Here’s what I am guessing. Hitchcock has an arc. I am guessing you are dazzled by the ones in color and in particular, Vertigo. Also, Psycho, The Birds, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much (this one was done before by him), Rear Window, Marnie, To Catch a Thief, Rope, etc. But he did a lot of movies in the 30s and 40s. Black and white and they are still on the best movie lists. These probably pale in comparison to you. Did you like 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Saboteur, Suspicion, Spellbound, Foreign Correspondent - this is the time period of Rebecca. I think Shadow of A Doubt is the critically acclaimed one - did you like that one? Because I am thinking what is missing for you is the that you prefer the newer movies more than the earlier ones.
But with Rebecca - it is brilliant - you don’t see her. She is mythological like Helen of Troy or Cleopatra. What you get to know about her is by George Sanders, Frank, Mrs. Danvers and everyone - that she had black hair that was once down to her waist, an expert horsewoman, svelte and one of the most beautiful women to walk the earth and she was absolutely charming. She dazzled. The story begins a few years after her mysterious death and a heartbroken Max visits the French Riviera and sees the ingenue Fontaine. They are now married and go to Manderley. It’s as if Rebecca is still alive everywhere in that house. Fontaine doesn’t even have a first name. She is completely invisible and she thinks the man she loves is still in love with Rebecca. This story is very similar to Jane Eyre and Rochester and his first wife. But I prefer Rebecca to all the earlier ones. I bet your favorite is Vertigo or Psycho.
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Chester (223)
2 years ago
Vertigo is my favourite - that one goes deep and strange, like a David Lynch film, with a haunting ending. That’s closely followed by Psycho. Of the Hitchcock’s I’ve seen, those two are in a league of their own. They’re utterly captivating and pull the rug from under you so expertly you're left twisting in the dark for days.
The Wrong Man, Rope, Shadow Of A Doubt, Dial M for Murder, Saboteur, Marnie and Frenzy all stayed with me and I would consider buying them.
I actually find NbyNW to be a bit thin, rather like an old Bond film. Nothing wrong with it, plenty to enjoy, but didn’t get into my subconscious like his best stuff and I found it overrated. Rear Window is fantastic but let down by the ‘twist’ that what looked like a crime… was exactly as it seemed. The Birds was great but tripped up by those special effects - nobody’s fault but just too ambitious for the time and they ‘plucked’ me out of the film. Suspicion was superb… until the botched ending.
As for Rebecca, I like the concept of a ‘ghost story without a ghost’ and I was strung along by the storytelling and Fontaine’s radiance… but the spectre of Rebecca didn’t especially intrigue me, and by the end I found it somewhat underwhelming, just because it’s been so hyped up by audiences and critics and I was hoping to be left quivering as with Vertigo and Psycho. Hitch was in total command when he made those, whereas Rebecca was his first American studio pic and perhaps that came with restraints.
The others you mentioned I all found enjoyable in the moment but they didn’t make a lasting impression, and I’m yet to see some in your list, namely 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Spellbound and Foreign Correspondent.
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letess (1514)
2 years ago
Good enough. I didn’t know how much of his movies you saw. Vertigo is the one. It is no. 2 on best movies on Sight and Sound List that comes out every ten years. And it’s on everybody’s favorite Hitchcock and just their favorite movie list. And having that one out there, kind of makes Rebecca in another category. Vertigo is a movie that just worked on all levels and its third character is San Francisco - I think they used to do a tour of all the actual places. Because this is one of his where actual places exist - some no longer like the restaurant and maybe Scottie’s apartment.
You will note when you see the earlier ones - BW ones - that they involve espionage and spies. I am guessing you will like Spellbound the best. There is an old movie that reminds me of Rebecca with Ray Milland and Gail Russell called The Uninvited. They kind of go together. It is also interesting that David O. Selznick who produced GWTW and Rebecca wanted - at the end of Rebecca when everything is burning - that smoke curls up in the sky and it spells out “R” as if Rebecca had the last word and Hitchcock said that’s not going to happen. The one I watch over and over is To Catch a Thief because I love Nice and the South of France. But Marnie for me was always the one that could have been great and just missed. One of Connery’s best.
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Chester (223)
2 years ago
Yes, To Catch A Thief was great fun, and you're right about the South of France being a great setting, and of course Grace Kelly is transcendentally gorgeous - Hitchcock’s ultimate blonde. I think it was the ‘action’ ending that kept it from greatness for me. I’m just a sucker for the deep, dark, psychological horror notes that Hitchcock hits so well.
I was surprised how much I liked Marnie, I’d heard mixed reviews but I thought it was captivating and Connery was impressive as a kind of hero-villain-thing. It’s not often you get a hero rapist but Hitchcock somehow sells it! Speaking of rape, I could not believe how brutal the rape and murder in Frenzy was. Hitchcock is normally tastefully restrained and leaves it to the imagination, but I guess this was the nasty 70’s and he puts it all on front street. It was an interesting experiment and very effective but I’m in no hurry to watch it again.
I still count Vertigo as Sight and Sound’s No 1, they only crowbarred Jeanne Dielman - a foreign film directed by a feminist lesbian - into first place to appease the woke mob in what is nothing more than a grotesque box-ticking exercise. Vertigo is still the king and we all know it.
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letess (1514)
2 years ago
Marnie has always haunted me. And for a while, it was hardly referenced in Hitchcock’s repertoire of movies. It has kind of crept up and has become the most puzzling, but only in the last few years. There are even fashion photoshoots which highlight certain scenes from this movie, especially the one where she is at the train station wearing the raven black hair, carrying a suitcase and the yellow purse. And the rape actually was never mentioned as a rape until recently. When you find out how Hitchcock wanted to direct this scene and the fervor he had in directing it, just shows his obsession. The initial crime of what happened in Marnie’s childhood is not the same in the book by Winston Graham as it is in the film. And you really wonder - in reality can Marnie ever be cured. Its setting was also moved from England to Baltimore. I loved this movie but to be honest, every time I see it, I mentally recast Tippi. I have to say Frenzy is the only movie I haven’t seen. I think I might have gotten it confused with Peeping Tom. I didn’t like Topaz that much or Torn Curtain. And I didn’t see in full The Trouble with Harry.
I never heard of the No. 1 movie on Sight and Sound, Jeanne Dielman…. And I consider myself to be an avid moviegoer. I am part of film festivals, etc. And, I am familiar with the French actress, Delphine Seyrig, but not this movie. I have no desire to spend 3 hours watching it, but I will at some point because it’s now a part of movie discussions and I can’t comment on stuff I have no knowledge. If I am going to sit down and watch a 3-4 hour movie, I think I would rather re-watch Once Upon a Time in America, as I don’t think I saw the better version. But what is also interesting in this movie list, is a lot of great movies were bumped in favor of other movies. I believe in ten years time, many of these movies will be put back on the list. The list of directors who now have been omitted or lost their initial ranking is just a crime.
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Chester (223)
2 years ago
Why do you recast Tippi when you watch Marnie? I thought she was good as the charming but traumatised and feisty lead, playing well against Connery’s carefree rapist-with-a-heart-of-gold.
I hadn’t even clocked that Jeanne Dielman is 3.5 hours long! You couldn’t pay me to watch 3.5 hours of tedious agitprop. It’s not art, it’s political dogma being forced on film lovers by the woke cult. Hard pass.
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letess (1514)
2 years ago
I don’t think Hedren is a good actress. She was however perfect in The Birds. She was Hitchcock’s obsession. If there was a better choice, I feel it would have been a better movie. So when I mentally recast, I think of others at that time. To be honest, I think Grace Kelly would be too aristocratic as Marnie. In any case, she had to turn it down. Lee Remick comes to mind. I think she was considered. Jill Ireland was also considered. And Catherine Deneuve wanted the part. Apparently, Marilyn Monroe wanted it too. Hitchcock commented. That would be interesting.
I think Connery was sensational. And she didn’t match him. However he was more virile and brawny then the Mark in the book.
I started watching Frenzy. I stopped after the rape. Are there more. I have until tonight to finish. This was a horrible scene. But this movie is a very good.
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Chester (223)
2 years ago
Wow, you’ve really got it in for Tippi!
In Frenzy, you only see the one rape. There are more but you don’t see them, from what I remember. I would certainly recommend finishing the film, it’s very good and features something I’ve never seen - a serial rapist-murderer in an extended comedy sequence involving potatoes.
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letess (1514)
2 years ago
I finished it. And I loved the scenes with the potatoes and the potato sack. I love the detective struggling with his wife’s cooking and I guess no one had yet heard of a margarita. The comedy mixed with a serial killer is what makes this movie. And the ending that almost didn’t happen was great too. Not until the last second did you know for sure.
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