Hitchcock forgotten - for Store Hadji

[Peter Tonguette]

Welles Fan: I agree about "Strangers on a Train." Great picture.

"Family Plot" is a really fascinating film to me, I must say. On a surface level, it's a wonderfully light mystery comedy: a vein Hitchcock hadn't really worked in since perhaps "The Trouble With Harry" (although "North by Northwest" also qualifies in some ways.) But on a deeper level, I think the film really was something of a self-reflective "goodbye." Yes, Hitchcock planned other projects after "FP," but there's this overwhelming sense in the movie of a great artist bidding farewell to his audience. The final wink to the camera really says it all.

It's a flawed work, but -- for Hitchcock fans -- impossible to ignore.

Peter

[Store Hadji]

Welles' quotes panning Hitchcock, and several other directors, can be found in the book ORSON WELLES INTERVIEWS, which includes old newspaper and magazine interviews, and freshly translated stuff from Cahiers. Worth a read, especially since Welles' disparaging comments were all excised from This Is Orson Welles.

My other favourite directors are Terry Gilliam, Kubrick, and Erich von Stroheim.

[jaime marzol]

welles dished huston in SARRIS' INTERVIEWS WITH FILM DIRECTORS. said kubrik was better director than huston, and the killing a better picture than the asphalt jungle. even if it is true, a friend just doesn't say those things.

like huston told flynn before they got in a fist fight. flynn badmouthed a woman they both knew, huston said, "that's a lie, and if it's not, you are a son of a bitch for saying it."

has any one read that when FAT CITY premiered bogdanovich and another young whipper snapper movie guy were in the audience laughing at it?

[Store Hadji]

How about the dubbing of The Spanish Earth, when Welles told Hemingway to cut some narration, Ernest called Welles an effeminate theatrical, Welles starting poncing, saying "Oh, Mr. Hemingway, you're SO BIG and SO STRONG," and they wound up throwing chairs at each other.

THAT'S what friends are for.

[jaime marzol]

...........

the quote i read about that here was hillarious, it's worthy of a tshirt. the tshirt would look like this

ERNEST HEMINGWAY
TO
ORSON WELLES
"what do you affeminate boys of the
ny theater know about real war?"

[jaime marzol]

...........

hemingway is like hotspur of the north in CHIMES. he needs a passel of horns blowing he every boast.

[Jeff Wilson]

In most Hitchcock films women start off pristine and polished but end up being undone by their own hand. Welles shared this theme to some extent with Hitchcock; Kane and The Lady from Shanghai are good examples.

I don't agree about that in this instance; Elsa is clearly evil all along in SHANGHAI, as she is simply stringing O'Hara along to make him her patsy, as are the others, for different reasons. The women in KANE aren't really pillars of strength either; Emily is a rich girl who turns into a shrew and is disposed of via auto wreck; Susan is just a puppet from the start, until she finally discovers her backbone and leaves Kane, even though it ruins her as well. So in the end, she actually gains some stature.

[LA]

Peter T. said: "On a surface level, it's a wonderfully light mystery comedy: a vein Hitchcock hadn't really worked in since perhaps "The Trouble With Harry" (although "North by Northwest" also qualifies in some ways.) But on a deeper level, I think the film really was something of a self-reflective "goodbye.""

That's an interesting idea, I must take another look at Family Plot soon. Loved The Trouble With Harry too, great light black comedy, perfectly judged acting IMO, and beautiful location photography. Pity Hitch didn't make more films like that, apparently it flopped at the box-office. Oh well.

[dm olson]

When Hitchcock mastered his 'psychosis' films, which predate Psycho by nearly six years, he really had hit his peak. Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, Vertigo and Rear Window, they really showed someone who knew how to peel a grape. 'The Birds' and even 'North by Northwest' seemed to me a playful move back to entertainment, tho NbNw is among my favourites. Heck, no one ever talks about his early 40s thriller-boilers like Saboteur and Foreign Correspondent, two flicks that leave me with a great appreciation for his keen eye for pure fun.
John Ford may be not as famous today, but his story-telling style in The Searchers and Grapes of Wrath punches-out most modern-day 'auteurs' easily. He was more a simple, straight film-roller, but when he breaks free from his Hemingway-esque manner, delving into the head of John Wayne when we near the climax in Searchers -- how a tired, fired up hunt for revenge turns into quickly into salvation job of the noblest order, he demonstrated the touch of a poet.

[mteal]

Speaking of The Birds, at the Universal theme park in Florida, I've heard that they show a bird-attack scene from that film in 3D. Does this mean that the entire film was shot that way? I can't imagine why they've never released it if it was. One of my favorite Hitchcock films is the the 3D version of DIAL M FOR MURDER, a film that, when you see it on TV or in a normal 2D format, isn't nearly as much fun. A 3D version of The Birds would be incredible.

[Harvey Chartrand]

Hitchcock rules!
As for John Ford, his future's all used up.