Anyway (of the US films) Marnie, Lifeboat, Strangers on a Train, Rope, Shadow of a Doubt, Rebecca and even (dare I admit it?!) Stage Fright are infinitely more interesting and rewarding films (to me at least) than either North by Northwest or The Birds and consequently they stand up to repeated viewing. I haven’t rewatched North by Northwest or The Birds in years but have come back to the others many a time.
McKittrick: It’s interesting you mention Stage Fright, since it’s one of the few Hitchcocks I was really disappointed with. What did you like about it?
It’s hard to discuss without giving spoilers! I will say the ‘lying’ flashback which, far from being a cheat, I think is a brilliant trick on the audience. The casting – Jane Wyman (despite feeling eclipsed by Dietrich) is actually not bad and Alistair Sim was criticised but I think he’s great as are a number of other theatrical types being very theatrical (Kay Walsh, Joyce Grenfell, Sybil Thorndike and Patricia Hitchcock of course). But that is what this film is about – acting. Not in the sense of the players performing well but that ALL the characters are acting a part in some way (some more obviously than others).
Michael Wilding is a bit blah and it’s also been criticised for a particular ‘weak’ villain. But the weakness is an irrelevance and makes perfect sense to the outcome. And there is nothing weak about the eery way the killer is revealed and the peril the heroine finds herself in.
Marlene Dietrich is extremely camp and very much indulged by Hitch but I certainly can’t see a problem with that!
Most of all, it’s such huge camp fun and I think many people (during this period at least) expect Hitchcock to be unnerving and/or scary.
McKittrick: I agree, Hitchcock is not meant to be unnerving or scary. As far as Stage Fright, I didn’t mind the majority of the performances or the flashback and I would say my two biggest problems were the casting of Wyman [while she’s not bad, I just didn’t think she fit in well] and the lack of tension between her and Dietrich. I would have to see it again eventually and see if my opinion has changed though.
Well Wyman has herself to blame in some respects. She was peeved at Hitch’s indulgence of Dietrich and consequently balked at being too frumpy when pretending to be Doris Tinsdale. She would have been more fun if she had stuck to her original disguise (the gold-fish bowl glasses and fag hanging from her lip were a nice touch). In the story it’s dismissed by her character when she’s recognised by her mother
McKittrick: Yeah, that disguise was interesting. Dietrich always seems to have caused problems when there was another woman on set. Reminds me of what I’ve heard about A Foreign Affair. :D
Rebecca, for Judith Anderson’s performance alone.
“Rebecca, for Judith Anderson’s performance alone”
Mrs Danvers is possibly my favourite Hitchcock villain. The best thing Hitch did in his adaptation of the book, (which is one of my favourites) is to hike up the villainy (and sexuality) of Mrs Danvers. Judith Anderson’s scenes – especially where she is willing the second Mrs de Winter to kill herself – are some of the best in the Hitch canon
“Reminds me of what I’ve heard about A Foreign Affair”
I’m intrigued…
Incidentally, Hitchcock was similarly indulgent (at the expense of the rest of the cast) with Tallulah Bankhead on the set of Lifeboat.
He must have took great glee when they voiced their distress that it was very obvious she wore no knickers!
McKittrick: Ah yes, I remember reading about Ms. Bankhead too. ;)
British films/American films…who cares?!?
My favourite is Saboteur with the incrediible Norman Lloyd and the Statue of Liberty climax.
Nevertheless, I think Rebecca is his most mature work (if you discount Notorious, Psycho and at least the final shot of North by Northwest) and I’d have to say his best film even if you don’t discount those other films. It’s brilliantly acted, stunningly photographed and edited and very entertaining. McKittrick hits it as far as Mrs. Danvers goes…virtually every scene between her & “the second Mrs. DeWinter” is a nail-biter. I also think Joan Fontaine gives the best performance of her career. She’s great in Suspicion, Jane Eyre, and later in Lang’s Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, but here she’s brilliant, capturing that poor woman’s fall from cosmic ecstacy to horror like no other actress likely could. She soundly holds her own with heavyweights like Judith Anderson and Olivier.
… Not forgetting Letter From an Unknown Woman!
Rebecca
McKittrick
His golden age from the British period that started with ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ and ended with ‘The Lady Vanishes’. Everything else – like cinema itself – is merely (more ‘polished’) imitation… mostly!
Hitchcock was hardly EVER really serious and maybe he was being glib when he said that “all my films are comedies”. But, when you look closely, the only films that could ever be called outright ‘serious’ are ‘The Wrong Man’, ‘I Confess’ and ‘Vertigo’ . All three are utterly bleak with untypically downbeat endings – ‘Vertigo’ does contain a handful of jokes but there is none at all in ‘I Confess or ’The Wrong Man’. Even ‘Psycho’ (which he referred to as his “little joke”) riddled as it is with gothic and gallows humour is nothing if not a black comedy.
Obviously I digress here! But ALL Hitchcock holds interest for me, so I don’t need much of an excuse to ramble ;)