Movie Reviews
Rope
Some years later, even Hitchcock admitted that this movie was a stunt. And it is, but it’s an interesting one. The whole film was shot in just ten long takes, and an attempt is made to disguise most of the cuts. It was a practical matter. That’s as much film as could be loaded into a camera of the day. And it posed all sorts of problems. Walls and prop furniture had to be on rollers so the ... Read more »
The Paradine Case
The amazing about this movie is not that it is relatively minor Hitchcock, but that it’s any good at all. This was the last film under Hitch’s seven-year contract with David O. Selznick, and I’ll bet he was glad to be shut of the bastard. Alfred and Alma wrote a first draft from a novel, and brought someone in to polish it, but Selznick didn’t like it. Shooting began, and every day when he ... Read more »
Notorious
I don’t know if this Hitchcock classic is “officially” an example of film noir, but it qualifies in my book, even though it lacks some of the elements of the genre, such as a seedy setting and rough characters. I also think it is one of the best romantic thrillers ever, even better than North by Northwest. That’s mainly because I love Ingrid Bergman a lot more than I love Eva Marie Saint. ... Read more »
Spellbound
“Aw, that Freud stuff’s a lotta hooey!” says Gregory Peck at one point in the movie. I partially agree with you, Greg. My impression is that psychiatry is split into many different camps these days with not a lot of strict Freudians left, but back in the day he was just about the only game in town, and this is a very Freudian movie. I think Freud was on target ... Read more »
Aventure Malgache
The second of Hitchcock’s propaganda films, and even more puzzling than the first one. The title translates as Malagasy Adventure, and Malagasy is Madagascar, which was a French colony when the war broke out. When Hitler overran France, the colonies had to decide whether to go with the traitors in the Vichy government, or the Gaullist government in exile. The ... Read more »
Bon Voyage
Alfred Hitchcock made two 30-minute propaganda films to help the war effort … in French! They are in support of the Resistance, I presume to help both the Brits and the French in exile to keep a stiff upper lip. This one concerns the debriefing of an RAF flier shot down and captured over France, who later breaks out of prison and seeks help from the underground. We flash back and forth ... Read more »
Lifeboat
Always up for a technical challenge, Hitchcock took on the assignment to make an entire film in a small lifeboat. It’s even more claustrophobic than Rear Window, though of course in this one the backdrop is the (rear-projected) open sea. It’s taken from a story by John Steinbeck, though the screenwriters altered it liberally. A Merchant Marine ship goes down, ... Read more »
Shadow of a Doubt
There are many Hitchcock enthusiasts who rank this film as his best, and his first true masterpiece. Other contenders are Vertigo, Psycho, and my own favorite, Rear Window. Which is not to take anything away from this one. There is a psychological depth to the story and the characters, particularly Joseph Cotton’s wonderful performance ... Read more »
Saboteur
Saboteur (1942) Not to be confused with Hitchcock’s {{Sabotage}, this film is one of the very best of his trademark “innocent man on the run” movies, maybe even better than North By Northwest. Robert Cummings is such a stand-up, stalwart, patriotic American that he can deliver several stirring speeches (allegedly written by Dorothy Parker) and make them work, ... Read more »
Suspicion
I think this could have been one of Hitchcock’s greats if he had been allowed to shoot the ending that he wanted, the one that was faithful to the book. But as it exists, it is fatally flawed by a totally stupid ending that was forced on him.
It was based on a book called Before the Fact by Francis Iles, a pen name for Anthony Cox. Cary Grant (I’ll refer ... Read more »