn't even know Wilde had written such an essay. Humble pie time. konway, I have seen *Stage Fright*. Not one of my favourite Hitchcock films, but anything by Hitch is worth some discussion. Theresa Wright's good in it. As I recall, it's a "trick"movie. I suppose you could argue that a lot of Hitchcock's films are just that, but this one is more blatant than most. I remember thinking - "Wait a minute, we couldn't possibly have known that, we've been deliberately misled!" Most of the time with Hitch, if you watch carefully you can put things together and when you find out the secret to the "Mcguffin", you can think back on the film and realize the information was there for you to fit into the puzzle. But *Stage Fright* intentionally misleads us. In my inexpert opinion, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.Bogle Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. O. Wilde Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 "Ignorance is like a delicate fruit; touch it, and the bloom is gone." Lady Bracknell, The Importance of Being Ernest I'd rather carry around the Complete Works of Oscar Wilde than Henry James, Robert Mitchum notwithstanding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissGoddess Posted June 9, 2010 Author Share Posted June 9, 2010 > > Poor Kenneth More. I really feel for him and Patrick Macnee. They came to movies just this much too late, and ended up in some awful stuff....I wonder what they would have done had they started in the thirties? Luckily, they each did some marvelous stuff too...mostly for TV. I just love Kenneth's Young Jolyon in *The Forsyte Saga*. He has the right mix of thoughtful rebel, old world Victorian, and romantic weakness that makes the character memorable. Jackie, Did you ever see More in that movie set in India with Lauren Bacall? I thought he was very good in that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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