My weekly movie reviews. You can also read these on letterboxd.
This week focuses on three Alfred Hitchcock movies I’d never seen before.
THE WRONG MAN (1956)
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
You wouldn’t know this is a Hitchcock movie without the titles and the director’s introduction. It could have been directed by any other studio pro. That’s not a bad thing of course; it’s refreshing to see the master of suspense not only do something different, a realistic crime drama, but to see him trade his stylish signature for anonymity.
Though Henry Fonda’s character has a moving, sometimes disturbing, journey as the mistaken man, it’s the Vera Miles subplot that haunts me the most. Her descent into fear and self-blaming is the most frightening aspect of the picture, a situation that feels too real and relevant, especially in our victim-focused times. The actress steals the film with her turn from the perfect wife/mother to different person, cold, removed from reality and the love of her family.
True or not, I wish Hitch had left us with a bleak ending. That would have been truly unforgettable.
Watched on Criterion Channel.
TORN CURTAIN (1966)
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars
My friend Gus was right: Paul Newman is not the type to lead a Hitchcock picture, not a good substitute for Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant. But sadly he’s not the biggest problem with TORN CURTAIN.
There are too many to list but I’ll name a few. Julie Andrews is a worse casting mistake, totally wrong in spirit. She and Newman don’t make a good pair either. But even that could have been remedied if the rest of the picture worked. It doesn’t. It’s narratively lazy, making mistakes left and right. And then late in the picture, Hitchcock gives us two cartoonish female performance (the lady on the bus and the one they meet on the street) that would fit better in Mel Brooks movie. Perhaps he was going for a lighter touch but Alfred’s instincts were off on this one, way off.
The scene that makes this worth seeing is the fight in the farm house. It’s quite thrilling and I plan to take inspiration from it.
Watched on Criterion Channel.
TOPAZ (1969)
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Reading the reviews by my peers of two late-career Hitchock spy films, TORN CURTAIN and TOPAZ, I find myself in disagreement as to which is the better film.
TOPAZ is quite different from Hitch’s usual work, mostly devoid of his stylized camera angles/cutting, lacking a movie star lead, and deliberately slow, but I think it is the superior to his other cold war thriller. The lack of a famous actor is refreshing, putting the film in the hands of an international ensemble cast. They all play it straight, subtle, unlike the bizarre characterizations in TORN CURTAIN. This spy movie certainly isn’t suspenseful but neither are most John le Carré adaptations. TOPAZ had me fantasizing about how Hitchcock would have handled the spy novelist’s work if he’d lived longer. Imagine his version of TINKER, TAILOR or THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD. I digress… I liked the film besides its flaws. It’s slow and some of the story beats are boring but it’s precise, steady, and a little mean. I like how cynical the ending gets. This is Hitch at the end of his career who makes movies about cheating husbands and corrupt politicians who kill themselves, not Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart getting the girl.
Watched on Criterion Channel.
