Hitchcock, Psychosis, Romance and Suspense

Another one of Alfred Hitchcock amazingly filmed psychological thrillers is the 1964 film Marnie . Based off of a book of the same name by author Winston Graham, the set of the film reportedly had tons of stress and problems yet remains a classic film and the professed favorite of leading actress Tippi Hedren. The film uses elements of sex, drama, mystery, and cinematic effects to create the thrilling atmosphere Hitchcock is known for.

The film is about Marnie Edgar (Hedren), a psychologically distressed woman who has many unnatural fears including thunderstorms, the color red, and close relationships and the trusting of men. She is also a compulsive thief and has a long history of stealing from the businesses she works for. She persuades Sidney Strutt (Martin Gabel) to give her a job and then ultimately steals everything out of his company safe and leaves. One of Strutt's best customers is Mark Rutland (Sean Connery), a widower who owns a printing company and remembers the young woman who Strutt reports stole the money from him. When Marnie comes to work for Rutland's company, he keeps watch over her and when she steals from him, he tracks her down and blackmails her into marrying him. Living with the Rutlands is Lil Mainwaring (Diane Baker), the young sister of Mark's late wife who is jealous that Marnie married Mark instead of her. She connives to expose Marnie to Mark and to everyone else, which Mark has to keep under wraps. Throughout their strained marriage, Mark is determined to discover what is the reason behind Marnie's deep psychological problems. He tracks down Marnie's mother (Louise Latham), a former prostitute, and at last, a long kept, dreadful tale of murder and intrigue is revealed with Marnie at it's center.

The movie is not considered a financial success though its expressionist style and the cinematic techniques it used are generally considered to be ahead of their time, perhaps the reason the movie was not widely positively received. Diane Baker was not allowed to read the script before signing on to the film, but instead was merely told it was a Hitchcock film with Tippi Hedren in the lead role. Hitchcock wanted Grace Kelly to be the leading lady for this film, but the citizens of her new homeland Monaco were outraged at the thought of their princess playing a psychologically disturbed kleptomaniac. Hitchock then went with Hedren who he had previously directed in The Birds but during shooting, Hedren and Hitchcock had a major falling out which lead to the end of their friendship.

For more opinions on this film, there are a variety of sources you can access. Turner Classic Movies has a synopsis and tons of goodies that can be found here on the film's homepage. Web site thedistractedglobe.com has this article, which reviews, analysis, and gives a brief history of the film. Frank's Movie Log has this short, to the point review. The Movies and Frontier's blog has this review about the lasting quality of the film, and finally, dearcinema.com has this article about how Marnie differs from Hitchcock's other films.

Not A Pond For Skinny Dipping

Want a movie that has all the elemts of a b-movie, psycho-thriller, suspense, mystery, horror, independent and black and white film? The 1963 horror flick Dementia 13 is a good film for you to watch. The film was the first "mainstream" film written and directed by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola, for those of you who admire his work. It the first film I can't really tell you that this film is bad or good since it is highly subjective. Everyone has their own opinion, but we will get to that later. The film is public domain and can be watched here, but first you might like to know a little more about it.

The film begins with John (William Campbell) and Louise Haloran (Luana Anders) taking a midnight boat ride to the sound of an upbeat rockability song on the transistor radio. Just as he is telling her that if he dies before his mother (Eithne Dunne), Louise will inherit nothing, he has a heart attack in their boat without his pills to help him through the incident. She disposes of the body and intends to travel to his mother's gloomy Irish castle to convince her to change the will, not letting the family know that her husband's body is in a lake somewhere. Louise goes "in place" of her husband for the memorial service of a mysterious person known as Kathleen (Barbara Dowling). Louise finds out that Kathleen is her husband's baby sister who died in a weird drowning accident back in Ireland, which the family still keeps shrouded in mystery. When she arrives there, Louise discovers that her late husband's family is a lot stranger than she counted on and is keeping some terrible secrets.And whatever you do, stay away from that pond.

The film is widely considered a b-movie, especially being produced by Roger Corman who was a famous b-filmmaker. Opinions are pretty much split on the movie. Some love it, some hate it, and others really can't make up their mind. Coppola fans say this early film gives insight into his future works. Slasher film fans say this film is a natural ancestor to the subgenre. Hitchcock fans say that this film is a blatant rip-off of Psycho, from the low-budget style to the black and white to the script. The best way to figure out what is true is to watch the film for yourself, but some reviews might also be helpful.

As I said, a lot of Hitchcock fans believe the film is a Psycho wannabe, such as the review here. Classic-horror.com did a sort of mixed review here, which might be helpful to some. There are some who believe the film is a waste of time, like those at 100misspenthours.com, whose review is here. Contemporary critics universally panned the film, but it is gained considerable cult popularity over the years. Also, the message board at IMDB for the film is a good place to get info on the film.

This is a very dark film and since it is an ancestor of slasher films, there is a good deal of blood and violence. There are tons of twists, turns, and creep outs, but its all worth it for a good scare.

Poster Design: The Art of Horror

Before you go into a movie theatre, what is usually the first thing you see as you go in? The movie posters lining the walls, which are supposed to attract you inside, of course. In today's world, computers have made graphic design such an easy task, but before you could make art with a few clicks of a mouse, most of these posters were hand-drawn, completely created by the designers from scratch to make beautiful works of art. Since horror is the topic of the month, I'm going to focus on two horror artists in particular: Reynold Brown and Saul Bass.

Saul Bass is probably most famous for the designing of several Hitchcock movie posters including Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho. He also worked on two drama posters for The Man with the Golden Arm and Anatomy of a Murder. Bass did some famous non-horror posters as well, such as the ones for Carmen Jones, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Seven Year Itch and The Big Country. Bass's career spanned forty years and in addition to posters, he also did film title sequences and company logos. Bass worked for such legendary directors as Hitchcock, Kubrick, Sorcsese and Preminger. His posters all have a unique style to them.

Another famous artist who did several horror posters is Reynold Brown. Brown's posters were wide range from different genres, ages, and success levels. Many of his beautifully done posters are b-movies, though the posters themselves are Grade A. His posters include ones done for Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Pit and the Pendulum, House on Haunted Hill, Tarantula, I Was A Teenage Werewolf, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, and The Time Machine. Some of his famous non-horror posters include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Spartacus, Ben-Hur, King of Kinds, How the West Was Won, Mutiny on the Bounty, and The Alamo.

In the past few decades, collecting vintage film memorabilia, especially these posters, has become an incredibly competitive commercial market. Many such

posters are extremely rare and it is common for people to screen printer illegal or unlicensed copies of them to sell. To date, the most expensive movie poster sold on record was the one made for Fritz Lang's Metropolis, which sold to a collector for $690,000. Serious collectors are willing to drop some major cash in order to add to their collection, but that doesn't mean you can't see these beautiful works of art for yourself.

I have found several websites that have excellent online galleries and stores for you to buy posters (both actual and replicas), if any of you are interested. Cinemacom.com has a wonderful collection of beautiful posters that you can view for free in their online galleries.

Cinemasterpieces.com buys, sells, and auctions posters, but you can look at them online for free. The site Hammerhorrorposters.com has several horror posters for you to view, histories of the posters, and is a great resource if you want to know more about the posters or collecting them. Movie posters even have their own awards, the Key Art Awards sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter on the internet is the Internet Movie Poster Awards (IMP Awards) and here you can view several award nominated and revered poster artists.

Portrait of a Mama's Boy: Norman Bates

One of the essential Hitchcock films is the frightening psychological thriller Psycho. The film itself is extremely iconic and everyone, even those who have not seen the film, know the suspense and terror connected to Janet Leigh's famous shower scene. I watched the movie this evening on Turner Classic Movies, and even almost fifty years after the film was initially released, Psycho is still as terrifying as ever.

The film is almost two stories in one. At the beginning, secretary Marion Crane (Leigh) wants nothing more than to marry out-of-town secret boyfriend Sam Loomis (John Gavin). When her boss gives her $40,000 to put in the bank, Marion battles with her conscience and finally decides to leave with the money and join Sam so they can start their life together. Suddenly, Marion gets the feeling that she is being followed, that the her boss has turned her in and the police are on her tale. She buys a new car to throw them off her track and then, after a raining night of driving on the highway, Marion finds herself at the out of the way Bates Motel. There she meets the shy Norman (Anthony Perkins), a strange young man with an interesting relationship with his mother. There the film diverges and we are plunged into following the crimes of a deeply disturbed murderer.

Hitch's last black and white film, Psycho was shot so because black and white was inexpensive and blood looks more gory in color. Hitchcock used a variety of camera angles, lighting effects, and shifts to create the eerie atmosphere in Psycho. In order to make his audience feel like voyeurs, a 50 mm lens was used on a 33 mm camera to give it the same appearance as looking through a person's eyes. Hitch is also famous for using tons of different angles and shots to make one scene. The shower scene alone uses somewhere between 70 and 90 different shots spliced together to make the same scene, a scene lasting only 45 seconds. Another little bit of trivia, this is the first movie to have a scene where the audience actually sees a flushing toilet.

The film was #1 on AFI's 100 Thrills list and #14 on the 100 Movies. The quote "A boy's best friend is his mother" was ranked #56 on AFI's top movie quotes. Of course, this film does have those who dislike in. In fact, Walt Disney would never allow Hitch to make a film for him or use any sets at Disneyland because Hitch was the one who made "that disgusting movie" Psycho.

Still, Psycho remains incredibly popular with audiences to this day. For those of you who want to know more about the movie, you can get some more information from these sites. Filmsite.org has a great analysis and review of the movie you can read here. Another website, House of Horrors, offers up a great analysis, review, and some fun and behind the scenes facts about the movie any film buff would be interested in, which you can find here. For those of you who love this movie so much you want to memorize every word, here you can find online a complete transcript of the entire movie. Psycho is a movie that will terrify but it might also become one of your new favorites. I highly recommend watching it, with the lights on of course.

48 Hours of Horror on TCM

Turner Classic Movies has some big plans to make this Halloween even scarier.They are doing a "48 Hours of Horror" special movie marathon on Thursday, October 30 and Friday, October 31. This marathon includes a collection of horror anthologie as well as movies based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. You can find the schedule for the 30th here and the one for the 31st here, so you can better plan which films you want to watch and see what is on the list for those days. The TCM site also allows you to send reminders to yourself that these movies will be on and when.

Additionally, TCM is keeping you updated with their own blog. From October 25 to 31, the TCM blog Movie Morlocks, will be blogging about their favorite horror movies and why they enjoy these movies so much. The blog-a-thon will touch on several different movies and topics about old horror films and their significance. I hope you will take advantage of these great resources.

Traitor or Patriot?

Imagine that the country is at war and you are a humble worker at a Los Angeles aircraft factory, who one day witnesses your own best friend burn up in flames during a freak accident at the plant. Suddenly, the accident grows more suspicious and you find yourself fleeing from the law, your patriotism challenged, and being unjustly accused of a treasonous crime of sabotage which you did not commit. It could be a modern suspense melodrama playing out with the latest action star at your local theatre, but this movie is set during World War II and deals with many issues of loyalty, patriotism, trust, and scapegoating, which we still deal with today.

This is the exact problem faced by Barry Kane, played by Robert Cummings, in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1942 film Sabotuer. The film was on Turner Classic Movies earlier today and sinc I had already seen it, it was a little easier for me to jump right in thirty minutes into the film. Cummings is better known for playing Hitchcock’s leading man in Dial M for Murder. Still, Saboteur, which is not exactly one of Hitchcock's most popular, is an amazing movie that had me on the edge of my seat the first time I saw it. This is truly a film that is as relevant today as when it was first released.

Picking back up with the story, Kane must track down the elusive Frank Frye (Norman Lloyd) who actually committed the act of sabotage to clear his own name. Kane finds himself going against a powerful group of fascists attempting to undermine the US war efforts, most of whom are the wealthy, powerful and last people you would suspect. When Kane crosses with Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger) his safety becomes even more in jeopardy. He meets beautiful blonde model Pat Martin (Pricilla Lane), who cannot trust him though her blind uncle has no problems. Pat gets involved with Kane in more ways than one and they must make their way through New York, through deserts, being kept safe by a group of "freaks" from the traveling circus, who understand what it is like to be accused of things you are not. Eventually, Kane makes it to New York but he must stop Frye before he commits another act of sabotage, endangering more lives.

This is truly a suspense film in every since of the word. I was hanging on the edge of my seat until the very end and Hitch keeps throwing so many new twists and problems in your direction, the constant thought through the movie is "How is Kane going to get out of this one?". The acting has just the right amount of intensity and the themes coursing throughout the movie still ring true in the modern day world. The script is very intelligent, since it was written by Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison, and the great wit herself, Dorothy Parker. Filming began two weeks after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, making perhaps adding to the very pro-American sentiment of the film.

This was one of the first films Hitch made during his tumultuous time working under the legendary David O. Selznick. The footage of a capsized ship in the film is actual newsreel footage from the USS Lafayette, which was believed to have been sabotaged by the Germans during the war. When Norman Lloyd smiles at the ship, giving a creepy, frightening feel to the scene, he was improvising, showing you how Hitch's splicing of various scenes together can create just the right eerie effect.

Additionally, no music adds to the climax of the movie, only allowing the actors to build up the terrifying tension that has you wondering what is going to happen next. The visual effects in the final scene, though I won't give anything away, are amazing for the period and very ahead of their time. If you ever get a hold of the DVD of this, I recommend you check out the special features where they explain how this shot was captured. If you want another analysis of the film, you can read one here on the blog Film Epidemic. For a great Hitchcock gem that isn't one of his more popular or talked about film, I highly recommend Saboteur for a good suspense.

"The Ghosts are moving tonight..."

As you may have guessed, Vincent Price and Alfred Hitchcock are my two favorite people when it comes to suspense and horror movies. Price to me is the undisputed king of Horror Film Actors and I have always loved his work. Another great public domain film you can watch here is one of my all time favorite scary films and the first film I ever saw with Price in the lead role. The House on Haunted Hill was made in 1959 and is still one of the most suspenseful, terrifying, atmospheric films I have ever seen. To this day, I still have to watch this film in the middle of the day with all the lights on so it doesn't cause me to have nightmares. Maybe I'm a chicken and maybe this film won't be as scary to you, but I am still utterly frightened by it.

The remake in 1999 was good, but didn't manage to recreate the wonderful acting that Vincent Price did. The premise seems simple enough. The frightening millionaire Frederick Loren (Price) rented what might be the most haunted house in the world so his equally dark and depraved wifeAnnabelle (Carol Omhart) can through a "ghost party". Loren has offered each of the guests $10,000 if they can stay in the house for one full night and each of the guests has their own reasons for needing the money Loren is offering. The film begins with introductions as the cast rides to the haunted house in funeral cars, preparing for the spooky night ahead. Chandeliers fall, doors shut themselves, blood drips from the ceiling, and strange murderers are recounted only in the first fifteen minutes of the film. At midnight, the group is locked in the mansion for the night by the creepy caretakers and it is then that the truly scary stuff begins to happen.

The music is absolutely haunting and fits in perfectly with the atmosphere of the film. The cast does not overact but does their job superbly, making the plot very believeable and very spooky. The special effects are spectacular for the period and gruesome heads as well as moving skeletons manage to strike fear into viewers. This film is still one of the best horror films ever made and belongs on anyone's list of films to watch if you're planning a scary movie night.

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..."

Turner Classic Movies this evening pulled another Hitchcock classic out of the vault. Rebecca, a murder mystery suspense-thriller based off of Daphne du Maurier's novel of the same name. The film is a masterpiece and perhaps one of the greatest romantic thrillers ever made. The film was Hitchcock's first under his stormy partnership with David O. Selznick. It also won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1940, although, in a moment of Oscar history, Selznick snatched up the award before Hitchcock could get to the stage. This is the only film Hitchcock ever won Best Picture for.

The story of Rebecca is a twisted romance which begins with Joan Fontaine's character (known simply as The Second Mrs. de Winter) being the companion to a rich matron on a trip to Monte Carlo. There she meets the wealthy, intriguing, and handsome Maximllion de Winter (Laurence Olivier). The two fall madly in love and everything seems wonderful, but when Maxim brings her home to his estate of Manderly, the honeymoon period is over. The staff are bewildered by the new Mrs. de Winter, and some, such as the frightening housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) even go so far as to ruin the new marriage. The shadow of Maxim's first wife Rebecca loams large over the naive, ingenue second wife. The climatic end leads the new wife to discovering the truth nature of Rebecca's death and then her love for her husband is the only thing that can save him from Rebecca coming back from beyond the grave to ruin the new couple's happiness.

Hitchcock used black and white in this particular film because he thought it fit the mood better. The suspense built up at the end of the movie is trademark Hitchcock and absolutely frightening. As usual, the end has several twists and turns that even the most astute of moviegoers will have a hard time seeing ahead of time. Perhaps the full embodiment of everything a gothic novel should be, Rebecca is a suspense movie for any occasion.

Life Through the Camera Lens

On the screen today is another Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart collaboration. Rear Window is perhaps one of Hitchcock's most celebrated, best made, and most thematically rich films. It begins with a wide sweeping view of the daily activities of all of the neighbors in a small apartment complex during a sweltering summer in the city. This is a movie that needs to be watched in widescreen for certain since, especially since it is a Hitchcock film, the small details are very important.

Jimmy Stewart plays L.B. Jeffries, a world traveling photographer who lives an exciting life but is forced to stay cooped up in his apartment for seven weeks after his leg is broken. Instead of getting to continue with his globe trekking activities, Jeffries has grown bored watching the antics of his neighbors out of his window. His only visitors are his lovely, fashionable girlfriend Lisa Carol Freemont, played by the beautiful Grace Kelly, and his personal therapist and nurse Stella, played by the funny the smart, sassy Thelma Ritter. At first, the act of spying on his fellow residents is harmless, perhaps a little creepy. The audience sees all of the neighbors through Jeffries' eyes, as if for the first time since Jeffries seems to be rarely in his home. Through watching this small neighborhood and all of the eccentricity and ordinary life that takes place in it, the audience becomes more and more attached to the people in it, all of whom have descriptive pseudonyms created by Jeffries. Everything in this small slice of Americana seems to be going perfectly and Jeffries seems to think nothing ever happens in his little neighborhood. Then things start to become more tense when Jeffires sees something that startles him when spying on his neighbors and begins to suspect that one of his neighbors has committed a murder. Jeffries must continue his spying and use some quick thinking to prove that his suspicions are correct.

Perhaps the most intense moments ever in a Hitchcock film come in the final twenty minutes of this one when all of the ends of the movie are slowly tied back together. The film was nominated for four Oscars but tragically won none of them. Music plays a major role in the creation of suspense in this film and the activities of the composer living in a studio apartment near Jeffries also helps propel the plot as well as create music in the neighborhood. Though the dialogue is chiefly among Stewart, Kelly, and Ritter, the acting is supberb among not only the three main characters but all of the supporting cast playing the neighbors. Gestures, actions, and music play major roles in making this film so wonderful.

Themes are very prominent in this movie. The idea of photography, cameras, windows, reflections, and sight are interwoven throughout the film on so many levels. Because he is confined to his wheelchair, Jeffries is forced to be only an observer of what is around him and it makes him take a closer look at his surroundings, a dark closer look. I could do an entire blog on different analyses of Rear Window and I'm sure that if you look, there is one out there. Rich in symbolism, theme, and suspense, Rear Window works on so many levels and there is definitely something for everyone to get out of it.

"What are the thirty-nine steps?"

One of Hitchcock's earlier films, when he was still working in his homeland of England, The 39 Steps is a great early film filled with suspense and adventure. It follows along several Hitchcock themes, such as mistaken identity, an innocent man on the run, and international spy rings. The 1935 film is based on an adventure novel by John Buchan. Another public domain movie, you can also find this one on Google Video right here.

The movie begins with Richard Hannay(Robert Donat), a Canadian visiting London, goes to see the "Mr. Memory" show at a musical hall in London. After a riot breaks out in the theatre, he finds himself helping Annabella Smith(Lucie Mannheim), who claims she is running away from a group of spies who are trying to kill her. Hannay doesn't seem to believe her story until she is murdered in his apartment during the night. Afraid of being accused of her murder as well as the spies and detectives now on his trial, Hannay flees through the countryside. He finds himself desperately attempting to escape his persuers, he uses the beautiful Pamela (Madeleine Carroll), who he meets on a train, as a means evading capture, entangling her in the midst of the spy game he has also unwittingly trapped himself in. Now Hannay has to convince Pamela he is telling the truth, bring down the spy ring on his tail, and figure out the myster that is the 39 Steps.

Hitch uses some great scenery shots in this film, using the beautiful backdrop of England and Scotland for a dark, suspenseful plot. Hannay must rely on the kindness of strangers in order to survive his ordeal and the shots used in the film help to portray his sense of fear and create fear for him in the audience as he his being ruthless chased down for the crime he did not commit.

Britmovie.co.uk explores the plot of the film and the cultural importance of The 39 Steps. This film not only helped to begin Hitchcock's legacy as perhaps the most legendary film director of all time, but had a significant impact on the history of film as well. This film was Hitchcock's first "blockbuster" in England and made US audiences and studio heads begin to take notice of the director's talent. It is the first film that explores the common Hitchcock themes. Also, Filmsite.org gives detailed plot information on the film to clear up any confusion and outlines what happens over the two day period in which the action of the film takes place.
If you want to see a good early Hitchcock film with all of the twists, suspense, and intrique his fans are so accustomed to, The 39 Steps is a good place to begin. It shows Hitchcock's directorial mastery even early on in his career. The film is a great watch for anyone, Hitchcock or suspense fan.

The Queens of Scream

Today I would like to do a tribute to those women who help make the horror film what it is with their terrifying high-pitched banshee screams, loud enough to split our ears in the theatre yet somehow not loud enough to actually reach the ears of people that can help them. I would like to pay tribute to the Hollywood Scream Queen. Without the high volume wails and sometimes overacted "damsel and distress" methods of these women, Hollywood movies would not be as terrifying.

The only place I can think to begin is with Hollywood's oldest and perhaps most famous Queen of Scream, the lady herself, Fay Wray. Most famous as the screaming blonde in the original King Kong, Fay Wray echoed in our ears with her shrill cries of terror and earned herself the title of "The Queen of Scream". Fay Wray created the Scream Queen stereotype and ever after, each woman in a horror film always seems to fall short of Fay's performance.

There are many other noted Scream Queens who came after Fay Wray as stars of some of the Golden Age's most celebrated horror films. Elsa Lanchester starred in the title role of the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein, perhaps her most famous part, and created the cult image of the monster's bride with long pointed, streaked white hair. The illustrious career of actress Gloria Stuart included a screamingly good role in the 1933 production of The Invisible Man. Any 50s B-movie fan appreciates the work of Allison Hayes, the star of such films as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Undead, The Disembodied, Zombies of Mora Tau, The Unearthly, The Hypnotic Eye, and The Crawling Hand.

Hillary Brooke is the Scream Queen who appeared alongside comedic geniuses Abbot and Costello in such movies as Africa Screams and was a regular on their show, as well as one a few Sherlock Holmes movies and in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. A famous Hitchcock Blonde and one of the most famous Scream Queens is none other than Janet Leigh, who will forever be remembered for her paralyzing shower scene in Psycho. Of course, Hitchcock's slew of screaming starlets belong in a category all their own.

Love them or hate them, Scream Queens play an essential part in making a horror movie what it is. No matter if their screams echo your own or are just plain over the top, Scream Queens and horror films go hand in hand.

Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo

This afternoon on Turner Classic Movies, I managed to catch most of Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 psychological thriller, Vertigo. Though criticism was mixed when it opened, Vertigo has gone on to be one of Hitchcock's most famous and critically acclaimed films. And if you want to know about the Hitchcock cameo in this film, it's eleven minutes in at Gavin Elster's shipyard. Hitch is the man wearing a grey suit. The film is listed as #9 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list and #1 on its list of 10 Greatest Films in the mystery genre. It was chosen for preservation by the National Film Registry in 1989 and in 1996, it was restorted and re-released in theatres.

In the movie, John "Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart) is an ex-detective in San Francisco dealing with extreme fears of heights after watching a fellow officer plummet to his death. Scottie is now so paralyzed by heights that he cannot even stand on a stool in the apartment of his friend and ex-fiancée, Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes). He is hired as a P.I. by old college buddy Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) to spy on Elster's wife Madeline (Kim Novak), who seems to be suffering from a mental illness where she believes she is Carlotta Valdes, a woman who committed suicide a hundred years before and who's painting currently hangs in at the Legion of Honor. When Madeline plummets from the tower at the Mission San Juan Bautista, Scottie Ferguson becomes increasingly troubled and suffers a nervous breakdown. Then he meets Judy Barton, a woman who perfectly resembles Madeline. Scottie's obsession with Madeline grows and he does everything in his power to make Judy become Madeline. I won't give away the ending, but it does conclude with a tense confession and one of Hitchcock's classic ending twists you didn't see coming.

The effects in this movie are absolutely spectacular. Though the movie was made in 1958, a lot of the effects seem like something out of the late 60s. The "contra-zoom" shot was invented for this movie, which recreates the feeling of vertigo Scottie experiences for the audience. The films lighting changes for important events in the plotline and there is a recurring theme of repitition and reflection through the course of the movie.

Vertigo is a classic Hitchcock suspense with twists and turns you have to pay attention to. Like all of Hitchcock's movie, it requires you to think and to put together the pieces of the mystery that Hitchcock so expertly lays out. I would definitely recommend this thriller, not just for Hitchcock or thriller fans, but for anyone who wants to see a good film that will keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time.

Fright Fest Begins

The month of October is upon us and this month I have decided to celebrate some of the shocks, screams, thrills, and chills Old Hollywood had to offer. From the terrifying long nails of Nosferatu to the hair-tingling transformation of Lon Chaney, Jr. into The Wolfman to The Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, Hollywood had us on the edge of our seats with fright and anticipation.

Unlike the horror movies of today, which rely more on straightforward gore, violence, and sexuality to draw in viewers to the box office, this movies relied more on suspense, drama, and a creation of a frightening realm through makeup, costuming, scenery, and spectacular acting to keep audiences paralyzed with fear. Though many see these films as outdated and their horror not quite as petrifying as the modern films that push all the limits and sometimes manage to desensitize us to the truly horrible, many are still relevant and still relevantly spooky if you watch them at the right time of night with the lights off. I dare you to stay up late and watch one of the old movies where Vincent Price interprets the works of Edgar Allan Poe then have pleasant dreams that night.

Of course, there are some films whose once innovative and frightening special effects now emit laughter and certain films that missed the mark, becoming more horrible than horrifying. Still, we need to explore what it was that once made these movies so terrifying to audiences, what about audiences have changed, and the major innovations these first frightening films made that allowed for modern advancement in the movies. I like to think that even the bad films did some good, even if the only good is giving us something to laugh at.

So I invite you, if you dare, to join me this month in celebrating what is scary and what is scarily funny about Old Hollywood. Who knows? We might all get a good scream out of it.