MovieChat Forums > Psycho (1960) Discussion > Leaving Hitchcock Behind (OT)

Leaving Hitchcock Behind (OT)

posted 6 years ago by ecarle (14979)
3 replies | jump to latest

Been pondering this one for awhile.

Needs a "lead off" story:

For all my talk about "chasing" Psycho off and on from 1965 to 1971(in terms of getting to see it), there was some other "Hitchcock movie chasing" I did in the 60s, 70s, and 80s:

Take for instance, Strangers on a Train.

Living in LA and pretty young, I watched about the first 90 minutes of the movie. Local independent channel KHJ Channel 9. 11:00 pm movie. Just seeing Hitchcock's name on the credits was my only lure("Oh, Alfred Hitchocck made this"). I was intrigued by it, liked Robert Walker, thought the murder scene was great but...it was on late night TV and I had to go to bed so I turned it off before the ending.

About a year later, I was given Hitchcock/Truffaut and I read/saw all about : the thriller-diller action climax on the berserk carousel.

D'oh! When I was that young, the prospect of a big action finish(see: North by Northwest) was catnip, and I couldn't believe that I had turned off Strangers on a Train before the Big Finish.

It took about two more years. I moved away from LA, but I'd return on trips to stay with old school friends. At at one friend's house -- with other guy friends present -- I read that Strangers on a Train would be on that night. On KHJ-TV 9. It took a little persuading -- and they were good friends who didn't see me much anymore -- but I talked us all into watching Strangers on a Train, all the way to the end, with snacks and drinks, and the carousel sequence seemed BIG...and(as I recall) the other guys liked it. Or said they did. Friends. (And we also went to the beach and stuff..)

That's just one of the ways that I "caught up" with all the Hitchcock movies I could.

Once I had Hitchcock/Truffaut in hand, I did tracked down the movies these ways:

Watching TV Guide for network showings(NXNW, Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble With Harry, Man '56...though I will admit I sometimes stumbled onto these broadcasts BEFORE the book Hitchcock/Truffaut came out. But some -- like Under Capricorn on CBS , were AFTER Hitchcock/Truffaut.)

Watching TV Guide for "local independent affiliate showings." KHJ local Channel 9 had all the Warners movies: Strangers, I Confess(a low energy film after Strangers), The Wrong Man( a favorite from first viewing), Stage Fright, and Dial M(shown 9 times in one week on The Million Dollar Movie.) KTLA local LA Channel 5 had The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, and Foreign Correspondent.

I first saw Lifeboat on vacation in the Santa Cruz area, from a distant channel out of San Jose, California. (I did not know the way.)

All the Selznicks(Rebecca, Spellbound, Notorious, The Paradine Case) were shown on ABC in a Selznick Summer Package in the summer of 1971 that also included Portrait of Jennie and other non-Hitch Selznicks.)

The two 1940s Universal Hitchcocks -- Saboteur and Shadow of a Doubt -- were staples in the 60s and 70s on local LA KNXT Channel 2(the CBS affiliate -- not called KCBS, I think.) I learned to see those two movies as "a pair, made one year apart."

As I caught all the "old" Hitchcocks in the 60's and 70's, I dutifully showed up for the new ones: I recall seeing The Birds at the theater; skipping Marnie, then seeing Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy and Family Plot all at the theater.

Some Hitchocck double bills were released in the sixties: I saw The Trouble With Harry and The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1963 -- my first Hitchcock movies at the movie theater along with The Birds(months apart?) I missed the double bills of: The Birds/Marnie; To Catch a Thief/Vertigo; Torn Curtain/Topaz. I missed the 1965 re-release of Psycho and the 1966 re-release of NXNW(but those trailers filled me with desire, I recall thinking when I saw it: "Oh, its Saboteur but on Rushmore instead of the Statue of Liberty.)

In the 70's, I added revival house viewings of Hitchocck movies to my TV watching. Usually only the big ones played revival: Psycho, NXNW, The Birds...and I'm pretty sure Rear Window, Vertigo, The Trouble With Harry, Man '56 , and Rope were all pulled from revival.

About Rope. That's the final major Hitchocck movie I ever "caught." In 1984, when Universal re-released "the missing Hitchcock pictures of the 70's." Except I'm pretty sure Rope was ALWAYS missing. I can't recall one TV play of it in the 60's or 70's. Because of the single takes?(commercials would ruin them.) Because of the gay subtext? I dunno. But I practically popped champagne when I saw it in '84. All the Hitchcock Movies Finally Seen: The End.

Well, all the American Hitchcock movies. It took the 80's and VHS for me to catch all the British ones beyond 39 Steps and Lady Vanishes. But I got it done.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

I certainly saw other movies and did other things in those decades, but Hitchcock kept up his draw for me. Psycho and NXNW, anytime, endlessly, if only for a scene or two on TV. Topaz, Frenzy, and Family Plot as nostalgic reminders of the Hitchcock movies I actually SAW in theaters(barely remembering The Birds or Torn Curtain.) The "HItchocck boomlet" of the 80's was a big deal: When Rear Window and Vertigo led off "The Missing Five" in 1983, a critic wrote: "The Best Director of 1983 is Alfred Hitchcock, and he has been dead three years." (Hitchcock did that on purpose, BTW, ensured he'd be famous all over again.

The 80's also saw Psycho II and III, the Bates Motel TV pilot, and the new Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Hitchcock was Elvis.

And I wasn't quite done with him yet. the 90s and early 00's brought cable showings(American Movie Classics had Sharon Stone host the Universal/Paramounts) and then came the greatest invention of all: DVDs...where one could jump to any favorite scene(hello, Arbogast!) without fast forwarding and guessing. The Universal/Paramount DVDS had great "making of documentaries" where SOME(but alas only SOME) of the original actors told tales as old people(Janet Leigh, but not Tony Perkins; John Forsythe, but not Shirley MaLaine --- Barry Foster, Jon Finch, and Anna Massey, but not Barbara Leigh-Hunt.) Often only the female lead was left to talk on video: Leigh, Saint, Novak, Hedren(for Marnie; Rod Taylor showed up rowdy and old for The Birds doc.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

BUT...

And here comes my point. I suppose in the life of any fan -- even perhaps a " lifelong one" -- the time comes when one realizes that the show is, for the most part, over. The chases were run to the end of the line, the goals captured. Broadcast TV; VHS, cable..DVD.

The biggest problem, I've found, is this: for the most part, I'm hard pressed to put any of my Hitchcock DVDs -- save a precious few -- in to watch them, all the way through. So many of the Hitchcock movies -- however great -- are now finally looking "too old" to me. The thirties and forties WERE "too far back"; to my chagrin(not my horror)...the fifties are NOW starting to look that way, too. The clothing(all those women in bulky gray suitdresses); the hairstyles(Novak, Leigh, Miles, Hedren...too matronly for their beauty, only Saint seemed to overcome it.) the pacing(I love Rear Window as a genuine masterpiece that once blew my mind with excitement; but now its pretty talky -- still a masterpiece, but talky.)

Even the Big Two -- Psycho and North by Northwest -- I have to really work on to conjure up the time when the first was The Scariest Movie Ever Made and the other was The Most Exciting Movie ever made. They sure were -- but I have to work hard to bring them back.

I suppose we are talking burnout here. You shouldn't eat your favorite kind of food every day. You shouldn't watch your favorite movies that way, either. (Used to be -- you couldn't. They "went away" for a year after one TV showing, or for years after a theatrical release.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

The last time the Hitchcock movies really "got me" was a specific year: 2011. For almost, pretty much the ENTIRE year, the Encore cable channels bought, kept, and ran all the Universal/Paramount Hitchcocks, one or two a day, different channels, and you could count on turning on the TV, flipping the dial and getting a GUARANTEED Hitchcock movie waiting, usually already in progress. I treated that year as a "Hitchcock swansong" -- I'd watch a scene or two or whatever Hitch movie was on -- but then change the channel. (Oh, they ran the Alfred Hitchcock Hour all that year, too. I watched.)
Also in 2011, the Encore Mystery Channel ran "Psycho" for 24 hours straight..on Mother's Day. To participate, I started by watching Hour Two(Arbogast, Sam and Lila), then watched the whole movie, then watched Hour One of the next showing(Marion, Phoenix to swamp.) That was enough, but it was cool to feel like Psycho was on a continuous loop.

I probably haven't watched ANY Hitchcock movie save Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Birds, Rear Window, Frenzy, Family Plot or Topaz all the way through (a few of which I've seen in Cinemark Classics/TCM/Fathom big screen presentations) in literal decades. The rest are known to me, once seen by me, but pretty much done now. They are great memories of a way that I spent a lot of my life, and I will never forget them.

But I'm just not watching them much anymore.

And pretty much I'm only TALKING about them now. (Yet another great invention -- YouTube -- allows for a quick look at a major Hitchcock scene on request.)

But what a ride it was. That "Strangers on a Train" memory with which I opened, is from when the chase was on, and the fanship was white hot.