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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:43 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Oh, there's a lot of bad Hitchcock out there, and it takes his biggest fan (me) to ferret it out. Secret Agent, for sure. Topaz, Torn Curtain, The Paradine Case, Stage Fright, I Confess. For starters. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 12:08 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I enjoy "Stage Fright." It's always fun to watch Marlene do her thing, and I love sinister back-of-the-theater games. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 2:05 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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carrobin wrote: I enjoy "Stage Fright." It's always fun to watch Marlene do her thing, and I love sinister back-of-the-theater games.
But SPOILER ALERT unreliable narrator is such a lame story device. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:04 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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billyweeds wrote: Oh, there's a lot of bad Hitchcock out there, and it takes his biggest fan (me) to ferret it out. Secret Agent, for sure. Topaz, Torn Curtain, The Paradine Case, Stage Fright, I Confess. For starters.
I do not think Parradine Case is that bad except by comparison. Just sort of ok. Secret Agent and Topaz, though...
My least favorite is Marnie. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 6:17 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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whiskeypriest wrote: billyweeds wrote: Oh, there's a lot of bad Hitchcock out there, and it takes his biggest fan (me) to ferret it out. Secret Agent, for sure. Topaz, Torn Curtain, The Paradine Case, Stage Fright, I Confess. For starters. I have not seen Joe lately; can I get away with my bad Hitch/ Bad.Blow Job line now?
I do not think Parradine Case is that bad except by comparison. Just sort of ok. Secret Agent and Topaz, though...
My least favorite is Marnie.
Torn Curtain makes Topaz look okay by comparison. Frenzy is a bit ocerrated but effective. Family Plot is quite, quite good IMO--a rather successful try at black comedy, much better than the too-twee The Trouble with Harry, and featuring terrific performances by Barbara Harris and Bruce Dern. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 1:01 pm |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
Posts: 278
Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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| Now that Whiskey mentioned Marnie as his worse Hitchcock. I saw that movie at a drive-in and I hated it. Worst Hitchcock I'd ever seen. A least the drive-in had good food! |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 2:58 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Marnie is bad, for sure, with process shots that are simply awful. Torn Curtain has a rotten plot, zero chemistry between Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, and lame pacing. There is one really good sequence (the murder in the kirchen), but that is absolutely it. Come to think of it, that one good sequence is more than Topaz or Marnie has and therefore TC could be counted as better. It's a tossup. T, TC, and M were three of Hitchcock's worst. Let's just leave it at that. Frenzy and Family Plot were the only good post-Birds Hitchcocks, and I'm not a big fan of Frenzy, either. I think FP, however, is a delight, and I am so happy it (and not Marnie, for instance) was Hitch's swan song.
P.S. (whispered) I don't like The Birds all that much. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Sat Sep 26, 2015 3:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 3:01 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I hated "Frenzy." It wasn't so much scary as just creepy. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 3:02 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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carrobin wrote: I hated "Frenzy." It wasn't so much scary as just creepy.
Totally. totally, 100% agree. But it was well made, which is more than you can say for TC, T, and M. So I hate Frenzy (misogynist treatment of women, too) while admiring its craft. Does that make sense? |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 4:59 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: NYC
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| Yes, there are a lot of movies--and other things--that I can admire for their artistry but that still leave me cold or even hostile. "Frenzy" was also a disappointment, though, for a Hitchcock fan. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 5:10 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Caught is a Max Ophuls melodrama starring Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan, and James Mason in what was reportedly his American movie debut. The movie is stolen by Ryan as a fictionalized and monstrous version of Howard Hughes, with whom Ophuls had a terrible time working a few years earlier, so Caught is apparently an act of revenge. It's also a very good movie in which Bel Geddes, a favorite of mine, has the lead for a change, and Mason, whose plummy voice and delivery have never appealed to me, is actually quite charming here, and even rather cute, if you can believe it. He's the good guy to Ryan's villain. It's all worth catching, on Amazon. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2015 11:08 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Quote: I think FP, however, is a delight, and I am so happy it (and not Marnie, for instance) was Hitch's swan song.
Just saw this and agree, and enjoy the scenes where Hitch winks at the cliches of the genre that fed him for all those years. E.g. the car with the brake lines cut. Or Dern's OTT sexual double-entendres. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2015 8:30 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: Quote: I think FP, however, is a delight, and I am so happy it (and not Marnie, for instance) was Hitch's swan song.
Just saw this and agree, and enjoy the scenes where Hitch winks at the cliches of the genre that fed him for all those years. E.g. the car with the brake lines cut. Or Dern's OTT sexual double-entendres.
I'm really glad you liked it. I think Barbara Harris and Bruce Dern have the kind of chemistry you can't buy. They apparently detested each other off camera, which sometimes leads to fireworks on. In this case it did, and both of them come off great. Karen Black and William Devane have less showy roles, but they're fun too. I really like this movie. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 11:07 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Funny about chemistry - "Castle" has the same thing, leads who can't stand each other but it turns into heat and flame on the screen. (Nathan Fillion publicly stated shortly after the series started that he thought Stana Katic was a 14 carat, gold-plated beeyotch and spoiled prima donna).
"Frenzy" tonight, another one I've missed, and a way to get October rolling, a month I usually try to focus on creepiness, film-wise.
Also caught "It Follows," whose title doesn't lend itself well to the search function at 3rd Eye, but I remember a couple members liked it. A fairly simple idea, well-executed and beautifully photographed. Had to wonder if there was a message about STDs there, cloaked in a creepy metaphor, but I think you can take the film as is and just enjoy the goosebumps. Bill Weeden appears briefly as a naked guy on a roof, I'm pretty sure. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 12:05 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| That news about "Castle" is a surprise. They're both better actors than I thought. |
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