Edgy MD

OK, first of all, that's six paragraphs with not one citation from the article. Seond of all, "the writer assumes Hitchcock was living in 2010" and the author holds Hitchcock to 2010 standards are two different statements. One of them is completely untenable. Third, presenting a charge that is pointless to deny, because the perpetrators are always blind to themselves, is a cheap rhetorical trick that even a Hitchock character would recognize and scoff at. Lastly, if you read the article, you'd see it was written in 1990, not in 2010, so the party most guilty of presentism appears to be you, though I'll resist the temptation to claim that it's pointless to deny it.

Well, if it's an accusation that is pointless to deny, I won't deny it. I'll just leave it as self-evidently absurd.

He assumes Hitchcock was making his films in 2010?

Wretched, boring, and plotless, except where it was boringly predictable.

Well, (1) he confesses at the beginning that he's playing around by psychoanalyzing Hitchcock, and (2) there's something more that's going on if you if you look at the whole. For a "great" filmmaker, he didn't have to do anything. He chose these stories, these themes, and these storyboards. And he didn't just put them in distress. Sometimes, he really fucked around with them. For high-end film-making, that's some oddball stuff. Plus there's stuff this: GREG GARRETT: Miss Hedren, there's a story about the little coffin that was supposedly sent to you by Hitch. Did it contain a little doll with a noose around the neck? What did that mean? Was that a joke? TIPPI HEDREN: This is the first time I've heard about the noose around the neck. I was called in to do � have a mask made of my face. And I really didn't think anything of it, because at the make-up facility at Universal there are faces of every actor up on the wall. So I thought, well, gee, I'm just going to join all that. That's fine, that's wonderful. It's a rather painful experience to go through this, with the plaster on your face and the straws up your nose and that sort of thing. However, I weathered it through. The outcome of that was a doll that was made for my daughter [Melanie Griffith] for a Christmas present. And the difference in this little doll was that most of the time when a doll is made of a celebrity or whatever, it's sort of a caricature of that person. This was an absolute replica of my face. Bob Dawn, who was absolutely brilliant in his field of prostheses and that sort of thing, had taken that mask and taken it down to this tiny little face, and it was absolutely perfect. The doll was then dressed in the green outfit that I wore in The Birds for six months. Unfortunately, they put the doll in a pine box. And then it was presented to my daughter for Christmas. And my little girl, Melanie, looked at it and just blanched white, and we had to put the doll away. Now this was not � and I truly believe this � this was not an intentional thing for Hitch to hurt my daughter. She was hurt by it. But this was not intentional on his part. I mean, he did a lot of really weird things, but this was not intentional, and there was no noose, believe me. No noose. GARRETT: Was it a joke? HEDREN: No, it really wasn't a joke, either. It was supposed to be a very, very, kind of wonderful, thoughtful gift. And one that had taken great thought, great effort, great expense, I'm sure. So it wasn't � I can't say that he was trying to hurt anybody. It was just unfortunate. It's hard to think she's not being over-generous there. The guy's attitude toward women is certainly worth examining. A lot of great directors have some mostrously strange egos. Ford did, Huston did, Cameron does. I think Scorscese does. But it's stilll worth turning a mirror on the guy supposedly turning a mirror on us.

Both movies have to be understood as shot through the lens of Paramount, so you konw a gentle, pulled-punches take had to be practically in their mission statement.

In the sequel to the 1997 documentary about loyal Star Trek fans, Denise Crosby logs some air miles to track the phenomeon internationally (England, France, Germany, Brazil, and whatever country Belgrade calls home now), as well as catch up on some of the figures the first film made famous. Things I did not know before viewing this movie: Sacramento musicians consider the city to be the Theme Band Capital of America.

I've long enjoyed Joe Queenan's take on Alfred, which was pretty much that he was as good a flimmaker as one can be without being great. Or (re-reading), he is great, but not great-great. Pretty good work by Queenan from back when his snark content was about 40% instead of the 80-85% it runs at now that he's a brand name.

Somebody else saw the film first and decided to comment --- I think in the Marvel movies thread --- but didn't feel like starting a polling thread. I definitely liked this better... than The Karate Kid, Part III.

Half way through. So far, so suck.

The historical credibility of Casablanca is not vast.

It was brilliant using Jimmy Stewart as a leading man, because he was cashing in all the chips that Frank Capra had earned. Jimmy Stewart's earler everyman characters had earned so much audience identification that when a Hitchcock movie opens and he seems genial enough again, the viewer has no problem going along for the ride with him. When it unfolds that his character is creepy or disturbed or coldhearted or some combination of those, it's too late for the audience to escape. They're sympathizing with him and probably not a little disturbed with themselves for doing it.

A lot of good answers, though. My missus saw me posting in this thread and rented 39 Steps last night.

Willets Point wrote: Vic Sage wrote: Operation Petticoat (1959) another Edwards comedy, with Cary Grant (who Curtis had just spoofed affectionately in SOME LIKE IT HOT) I saw a bio on Tony Curtis on TV several years ago and at this period Curtis was at his height of popularity and had a lot of pull with the studios. When asked what project he wanted to do next he said "I want to do a service comedy with Cary Grant." He got his wish. That's totally not a gay answer.

The band playing CBGB in Hannah and Her Sisters was called The 39 Steps.

A .457? That would be big. Harry carried a .44 though.

Too hard. How big is that gun pointed at my head?

That's a pretty good analogy in that both made the second ones seem better than they were. Of course, Bad News Bears is the sort of high quality that the Karate Kid only occasionally sniffs.

Really almost nothing to it. I figured I had to fill in the gap in my KK awareness, but now I'm blue and almost kind of angry that I watched.

Daniel and Miyagi come home from Okinawa (with neither of the women whose hearts they won and whose village they saved) and walk right into a revenge trap set up by Kreese, his rich karate buddy from the Vietnam days, and some guy named Mike Barnes.

The woman raised her kids with pet lions, people. That's sort of crazy.

16) Mostly forgotten early dramatic adaptations: * The Skin Game (1931) * Juno and the Paycock (1930)

A side issue: The Birds is a really great film... until you become an adult. Discuss.

Truth. This got nominated for best picture. In retrospect, it looks like a weak year, but not everything wrong with it is the script --- hammy special effects (which were also nominated), a monotonous one-theme score (which won!), and gooofy crap with the actors talking straight to the camera as they delve into their neuroses. Side splittingly hilarious stuff. I'd like to say that the 'Cock wasn't on his game yet, but this is 11 years after The 39 Steps and that was great. Only the cinematography is worthy of the name on the marquee.

Icy-cold analyst played by Ingrid Bergman falls for a fellow practioner (Gergory Peck) of the modern science of "psychology," and when he turns out to be not what he seems, and wanted for murder, runs off with him until her badass Freudian techniques can get to the bottom of his mysterious past. Alfred Hitchcock directs, paints a landscape of cryptic shadows, and --- when we get into the dreamscape of the subconscious --- turns the wheel over Salvador Dali. Oh, yeah.