Movie Review: ****^Hitchcock

Hitchcock is a 2011 movie starring Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock and Helen Mirren as his wife Alma Reville.  It also features Scarlett Johansson as the actress Janet Leigh.  I watched it through Netflix DVD.

I found this movie very entertaining.  It is about the making of Psycho.  I was fascinating with the making of a film, and even more fascinated with Hitchcock and his wife, coming together to make a triumph.  They took a great risk with this movie, as Hitchcock could not find financial backing, and had to back the movie himself.  There were so many nuances to the making of the film that at times it seemed the project was going to fall apart. There was dealing with the studio, dealing with the censors, and dealing with personal pressure at home because of they mortgaged their home to make the film.

Overlapping this is the relationship between Hitchcock and his wife Alma.  Hitchcock determines she is having an affair, and this effects his work on the movie.  However when he collapses from exhaustion, Alma comes up to keep them going and to keep production from falling too far behind, or to keep the cost overruns from being too great. Alma was not having a physical affair, but perhaps one of loyalty as she was helping a friend write a book.

In the end, this movie was Hitchcock’s greatest success, even surpassing “North by Northwest.”  I am putting this movie in my motivational movies.  It shows what can be accomplished with a dream, determination and resolve.  

I don't think youngsters would appreciate this movie. 

Alfred Hitchcock Movies

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.

**** Family Plot (1976)

Frenzy (1972)

Topaz (1969)

Kaleidoscope (1967)

****^ Torn Curtain with James Stewart and Doris Day (1966)

**** Marnie (1964). Psychological thriller with Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren

****^ Birds (1963). One 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

****^ Vertigo (1958) Murder mystery disguised as a suicide, James Stewart

Suspicion (1957)

The Wrong Man (1956)

**** The Man who Knew Too Much (1956)

****The Trouble with Harry (1955)

****To Catch a Thief (1955)

****^ Rear Window (1955). With James Stewart and Grace Kelly

***^ Dial M for Murder (1954). A man carefully plans his wife's murder

I Confess (1953)

Strangers On a Train (1951)

***^ Stage Fright (1950). A murder and an accusation and a girl.

Under Capricorn (1949)

***^ Rope (1948) roommates decide to murder for the fun of it.

The Paradine Case (1947)

Notorious 1946)

Spellbound (1945)

Adventure Malgache (1944) short

Bon Voyage (1944) short

****^ Lifeboat (1944) Many days adrift

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Saboteur (1942)

**** Suspicion (1941). Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)

Foreign Correspondent (1940)

****  Rebecca (1940) Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier are in love

***^ Jamaica Inn (1939) Maureen O'Hara in her first major role.

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

**** Young and Innocent (1937) wrongly accused must proove his innocence

*** Sabatoge (1936) Explosions in London

***^ Secret Agent (1936)

****39 Steps (1935). A spy thriller

***^ The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) A couple gets involved in a spy movie and their daughter is kidnapped

Strauss' Great Waltz (1934)

*** Number 17  (1932)

***^ The Skin Game (1931) industrialization vs the aristocracy

Mary (1931)

** East of Shanghai aka Rich and Strange (1931)

Murder (1930)

**^ Juno and the Paycock (1930) First Hitchcock recorded for sound from the start, singing included.

**** Blackmail (1929) first Hitchcock with talking, Some scenes were redone to add sound.

**^ The Manxman (1929)

***^  Easy Virtue : (1928) A person's reputation is ruined and all are quick to judge

** Champagne (1928)

*** The Farmer's Wife (1928)

**^ The Ring (1927) Theboxing ring and the wedding ring

*** The Lodger: The Story of the London Fog (1927) A serial killer in London

Downhill (1927)

The Mountain Eagle (1926)

The Pleasure Garden (1925)

James Stewart Movies

Jimmy Stewart's career in movies lasted five decades with many good movies.  

*** An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. (1991) Stewart voices the sheriff dog in his last roll

North and South: Book II, Love and War (1986)

Right of Way (1983)

***** Mr. Kruegers Christmas. (1980). An annual ritual for me

A Tale of Africa (1980)

The Magic of Lassie (1978)

The Big Sleep (1978)

Airport 77 (1977)

**** The Shootist (1976). With John Wayne as the shootist.

Harvey (1972)

Fool's Parade (1971)

Cheyenne Social Club (1970)

**** Bandolero (1968). Character played by Stewart rescues his brother, and robs a bank

Firecreek (1968)

The Rare Breed (1966)

***** Shenandoah (1965). James Stewart as the head of a family trying to avoid the Civil War but they are sucked into it all the same.

Dear Bridgette. (1965)

**** The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). a doomed flight crash landed in the Sahara Desert

Cheyenne Autumn (1964)

Taje Her, She's Mine (1963)

Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962)

****^ The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. (1962) John Wayne, Lee Marvin and Vera Miles with James Stewart

*** How the West Was Won (1962)

Two Rode Together (1961)

The Mountain Road (1960)

The FBI Story (1959)

**** Anatomy of a Murder (1959). a good whodunnit

Bell Book and Candle (1958)

****^ Vertigo. (1958) Alfred Hitchcock. Murder mystery.  Stewart plays ex detective

*** The Spirit of St. Louis (1957). Portrays Charles Lindbergh

Night Passage (1957)

**** The Man Who Knew Too Much. (1956)  A remake where an innocent couple gets drawn into a spy movie when their son is kidnapped.  With Doris Day.  Alfred Hitchcock.

***^ The Man from Laramie. (1955) A western of the little guy against the cattle baron

Strategic Air Command

****^ Rear Window (1954) Alfred Hitchcock and murder discovered out the back window

The Far Country (1954)

****^ The Glenn Miller Story. With June Allyson and with lots of big band music (1954)

The Naked Spur (1953)

Thunder Bay (1953)

Carbine Williams  (1952)

Bend of the River (1952)

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

No Highway in the Sky (1951)

Jackpot (1950)

**** Broken Arrow (1950)  Which deals with a broken treaty with Native Americans

***^ Harvey (1950). with a large 6 foot rabbit

Malaya (1949)

The Stratton Story (1949)

***^ The Rope (1948). A Hitchcock murder story.

***^ You Gotta Stay Happy. (1948) with Joan Fontaine flying an airplane

Call Northside 777 (1948)

On Our Merry Way (1948)

Magic Town (1947)

***** Its a Wonderful Life (1946) The best Christmas movie ever

Come Live with Me (1941)

Pot o' Gold (1941)

Ziegfeld Girl (1941)

***^ The Philadelphia Story (1940) With Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn

**** The Shop Around the Corner  (1940)

No Time for Comedy  (1940)

The Mortal Storm (1940)

It's a Wonderful World (1939)

The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)

Made for Each Other (1939)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Destry Rides Again (1939)

*** You Can't Take it with You  (1938) Romantic comedy with Jean Arthur and Lionel Barrymore

The Shop Worn Angel (1938)

Vivacious Lady (1938)

Of Human Hearts (1938)

Navy Blue and Gold. (1937)

The Last Gangster  (1937)

Seventh Heaven  (1937)

Next Time We Love (1936)

Born to Dance (1936)

After the Thin Man (1936)

Wife vs Secretary (1936)

Small Town Love (1936)

Speed (1936)

The Gorgeous Hussy (1936)

Rose Marie (1936)

The Murder Man (1935)

Alfred Hitchcock Movie: ***^ Jamaican Inn (1939)

 This is the las Hitchcock film in which Hitchcock himself did not have a cameo role.  Mary Yellen (Maureen O'Hara) travels to live with her aunt after her mother's death.  She is left at the home of the local squire, justice of the peace, Sir Humphrey Pengallan (Charles Laughton).  The next day she walks to her aunts, Patience Merlyn (Marie Ney) home, and is not so warmly welcomed by her uncle, Josh Merlyn (Leslie Banks).  It doesn't take her long to figure that something is not right.  She discovers her uncle is the leader of a band of cutthroats who are causing shipping accidents and then stealing the goods.  They attempt to hang a member of their company, Robert Newton (Jem Trehearne).  They try to hang him and Yellen is successful in cutting the rope.  She and Newton make their way to Pengallan for protection.  Pengallan in truth is the leader of the gang, telling them what ships to attack based on information he gleams from his rich friends.  Pengallan goes along with Newton, who is a spy sent to stop the murder and theft of crewmen on the ships they have been sabotaging.  The group is doing another job, with Yellen captured and forced to go with.  They turn out the light warning of rocks, but while they are distracted, Yellen is able to restor the light and the ship escapes.  Everything goes to pot, with the men turning on Banks.  Banks and Yellen escape with Banks being shot.  When they get back to the Inn he dies, and Pangallan shooting his wife before she can divulge that Pengallan is the crime boss.  Pengallan leaves with Yellen, on their way to America.  He has an attraction to her.  Newton also has an attraction and follows with a group of officers.  They track him to the boat, where he jumps from a mast causing his own demise.

Lots of action and good acting.  Maurene O'Hara's firt major roll.  Alfred Hitchcock directs based on a book by Daphne Du Maurier.  Jamaican Inn is a real place in Cornwall, England and had problems with marauders.

Movie Review: ****39 Steps (1935)

****39 Steps (1935) 39 Steps is a master spy thriller from Alfred Hitchcock.  In this film Hannay (Robert Donat) runs into a woman who is running from spies.  Before he knows it she is murdered, and then the spies are after him.  He flees to where he supposes her contact was; only to find a den of spies.  In his fleeing he meets Pamela (Madeleine Carol) who at first doesn’t believe him.  This film has many close escapes, and even his own murder—but he is saved by a Bible in his pocket.  There is vital industrial information that is being smuggled out of the country.  It is figuring out how that is the key to our hero finally ridding himself of the spies. 

This DVD came from Netflix.  It also had two documentaries about this movie.  One hosted by Marianne Keane goes into scene by scene detail of how the angle of the camera and the profile Hitchcock used helped to tell his story.  Very fascinating.

This is a separate review with three stars

This movie is a 1935 British Alfred Hitchcock film.  Hitchcock had been making movies for over ten years when this came out.  This is a spy suspence story.
Hannay is drawn into the story, by our spy, Anabella Smith, who has uncovered a plot by foreign spies to get secret information out of the country.  The foreign spy ring is a group called 39 steps.
The movie begins with a demonstration by a man who can remember everything.  At this a shot rings out, and the spy end in the arms of Hannay, and he takes her home.  She tells him of what is going on, and mentions 39 steps.  She shows up at his house during the night, with a knife in her back, and she shortly dies.  He is then accused of the murder, and goes around trying to find her contact, in Scotland, to prove his innocence.
It is amazing how inept people are at catching him, or catching him and letting him get away.  How many times can he get away?  While on a train, he uses another woman, Pamela, in his escape attempt by kissing her as his pursuers go pass.  However she turns him in.  He does manage to get away, and jumps off the train.
Going to land is a bad idea, because instead of finding the contact, he finds the leader of 39 steps, who shoots him.
However he escapes harm as the bullet is stopped by a bible.  He reports to the police, who want to arrest him and he escapes again.  Somehow he and Pamela end up picked up by some members of 39 steps pretending to be police.  They realize they are bad when they don't take them to the police station.  They escape when they are herding animals off the road.  However they are handcuffed to each other.  They then head back to London to prove their innocence, but the man who remembers everything saves the day, when asked to tell what 39 steps is, he is shot and stopped, but the bad people are captured.
Too many implausible twists for me.  However this is suppose to be a good movie.

Book Review: **Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories My Mother Never Told Me

Book Review

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories My Mother Never Told Me.

Editor, Alfred Hitchcock: numerous authors.  1963 Random House, New York

I like to read short stories, and found this book on my shelf.  I am not sure how I came to have this book.  It is actually 23 stories, two novelettes and one novel.

The stories all have an Alfred Hitchcock theme.  He was too centered on cannibalism, as three stories end in this way.  “The Wall-to-Wall Grave” was the story that left me with the strangest feeling.  This story is written by Andrew Benedict.  It portrays a father who gets even with her daughter’s lover, who had jilted her, which resulted in her suicide.  He locked him in a room with a minimal amount of dripping water, and 30 days supply of bread.  And then he just leaves him there.  It is stories like this that trigger my claustrophobia.   

Other stories of note, Ray Bradbury wrote a story about the wind, and its being out to get people.  Witch’s money by John Collier was very humorous.  In back country Spain where people aren’t familiar with checks, the still some form an artist and assume they are real money.  It creates a boom to the economy, but in the end they are not worth anything.

The Arbutus Collar by Jeremiah Digges is worthy of mention.  His philandering daughter-in-law shouldn’t have done so with the beautiful collar made for her.  He warned her it was tricky to get off; he just hadn’t mentioned it might take her head off without his help. 

One novelette was very disturbing, “The Idol of the Flies” by Jane Rice.  From the start I wanted to take the boy in the story and whack him up the side of the head with a 2x4.  I guess he got his in the end.  He would sick flies on people and lay traps for them.  He called for billions of flies to help him, but instead they smothered him. 

“Courtesy of the Road” is a story I remembered, I think from high school literature class.   It testified of the grief of a parent, and his getting even with those who had run over his little girl.

The novel, the final selection in the book, was too much for me.  I enjoyed it as I read it, but did not like the twist at the end.  I think the author must have been sick his self--  “Some of Your Blood” by Theodore Sturgeon.

Overall I would recommend these stories.  I think they are out of print, but you might find them at Deseret Industries or Ebay.

Alfred Hitchcock Movie Review: ****^ Torn Curtain (1966)

 This is a very good spy movie from Alfred Hitchcock starring Julie Andrews and Paul Newman as an engaged couple, Dr. Sarah Sherman and Professor Michael Armstrong.  Not only are they engaged but Sherman has been working as Armstrong's assistant.  Sherman starts acting strangely.  He defects to East Germany, saying the United States has stopped funding for his missile project.  In truth he is fishing for information from an East German scientist, Professor Heinrich Gerhardt (Hansjörg Felmy) who appears to have resolved an issue that has stymied Armstrong.  He just needs to convince Gerhardt that he has already resolved the issue and get him to share what he knows.  He leaves for East Berlin having told his fiance he was off elsewhere.  However she discovers his plans and follows him to East Berlin, where he announces he is defecting to East Germany.

Everything that could go wrong goes wrong.  Hitchcock the master director makes a great scene where Armstrong and a spy kill an East German security man who was coming onto Professor Armstrong.  This interfers with upcoming meeting between Armstrong and Gerhardt as the communists want to limit contact until they have studied Armstrong more thoroughly.  However he does have access to the assistant.  At first she does not want to cooperate but does after Armstrong tells her what he is doing, he is not a traitor.  This gets Gerhardt excited, and he takes Armstrong aside and to his secret office, where he is able to trick Gerhardt into revealing his research.  Armstrong takes it to memory as Gerhardt writes it down.  About this time the police are onto Armstrong after they find the agent's body.  However he runs away as Gerhardt realizes he has given his secrets away without getting anything in return.

Then comes the trip out of East Germany with many tense scenes, starting then leaving town in a bus, not a regular bus but following the same line as a regular bus.  There are certain anti communists who help.  They get a bit behind schedule, and eventually the police are onto them, so everyone scatters and they leave the bus behind.  They eventually make it to meet with handlers in a theater, where they are smuggled inside costume baskets onto a boat.  

Very tense and exciting movie and highly recommended.

TV Review: Alfred Hitchcock Presents

I have been enjoying the Alfred Hitchcock presents, first season on Netflix.  There are some very interesting stories, and an introduction to many actors in their early years.  There are spy movies, murder movies, strange things and some things not so strange.  There is revenge, against the wrong person.  Christmas is really good where a parolee is hired to be Santa Clause.  We see a new version of Anne Borden, where it says the younger sister committed the murder, and Anne took the blame.  There is much to enjoy here.  There are 39 episodes, all 24 minutes with a one minute introduction by Alfred Hitchcock.  Great fun, just for the entertainment value without having to think too much.  I can't get Tony too interested, but coming from the 1950s era you don't have to worry about language, or bad morals.  They do show macabre things from time to time.

Early Alfred Hitchcock Movie: *** The Farmer's Wife (1928)

This is a very early Alfred Hitchcock, before he caught onto the suspense genre.  It is a romantic comedy of sorts with the Farmer, widowed, seeking a new wife after his daughter marries, leaving him at home alone.  Howevrer our farmer has terrible luck.  He is helped in his endeavors by his house maid and his handyman, who in the end are as funny as the farmer in his pursuits.  It takes him a while to com to his senses, but the maid and he have been in love for some time.  He is just shy around her.  

As noted Alfred Hitchcock direts.  This is a silent film, except for a serenade song.  

Alfred Hitchcock Movie: ***^The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

 This movie was remade in 1956 with Doris day and James Stewart.  The movies are similar but not the same.  The Lawrences (Edna Best, Leslie Banks and daughter Betty, Nova Pilbeam) travel to Switzerland for a skiing event.  There mother participates in a shooting contest, and loses as one of the finalists to Ramon Levine (Frank Vosper),  In addition to being a marksman he is part of an terrorist group headed by Abbott (Peter Lorre).  That evening at dinner their new friend, Louis Bernard (Pierre Fresnay) is shot.  Before he dies he tells them to get a note intended for the British consul.  They find the note which tells of an assassination plot.  However before they can tell anyone, their daughter is kidnapped.  However they understand that the bad guys are headed to London as the assassination is to take place at the Royal Albert Music Hall.  Clive (Hugh Wakefield) and father, Bob look for the girl .  The track one of the kidnappers to a temple of a sun worshipping cult.  Father is captured but Clive gets away and helps to expose the group.  Mrs. Lawrence goes to the concert indicated on the note.  Her scream effects the aim of Levine and he wounds rather than kills the intended victim.  But he gets away, sneaking out in the chaos, but they are able to track his vehicle to the sun temple, which sets up a final gun battle.  Many police die, as do all the criminals, including Betty's nurse and Abbott love (Cicely Oates).  Father found his daughter and helped her escape, but Levine was after her and catches her on the roof.  They are exposed to the police below.  It is a tricky shot and the police officer marksman hesitates.  Mrs Lawrence takes te gun and makes the shot.  Abbott is hiding in a closet and his watch gives him away, so he takes his own life.

This is a very good early Hitchcock movie.  It also takes on the spy theme which becomes a Hitchcock trade mark.

Movie Summary: Halloween Genre Movies

This is Halloween week, and there was an article of scary, none R rated movies in the Deseret News.  This is my list of Halloween worthy movies, all family friendly, I hope.
***** Oz The Great and Powerful 2013  Plenty of witches

****^ Wait Until Dark: 1967 Blind lady who isn't so helpless

****^ The Sixth Sense:  ghost story with a twist

****^ Hitchcock: The making of Psycho About Alfred Hitchcock

****^Twilight Series:Vampire Love stories
http://mmboebillywardle.blogspot.com/2013/09/movie-review-twilight.html
http://mmboebillywardle.blogspot.com/2013/09/novie-review-twilight-2-new-moon.html
http://mmboebillywardle.blogspot.com/2013/09/movie-review-eclipse-twilight-3.html
http://mmboebillywardle.blogspot.com/2013/09/movie-review-breaking-dawn-part-1.html
http://mmboebillywardle.blogspot.com/2013/09/movie-review-breaking-dawn-part-2.html

****^The Ghost and Mr. Chicken: Haunted house visit with Don Knotts' humor

****Red Riding Hood: beautiful use of color

****The Others: Ghosts in the fog. Nicole Kidman

**** What Lies Beneath, Harrison ford and Michelle Pfeiffer

**** The Birds: Alfred Hitchcock suspense thriller

****La Perla: scorpion crawling down a rope gives me the creeps

****Ghost: a ghostly love story Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore

**** Super 8: An "Alien" worthy monster

***^The Village: colorful monsters. Shyamalan

***^ Hotel Transylvania 2, Adam Sandler

***^ Lady in the Water: scary monsters. Shyamalan

***^ Return to Oz: plenty of witches and one that collects heads

***^ Cannary Row: has a breaking a limb scene before "Misery" 

***Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack takes over Christmas

***Practical Magic. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman

*** The Brothers Grimm: con-men caught up in a real witch story. Heath Ledger and Matt Damon

The Haunted Pumpkin of Sleepy Hollow (2013)

**^Goosebumps II Haunted Halloween 2018

 

Movie Review: ****Psycho (1960 Alfred Hitchcock)

I thought this movie would make a good Halloween movie to watch, and let the scary music play loud enough to great the trick or treaters.  None of them noticed. 
This is the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic.  A young woman takes off with $40,000 from her employer, and picks the wrong hotel.  I didn't realize that the murder happened so early in the movie, and the rest of the movie is about finding her killer.  This movie is rated R because of the murder in the shower scene; however it would not be rated so severely today. 
Hitchcock does know how to tell a story, get an isolated rural area, and add someone who is criminally insane, and you have all the right ingredients for a scary time.  Janet Leigh stars as the victim and Anthony Perkins as the killer.

Alfred Hitchcock Movie: **^ Juno and the Paycock (1930)

 This film is based on a stage play by Sean O'Casey and adapted to the screen by Alfred Hitchcock.  This is Hitchcock's first film that was talking from the start.  A previous movie, "Blackmail" was first filmed as a silent movie and then parts re-filmed with talking.  It is set during the Irish Civil war and death is very near.  The movie is about the Boyle family.  The father Captain Boyle (Edward Chapman) is a vagabond who always says he is injured so as to not work.  The matriarch, Juno Boyle (Sara Allgood) keeps the family together.  Their son, Johnny (John Laurie) has been injured in the civil war and is suffering shell shock (PTSD).  Their daughter, Mary (Kathleen O'Regan) has a suitor who is a solicitor and announces that Captain Boyle is to inherit money.  The family then begins to live lavishly on credit.  The also have many friends for a time.  When the inheritance doesn't turn out the bill collectors start to pile up and the friends disappear.  They are ruined.  Juno leaves the Captain who continues in personal personal oblivion.  

This story seems it would be better in a play than a movie.  However the highlight was people singing around the table.  They were having a good time.  Sara Allgood does a very good job portraying the mother, and dealing with the captain, even when Mary is pregnant.  She goes with her daughter.  Then Johnny is killed and she deals the grief.  

Alfred Hitchcock Silent Movie: **^ The Ring (1927)

 One Round Jack Sander (Carl Brisson) works at a carnival as a boxer.  He takes on all challengers and if they can last a round with him they win and get money.  However Jack never loses.  He is smitten by the ticket taker (Lillian Hall Davis).  She catchers the eye of a man in the crowd, Bob Corby (Ian Hunter).  Turns out he is a boxing champion and wins the match.  However he is impressed with Jack and hires him as a sparring partner.  He is also helping him train as a boxer rather than a carnival performer.  He weds the ticket taker, and thimgs appear to be happy.  However she spends considerable time with Bob and he bercomes increasingly jealous.  He is losing his love.  Finally Jack meets Bob in the ring.  Bob handles him easily for several rounds and Jack is knokced down several times, one time saved by the bell.  His wife had been in Bob's corner, but as she sees Jack putting up a struggle, she slowly switches sides and ends up in Jack's corner.  This reanimates Jack and he is able to win the fight and his girl.  The ring is the boxing ring, but also the wedding ring given her by Jack, and a bangle given her by Bob with the money he won from winning the carnival fight.  

It is interesting the way Hitchcock often uses close ups of faces to show emotions at the carnival.  

Alfred Hitchcock Movie: ***The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1928)

 This is an early Alfred Hitchcock Silent movie.  There is a serial killer on the loss in London.  He kills every Tuesday and leaves a card "The Avenger."  About this time a new lodger (Ivor Novello) asks for a room at a boarding house.  The whole area is uptight as it seems the murders keep getting closer and closer to the boarding house.  The landlady (Marie Ault) suspects the new lodger, and the police come to question him.  In the meantime a young lady (June Tripp) at the house is falling for him.  He is quite an improvement over another lodger who is always trying to hit on her, and even locked her up in handcuffs against her will.  The police come back with a search warrant, and find a map of all the murders in the lodger's room, as well as a picture of one of the victims.  The detective arrests him for murder.  He claims his innocence and the young lady believes him and helps him escape.  They meet up an he explains the victim was his sister and he has been trying to find the murderer.  The murders have lead him to the boarding house as the most recent was very close and the murderer seems to be migrating.  When the London peole discover him they believe he is the murderer and all chase him and in the end capture him.  However the detective is able to intervene and lets the people know he has learned the murderer has already ben captured.  

A bit hard to follow at times.  They were trying to use news type for a scene but the picture didn't work so I couldn't read it.  However the story is good, and shows how hard it is to judge others.  

Alfred Hitchcock, John Steinbeck Movie: **** Life Boat (1944)

 This is a very good movie about a group of people that make it to a life boat after a German U-boat sunk their ship.  It includes both passengers and crew, and a member of the crew that sunk them.  Connie Porter (Tallulah Bankhead) was the first on the boat, having ben put there by a crew member.  She is taking pictures for publication.  The boat is then caught by a crew member, John Kovac (John Hodiak) from the engine room who was on break when the ship was hit.  He asserts himself as captain.  Gus Smith (William Bendix) another crew member who has been shot in the leg.  Stanley "Sparks" Garrett (Hume Cronyn) is a radio operator.  Alice McKenzie (Mary Anderson) is and army nurse.  She takes to fixing Smith's leg as best she can.  Charles J. Rittenhouse (Henry Hull) arrives next.  H is a wealthy industrialist.  Joe Spencer (Canada Lee) African American steward arrives with a woman, Mrs. Higley (Heather Angel) who is clutching her baby.  Spencer explains he had to drag her along as she has tried to drown the baby and herself.  The baby dies.  She is in shell shock and very distraught.  Lastly Willi (Walter Slezak) arrives and the quickly he is German and from the U-boat which was sunk.  

There is a feeling to throw the German back, but calmer voices prevail and they keep him for now.  He is the only one with a compass which he keeps hid, but he influences them to go towards German resupply ships instead of Bermuda where they want to go.  Mrs Higley is shell shocked and after missing her baby wants to join her.  They have to tie her up, but when they are all asleep she manages to slip over the side.  

During the course of being marooned, Porter loses everything, first her camera, then her fur coat which she gives to Mrs. Higley before she goes over the side, her typewriter gets knocked over the side.  Even her bracelet which she uses to attract fish but then it gets away.  Those on the boat facer storms, thirst, hunger, nerves, the boat filling with water, not knowing which way to go, treachery and people from different backgrounds.  

Smith, really Schmidt, gets gangrene in his leg.  The German, (they discover he is the captain) indicates he has a history of being a doctor and cuts off the leg to save his life.  However over time Smith is so thirsty he starts drinking sea water.  He becomes delusional.  With the German captain encouraging him, he goes overboard to join his girl.  The others are distraught with him when they discover this, and that he has water.  That was why he got Smith to go over the edge as he had discovered this.  They finally throw the German overboard,  just before they are found by a German resupply ship.  However the ship is under attack and they are in the middle of the fight.  When the resupply ship is sunk they are set to be rescued.  Based on the book by John Steinbeck.  This is a very good Hitchcock, and is a very good study of persons under pressure as are John Steinbeck's books.

Alfred Hitchcock Movie: ***^ Stage Fright (1950)

 A movie very similar to the Hitchcock film Young and Innocent.  Eve Gill (Jane Wyman) has a crush on Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) who has been accused of murder.  He tells the story that the actress, Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich) is actually responsible based on her bloody dress.  He is helping her avoid legal entanglements, while he, himself is accused by the police.  

This movie follows the theme of Young and Innocent, but as time goes on Gill is less in love with Todd and more in love with the detective, Wilfred Smith (Michael Wilding).  Gill also involves her father (Alastair Sim) in keeping the fugitive safe.  

This movie does not end the same as Young and Innocent when the fugitive is proven innocent.  It turns out very differently.  I was a bit frustrated with Detective Smith.  I had a hard time understanding him with his accent.

Silent Alfred Hitchcock Movie: **Champagne (1928)

 I think this is the Alfred Hitchcock silent movie I like least.  The story is about the daughter (Betty Balfour) of a champagne tycoon (Gordon Harker), whose father refuses permission that she marry her boyfriend (Jean Bradin).  She flies her father's plane to meet her boyfriend who is on a yacht going to France.  Her boyfriend has sea sickness and she meets a mysterious stranger (Ferdinand Von Allen).  She receives a telegram from her father who warns her about marrying him, so she proposes to him.  They argue over her having asked for his hand.  He later regrets this and looks for her to apologize, and finds her playing chess with the stranger, so they quarrel again.  The father meets them in France, and announces the family fortune has been lost.  The boyfriend leaves and the father thinks he is only interested in money.  The daughter is robbed and consequently they are destitute and father and daughter take a dilapidated apartment.  Boyfriend returns again to apologize and she rebukes him saying she is going to take a job.  She works in a restaurant where she sees the mysterious man who hands her a note to contact him if she is in need.  The boyfriend does not approve of the job and they argue again.  Her father also does not approve and says it was a ruse his having lost the family money.  She is mad at both her father and boyfriend, but the mysterious stranger pays for her trip back to America.  Turns out the mysterious an works for her father to keep her safe.  The boyfriend, unaware of this decides to attack him but father intervenes to say he no longer objects to the wedding.  Our couple of love birds now argue about the wedding arrangments as the movie ends.

This movie flounders because it really doesn't have much to say.  

Alfred Hitchcock Movie Review: **** Blackmail (1929)

 This is Alfred Hitchcock's  first talkie movie.  It is actually very good.  Alice White (Anny Ondra) has an argument with her boyfriend, Detective Frank Webber (John Longden).  She goes home with an artist she met at the coffee shop, Mr. Crewe (Cyril Ritchard).  He gets her into a different dress to model for him, but he forces a kiss on her and she protests and decides to get dressed and go home.  However she takes her dress, and then tries to rape her.  She happens upon a knife in his studio and kills him during the attempted rape.  She tries to erase evidence of herself in the apartment and leaves, walking the streets all night.  Webber is assigned to the case, and find's White's glove.  He takes the glove to her at the store her parents own and she works, wondering what happened.  At which point another person, Tracy (Donald Calthorp) enters the store.  He has the other glove and saw Mr. Crewe with White together and proceeds to blackmail them.  The tables turn when he turns out to have a criminal past, and he is wanted for questioning in the case.  Tracy panics and runs, and ends up falling to his death.  White goes to the police station to confess, but is intercepted by Webber.  The police assume Tracy did the murder.  White confesses to Webber about the attempted rape and the murder.  She is not arrested.

Enjoyable show.  First few minutes there is no sound, and when the sound starts there is lots of laughing as if this was easier to create.  A silent version was released.  This is credited as the first talkie in England, and was considered the best picture of the year.

Alfred Hitchcock Movie: **** Young and Innocent (1937)

 Young and Innocent is a delightful early Hitchcock movie.  Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) is accused of murder.  The belt off his coat was used, and two women saw him running away.  He maintains he was running away to get help.  However the deceased was a friend of his.  She was a movie star who was disaffected from her husband, but he would not give her a divorce.  The police commissioner's (Col. Burgoyne (Percy Marmont) daughter, Erica (Nova Pilbeam) has a liking for the accused murderer.  He escapes during police station confusion, and then convinces Erica to give him a ride in her car.  He is out to find his old coat so he can prove he is not the murderer.  The search many places and finally catch up with a bum, Old Will (Edward Rigby) who has the coat.   He describes who gave him the coat as a person with a twitch, not Tisdall.  They find in the coat a match and this leads them to a place to go next.  In the mean time the commissioner pressures his daughter to let him know where Tisdall is.  They follow her to the hotel/bar.  It is difficult to locate him, but they discover him in the band playing drum and in black face.  He admits to choking his wife.  This is in front of the police so Tisdall is no longer a suspect.  Our two love birds are free to pursue a relationship.  

I really enjoyed this movie.  It is a very good whodunnit with the romance added in.