Ratnakar Sadasyula
Seeti Maar
Alfred Hitchcock- 50′s and Beyond
By Ratnakar Sadasyula
Hitch continued his claustrophobic closed door approach with Dial M for Murder in 1954. Starring Grace Kelly as a married woman, whose husband played by Ray Milland suspects her of infidelity and tries to murder her, it was shot in 3-D. There was a 1998 version of this starring Michael Douglas and Gwenyth Paltrow, titled The Perfect Murder. The same year also saw another closed space movie with the visually claustrophobic Rear Window, starring his another favorite James Stewart. Stewart plays a wheel chair confined patient, who in order to pass time, spies on the neighboring building using a telescope. He believes that a murder has taken place in the building, while his girlfriend Lisa( Grace Kelly), believes he is just plain paranoid. Brian De Palma paid a rather gory homage to this movie with Body Double in 1984.
1955 saw him team up his favorites Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief, based on a novel by David Dodge. Set in the backdrop of the French Riveira, Grant stars as an ex con artist, who needs to prove his innocence, when a series of robberies, tends to implicate him. Grace Kelly plays his love interest in the movie, which is a mixture of suspense, romance and comedy. 1956 saw Hitch remaking his own 1934 starrer The Man Who Knew Too Much in color, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. Hitch called the 1956 version a professional’s work, while the 1934 version was that of an amateur. The movie is also famous for the song “Que Sera, Sera” which also won the 1956 Best Song Oscar.
.
Hitch and Stewart teamed up again in 1958 for Vertigo, one of his best movies for sure. Stewart plays an ex San Francisco cop, who suffers from fear of heights after seeing his colleague fall to his death. He investigates Madeleine( Kim Novak), wife of his acquaintance, after he reports that she seems to suffer from delusion. He sees her commit suicide and is disturbed, however he has a greater shock, when he sees another woman with the same resemblance. Adapted from a French novel Sueurs froides: d’entre les morts, the movie stresses on the double identity and red herring theme. Also watch out for the stunning opening graphics and Bernard Hermann’s score.
1959 saw Hitch team up with Cary Grant, in North By North West, a typical innocent man suspected of murder in a cross country chase. The movie had all the elements of Hitchcock’s style, the man on the run, the mysterious blonde female, the conspiracy theory, the suave villain. And of course the by now classic scene, where Grant is chased by a crop duster plane, and the climax on Mt. Rushmore.
One movie which any movie lover would readily identify with Hitch is of course 1960’sPyscho. This was the movie which in a way kick started the killer on the loose genre. The movie revolves around the mysterious Norman Bates( Anthony Perkins), and his scary motel. And yes the by now famous shower sequence, which was considered quite graphic for it’s times. The movie also had a strong psycho analytic thread running throughout, with the lead character’s mother domination, coming into the foreground. And in 1963 Hitch came up with the Birds, which was a totally different genre. The movie depicting a series of bird attacks, on the residents of a sea side town is regarded as one of the best in the creature vs man movies, along with Jaws.
Hitch’s later movies like Torn Curtain, a cold war drama starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews and 1969’s Topaz were not really up to expectations. He did come back to form with 1976’s Frenzy, related to a serial killer, and which remains one of his most graphic movies to date. But till then, we will always remember good old Hitch for the wonderful classics he has made.
Archives
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ratnakar Sadasyula is full time techie, part time writer. Presently based at Hyderabad, Ratnakar writes on films, cricket and politics. Bihar days is Proud to have him in our team of regular contributors.
Here is the link to his blog
Seeti Maar- Diary of a Movie Lover
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-