Alfred Hitchcock Movies: ***Sabatoge (1936)

 This is a black and white movie I watched on You Tube.  A group of men are setting off bombs in London.  However a secret agent (John Loder) is on to them.  However they discover him, and have to be more careful with how they transport the bombs.  The bomber, Karl Verloc (Oskar Homolka) sends the bomb in a movie case with his wife's (Silvia Sidney) younger brother (Desmond Tester).  However the boy takes longer, due to his own lallygagging and also due to a parade that gets in the way.  He is forced to take a bus, and the time slowly trickles away.  The inevitable happens, and the bus is blown up.  The wife, older sister realizes what has happened, and how.  When her husband, now a murderer, approaches her she stabs him.

I love looking for Alfred Hitchcock amongst the extras and this film doesn't disappoint.  The part that isn't believable is the relationship that develops between Mrs. Verloc and the secret agent.

Movie Review: ****^The King's Speech (2010)

 The King's Speech won the Oscar for best film in 2010 and Colin Firth won the Oscar for best actor.  Firth portrays King George VI.  He had a bad temper, which was mostly brought on by his stuttering.  He had tried public speaking and failed miserably.  The movie is about his speech teacher, who works with him, overcoming his stuttering which was based on some childhood experience with one of his nannies.  Geoffrey Rush portrays the teacher, Lionel Logue.

This movie has a great cast as it brings back Pride and Prejudice actors and Harry Potter actors.  Jennifer Ehle portrays the wife of of the teacher.  Helena Bonham Carter portrays The King's wife Queen Elizabeth.  It was she who found and arranged for the teacher.  Their daughter who would become Queen Elizabeth and reign for 70 years is portrayed as a teenager.  Michael Gambon portrays George V, Timothy Spall Winston Churchill.  Lastly, King George's older brother is portrayed by Guy Pearce.  The older brother was king for a short time but relinqushed his claim to the throne so he could marry a commoner.

I was very moved by this film.  I thing that makes it work is the relationship between The Duke who became the king and the speech teacher.  It shows the courage of the king to face his weakness and fight for it to become not quite such a problem.  The movie ends with his giving a Christmas speech via radio after he had become king.

This film is based on a true story.  Because of his temper the King must have used the F word in the film enough to garner an R rating.  However currently there is a PG!# version available on BYUtv. 

Afred Hitchcock: ****The Trouble with Harry (1955)

 Here is a humorous take on death, which does not turn out to be murder. He was bonked in the head by a couple women, and a man thinks he may have shot him while hunting.  They bury him and then unbury him several times, and then finally leave him to be found as he passed away of natural causes.  This is actually a sweet romantic comedy with a corpse.  The corpse is the husband of Jennifer Rogers (Shirley MacLaine).  They were estranged and when he came to the door she hit him with a milk bottle.  When we first come upon the corpse, Captain Albert Wiles (Edmund Gwenn) was hunting rabbits and thought she shot him.  Ivy Gravely (Mildred Natwick) also did him a harm as he attacked her and she hit him with her shoe.  Lastly our artist, Sam Marlowe (John Forsythe) sketches him.  They think they are in the clear with him buried nicely; however Marlowe and Rogers fall in love and want to get married.  They can't with Harry in the ground as it takes several years to declare someone diseased after they disappear.  So up he comes.  This time he sees a doctor who says he died of a heart attack.  Jerry Mathers, who would later play the Beaver in "Leave it to Beaver" plays the son of Rogers, who is confused as to time, but does a good job of being a curious boy.  

Alfred Hitchcock Movies: Nine Reviews

One of the greatest movie directors especially spy and mystery movies.

 ****^ Hitchcock (2012) Not directed by Hitchcock but about him and the making of Psycho, starring Anthony Hopkins.

****^ Birds (1965). On of the creepiest shows.  Motivated us to visit the town where the movie was filmed north of San Francisco, Bodega Bay.

**** Psycho (1960). A creepy movie great for Halloween.  This movie is rated R but there are edited versions available

**** North by Northwest  (1959) Cary Grant and Eva Saint Marie, spy movie

The Man who Knew Too Much (1956)

****The Trouble with Harry (1955)

****To Catch a Thief (1955)

****^ Rear Window (1955)

****Dial M for Murder (1954)

Strangers On a Train (1951)

**** The Lady Vanishes (1938) A lady is missing from a train.  Turns out to be a spy movie.

*** Sabatoge (1936) Explosions in London

****39 Steps (1935). A spy thriller

M. Night Shyamalan Movies

**** Glass (2019) our three superheroes, Glass (Samuel Jackson), David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Split (James McAvoy)

*** Split (2016)  A bit too intense but James McAvoy does great portraying multiple personalities

**** The Last Airbender. (2010)  Great fantasy show

***^ Lady in the Water (2006) Bryce Dallas Howard and Paul Giamatti

***^ The Village (2004) Bryce Dallas Howard and Joaquin Phoenix

**** Signs (2002). Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix, excellent alien invasion movie

**** Unbreakable (2000)  Again Bruce Willis, superhero, Samuel Jackson super villain

 ****^ The Sixth Sense (1999) Bruce Willis and Joel Osment, terrific ghost story

Movie Review: ****Leap Year (2010)

Amy Adams is always good.  In this movie she plays Anna, who is not engaged.  She decides to follow her boyfriend to Ireland to fix that.  She is following the tradition that the woman can propose on leap year day.  Her boyfriend is heart surgeon and they have been dating for four years.  However Anna has the most difficult time getting to Dublin where the doctor conference is being held.  The weather keeps causing delay and diversion, but she finally ends up on a beach in Ireland. There she meets Declan (Matthew Goode) who hopes to make money by driving Anna to Dublin.  

This is a very fun romantic comedy.  Anna can be a klutz, which results in her accidentally pushing the car down a hill into a creek, after she steps in a cow dung.  Her shoe flips off while she is dancing at a wedding, and catches the pride in the head. 

They finally make it to Dublin, and her boyfriend proposes marriage and they become engaged; but the motivations have changed.

This movie is now available on Netflix.

Disney+ TV Review: ****^Star Wars: Andor 2022

 Andor is incredibly good as it keeps building until we hit the climax in the last episode.  Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) is nothing more than a mercenary or thief.  He is recruited by a rebel organizer, Luthen Rael (Stellen Skarsgärd) He and Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) work together in funding the rebellion.  Andor and some other reels carry out a successful heist of an imperial payroll, thus getting needed money for the rebellion.  Cassian hangs low, but in doing so is unjustly imprisoned.  He is set to work on some unknown device.  Escape is impossible as the floor is wired with electricity in it which is turned on at any hint of escape.  But when we realize that any sentence is a life sentence in this prison (a whole floor was killed when one was due to be released) escape becomes the goal.  

Andor's adoptive mother, Maarva (Fiona Shaw) passes away.  He must return to the funeral.  However the epire want him captured so they can torture him and learn secrets of the rebellion, particularly the identity of Luthen Rael.  Luthen Rael also wants to kill Andor so as to prevent being exposed.  It seems there is not much hope for him.  The highlight of the whole series is when Luthen's mother, through a droid, gives her own eulogy and calls for rebellion.  The tension just builds and builds to this point and finally pops.  In the chaos, Andor gives his life to Luthen.

The sage of Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) is weaved into the other stories.  However this story did not reach its head yet.