Stage Fright (1950)
Hitchcock started the 50's by going back to the basics. It begins as the basic story of a wrongfully accused man on the run from the police and a woman helping him out to clear his name, but it's a lot more complicated and the less you know the better. It's a murder mystery with lots of comedic moments, shot in black and white, so it clearly was someway a step to the more familiar turf. Funny thing about the ”basics”, this movie doesn't just have a love triangle, it actually has two of them. So there's lots of familiar themes for Hitchcock, but what makes this movie so special and also what made it be such a failure in the eyes of the moviegoers back then is one key element that Hitchcock uses to brilliantly play the audience. Can't tell you what it is or it would spoil the movie, but the audience felt they were betrayed and that the movie was flawed. Nowadays it's nothing special, the viewer gets fooled in movies all the time, but back then it was a huge thing. And that simply brilliant twist is why I love this one. Hitchcock is basically toying with the audience and just as the suspension is reaching it's peak, he slams the truth in the face of the viewer taking the suspension into levels of horror never seen in movies of it's time. Absolutely fantastic film making. The cast is quite great, though I don't know why, but I've never really liked Marlene Dietrich, but never the less she also does a fine job. The production began as a Transatlantic production, but was taken over by Warner Brothers as Transatlantic was struggling with money. I'm surely glad they did as this is one of Hitchcock's most under rated movies and a true phenom proving how far ahead of time Hitchcock was. The movie didn't receive much appreciation back when it was made, but it surely does today.
90%
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Hitchcock went back to studio films and continued on the thriller path, which he didn't eventually part from that often anymore. This movie may not be the one that comes out first when you talk about Hitchcock, even though it is one of the most famous and one of his most referenced works. It tells the story about two men, Bruno and Guy, who meet in a train and as they chat away it becomes apparent both of them have someone in their life they would like to get rid of. Guy has a troublesome wife and Bruno despises his father. Bruno suggests that they “swap” murders, other one kills the one who the other wants to get rid of and vice-versa. Guy laughs at the idea, but later when his wife is found dead and Bruno comes to claim his end of the “agreement” things get quite messed up. The story is quite brilliant and it's the true driving force of this movie with witty dark comedy and some quite intriguing points. The acting is quite ok, Robert Walker as Bruno does the best job of them, rest of them are not bad, but nothing special either. There are tons of brilliant Hitchcockian scenes, the lighter, the strangling, the tennis game, the carousel, the love tunnel, only to name a few. It's filled with them. With a better cast this would be in the top 3 of Hitchcock's movies, but it surely isn't far from it now either. A classic masterpiece.
94%
I Confess (1953)
This was the last film Hitchcock did for Transatlantic Pictures and eventually the company folded soon after. Father Logan hears a killers confession and gets mixed up in a police investigation. This movie has the Hitchcock's favourite theme of wrongly accused man told with a twist of moral dilemma of professional integrity against the integrity of private life. It's done superbly with some great Hitchcockian moments and a flawlessly traveling story. The cast is superb as in most of Hitchcock's following movies from the 50's and was a nice surprise to see Montgomery Clift in a bit different role. All in all great movie, even though it's not the best what the master has to offer.
83%
Dial M for Murder (1954)
After three black and white films Hitchcock didn't just return to color, this movie was actually shot in 3D. Though it didn't run too long as 3D and was released regular ”2D”, as even back then the gimmick didn't work too well as it doesn't work nowadays either. But anyway this is one of my favourite stories in Hitchcock's films. It's a nice little thriller where a man plans a perfect murder and hires a killer to murder his wife, but the plan doesn't work exactly as planned. Won't give out anymore about the plot as it's very nicely twisted. Like many of his previous films, this also is based on a theatre play and most of the movie happens in one room with long scenes of dialog. But it doesn't matter at all as the dialog is quite great and the story is truly intriguing. The cast is quite great, especially John Williams as the chief inspector does a great part. Even though this is a small scale movie and it's pretty straight forward without any tricks, it still works great even today.
92%
Rear Window (1954)
I really don't know what to say about this one without sounding an overly hyped fanboy. This movie is perfect in every aspect. It has the best lead couple in all of Hitchcock's movies with James Stewart and Grace Kelly, both of which have appeared in other Hitchcock's movies as well, but never together. It has some of the best scenes I've seen in any movie, some which even today haven't been matched. My favourite one of them is a single continuous take at the beginning which tells us more than 20 pages of dialog. The shot moves from a window to a man who's sweating in a wheelchair with his leg in cast, on the cast there's written ”here lie the earthly remains of L.B. Jeffries”, then it moves to a smashed camera where it moves to a picture of a race car crash with a tire flying towards the camera, then it moves to other photos from around the world where it moves to a negative of a beautiful woman and ends into a pile of magazines which have the woman on the cover. I mean that single shot tells us everything we need to know about the man, what happened to him, what's his name, what's his occupation, who's his love and so on. Absolutely ingenious. The story is brilliant even today, no matter that it's been copied so many times and the way it's made is just something spectacular. I don't want to praise too much, even though this movie surely deserves every bit of it, so I'll just say once more, it's perfect. Fun little trivia about the movie, it was considered lost for years as Hitchcock bought the rights for himself to give it as a legacy for his daughter with four other movies. It also had at the time the largest indoors set ever build for a movie, the whole block you see was built inside a studio. A technological and especially an artistic masterpiece. This movie should be considered general knowledge, so if there really is someone out there who hasn't seen it yet, do so now.
100%
To Catch a Thief (1955)
Ironically Hitchcock's most successful movie from the 50's is also my least favourite of his movies from the 50's. But that doesn't make it a bad movie in any way. It's still a good romantic thrill ride. It tells the story of a retired cat burglar who gets wrongfully accused for jewel thefts and needs to find the real thief to get the police off his neck and before he'll be killed by his old criminal partners. But that all is more of a sub plot, the main thing here is the romance with the ex-thief and a rich woman. The chemistry between Cary Grant and Grace Kelly is the real driving force in this movie. I guess Hitchcock noticed that as the thriller is kind of left in the shadows. As the movie is shot in the stunning scenery of Monaco, the director wanted to take a vacation from his usually darker side with this light hearted little romance story. Suiting to the scenery the movie is shot quite brilliantly and ended up grabbing the Oscar for cinematography. Quite a disturbing fact about the movie regards the famous chase scene where Grace Kelly drives away from the police in the narrow mountain roads of Monaco, she was actually killed in a car accident 27 years later on that very same road. This movie was one of the most successful movies of the 50's and even today it's quite enjoyable light entertainment.
70%
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
If I had to name 10 best movies of all time this would be one of them, hell, it would be in the top 5. The movie itself is not exactly the usual Hitchcock you'd expect as it's not really the kind of thriller he's most known for, but you can clearly see that all the elements are still there. It's basically a story about a corpse of a man, who many people get involved with but no one knows how he died or worse yet who killed him. The poor guy gets buried and dug up quite a many times and transported all around the town while everyone seems to have a different opinion on what to do with it. One of the first real black comedy movies and all in all pure brilliance every second of it. The quite unknown cast is superb, the mood is one of the best I've ever seen in any movie and the story is simple but still highly efficient. This is the movie that has inspired most, if not all, of the modern black comedy specialists. This movie also started the famous collaboration with Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann. There's a scene in this movie that is probably my favourite scene of all time in any movie, won't spoil it but it involves a closet door that won't stay shut. A definite masterpiece, a classic that never gets old and one of the best films ever made.
100%
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
I really don't know why Hitchcock wanted to do a remake of this one. The original was already a very good movie. Sure it was done with a very low budget and the acting could have been a bit better at times, but still it worked good enough. Well he surely fixed the low budget, there's not many costs spared on this one and the acting part is a lot better also. Though Peter Lorre on the original was quite brilliant, but his absence is well covered by James Stewart and the rest. Never really liked Doris Day though, guess she should have sticked to singing, though I guess that didn't go too well with her either. Actually her biggest hit ended up being the song from this movie, ”Que Sera, Sera”. The fixes to the storyline work quite well and at parts the story is better than the original. The Albert Hall sequence on the original was already great, but on this one it's just magnificent and there are a lot more of those Hitchcockian tricks in thise one. Can't say this is better than the original, but it's surely not worse either, it's just as good.
81%
The Wrong Man (1956)
This is not your typical Hitchcock, even though it has the common theme of wrongly accused man. This time it's not a fun witty romantic thrill ride, it's a darker toned tragedy. That's what I love about this movie, he takes another angle on his most common theme, how being wrongfully accused of a crime can destroy your life. It's based on a true story and the script is quite brilliant. The acting is also stellar with both Henry Fonda and Vera Miles doing one of their best performances. It's shot in black and white which only adds to the tragic tone of the movie. There's not many Hitchcockian tricks and the movie is very straight forward, but that's only a good thing as this kind of drama really doesn't need them. I see this step towards more dramatic content, kind of as a practice for his next project which of course turned out to be the defining movie of his career. This movie was the first to have a prologue by Hitchcock, though he later added them to his other movies as well. Amazingly after more than 50 years this movie is still as relevant as it was back then and that's a sure sign of a classic.
90%
Vertigo (1958)
Hitchcock at his best. All the knowledge aquired during the years comes down to this masterpiece. It's Hitchcock at most Hitchcockian, if that makes any sense at all. The story is brilliantly twisted, it's brilliantly acted, it's brilliantly shot and the mood is just something unbelievable. Hard to review this one as all of the aspects of the movie are just perfect. So I'm not going to write long lines of praise, I'll just say it's one of the best movies ever made and if you haven't seen it yet, it's your loss.
100%
North by Northwest (1959)
So what do you do when you've just done a whole career defining masterpiece? Well, you do another one of course. I'm not even trying to compare this to Vertigo because that wouldn't be fair to either of them as they are completely different movies. This is back to the usual Hitchcock theme of a wrong man in a wrong place at the wrong time. The script itself offers little new to the genre, and the sets and effects are kinda clumsy at today's standards. It's also shamelessly aimed to the general public not even trying to challenge the viewer. But all of that doesn't matter as it's one hell of an action adventure thriller with so many memorable scenes it's just unbelievable. The crop duster scene alone is worth the watch, not even mentioning the others. Again a masterpiece.
96%
Links to the other decades:
1920's - 1930's - 1940's - 1950's - 1960's - 1970's
No comments:
Post a Comment