Monthly Archives: October 2020

Frenzy
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Anthony Shaffer from a novel by Arthur La Bern
1972/UK
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
One of 1000 Greatest Horror Films on theyshootzombies.com

Robert Rusk: I don’t know if you know it, Babs, but you’re my type of woman.

You know you’re in decline when your set pieces move from atop Mount Rushmore to the interior of a potato truck.  Still this is as good as late Hitchcock gets and is entertaining.

The film begins with beautiful vistas of the River Thames accompanied by appropriately majestic music.  But as the camera focuses in on the bank, we see a victim of the Necktie Strangler floating in the water wearing only a necktie.  The Strangler rapes his victims  before he murders them.

Richard Blaney (Jon Finch) has a hot temper and a giant chip on his shoulder and is now broke, having lost his job at a pub for sneaking a drink he claims he was going to pay for.  He is in a relationship with barmaid Babs Milligan (Anna Massey).  Richard’s friend Bob Rusk (Barry Foster) runs a stand at the Covent Garden market and is usually good for a few bob and a place to stay.

Following a night in a Salvation Army shelter, Richard decides to pay a visit on his ex-wife who is a marriage broker.  She evidently still has a soft spot for him, takes him to dinner, and slips him some cash.

This is not a mystery but a “wrong man” thriller.  So we know at all times that Bob Rusk is the Necktie Strangler.  He seems to have fun strangling ladies that Richard knows and Richard is always in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The suspense is will the police figure this out before Richard pays the price.

This represents both a departure for Hitchcock and a return to his roots.  Hitchcock entirely abandons restrictions of the past with a fair bit of nudity and extra-marital sex.  But at the same time this is a return to the wrong man theme and has more of a twinkle in its eye than in his prior two attempts at spy films.  The potato truck scene is exciting.  Actually my favorite part is the poor police inspector who has to endure the results of his wife’s passion for French gourmet cooking every night. Not essential except for completists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaSmVwk36gk

Sleuth
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Written by Anthony Shaffer from his play
1972/UK
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/My DVD collection
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Andrew Wyke: You said everything was in plain view!
Milo Tindle: Well aren’t I the shifty old sly boots, then.

Imagine a movie where two very different but great actors try to upstage each other for the entire running time.  Now imagine they are given a brilliantly literate screenplay and one of the best directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age.  That is Sleuth.

It would be criminal to give away any of the plot so I will but set the stage.  Andrew Wyke (Lawrence Olivier) writes old-fashioned crime fiction replete with a brilliant aristocratic private detective and dense police inspectors.  He lives in a palatial estate in the English country side. Every inch of the house and grounds is stuffed with playthings.  Anywhere you look there is a puzzle, or a mechanical toy, or other kind of oddity,  Despite his proclivity for “fun”, Andrew is in all respects a very conservative, class-conscious lord of the manor.  He has a sharp tongue and a keen wit.

Milo Tendle (Michael Caine) is a much-younger half-Italian hairdresser from Soho.  He has been having an affair with Andrew’s wife and wants to marry her.  Andrew has invited Milo to his place to discuss the matter.  What Milo lacks in breeding he makes up for in street smarts and cunning. Let the games begin!

I saw this on stage and then this film on original release.  Fortunately, I forgot some of the plot twists!  At any rate, there is so much to look at and absorb that I can’t imagine this movie ever getting old. Such fun to watch Olivier and Caine do their thing!  Highly recommended.

Both Caine and Olivier were nominated for the Best Actor Oscar rejected by Marlon Brando.  Both of them were as good and had more screen time than Brando but, of course, The Godfather has “important” written all over it.  Mankiewicz got a nod for Best Director and John Addison was nominated for his Originial Score

This was Mankiewicz’s last theatrical film.  Nice to see him go out on a high.

Apache Indian Sacheen Littlefeather declined Marlon Brando’s Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather on his behalf as a protest against government Indian policies.

The X-rated Deep Throat was the second hard-core pornography feature film widely released in the US. It came after the feature length X-rated Behind the Green Door by the Mitchell Brothers. Both films contributed to the explosion of the porn industry and ‘porn chic’ by being exhibited in many mainstream film theatres. Deep Throat was one of the most financially successful films ever made (grossing over $1,000,000, but costing only $24,000 to make). However, it was ruled obscene by a New York court in 1973 and prints of the film were seized when it was subsequently banned in 23 states, and the film’s exhibitors (and actor Harry Reems) were found guilty of promoting obscenity and fined. The publicity only fueled the worldwide box-office gross of the film.  It seems like a lifetime ago when I actually saw Deep Throat in the theater on original release as some kind of dare with office colleagues!For the first time in 20 years, 82 year-old silent comedian/director/producer Charlie Chaplin returned from exile and set foot on US soil. Two decades earlier, he was denied a re-entry visa amid questions about his leftist politics and moral character.   Chaplin accepted an honorary Academy Award “For the incalculable effect he has had in making motion The pictures the art form of this century”. His standing ovation lasted a record 12 minutes.

The world lost Maurice Chevalier, Brian Donleavy, George Sanders, Bruce Cabot, Margaret Rutherford, Brandon DeWilde, Oscar Levant, Akim Tamaroff, Miriam Hopkins, Edgar G. Ulmer, Leo G. Caroll, and William Dieterle.  Ned Beatty, Jody Foster, Bob Hoskins, Isabelle Huppert, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Kingsley, Steve Martin, and Nick Nolte made their film debuts.

Richard M. Nixon won re-election by a landslide.  The Watergate Scandal broke.  Terrorists attacked the Munich Olympics killing eleven Israeli athletes.  Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” spent six weeks atop the Billboard Charts and was the number one single of the year.  The Pulitzer Prize for Literature was awarded to Wallace Stegner for Angle of Repose.  No prize was awarded for Drama.  Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger were named Time Magazine’s Men of the Year.

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I’m enjoying cherry-picking these later years.  Here is the list I will pick from.

Photo Montage of Oscar winners

Photo Montage of Major Oscar Nominees