Shadow of a Doubt features a great performance from Teresa Wright who later starred in the great post-war homecoming film The Best Years of Their Lives. She was a very wholesome young actress and played those characters really naturally.
My favorite Hitchcock movie is actually one of his early ones - The 39 Steps. It was made in 1935 and is on Youtube. There have been remakes but the black and white movie with Hitchcock’s atmospheric and menacing tropes and Scottish rural scenery makes for a movie that stands the test of time. To illustrate how Hitchcock worked there is a scene where the two main characters are handcuffed together but evade capture to flee. Their characters have high tension because the man is on the run trying to clear his name of murder by uncovering an espionage conspiracy and the woman who tipped him off thinks he’s lying and is frightened for her life. Hitchcock wanted to build this tension and uncomfortable companionship so before filming started he cuffed the two actors saying they would be better getting used to that feeling in the studio ahead of the scene outdoors and that he would be back shortly to uncuff them. He didn’t return until several hours passed pretending to have lost the key and the two actors were left awkwardly bound side by side for most of the day. They put in a fine performance together so maybe it worked.
Rope as mentioned above is also a great Hitchcock atmospheric thriller. I’d also recommend a movie named Lifeboat which isn’t as exciting but worth giving a go.
I was underwhelmed by Rope, but Notorious, Vertigo and The 39 Steps are each excellent. If I had to pick my all-time favorite Hitchcock film, it would probably be Notorious.
My latest five:
John Lewis: Good Trouble
Inspiring documentary about the great civil rights leader and later Congressman from Georgia. A little sad in that he found himself fighting much the same battles at the end of his life that he thought had been won for good in the Sixties.
A Fish Called Wanda
Introduced my sons to this favorite comedy. A great heist movie with lots of laughs; Kevin Kline really earned his Oscar as the impulsive, ultraviolent and incredibly dumb Otto. Jamie Lee Curtis, John Cleese and Michael Palin are also very good.
The Sting
Rewatched this classic con-game movie and enjoyed it all over again. Great cast, dialogue, costumes, sets and plot.
Enola Holmes
A disappointing recent movie about Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes’s equally brilliant, very headstrong younger sister. Just too many implausible moments stacked atop each other; my suspension of disbelief finally gave up.
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
I’d seen bits and pieces of this movie over the years, but never actually the whole thing from start to finish. Lots of cringeworthy, funny bits. John Candy and Steve Martin have great comic chemistry as they struggle to get home for Thanksgiving.
I’m wondering why you would think an Apatow movie would be a gross-out comedy? Bloated and self-indulgent, sure - those are things to be wary of going into an Apatow movie. A mostly-depressing look into the life of a 40-something comedian on the brink of a turning point in their life - absolutely. But save for maybe one scene per movie, there’s not much gross-out comedy to be found.
Last night and for the first time, I watched the Swedish movie, “Easy Money”.
Easy Money (Swedish: Snabba cash )[3] is a Swedish thriller film directed by Daniel Espinosa that was released on 15 January 2010. It is based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Jens Lapidus.[4]Joel Kinnaman stars in the lead role of Johan “JW” Westlund, a rather poor man living a double life in the upper class areas of Stockholm. After meeting a wealthy girl, he is enticed into the world of organized crime and begins to sell cocaine to afford his expensive lifestyle. Easy Money was well received by critics and was a hit at the box office.
Two sequels to the film have been filmed - the first ( Snabba Cash II ) was released in 2012, while the third premiered in Swedish cinemas October 2013. Warner Bros. holds the rights to an American remake of Easy Money , which is set to star Zac Efron.[5]
Christmas Chronicles 2: Kurt Russel is fab (again) as Santa, Goldie Hawn is quite good as Mrs. Claus, the rest of the cast is wasted and irritating, the script is the lamest, the special effects are overdone, the direction is typical Chris Columbus (roller coaster sleigh chase; “Soon to be a Disney Park ride.”). When Malcolm McDowell’s voice is the highlight of the film, you got problems. I watched it for the novelty, would not watch it again. Pity.
My wife and I played some Netflix Roulette last night and watched The Long Dumb Road. “Suggested for me? 97% match? Ok Netflix, lets see what this is all about”.
It was alight. The plot was ridiculous and many of the awkward situations were unbelievable, but the main characters were likable and the story moved along.
Not great, but if you go in with absolutely no expectations (like I did) it was a passable ‘date night’ flick.
I made that comment on the presence of Pete Davidson, and the usual kind of low-brow drek that SNL and former SNL people sometimes appear it. The comment had nothing to do with Judd Apatow per se. I’ve never seen another of his movies, so I had no opinion of him whatsoever. Had I read that it was a gross-out comedy, I wouldn’t have bothered watching it.
I watched, and thoroughly enjoyed, Idiocracy (2006) last night. I’d seen it a half a dozen times already, but for some reason watching it at anytime in the last four years was just too depressing.
It is definitely a lame joke and you can see the lady he tells it to pause for a moment before politely laughing. I think Herzog knew it was kind of a lame joke and he left his failure in the movie because it was kind of fun.
Last night it was the remake of The Invisible Man, starring Elizabeth Moss. How this thing got such high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes is a mystery to me. It started out okay, but got stupid quickly, and yawning plot holes began opening up to swallow both the cast and my attention span. I’m just glad I didn’t pay extra for that two hours of wasted life.
Times have definitely changed. It doesn’t help that the film is hopelessly miscast – Frank Sinatra is WAY too old to play the older brother – and that Norman Lear rewrote Neil Simon’s play. But even Simon’s play is a cultural artifact from a long-gone past. Many of the attitudes are so foreign to the modern mind that it seems hopeless. the last time I re-read the play, I was struck by how ludicrous it seems today that Connie’s ultimatum (made only after she’s fortified herself with plenty of alcohol) is to go to bed with Alan. And that he’s jarred by the prospect and backs off.
The basic message that Buddy needs to loosen up and learn how to live a little is basically OK, but the view of male-female relations is pretty dated.
I saw The Maltese Falcon for the first time. And I’m sorry, but I hated it. Peter Lorre was a pleasure, as always, Sydney Greenstreet was fine, but it seemed the whole movie was just people threatening each other. Then suddenly at the end, Bogie is “in love” with this woman who he’s spent maybe an hour with. He’s going to wait for her twenty years on the strength of two chemistry-free kisses? I was also disappointed that we never get to see the real Maltese Falcon, after all the talk about it. My honest opinion.
Johnny O’Clock is the WORST movie name AND character name.
But it was a great film noir movie. Powell was great, beautiful dolls, and L J Cobb, who has been in half the movies I have seen recently and was born 40 years old, apparently.
My honest opinion.