HitchcOctober Day 23: Rear Window

Posted on October 23, 2014 by jaycluitt

L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries (James Stewart) is a renowned photographer, whose latest on location piece resulted in a broken camera and a broken leg. He has been wheelchair-bound inside his two-room apartment for six weeks, with his cast due to be removed in seven days time. He is regularly visited by his acerbic carer Stella (Thelma Ritter) and fashion model girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly), who wants to marry Jeff, but he has deemed her too perfect for him, and is reluctant to settle down from his country-hopping lifestyle. With cabin fever beginning to set in, Jeff spends his days peeping on his neighbours, including a lonely woman looking for love, a beautiful and nubile ballerina, a pair of newlyweds, a composer, a married couple with a dog and a salesman with his ill wife. After piecing together a few out-of-character actions, Jeff begins to suspect that the salesman (Raymond Burr) may have murdered his wife, so he calls in his detective friend Doyle (Wendell Corey) to look into it. 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.
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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 13: The Lady Vanishes

Posted on October 13, 2014 by jaycluitt

In a small European town, an avalanche has forced a variety of people to stay at an overcrowded hotel. Many of the guests are waiting for the snows to clear so they can catch the train the next morning. One such guest is Iris (Margaret Lockwood), a much-travelled young woman heading back to England to meet and wed her fiancé. She befriends an elderly women travelling alone by the name of Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty), a governess who has been in Europe for a number of years, and is now regretfully heading home. Amongst the other passengers are a rude clarinet player named Gilbert (Michael Redgrave), an adulterous couple attempting to hide their situation (Cecil Parker and Linden Travers) and two cricket-obsessed Englishmen (Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford). Before the train sets off, Iris suffers a blow to the head from a falling potted plant. Miss Froy cares for her, but after Iris takes a short nap she awakes to find Miss Froy has disappeared, and everyone else on the train denies her existence. Something is definitely amiss – either Iris’ head injury is causing her to be delusional, or there’s a far greater conspiracy at hand.
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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 →

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Posted on September 29, 2014 by jaycluitt

When we last saw Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans), the scientifically advanced super soldier had been frozen during the Second World War and defrosted in modern day, where he helped sort out the attack from Loki and the Chitauri in The Avengers. Now he’s dealing with a threat that’s much closer to home, when it appears SHIELD, the company he works for, may be a little more corrupt than he anticipated.
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Mulholland Drive

Posted on September 24, 2014 by jaycluitt

In L.A., a woman survives a late night car crash but loses her memory and can’t even remember who she is. Meanwhile, a plucky young hopeful arrives in town with dreams of being a star, and a director must deal with the demands of his powerful producers, who will stop at nothing to force him to hire their chosen leading lady. All three storylines will converge and attempt to merge into one another, at which point they turn into a completely different film that makes no sense. Trying to work out what is going on will result in crying, throwing things at the screen, substance abuse and, eventually, giving up and wondering just what the big deal was about. Continue reading →

Russian Ark

Posted on September 19, 2014 by jaycluitt

When I made my list of films from the 1001 List that I’m Most looking forward to, this was one I was a little apprehensive of, but looked forward to nonetheless. You see, I knew Russian Ark was filmed as one long steadicam shot – a filming technique I’m fascinated with and always impressed by – but I didn’t know a great deal more about it, other than it somehow featured Russian History in some way. History isn’t my strong suit, especially not Russian (Alexander Nevsky proved that), and once again I felt I was missing out on a great deal, simply because I’ve never cracked open a book on the lineage of the Tsars. Continue reading →

Threads

Posted on August 28, 2014 by jaycluitt

In Sheffield in 1984, Jimmy and Ruth are struggling to make amends. When she discovers she is pregnant, they make the decision to do the decent thing; get married and get an apartment together in the nearest block of flats. Their parents meet and life goes on, until the threat of a nuclear war between Russia and America begins to intensify, culminating in a bomb being dropped on the nearby military base. Does that sound like a spoiler for the end of the film? Well it isn’t. The bomb gets dropped roughly a quarter of the way through this film, after which we follow the fallout – both nuclear and otherwise – the survivors must endure. Continue reading →

Ghostbusters

Posted on August 24, 2014 by jaycluitt

This review has been written as part of Todd Liebenow’s 1984-a-thon for his site, Forgotten Films. Be sure to check out everyone else’s reviews!

After three parapsychologists are kicked out of their university, they set up shop as the Ghostbusters, an elite force who will assist in any supernatural goings-on that may be bothering you. When a portal appears in the refrigerator of a particularly attractive client, the guys have their work cut out for them in working out what is going on, and how they can stop it.
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