HitchcOctober Day 28: Stage Fright

Posted on October 29, 2014 by jaycluitt

Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) is the bit-on-the-side for famous stage actress Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich and her ridiculous eyebrows). He’s hopelessly in love with her, so when she arrives on his doorstep with a blood-stained dress and claims of having murdered her husband, he doesn’t take much convincing to head to the scene of the crime to stage a robbery and pick her up a clean outfit. Alas, Charlotte’s maid (Kay Walsh) sees him, and Johnny suddenly finds himself accused of a crime he didn’t commit. Fortunately, his more steady ladyfriend Eve (Jane Wyman) is on hand to secret him away with her father (Alastair Sim), whilst she sets about clearing his name, first by becoming close to the investigating police detective Smith (Michael Wilding) and second by posing as Charlotte’s replacement maid, Doris. Continue reading →

HitchcOctober Day 26: Notorious (1946)

Posted on October 26, 2014 by jaycluitt

When her German father is arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison for treason, Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) is recruited by the American government as the perfect candidate to spy on some suspected Nazi agents in Brazil. For her mission, Alicia must become close with one of the agents, Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains) which doesn’t sit well with her American correspondent Devlin (Cary Grant), as he and Alicia have recently fallen in love.
Continue reading →

HitchcOctober Day 20: The Birds

Posted on October 20, 2014 by jaycluitt

Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) is the wealthy, carefree daughter of a newspaperman (not a man made out of newspaper, that would be biologically impossible, he’s a man who runs a newspaper, stop being so silly). One day, whilst attempting to purchase a talking mynah bird at a pet shop she begins a back-and-forth with Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), a lawyer who had a dalliance with her in the past. The two hit it off, and when he leaves she tracks him down to give him a pair of lovebirds as a prank-slash-gift. Alas, he has gone to the nearby Bodega Bay to visit his mother and younger sister, so Miss Daniels heads there too. Upon arriving, she begins to notice all the birds in the town are behaving strangely – the chickens belonging to Mitch’s mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy) won’t eat their feed, a seagull attacks Melanie in a boat and another flies head first into a closed door. This, however, is just the beginning.
Continue reading →

HitchcOctober Day 18: The Trouble With Harry

Posted on October 18, 2014 by jaycluitt

Harry is dead. He is found lying in the woods with a bleeding head wound, so when Captain Wiles (Edmund Gwenn) comes across the body whilst out rabbit hunting, he assumes he accidentally shot the man. Unfortunately, Wiles isn’t the only person to happen upon the body, with almost everyone in town traipsing through the copse, including Miss Gravely (Mildred Natwick), Miss Rogers and her young son Arnie (Shirley MacLaine and Jerry Matthews), Dr. Greenbow (Dwight Marfield), a tramp (Barry Macollum) and local artist Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe). All these people have differing opinions of what should be done with the the body, and what might be the cause of his death, with a stolen pair of shoes and a portrait complicating the matter as well.
Continue reading →

HitchcOctober Day 14: Rebecca

Posted on October 14, 2014 by jaycluitt

Whilst working as a paid companion (no, not that kind of paid companion; filthy mind) a girl with no friends or family (Joan Fontaine) meets the wealthy but recently widowed Max de Winter (Laurence Olivier). The girl’s obnoxious employer (Florence Bates) comes down with a bout of the flu, leaving Max and the girl to become acquainted enough for him to propose instead of losing her when the trip comes abruptly to an end. The newlyweds return to Manderlay, the stately home of the De Winters in Cornwall in the south of England (where Jamaica Inn was also set, and if I’d watched this when I was down there recently as well – and there was a chance; I took Rebecca with us as well – I think I’d have probably freaked right out), where the new Mrs de Winter feels very much out of place, especially because the memory of her predecessor seems to have a powerful effect on the house and its staff, particularly the head of the household, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson). Continue reading →

HitchcOctober Day 8: The Wrong Man

Posted on October 8, 2014 by jaycluitt

Christopher Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Balestrero (Henry Fonda) is a pretty ordinary man. He makes a living playing bass fiddle in a band, and takes his modest pay home to his wife and two sons, barely scraping by with the bumps life throws into the road. Manny’s kids are learning to be musicians like their father, he dutifully visits his ailing parents, and his wife Rose (Vera Miles) suffers from toothache, which means they need to borrow money against her life insurance to pay for the dentist bill. When Manny attempts to obtain this money, his life is suddenly throw upside-down as he finds himself caught in the midst of an incredible case of mistaken identity. The-Wrong-Man1000 Continue reading →

HitchcOctober Day 6: Lifeboat

Posted on October 6, 2014 by jaycluitt

In the midst of World War 2, a freighter is torpedoed by a German U-Boat, during which both ships sink. One lifeboat remains afloat, and is gradually filled with survivors, beginning with famous journalist Constance Porter (Talulah Bankhead), and eventually includeinga headstrong engine-worker named Kovac (John Hodiak), radio operator Stan (Hume Cronyn), nurse Alice (Mary Anderson), millionaire Ritt (Henry Hull), wounded seaman Gus (William Bendix), black steward Joe (Canada Lee) and mourning mother Mrs. Higgins (Heather Angel), whose baby has died in the incident. As if the situation wasn’t bad enough, the ninth person aboard their craft is Willi (Walter Slezak), the sole survivor of the U-Boat that sank their ship.
Continue reading →

HitchcOctober Day 4: Jamaica Inn

Posted on October 4, 2014 by jaycluitt

In Cornwall, England, a crew of hoodlums run a racket whereby they obscure the warning lights along the rocky coasts during a storm, then salvage all the goods from the ships that subsequently wreck, leaving no survivors amongst the crew – after all, if the gang is caught, they’ll all be hanged. The base of their operations is the Jamaica Inn, and when Mary (Maureen O’Hara) is sent there to stay with her aunt and uncle after her parents have died, she begins to uncover the full depths of the depravity. 55W7YNtxgbVlRrRoerQQc2EUT3C
Continue reading →

Locke

Posted on August 24, 2014 by jaycluitt

After work one day, site foreman Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) gets in his car and heads home. However, a split decision at a junction threatens to spin his life apart, as instead of going to see his wife and kids, he opts to resolve another matter, all on the night before the biggest day of his career. Where is he going? What effect will it have? And why is this seemingly good, regular guy willing to potentially throw so much away? All will become clear as we journey with Ivan, never leaving him or his car. locke_01 Continue reading →

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Posted on July 17, 2014 by jaycluitt

In the year 1972, four astronauts are deep in space, on a mission of discovery. They awake from suspended animation to find that one of their crew is dead and their ship has landed on an unfamiliar planet, and is rapidly sinking into a body of water. After making a quick escape with as much equipment as they can carry, the three survivors must find a way to survive, something made much more difficult by the planet’s native population.

Recently we recorded an episode of the Lambcast all about the original Planet of the Apes movies, from 1968’s Planet through to 1973’s Battle for the Planet of the Apes. I’d never seen any of the films before, so I was especially looking forward to the show, as I’ve now seen them all. They vary from the excellent (this one) to the dismal (Battle), the thought-provoking (Escape from the Planet of the Apes) to bat-shit insane (Beneath the Planet of the Apes), and you can listen to the discussion we had about them all here. As it happens, Planet of the Apes is also on the 1001 Movies list, and is widely regarded as a classic, so I’m selecting it as my Blind Spot pick for this month. Continue reading →