1940's Hall Of Fame Part I

People do say that all the time and many movies do show the romance part, abbreviated. But I think that's by design, so the film maker can focus on other elements of the story.

The audience is not privy to all the moments that the characters spend together, so I think as long as the chemistry is there it doesn't take much of a leap of faith to find that two people fall in love in a short span of movie time. There's something about war that breaks down the barriers that people put up, and there's an urgency in the air too.

The other night I watched a documentary: Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015) it's pretty good for those interested in film making. Hitch was quoted as saying something that I though was important. He said film making was about time, either slowing down things that happen fast or speeding up things that happen slowly.

When it comes to romance in films, the actual falling in love often has to be speed up, otherwise there's no room for the rest of the story. The exception would be a movie that's mainly about a couple falling in love.

Wow, that was a long post!

I do believe in it in some instances, but more often than not there are foolish or desperate people who will rush into things. In this movie, with what was happening around them, I believed in the former. Situations count for a lot.

It was...fine. It was dull at times, but it was also occasionally witty. I really liked the costume design. It's not a movie I think I'd watch again though.

I think whether or not love at first sight or a very short romance is believable in a movie has a lot to do with the chemistry between the two actors. In some movies, the actors have such great chemistry together that we (the audience) want to see them fall in love, so it's very believable when it happens quickly. But in some movies, if the actors chemistry isn't as good, we have a hard time believing that they fell in love so quickly because we haven't fallen in love with the thought of them being together yet, so it just seems like it happened too fast.

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OPEN FLOOR.

Okay, John Ford just convinced me! I had seen The Searchers, which didn't impress me at all, then I liked The Grapes of Wrath but this is a whole new level! I can't even describe what I liked about it, but during this I laughed, I felt touched, I laughed a bit more and I ended the movie in tears...
The way it sums the life of the entire family and how things change through time, going from bad moments to good moments, to bad ones again, with marriages, deaths, scandals and new adventures, it's impressive, while never leaving a very sharp critique to society and religion!
The acting is pretty great from everyone involved, a tad too theatrical sometimes but I can't even look at that as something bad!
And there's the music of course... Using the Welsh musical culture, especially the choral backgrounds of the country is just superb! This movie would have worked anywhere in the world, but in Wales as a special taste.

Directly to my Top 100, this goes!

The Wages of Fear?

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You're just feeling confused, my dear. It'll pass.

Well, I have three days left. No worries. I haven't forgot, and this is just a flu bug, not a stomach virus, so it won't take me away from here anymore than that one day. Unfortunately for me, it was Christmas day. Oh well. That's life. I'll be back.

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Problem with doing a write up at 1 am after a 5 hour train trip. I meant The Grapes of Wrath... xD

Murderers Among Us

Just didn't care for it and consequently I don't really have a lot to say about it either. The problem is that I couldn't get myself to care a whole lot about the story, which is disappointing for me due to the time period that the film took place as well as it's a German film and I usually like films about or from Germany. The characters did literally nothing for me and they weren't interesting at all. The only thing I thought was well done was the cinematography. The rest was far too bland for me. Luckily with its runtime, it didn't have a dragging effect, rather a slumbering one.

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Too bad you couldn't enjoy it. But other than the cinematography, there's nothing really special about the film or its characters, so I completely understand people not being too fond of it.

I remember the first time I saw that movie I really didn't like Hans, and thought that Susanne was way too clean and "nice looking" to have come from a concentration camp, and that really bothered me. But the cinematography won me over, as did the final act. When I watched it a second time, I was a lot more forgiving of Hans' character, though Susanne's tidy appearance coming off the train is still really strange to me.

Looks like I may need help finding sources for the others. Damn it seems like things are harder and harder to find these days. Or at least on an iPad.

Thief of Bagdad (my own nom, which WAS on Hulu and Filmstruck doesn't work for me for whatever reason)
Little Foxes
Rope (rewatch)
Shadow of a Doubt
Arsenic and Old Lace (rewatch)

I sent you a couple of links. I've noticed that online movie links are drying up. I know of a couple big sites that are doing away with them. I fear the day when easy access to old movies might be gone

LOL
Are you sure? For a while there I thought I smelt toast . . . Which just made me hungry and I had some breakfast,so--

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~Mr Minio

Charming and hilarious movie!
I loved how it all started with the atmosphere of a drama or a crime noir and gradually changed to a non-sense dark comedy! I had no idea what this movie was about so it got me completely surprised!!!
I loved the aunts characters, even the way they walked was funny and Cary Grant continued to surprise me. His facial expressions and body language are hilarious and he delivered just the right amount of energy to carry the whole movie from one scene to the other. However, my favourite character of all is Teddy! Never a lunatic seemed so convincing and at the same time so funny as John Alexander's Teddy Roosevelt.
The character's I didn't care for were Elaine (I'd like to have seen more of her but she ended up being just a small and non decisive character) and Jonathan Brewster (who I think should have been portraied as a way scarier and mysterious serial killer).
There were some really nice cinematography bit and some lovely details with the soundrack. I recall the scene when Teddy is bringing the dead body down the stairs and we hear a funeral march theme and right after that, Elaine rings at the doorbell and the music changes to the wedding march motif without losing its previous feeling! That was really something!!!

It's impressive to see how some of this jokes didn't get old and still feel fresh so many years later.

Having seen this SOOO many times I don't think I ever caught the shift from funeral march to wedding march, or maybe it just never clicked - I'll be looking for that next time!

There's a dialogue in between when Jonathan and Einstein bring the body through the window but the music never stops being dark and mysterious, till she knocks! Then it keeps the same atmosphere but with the wedding march melody which works great! It's around the 50 minutes mark.

This was my third hitchcock, after Psycho and North by northwest. I have to say this was nothing like the previous two. I never knew that he could infuse his movies with a sense of humour.

Rope's a movie totally dependent on its dialouge, as well as a very effective camera work. Had a lesser filmmaker tried to do this movie in the same manner, we wouldn't be watching it now because he'd have failed and the movie would've bombed. As is, the movie's dialouge is funny ans frought with double meanings. A big part of the suspence as well as the comedy stems from the way a frase is turned or how a characters choice of word, while seeming innocent to them, carries meaning to both the two boys as well as us in the audience. My favourite piece of dialouge must be Mrs. Atwaters comment to Philip about how his hands will make him famous and the shot holding on his hands as he contemplates her words and their meaning.

My favourite shot, though, is of the maid clearing the chest bit by bit while the others are just out of frame talking amongst themselves. The tension builds as she brings in the books...and then Brandon stops her, releaving the tension temporarily but making Mr. Cadell all the more suspicious, promising a climactic finish in the end.

Props to the two leads as well as to Stewart. Very good performances from them, as well as the rest of the cast actually. Chandler and Dick were a bit pale compared to the rest, but overall a great cast led by a great director.

I, too, watched ROPE UNLEASHED after the movie and I think I agree with Laurents when he discussed the opening scene and its impact. If we'd opened on the boys just after they did the deed, we'd be kept wondering wheter or not there really is a body in the chest. That sense of uncertainty would've made the scene with the maid clearing it all the more suspenceful, the reveal all the more powerful. As is, we already know form the get go. I'm not saying the movie suffers for it, only that it would've brought even more tension to the proceedings.

Anyway, a good movie and a good nomination. Good choice, Neiba!

P.S.
Loved the cityscape in the background and how it got darker and darker, following the fading of the natural light of a spring evening. Not really sure how they accomplished it, to be honest. Any Ideas?
D.S

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Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?

Only two left now, Shadow of a doubt and Waterloo bridge. Think I'll go for Waterloo first as to get a breather between Hitchcocks.

Great write up Clazor The cityscape was really cool! especially as it got darker as the movie progressed, which showed night setting in. I'm not sure how Hitch did it...this is only a guess, but I think it's a built set piece that's being filmed as the rest of the movie is.

Definitely looked like a set and they changed the lighting. I don't know though. Actually makes the movie feel dated to me.

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