Re-reading Bloch, Sam's recounting to Lila of Dr Steiner's diagnosis of Norman includes the following:
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Doghouse-6 — 9 years ago(February 11, 2017 10:44 AM)
The diagonal tilt downwards as people move upwards
I remember thinking of this the first time I saw Cameron's
Titanic
, in which he does the same thing on a larger scale.
One great detail during that "nosedive" sequence: the quick insert of the window suddenly splattered with oil, conveying both the mechanical damage and velocity; another of those "macro/micro approach" examples that so effectively put viewers in the moment, and are among the little things people notice and remember amid larger-scale calamity (like those glasses of wine on a tilting table).
My mother's Chevy Caprice had a built-in, swing-out kleenex dispenser mounted under the glove box, and when I was 17, a truck running a red light sent me spinning across Ventura Blvd in that car into a utility pole. When I came to rest after about 3 seconds of sound and fury, the very last bit of motion as all became quiet was that dispenser swinging out from the impact, and it's always the first thing I remember when that event pops into my head.
It's the little things.
And the CRASHwater right through the cockpit window
Hitchcock seemed proud of that, and of describing how it was accomplished. Now, however, I'm gonna get really nit-picky about one aspect of it: physics. The pilot and co-pilot are scrambling aft as the plane hits, and seem to be propelled even further in that direction by the water crashing through, when they would actually have been catapulted forward toward the nose as the plane hit the water. Like I said: really nit-picky.
The one snooty woman who refuses a life jacket, opines she will complain to the authorities, and is shot dead by a stray something(bullet? shrapnel?) just like that. So much for ignoring reality.
That's a great device, albeit one that became cliche in later films (there are such characters in
The High and the Mighty
and
Airport
, for instance), but Hitchcock's the only one I can think of who used it to its fullest advantage: in one second, she's a comic annoyance for whom we feel no sympathy; in the next, her sudden demise hammers home the gravity of the situation as equally sudden shock and a bit of guilt set in with the viewer for having been annoyed by her a moment before. The two examples I cited fail to exploit it, merely having the cranky and self-centered passengers getting told off or slapped.
And oh, about those soundstage lights I saw 'em, butblink and you miss 'em.
Yes, it's a literal split second. I'd seen the film probably a dozen times before I ever noticed it.
I've only read this, I've never seen "My Son John," I don't know how they did it..I think they optically printed an ultra close-up of Walker's dying face from Strangers and then "dubbed a double from behind."
Me too. Interesting you should bring it up, as there's a still-active thread about McCarey films on the Classic Film board, and
My Son John
stirred up some strong feelings, most of them negative, among some commenters. I'll have to catch up with it one of these days.
Uh oh. WellI can back pedal with the best of them. I think Hitchcock's remarks to Truffaut biased me against it.
You never need concern yourself with my feelings about a given film vis a vis any opposing ones you might have, and I never try to talk anyone into liking one they don't. All I can do is state why I do, and if it moves you to reconsider, that's both generous and flattering.
Here's something I don't know if I can properly articulate, but I'll try. There's something inexplicably appealing to me about U.S. actors in British films. I don't know if it's down to cross-cultural aspects, or if the atmosphere somehow seems to elevate the American players or what. It does seem to me that British productions were some years ahead of U.S. ones in terms of putting a more gritty realism onscreen, and I feel that
TWOTMD
benefits from it.
However different we can imagine it being in other ways, I'm assuming that, had Hitchcock gone ahead with it, it would have been a Culver City-based production, and I have no idea how it came to be transferred to MGM's U.K. facilities.
Poe! You areavenged! -
swanstep — 9 years ago(February 03, 2017 07:01 AM)
125 The Court Jester Norman Panama, Melvin Frank, 1955
Convoluted, occasionally quite funny musical-comedy-burlesque-of-Robin-Hood-ish movies (e.g., The Flame and the Arrow (1951) as much as Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) - so broad Hollywood Medieval types really). Danny Kaye stars as the titular Jester and at least occasionally you get some glimpses from him of a proto-Woody Allen and a proto-Mel Brooks and also of Mandy Patinkin in The Princess Bride. Still, for the most part, the whole thing feels like a bit of an exercise. There are large patches of verbal schtick that aren't funny exacty and so feel like padding, all of the songs are bad, none of Kaye's romantic involvements are at all credible, and most of the supporting actors not named Basil Rathbone (who could do this sort of thing in his sleep) make little impression. The use of a squad of 'little people' at both the beginning and the end of the film is so loopy that it's actually rather fun, and does provoke the 'I can't believe what I'm seeing' response once or twice.
The Court Jester (1955) was expensive to make for some reason and it bombed on first release. It appears to have acquired a following since on TV. Maybe it's the sort of film that gets funnier with repeat viewings, and maybe too it has a special appeal for kids or to people who encountered it first as a kid (I suspect that Wright is one of those). Meeting it cold as an adult, TCJ just isn't good enough to be seriously recommendable except to Hollywood completists.
P.s., TCJ is shot in VistaVision, but completely wastes it. Hitch shoots To Catch A Thief in Vista the same year (not on Wright's list!) and with Robert Burks as DP gets amazing image-quality. The two films come from completely different universes of cinematic skill and achievement. -
Mr_K_Pratt — 9 years ago(July 31, 2016 07:25 PM)
Thanks for posting this, it's the most impressive list I've ever seen with literally hundreds of my favourite films mentioned, including "Nuts in May".
I'll definitely be referring to this in the future for the ones I haven't seen.
YOU SHOULDN'T BE EATING SAUSAGES!! -
swanstep — 9 years ago(July 31, 2016 08:44 PM)
Thanks for posting this, it's the most impressive list I've ever seen with literally hundreds of my favourite films mentioned, including "Nuts in May".
You're welcome. While I've now voiced many criticisms of Wright's list it does 'ring true' in a lot of ways by surefootedly identifying numerous films (even those made for TV like
Nuts In May
and
Threads
) that have absolutely stuck with anyone who ever saw them yet that in many cases get overlooked in standard critics lists. From The Incredible Shrinking Man to Ferris Beuller to Dark Of The Sun to Wake in Fright to Little Big Man to The Stunt Man to Throw Mamma From the Train to Starship Troopers to Run Lola Run to Ms 45 to Master And Commander:Far Side of the World to The LEGO Moviethat whole alternative 'why we go to the movies in the first place' (to have a good time!) history of peak pleasure is all here. -
CharlesTheBold — 9 years ago(November 18, 2016 06:41 AM)
On closer inspection Wright's list has way too much genre trash for me
"Genre" is just a synonym for "category". Why do people like swanstep use it to mean a PARTICULAR category, presumably sci/fi and fantasy?
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swanstep — 9 years ago(November 18, 2016 05:00 PM)
On closer inspection Wright's list has way too much genre trash for me
"Genre" is just a synonym for "category". Why do people like swanstep use it to mean a PARTICULAR category, presumably sci/fi and fantasy?
I agree that I, like many other people, tend to use 'genre' in a fairly slippery way. I guess in context I could have said 'grindhouse', and I seem to recall that various types of horror and martial arts movies were the particular sources for my exasperation at the time.
Pick any year from Wright's list and you'll see that it's full of films that are plot-driven and lurid-premise-driven and are the 20th+ iteration of some particular formula (often aimed at teenagers) that nonetheless became notorious or exemplary for some reason. And this is to say that, like Tarantino, he's got at least as much time for trash/the grindhouse/fleapit and also for the multiplex as the arthouse.
I like the anti-snobbery of Wright's list but year after year (both those I was around for and remember exactly how the flow of importance and buzz went at the time, and those for which I wasn't) films with a highly-iterated character get on Wright's list seemingly at the expense of anything less plot- or premise- or action-driven or less categorizable, or less formulaic. It's been an interesting experience to gap-fill with Wright as a guide, to expose myself to a bunch of, as we'd ordinarily say 'genre films' and find some gems but also a bunch of films barely-worth-the-time-taken-to-watch-'em. -
Doghouse-6 — 9 years ago(February 08, 2017 04:49 PM)
Just want to take this opportunity to express thanks and admiration, swanstep, for your adventurous spirit and ever-inquisitive outlook on all things film. As a lurker on this board for some time before jumping in, you and ecarle seemed to me The Two Musketeers of the
Psycho
board, and your observations alone have provided more rewarding reading than I can possibly quantify.
Poe! You areavenged! -
swanstep — 9 years ago(February 08, 2017 08:10 PM)
@Doghouse-6. Thanks very much! When I started posting here (around 2007 I think) there were 5 or 6 mega-posters who were founts of knowledge and experience. Ecarle was one of those of course, whereas the others, telegenous, eric_barker, arthicus, a woman in Brisbane whose screen-name I've forgotten, and a few others have mostly moved on (telegenous still posts occasionally and very welcomely).
Both ecarle and I do worry sometimes that we post too much and too tangentially, but I know at least in my own case that I'm really just trying to continue the learned but congenial and undogmatic, focused but not too focused spirit that the board had when I originally joined it. I'd been using IMDb and posting on the odd message-board for at least 4 years before I stumbled across the Psycho board. It was instantly clear to me that Psycho and Hitchcock's special centrality to film history and to the history of the film business had inspired a very special kind of community to form, which I wanted to be part of. Happily that community made me feel very welcome.
Anyhow, I've appreciated all of your comments Doghouse-6. I've got hold of a copy of Titanic 1953 finally and will get around to watching it sometime in the next few weeks, and that's certainly mostly because of you (and ecarle). Thanks!