Director Dissection with Seanc and Rauldc

Another pleasant surprise. What a cast. Laughton is always fantastic and I am almost always left wanting more of him, that was certainly the case here. Peck and Todd are really great in their scenes together. both have become screen presence that immediately put a smile on my face. Court room drama is a pretty easy sell for me, and there is just enough of it here to scratch that itch. Especially like the way the court scenes are shot, those scenes are my favorite of the movie visually. Movie looks pretty good otherwise, but nothing striking enough to really stand out.

If I have a complaint, and what keeps this from going up a couple notches for me it’s in the character development. At the heart of the movie is an obsession, and I never feel the weight of it. Peck’s obsession seems to come on very shallow. I certainly never felt that he is in love. Consequently, when the climax comes it loses a bit of its power.

Glad to finally get to this one, hope others enjoy it as well.

__________________
Letterboxd

“Except for markf, you’re all a disgrace to cinema.”

I guess I should rewatch The Paradine Case, as I don't remember it well enough to have any opinion. I seen it about 6 months ago for the first time during my Gregory Peck filmography watch...which I need to finish BTW. Hopefully I'll catch it in a couple of days.

This one is high on my to-watch list, what was your rating?

__________________
Letterboxd
Entertainment log

I don't know as I don't have a Letterboxd account. It's worth watching so stay tuned and I will watch, review and rate it in a couple days.

I'll get to it again soon!

I forgot about this thread and thusly haven't kept up. I could watch Vertigo some time this week to make up for it. I do remember it fairly well since it is quite memorable. I saw that Citizen would have preferred a different ending. The ending we got felt very Hitchcockian; you do all of that, solve it all, and conquer the evil you've been fighting, and it ironically just is moot. At least... that was my impression.

Some of Vertigo is a bit wonky, and the hotel thing kind of bothers me because the rest of the film is grounded in reality and then there's this weird hotel thingy? It feels out of place. I say I remember it fairly well, except there are some details missing. I do remember the mystery and suspense of the whole thing being captivating. There's also that weird psychedelic bit where James Stewart's character is having issues and there are colors spinning everywhere, which I understand, except it sometimes gives me a headache.

I know a lot of people put Vertigo as their #1 Hitchcock, but I don't rank it quite that high. I'd put it around #5 or #6 or maybe #7. Honestly I hadn't really thought that far ahead. #1 is Suspicion, #2 is North by Northwest, #3 is I Confess, and #4 is Psycho. Sometimes #3 and #4 swap spots. Vertigo is a spectacular film and I praise it loads. I just think it isn't quite perfect.

I haven't seen Paradine Case. It sounds good though.

Am I allowed to bring up any Hitchcock film while we watch a select few of his filmography? One film I really want to get a copy is The Trouble with Harry. It's one of Hitchcock's real forays into comedy, and I found it hilarious. He somehow made a dead person funny. It's totally silly and kind of stupid and I think that works for what it is. It feels like a Monty Python sketch. I have it saved on Amazon. I've only seen the film once and it was many years ago so I'm missing a lot of details. I just remember laughing a lot.

__________________
"Some day this war has to end."
"Wash your mouth out with soap!"

Yes I feel the same about Vertigo. It floats around a top 100-200 movie for me.

Hey Pants glad you posted! Some of my thoughts, as I pondered Vertigo quite a bit after watching it, which is always a good thing. The reason I wanted a different ending was 1) I didn't feel primed enough to want Kim Novak's character to die, maybe that's just me, but I felt more sympathy for her than anything.
2) I felt let down that we didn't get another big scene where James Stewart's character has to finally conquer his fear of heights, it would've been great if it came down to him giving into vertigo or saving the woman's life as she hung by the ledge. Once again that's probably just me.
Glad you mentioned that, I thought about that scene many times as it's weird that Stewart sees Novak going into the hotel, sees her car parked there, sees her remove her jacket in the window...but when he ask the hotel clerk she says she didn't see anyone, no one signed the guest registry and no one was in the room...so Stewart must be imagining the entire event which could mean he imaged the entire Madeline story? Anybody think that? I do have a theory on what happened in the hotel but I'd like to hear what Sean and Raul and you think about that scene.

That makes sense. I think that could have worked too. I think then people would be asking, "Why didn't she fall to her death?"

I kind of thought the desk clerk was in cahoots with Madeline. It was just odd.

I hadn't thought of that, that could be. I will wait to see if Raul or Sean has any thoughts on what Hitch was doing with that hotel scene.

It has been a while since I watched Vertigo so maybe I'm remembering it wrong. Yeah maybe they have some insight. I don't have many answers, at least for that question.

I don't think there's a real answer just different ideas. My idea might be goofy who knows?

Vertigo



I've never been truly enamored with this film but in honestly there's really nothing that it doesn't do right. I love how the story unfolds and its best score of any Hitchcock film in my opinion. James Stewart is great in it, and so was Barbara Bel Geddes and Kim Novak. The settings used were awesome. The film as a whole doesn't look great but it doesn't take away from anything either. Now are there still a dozen or so Hitch more I enjoy? Yes but this is still magnificent. The best things it's got going for it is that it's beginning is awesome and so is the ending. Two fabulous scenes that are my favorites of the entire film.

Yeah, can’t disagree at all CR. I really like every other aspect of the film. I’m just a half star higher and it will probably sit towards the middle of his filmography for me.

The Paradine Case is one of about a dozen Hitchcock films I haven't seen, but reading your thoughts here have me intrigued.

__________________

I have half a mind to watch all of Hitch's sound films now, I'm really enjoying them.

I think it's worth a watch, like Sean said the courtroom scenes are strong as well as the prep of the defense witness by her lawyer. I only rate it at the bottom of Hitch's film because he had so many great movies that they all can't be at top of a list.

Us too. Think we are going to do another round of choices after we finish these. If you want to continue to watch with us, you want to pick a few to watch as well?

Hell yes