Laura

This movie had me watching it again and again... and again. I adore it. And, in fact, as you watch it you will realize that, indeed, everyone adores Laura.

Police detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is investigating the murder of beautiful and highly successful advertising executive Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney). He interviews several people related to her, including a newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), her aunt (Judith Anderson) and her fiancée (Vincent Price). As the investigation progresses he becomes obsessed with Laura herself, but - what is a good movie without its fair share of surprises?

Although I wasn't particularly fond of Dana Andrews in this one (can't exactly say why, though; probably of the character itself), I loved Gene Tierney - one of the most beautiful actresses I've ever seen - and Clifton Webb was fantastic. I've already seen three or four movies in which Gene Tierney and Vincent Price act together and I've noticed that in all of them, he is always the jilted lover. Curious pattern!

There is something in this movie which just fascinated me. In fact, I felt the adoration that all characters have for Laura. Here is an intriguing information I read in wikipedia:

"Zanuck was unhappy with Preminger's first cut of the film and insisted it be given a new ending, in which it was revealed Lydecker had imagined the entire story. Following a screening of the Zanuck version, columnist Walter Winchell approached the studio head and told him, "I didn't get [the ending]. You've got to change it." Zanuck relented and allowed Preminger to reinstate his original finale, telling him, "This is your success. I concede."

I must agree - the ending is very good as it is.

The soundtrack is one of my favourite things, too: I think the theme fits perfectly in the whole ethereal ambiance of the movie. It is by David Raskin, and many other artists performed it, one of my favourites being Ella Fitzgerald singing it, which you can find on youtube.

Here is a trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6f8jRplej8

It was nominated for four oscars: Best Actor in a supporting role (Clifton Webb; absolutely agreed), Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Best Director, Best Writer; and won one: Best Cinematography, Black-and-White.

It is a film noir of 1944 by Otto Preminger. And I highly recommend it!

See you soon for more. Hope you like the blog up to now, and remember, feedback is always more than welcome :)

Spellbound

This movie is one of my Hithcock favorites, and one of my all-time favorites. I can't explain it, there's just something in it that makes me marvel at it and never tire seeing

it time and time again. Here's my plot summary:

Psychoanalist Dr Constance Peterson (Ingrid Bergman), who works in a mental hospital, meets with her new boss, Dr Edwardes (Gregory Peck). They fall in love after a very short time, but she soon notices strange things about him, such as his phobia of parallel lines against a white background. It is soon revealed that the real Dr Edwardes is missing, and the man she fell in love with (whose initials are JB) has a guilt complex and assumed his identity. They hide from the police and set out to help him and prove he did not murder Dr Edwardes.

I thought the plot great and very well told, and the acting is fantastic too. This is one of the most romantic movies I've ever seen, because I think the couple of Bergman and Peck works so well (a bit, I must confess, because of my teenage crush on Gregory Peck - hehe. I have the most stupid luck with my teenage actor crushes, since they're almost all dead by now).

I loved the way "JB"'s phobias and amnesia was portrayed. Two other great performances I must include were those of Leo G. Carroll as Dr Murchison, and Michael Chekhov as Dr Brulov, Constance's old teacher, who helps them i

n the movie. Might I add he is one of the funniest characters I've seen!

The shot in the end with Dr Murchison is in my opinion very peculiar and worth seeing (not going to spoil it though!) and, also in the end, the several shots of only Constance's face through all the police and courtroom proceedings remind me of the similar shots in Dial M For Murder with Grace Kelly's face. Something important to mention is that the movie features a dream sequence which sets are by surreal artist Salvador Dalí.

And at last, I must speak of one of my favorite aspects of the movie - the soundtrack. By Miklos Rózsa, it won an Oscar and I believe it is one of the most beautiful soundtracks I've heard. It is one of the first to include a theremin, too, which I believe is very adequate with the story. (For any of you out there that play piano like me, here is a site with the musical score: http://www.classicscore.hut2.ru/R.html (it's sheet number 4057). However, Hithcock didn't like the music! As quoting Rózsa, "Alfred Hitchcock didn't like the music - said it got in the way of his direction. I never saw him since".

The director is Alfred Hithcock, the year 1945, and it was nominated to 5 Oscars: Best Director, Best Picture, Best Effects, Best Cinematography and Best Actor in a supporting role (Michael Chekhov). Here's a link of the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Ury2w2ncw

By the way: Hithcock's cameo appearance: he can be seen coming out of an elevator at the Empire State Hotel, carrying a violin case and smoking a cigarette, about 37 minutes into the film.

Remember, comments are always welcome! Hope you liked it, and see you next week for more! :)

The Philadelphia Story

There comes a time when you fatally realize that today's mainstream romantic comedy is far, far, sadly faaaaar from the quality level of yesterday's mainstream romantic comedy. I found out about this movie by myself and started watching it alone too, and I wasn't sure what to expect - I was almost afraid it might be bad. Of course, I forgot that the proportion of bad movies "today" is much higher than the proportion of bad movies "yesterday".

As it turned out, I was rolling on the floor laughing for most of the movie or grinning irresistibly. This had so many excellent actors I don't even know where to start. But first, the short story!

Tracy Samantha Lord Haven (Katharine Hepburn) is a wealthy Philadelphia socialite who had divorced C. K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), a member of her social set, because he did not measure up to her exacting standards. She is about to marry nouveau riche "man of the people" George Kittredge (John Howard). Spy magazine publisher Sidney Kidd (Henry Daniell) is eager to cover the wedding, and enlists Dexter, one of his former employees, into introducing reporter Macaulay "Mike" Connor (James Stewart) and photographer Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) as friends of the family so they can report on the wedding.

Let delightful madness ensue! This was one of the funniest movies I've seen, and I've got to say it was all thanks to the actors. Katharine Hepburn is great, of course (one of my favorites), and Cary Grant has a somewhat different role from what I'm used to see: more quiet and observant, but always with his awesome and hilarious expressions and lines. ("But first, could I interest you in some blackmail?"). I loved Tracy's younger sister Dinah (Virginia Weidler, as well as her Uncle Willie (Roland Young). The photographer Liz Imbrie and her usually placid way of being was fantastic ("Oh, no, I'm just a photographer, I can't afford to hate anyone"). And James Stewart has one of the funniest scenes I can remember: when he's drunk. In fact, let me present to you this list of my modest opinion (and limited experience):

Best Drunks In Movies:

Cary Grant (North By Northwest), Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast At Tiffany's), Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart (The Philadelphia Story)

And the list is ever growing, ladies and gentlemen!

The director is George Cukor (you might know him for My Fair Lady) and the year 1940. Still not sure you want to watch this? I can guarantee you a light, hilarious and witty comedy. Plus, it was nominated for four oscars (Best Director, Best Picture, Best Actress in a supporting role (Ruth Hussey - I told you she was great!) and Best Actress in a leading role (Katharine Hepburn) and won two: Best Actor in a leading role (James Stewart) and Best Screenplay (Donald Ogden Stewart). Perfectly agreed!

I didn't like mainstream romantic comedies because I didn't know the old ones!

Here's a trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CtquHsxoZo

See you soon for more movies! :)

Dial M For Murder

Hello there! Pull up a chair, or sit in the comfy carpet. The lemonade will be ready in a minute!

I don't know why this is the first Hitchcock movie I write about, let alone the first movie in this blog; I have no idea. It's not even one of my top favourites. But don't be fooled by that opinion. This movie is very, veeery good.

The plot is very much Hitchcockian (if I can say that!). Ex-tennis star Tony Wendice wishes to murder his wife Margot, who has an affair with crime-fiction writer Mark Halliday. Wendice fears she will leave him, and naturally take her money with her, on which he depends. The crime is almost perfect – but expect to see surprising complications with apparently insignificant objects involved in the crime such as scissors, a stocking and particularly, latchkeys.

The movie takes almost exclusively place in the Wendice's living room,apart from a very few scenes outside. However, I only noticed that after watching it; I never had a sort of "claustrophobic" feeling that may happen in such movies (although this is, as always, only my personal opinion). The sequences and shots just didn't let me think that. And it's fitting the movie should be set mainly in that living room, since it's based on a play (by Frederick Knott). Curiously, it was originally in 3D: it was all the rage and many directors and companies didn't want to be "left behind" (a lot like nowadays, come to think of it!). It must have been fantastic to watch it in 3D! The shot of Tony Wendice showing a latchkey, or that of his wife Margot stretching out her hand to the audience while being attacked were especially thought for the 3D effect. Another thing I irresistibly love in this Hitchcock movie (along with his other ones where Grace Kelly stars too) are the colors and the use the master of suspense gave them. Just an example: a white dress when Margot is with her husband, and a red passionate one when she's with her lover Mark.

The acting is superb, starring Ray Milland as Tony Wendice, Grace Kelly as Margot Wendice, and Robert Cummings as Mark Halliday; and, one of my personal favorites, John Williams as the brilliant police inspector Hubbard (no, not that John Williams. Another John Williams!) The great soundtrack is by Dimitri Tiomkin.

One scene evokes all the courtroom

procedures merely with a voiceover, changing lights and a constant shot of

Grace Kelly's face, but her expressions state with an amazing talent all

there is to know - and more. Ray Milland's role is outstanding: despite

playing a horribly despicable character, there is a strange empathy we feel towards him.

The movie is form 1954. The director? Hitchcock, of course. And oh boy,

you'll be hearing a lot about him and his movies in this blog. Trust me.

Here's a youtube link of its trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qWwFvsBVic

By the way: Hithcock's cameo appearance: he can be seen thirteen minutes into the film in a black-and-white reunion photograph sitting at a banquet table among former students and faculty.

Go watch it! Hope you enjoyed our weekly chit chat (cofcof, should I

say monologue on my part!) and that you'll be back next week for more.

Remember, comments are always welcome!

See ya! :)

Hello there!

Hello there! A warm welcome to you all out there, sitting in your chairs in your comfy bedrooms, offices and evil basements. I have welcomes for all tastes: a hug, a poke in the arm or a whack in the head. Another little blog has been born in the huge blogosphere. Isn't it thrilling?

(That sentence only had "i's", by the way. I find it quite fascinating).

Anyway. I will do my very best to nurse and nurture this tiny blog, hoping to get a few pats in the head and back from you folks occasionally. My logo? A film a week and you'll be a geek. Nah, just kidding. Takes even more awesomeness than that to be a geek.

I'll be updating every week, probably Saturdays, the holy free-time days. The movies I'll be talking about? Mainly what you'd call "old movies", those that I've liked a lot and feel you should watch too. (Or, if I'm feeling evil, one particularly bad to rant about. But don't worry. That won't happen a lot at all. Ahem). I'll cover some more recent movies too, from time to time. I won't be rating any of them, though; I hate rating things, anything at all.

Therefore, I'm afraid you'll have to put up (if you want to, that is) with my very subjective, very relative opinion. As such, comments are always most welcome. I don't have a large knowledge of cinema terms, either; so if you are an expert, please forgive my ignorance :)

Await other small things other than movie posts, too! And don't forget to bring your hot chocolate, cappuccino or cat to warm your lap.

See ya next week! =D

Written at Stuart Highway, Australia, local 5:12, 13 / 7 / 2011