Early Alfred

 

 (imdb)

BLACKMAIL-1929-It takes a little while to get started but a woman Alice (Anny Ondra) has a fight with her policeman boyfriend Frank (John Longden) then goes with an artist (Cyril Ritchard) to his studio. Unbeknownst to her Frank sees them. After some flirtation he tries to rape her but she stabs him to death. The police investigate and Frank finds Alice's glove and sees that the dead man is the one she was with. When a man shows up at Alice's father's tobacco shop attempting to blackmail Alice, Frank devises a plan to pin the murder on the blackmailer. A chase through a museum highlights the story. Guilt ridden Alice wants to confess. 

This was Alfred Hitchcock's tenth movie and though originally done as a silent film it was decided midway way through the production that a sound film would also be made. This silent version is very well done with Hitchcock showing many of the traits he would use in subsequent film classics. It also features the longest of his many cameo appearances. The new score is a bit overwhelming.

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Hitch Tac Toe

 

 

 

HITCHCOCK-2012-The genesis of the movie PYSCHO and it's controversial road from book to screen is basically the plot of this film bio of the great director (Anthony Hopkins never out of his suit and tie). Despite the success of his previous film (the classic NORTH BY NORTHWEST) no studio would touch the new project. It also practically says that wife Alma (Helen Mirren) salvaged the whole picture after Hitchcock had filmed it. The director comes across as a bit of a loony, insulting everyone and imaging his wife is having an affair but Hopkins portrayal is admirable and mostly the film is a positive look at his career to that point. However the film really insults Anthony Perkins (played by James D'Arcy) and his contribution. Instead of showing him and his portrayal as the focal point of PYSCHO, his character is brushed off as being nothing but a homo mama's boy who understood nothing that was going on. But of course Janet Leigh's role was played by film darling Scarlett Johansson so the director Sacha Gervasi was probably so enamored of her he focused everything on her character (not that that Janet Leigh's role wasn't crucial to the original story; it was). I wonder if the future Sir Alfred really did talk to Ed Gein (Michael Wincott)?

Despite it's faults I like HITCHCOCK better than most Hollywood bios I've seen recently. It could be because although Hopkins and Mirren are fine Academy Award winner actors they are also both hacks who would do anything for money and there for having them both in the same film made me wary, yet it wasn't as bad I thought it could have been.
 
It also features Danny Huston as screenwriter Whitfield Cook, Ralph Macchio as Joseph Stefano and Jessica Biel as Vera Miles. It's based on a book by Stephen Rebello with a screenplay by John McLaughlin (THE BLACK SWAN). Director Gervasi's claim to fame before this was his screenplay for the Tom Hanks flop THE TERMINAL.

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Lost Film Found (well half anyway...)

THE WHITE SHADOW-1924-Although Graham Cutts is the credited director, the assistant director, editor, set designer and scenarist are all credited to one man: Alfred Hitchcock, a year before he directed his first film.

This film was long thought to be lost but an incomplete print (only 3 of it's 6 reels were located) was found in New Zealand. A lot happens and this new version uses title cards to explain what's missing (most importantly the ending!). It's a tale of two sisters, one bad and one good both played by American actress Betty Compson. Murder, a case of mistaken identity (deliberately caused by the twins) and a gambling hall called "The Cat That Laughs" figure in the plot. Clive Brook (who played Sherlock Holmes in 3 early sound films) and Henry Victor (WHITE ZOMBIE) are also in it.

I found it ironic that I watched this after posting ESCORT GIRL which Compson (at the time of SHADOW a box office star) starred in many years later!

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Silent Hitchcock

THE MANXMAN-1929-This is usually listed as the last silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is sort of but his next film BLACKMAIL had silent and sound versions released. His daughter Pat was born around the time of it's shooting.

Pete, a simple fisherman (Carl Brisson, a Danish actor who earlier had been in THE RING by Hitchcock) and Phil, a banker (Malcolm Keen, an English actor in his third film for Hitch; he was the star of THE LODGER ) are lifelong friends. They are both sweet on Kate (Anny Ondra, a Czech actress and star of the director's next film BLACKMAIL), the daughter of a pub owner (Randle Ayrton), Pete wants to propose to Kate but is scared of her mean faced father. Phil seems to put in a good word for Pete but dad isn't buying it and throws him out. Later that night Pete decides to go away and seek his fortune overseas to win Kate who agrees to wait for him. He asks Phil to watch over her while he's gone. Phil meets Kate almost everyday much to the annoyance of Phil's mother who believes Kate is beneath him and threatens her plans for Phil to become a judge. When a telegram arrives saying Pete is dead, Phil and Kate (who have fallen in love) are free to marry. But of course Pete isn't dead. Everybody seems happy by his return except for Phil and Kate (who promptly faints when Phil agrees to be Pete's best man at their wedding!). After they wed Kate becomes pregnant but Phil is the father of her child not her husband. After the child is born Phil becomes a judge (called a "deemster"). Kate can stand the deception no longer and leaves hubby for the new judge but he's worried about a scandal. Pete carries on as best he can without Kate who tries unsuccessfully to get her baby back. She winds up in court before Judge Phil on an attempted suicide charge where he reveals everything and leaves his post in disgrace. Phil and Kate leave to the jeers of the townspeople and Pete goes back to his fishing.

This familiar sad story was based on a novel and had been filmed before in 1917. Malcolm Keen is the father of familiar English character actor Geoffrey Keen. Anny Ondra was married to boxer Max Schmeling!

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Jack!

THE LODGER-1926-This silent suspense drama established Alfred Hitchcock as a director who was going places. It’s based on an English novel and the real Jack The Ripper. It doesn’t use that many title cards and instead relies mostly on visual effects. Ivor Novello portrays a mysterious stranger who comes to room in a London boarding house when a killer is on the prowl in the foggy streets. Is he the killer? Very well done but the print I saw was very worn (gee…I wonder why?).

The future Sir Alfred makes the first of his many cameos too (I’ve read he appears twice but I must have missed one!). Novello also starred in a 1932 British remake (somehow he also wound up writing dialogue for TARZAN OF THE APES in 1932!). The 1944 US version starred Laird Cregar and MAN IN THE ATTIC (with Jack Palance in 1953) covered similar ground.

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 (imdb)