Frankly My Dear, I REALLY DO Give A Damn!

David O. Selznick's 1939 production of Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize winner 'Gone with the Wind' is an epic in every sense of the word! An American classic in which a manipulative woman and a roguish man carry on a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War and Reconstruction. This sweeping Civil war-era romance won an impressive 10 Academy Awards (including Best Picture), and it's immortal characters Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) captain a rollercoaster story of enduring appeal across generations.

Things did not start well when I sat down to watch this saga. First I notice the running time of the film...3 Hours and 45 Minutes! The DVD disc itself is spread over both sides! Is this movie really gonna be worth it?

The film opens with a single title card that reads - Musical Overture. I sit through a boring 2 and a half minutes of cheesy Hollywood music. Thank God I have popcorn to stuff my face with!

We then get introduced to one of our main characters, Scarlett and it doesn't take long for us to realise she is a major slut! Like OMG! She is so annoying and just flings her affections from one guy to the next without batting an eyelid! Then Rhett comes in with a cheesy intro shot from above...I'm starting to think, classic or not...I'm not gonna like this movie.

Suddenly the Civil war starts and the film does a complete back flip and becomes absolutely riveting! Both Gable and Leigh captivate the audience with their performances, Gable especially. The scenes between the two of them are fantastic and each one is a real screen gem. Some scenes are overacted; the ones between Scarlett and Ashley (Leslie Howard) come to mind. But these are tolerated because the story and the dialogue are so rich and fulfilling.

The famous scene in which Clark Gable turns to Leigh and utters those legendary words "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!” is great and can be found in the last 4 minutes of the 3 hours and 41 minutes previous.

On a side note this was the first colour film to win the Best Picture Oscar. On another side note this has to be the most politically correct film ever! I LOL'd at the scene towards the beginning of the film in which young black slave girls are fanning the young white girls as they take their afternoon naps! I can see only one problem with this...how do you stop these rudimentary fans from stealing themselves all the time?

I didn't think I would like this film and for the first half an hour of it I really didn't but towards the end I was  caught; hook, line and sinker! And as much as Scarlett is an evil, scheming, lil' spoilt rich girl...I did feel sorry for her in the end. It is an end of tragedy and heartbreak but it leaves us with the truth...There is no place like home!

North By Northwest...Or What I Can Remember Of It...

It's been quite a while since I have wrote something on this blog. I started off with good intentions but then like every project I start I get lazy and before you know it BAM! It's a new year and your blog still only has 2 followers...


We must power on children! For the sake of film history and random rattles on about nothing!


Have you ever been run down by a plane? ...Ive been on a rundown plane....cheap QANTAS joke HAHAHA....moving on. Wells one leathery skinned Cary Grant almost gets run down by a plane in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 thriller NORTH BY NORTHWEST.

Middle-aged Madison Avenue advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Grant) is mistaken for a government agent by a gang of spies. He gets involved in a series of misadventures and is pursued across the States by both the spies and the government whilst being helped by a beautiful blonde.

Now I watched this film a while back and then forgot to blog about it but from what I can remember...it was pretty figgin' sweet! I wouldn't say that this is one of Hitchcock's most imaginative or groundbreaking films, but it's a great thrill ride with plenty of action and adventure...and hot, blonde women...like boner hot! But then you stop and think, "Wait a minute! This boner hot chick is probably like an old woman now or even a rotting corpse...", and then your mood is ruined and you don't really feel like watching a movie anymore so you go to your room and cry.

But the movie is filled with some of Hitchcock's most memorable scenes. The famous crop dusting plane scene and the Mount Rushmore chase are terrific and have been since parodied in shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy. The film is so crammed with memorable passages that one hardly notices it's 136 mins long.

James Mason is terrific! He manages to play a bad guy you just cant help but feeling sorry for! And I could listen to that man read the telephone book! BEST VOICE EVER! Sorry...where was I?

One fact from this movie has always stuck with me. In the scene where we see Cary Grant standing outside the United Nation building, Hitchcock couldn't actually get permission to film the UN, so Hitch mounted a camera inside a delivery van and got Grant to walk around the UN steps until he got his shot. In the film you can actually see UN security carefully watching Grant...maybe trying to figure out what he's doing?

I was thoroughly entertained by this film. I didn't pay to much attention to the techniques or film language within it, but I guess that's a marker of a truly engrossing and endearing film. Be sure to keep an eye out for Hitch's cameo; Hitchcock arrives at a bus stop (during the opening credits) but gets there a second too late and the door is closed in his face.

Between you and me...with the ammount of weight Hitchcock was carrying...he was kidding himself if he thought he was gonna make that bus!

I'm At A Place Called VERTIGO

This would have to be my new favourite film! Even as I’m writing this blog, only just having finished watching it for the first time, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 masterpiece, Vertigo, will be indelibly etched on my mind! I’m still shaking from this beautiful nightmare of obsession....with a killer twist!

Set in San Francisco, James Stewart portrays an acrophobic (someone with an irrational fear of high places...you’re welcome!) detective hired to trail a friends suicidal wife (Kim Novak...hotototototot!) After he successfully rescues her from a leap into the bay, he finds himself becoming obsessed with the beautifully troubled woman.

What makes this film outstanding to me is yes, it’s full of Hitchcock’s masterful camera angles and special effects, but what I see in Vertigo is a story with true human emotion which no other Alfred Hitchcock movies offer, adding a new creatively pleasing dimension to his work.

Jimmy Stewart is wonderful yet again and portrays his most brilliant and complex character. He represents everyman and is incredibly easy to identify with.

The most exciting element in this film for me is The “Vertigo Effect”. As a filmmaker this shot, used to dizzy the audience and thus put them in the characters perspective, is worthy of inspiration and imitation. And it has been imitated by the best. Steven Spielberg used this shot in JAWS...in the beach scene. The famous Vertigo shots were done with miniatures laid on their sides, since it was impossible to do them vertically. The view down the mission stairwell cost $19,000 for just a couple of seconds of screen time.

Nuns scare me...so I found the climax scene disturbing. Kinda had to turn my lamp on a little...

Vertigo is one of cinema’s most chilling romantic endeavours: it’s fascinating myriad of haunting camera angles shot among some of San Francisco’s renowned landmarks. This film is a must see for movie buffs! A genuinely great motion picture that demands multiple viewings!

Cymbals the Symbol...

It seems to be Hitchcock month here at the moment. Has nothing to do with me and my current tastes it’s just that Hitchcock has so many films that have made it onto the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list! With a single crash of cymbals the life of an American family is turned upside down in 1956’s The Man Who Knew Too Much.

James Stewart and Doris Day, in a rare dramatic role, are superb in this brilliant suspense thriller from the undisputed master. Stewart and Day play Ben and Jo MacKenna, innocent Americans vacationing in Morocco with their son, Hank. After a French spy dies in Ben’s arms in a Marrakech market, the couple discovers their son has been kidnapped and taken to England. Not knowing who they can trust, the MacKenna’s are caught up in a nightmare of international espionage, assassinations and terror. Soon all their lives hang in the balance as they draw closer to the truth and a chilling climatic moment in London’s famous Royal Albert Hall.

I wasn’t fully getting into this film when I first started watching it and I must admit I didn’t think it was anything that special. But 20 minutes into the film I was hooked. I was tense and nervous, on the edge of my seat to use the cliché. The plot development was masterful and completely compelling.

The whole cast are superb, giving incredibly naturalistic performances - see the scene in the Moroccan restaurant, which almost seems ad-libbed. The absolute stand out in this film for me however is Doris Day! Originally production had doubts about whether she could pull off the serious dramatic elements the script called for, after all, Day was used to playing in Hollywood Musical Comedies. But Day delivers the impossible 110% in this film. Her emotional breakdown scene after discovering the kidnapping of her son is superb.

At first, Day refused to record "Que Sera, Sera" as a popular song release, dismissing it as "a forgettable children's song." It not only went on to win the Academy Award, but also became the biggest hit of her recording career and her signature song.

As usual, there are the elaborately staged set-pieces, beautifully choreographed blend of music and images building to the pivotal crash of cymbals in the film’s climax. This is one of Hitchcock’s best.

Rear Window Ethics

I often have this debate with my somewhat overbearing mother as to the ethics of spying on the neighbours. Do I really want to know what they’re doing? To know that the old man to our left pays for the company of younger women or the woman to our right enjoys the old puff every once in a while? The answer is...yes! How fun it is to play the voyeur!

None of Hitchcock’s films has ever given a clearer view of his genius for suspense that 1954’s Rear Window. When professional photographer J.B Jeffries (James Stewart) is confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg, he becomes obsessed with watching the private dramas of his neighbours play out across the courtyard, when he suspects a salesman may have murdered his nagging wife, Jeffries enlists the help of his glamorous socialite girlfriend (Grace Kelly) to investigate the highly suspicious chain of events...Events that ultimately lead to one of the most memorable and gripping endings in all of film history.

This is a great film, although it does take a while to get into. It’s full of sumptuous, witty dialogue, especially between Stewart and Kelly, and Classic one-liners not likely to forget.

The performances are masterful. Thelma Ritter as Nurse Stella is fantastic. Kelly is profoundly beautiful as always! She frequently played the same characters...but boy! Is she good at it! Stewart is great too and he was looking fine until he took his shirt off and I got an eyeful of old man boobs!

The sub-plot of Miss Lonely Heart will tear at your emotions with its sad and tragic events...so be warned.

The entire picture was shot on one set, which required months of planning and construction. While shooting, Alfred Hitchcock worked only in Jeff's "apartment." The actors in other apartments wore flesh-coloured earpieces so that he could radio his directions to them. Keep a sharp eye out for the piano player! That’s Ross Bagdasarian, creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

This film is an undeniable classic. It’s inspired many a rip off. The Simpsons for one and DJ Caruso’s film Disturbia with Shia LeBouf is a modern retelling of the story. Enjoy the Voyeurism. Seeing isn’t always believing.

The King of Movie Musicals!

Singin’ in the Rain....Without a doubt, hands down the greatest Hollywood musical ever made in the history of everness!! And I will fight every single one of you Neanderthals who disagree!! Not only does this movie mean so much to me personally it also reflects the Golden Age on Cinema at its toe-tapping best.

Silent movies are giving way to Talking Pictures – and a hoofer-turned-matinee idol (Gene Kelly) is caught in that bumpy transition, as well as his buddy (Donald O’Connor), prospective ladylove (Debbie Reynolds) and shrewish co-star (Jean Hagen).

I cannot help but smile at the film’s beginning! Then I find my smile doesn’t fade throughout the films entirety! 1951’s Singin’ in the Rain really is the King of Movie Musicals. Kelly captivates me with his wonderfully inventive and incredibly athletic dancing. He really was a true mater of his craft and made it look so easy. When teamed with O’Connor you can expect some brilliant choreography that will leave you breathless.

This film is full of classic songs that it’s impossible to pick a favourite! (It’s like being asked to name your favourite child!) All I Do Is Dream of You, Make ‘em Laugh, Moses Supposes, Good Mornin’ and the legendary Singin’ in the Rain...you’ll be singing along like a Disney movie!

The first sound recording scene with Kelly and Hagen is comedy gold and guaranteed to make you chuckle. I’ve always skipped the soundstage number with Kelly and Reynolds it’s too slow and lovey-dovey for me...a real lull in the film’s action.

As I watch this film I am saddened. Gone are the days of actors with real talent like Kelly, O’Connor and Reynolds. Artists who could sing, act and dance! We don’t have star like that in this day and age anymore. But their legacies are left on film for audiences to enjoy over and over again. What a Glorious Feeling!!

Hand Me A Rope

I first heard of Rope when I was on the set of one of my short films. My lead actress told me of the play “Rope’s End” by Patrick Hamilton; a sinister tale of murder and intrigue. It aroused my interest so I did my research and found that Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film Rope was the most well know filmed version of the play. I didn’t get what I was expecting!

Two...let’s call them friends (wink wink to the major homosexuality theme throughout the film)...strangle a classmate for intellectual thrills, then proceed to throw a party for the victim’s family and friends – with the body stuffed inside the trunk they use for a buffet table. As the killers turn the conversation to committing the “perfect murder”, their former teacher (James Stewart) becomes increasingly suspicious. Before the night is over the professor will discover how brutally his students have turned his academic theories into chilling reality.

Nothing in this movie works for me. The film is based on a play and I feel like I’m watching a play. Hitchcock films the entire movie in ten minute segments in an attempt to make the film run like one continual shot. The problem is he has to do these ugly and completely ridiculous close ups into the backs of characters costumes to mask the cut edits! There’s no fancy Hitchcock camera work and the sense of macabre that the movie promises is lost on me a little. The odd softly whimsical music during the opening credits doesn’t quite fit the mood of the film. 20 minutes in and I wish the movie would kick into some form of gear!

Thank God Jimmy Stewart finally arrives at the party! Things are beginning to look up! Stewart is endearing and witty, grabbing my full attention...but alas! He can’t save this film for me.

The idea of this film does excite me; I know who’s done it, I’m just waiting for the lead character to figure it out. However, I think a lot of the tension was taken out of the film by Hitchcock showing the murder in the first scene. If the audience had been left to guess whether there indeed was a body in the chest or not the picture would have been a lot more riveting.