Hitchcock Film By Film Thread

Yes, that's exactly the sort of thing I was blabbering about in one of the previous posts, in that the film as a whole may come across as crude or unstylized on the surface, but if you scratch a level or two down, there are some very elegant, advanced, subtle things going on within FRENZY. Rewatches are quite rewarding, as a result. Thanks for bringing out this specific and splendid example of what I was trying to point out.

 

I actually like Frenzy more than Psycho. Both films are a result of Hitchcock more or less kicking himself in the pants and pushing his technique in some new directions as well as further in some familiar directions.

Regards,

 

Family Plot Spoiler alert:


One additional point I wanted to make on Family Plot is that the ending where Barbara Harris' character exhibits real psychic ability is not the total cop-out that some people think it is. In the scene where she is drugged by Devane and Black's characters, Devane mentions getting another jewel for his chandelier when they are dragging her to the holding cell. This at least leaves open the possibility that she absorbed this information actively or passively in her drugged-out state.

On ther other hand, if the wink at the camera is what bothers you, I cannot offer a sufficient rationalization to make you feel better about that.

Anyway, back to Frenzy...

Regards,

 

IMHO, the best "Hitchcock villain" since Robert Walker in Strangers on a Train. I say that in the face of being an enthusiastic fan of James Mason's character in North by Nortrhwest.

Regards,

 

I think we'll be introducing the next film each Wednesday and Sunday (unless traffic deems otherwise), so if you have any comments still regarding Frenzy, speak up! Thanks to all those who are contributing.

 

Next Film: TOPAZ (1969)

TOPAZ came out in 1969, and I'm not going to be able to add much to the discussion on this one. I last saw it 15 or 20 more years ago, and I remember that it left me completely flat, but I was also watching on television (a commercial-free broadcast on the PBS station in Seattle), not in a theatre.

A couple of little personal comments:

1. One of my all-time favorite theatres was the Southcenter in Tukwila, Washington, a suburb south of Seattle. The theatre featured a 32x90, DEEPLY curved Cinerama screen, and was, in fact, the final 70mm Cinerama theatre built in America, possibly in the world, being owned by United Theatres, which was connected with Pacific Theatres of Los Angeles, which by that time owned the Cinerama name. IIRC, the theatre opened on January 3, 1970, and the opening engagement was Hitchcock's TOPAZ. (It seems odd to me that a company would build a theatre with 70mm 6-track capabilities, then grand-open the place with a 35mm 1.85 mono film, but that's what they did.)

2. Just last week, at the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, TOPAZ had a week-long run in 35mm. Sadly, I missed it, and it's not likely to ever play here on 35mm again, so it's a chance lost to see the film in a proper presentation.

Trailers for TOPAZ can be seen here.

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From wikipedia:

Topaz, director Alfred Hitchcock's 51st movie, released in 1969. It is a Cold War and spy story, adapted from the book of the same name by Leon Uris.
It stars Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, Claude Jade, Michel Subor, Karin Dor, John Vernon, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, John Forsythe, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Per-Axel Arosenius.

Plot

When a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer defects to the West with a story of an agreement between the Russians and Cubans and the existence of a mole within the French intelligence service, CIA agent Nordstrom (John Forsythe) enlists the aid of his friend and French agent André Devereaux (Frederick Stafford), encouraging him to accompany his daughter Michèle (Claude Jade) on her honeymoon with journalist François Picard (Michel Subor) as a premise to get him to New York. André accepts, but his wife Nicole (Dany Robin) is worried for him.
After managing to get hold of some seriously damaging papers from the visiting Cuban official Rico Parra (John Vernon), in New York to appear at the United Nations and staying in Harlem to show solidarity with "the masses", sneakily of course, a concerned Devereaux jets off to Cuba and catches up with his mistress Juanita de Cordoba (Karin Dor), who is now secretly involved with a local underground movement, whilst also being involved in another way with Parra. Parra discovers that she is in the underground from a tortured underground member. Parra confronts Juanita, and shoots her to save her from being tortured to death. In one of the film's most memorable shots Juanita is seen from overhead, her dress spreading out on the floor like a bloodstain (although it is purple not red) as she falls. Devereaux then is recalled to Paris, where he attempts to get to the bottom of the whole leak problem. Michèle wants to reconcile her parents.
Nicole cheats on André (after his Cuban affair) with the man who proves to be the leader of the spy ring, "Topaz", Jacques Granville (Michel Piccoli), their old friend from their days together in the French Resistance. François goes on to find out who "Topaz" is by interrogating NATO official Henri Jarre (Philippe Noiret). A short time late Michèle finds the murdered Jarre. André and Michèle return to Nicole's, where they find that François is missing. A short time later François arrives and shows a drawing of Jarre. Nicole knows him and tells André, that Granville is the head of "Topaz"...
In the original ending, there was a duel between André and Jacques. This was panned by audiences, and Hitchcock changed the ending to one in which Jacques apparently shoots himself off-screen (since no footage of his doing so existed).[1] Another rejected ending had Jacques escaping on an Aeroflot flight to the Soviet Union.
[edit]Cast

Frederick Stafford as Andre Devereaux
Dany Robin as Nicole Devereaux
John Vernon as Rico Parra
Karin Dor as Juanita de Cordoba
Michel Piccoli as Jacques Granville
Philippe Noiret as Henri Jarre
Claude Jade as Michele Picard
Michel Subor as Francois Picard
Roscoe Lee Browne as Philippe Dubois
Per-Axel Arosenius as Boris Kusenov
John Forsythe as Michael Nordstrom
Edmon Ryan as McKittreck
Sonja Kolthoff as Mrs. Kusenov
Tina Hedström as Tamara Kusenov (as Tina Hedstrom)
John Van Dreelen as Claude Martin
Donald Randolph as Luis Uribe (as Don Randolph)
Roberto Contreras as Muñoz
Carlos Rivas as Hernandez
Roger Til as Jean Chabrier
Lewis Charles as Pablo Mendoza
Sándor Szabó as Emile Redon (as Sandor Szabo)
Anna Navarro as Carlotta Mendoza
Lew Brown as American Official
John Roper as Thomas
George Skaff as Rene d'Arcy
[edit]Reaction

The film was not particularly well-received or successful at the box office. Hitchcock changed the script shortly before the beginning of the filming and the distributor Universal forced a different ending to the one preferred by Hitchcock[2]. For Topaz, Hitchcock engaged the 19-year-old French actress Claude Jade from Truffaut's Stolen Kisses. She and Dany Robin, cast as her mother, would provide the glamour in the story. "Claude Jade is a rather quiet young lady," Hitchcock said later, "but I wouldn't guarantee [that] about her behavior in a taxi".
Some critics liked Topaz. New York Times critic Vincent Canby in 1969 wrote of Topaz: "Alfred Hitchcock at his Best" and put the film on his "Ten Best" list for 1969. In 1969, Hitchcock won "Best Director" for Topaz from the National Board of Review.[citation needed]
[edit]Criticism

Some American critics said that there was no Hollywood star in the movie—no Bergman, no Grant; the cast did however include renowned international film stars (Jade, Piccoli, Noiret), whose previous successes had been primarily in France. Some attribute Hitchcock's casting choices to the negative experience the director had working with Paul Newman on Torn Curtain.
[edit]Alternate endings

When American Movie Classics aired the film in the 1990s it included alternative endings filmed by Hitchcock, which had been kept in the Universal vaults.[citation needed] The "Masterpiece Collection" DVD released by Universal restores a number of deleted scenes and uses the ending in which Jacques escapes. All three endings appear as extras on the DVD, together with an "Appreciation" by Leonard Maltin in which Maltin discusses the deleted scenes and alternate endings among other things.
[edit]Hitchcock cameo

Hitchcock's signature cameo appearance occurs 32 minutes into the film, at the airport: he is seated in a wheelchair as he is being pushed by a nurse. She stops, and he nonchalantly stands and greets a man, proceeding to walk off screen with him.


Real-life influences



The film begins with a Russian KGB agent defecting along with his wife and daughter. It was based on that of Anatoliy Golitsyn.
André Devereaux was based on French agent Philippe Thyraud de Vosjoli of the SDECE.
"Juanita de Cordoba" is loosely based on Castro's daughter Alina Fernández who fled Cuba and defected to America. Castro disowned her for her treason. This is not the case in the novel and as such is highly questionable.
The red haired army captain known as "Hernandez" is based on Manuel Piñeiro.
Fidel Castro makes an uncredited appearance in the film along with Che Guevara. While in Cuba, Deveraux attends a Castro rally in order to keep up the appearance of his official cover, that of a French trade attaché. The film spliced in actual footage of a real Castro rally of the era to add to the realism.
The French title is L'Étau (English : ~bench vice, ~stranglehold), to avoid any reference to Topaze, a most very well known French opus by Marcel Pagnol (play in 1930, first film version in 1936 with Arnaudy in the title role, second film version in 1951 with Fernandel in the title role). In the French script, the topaz gemstone is even replaced by "l'opale" (opal).


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Caption I found on another site:
"Look at all those people fleeing the theatre!"

 

(Slightly off-topic, but here's a shot of the interior of the Southcenter Theatre -- mentioned in my previous post -- taken from the booth in 1981 by my friend Craig Hyland, formerly of Videophile in Seattle.)

 

Torn Curtain and Family Plot are unquestionably better than Topaz. They are not even in the same league of dullness. The real question for those skimming the bottom of Hitch's Hollywood output is whether Topaz is worse than The Paradine Case or Under Capricorn.

 

I dare anybody to host a triple feature consisting of Topaz and any other two films from that list. Euthanasia is looking better all the time.

It is stunning how those who can create such magnificent works of art -- as Hitch surely could -- were capable of creating such painfully bad "product," as well. Maybe Norah Jones was inspired by late-career Hitchcock when she did her third album.

 

My bottom 5? Any 5 films from the post-Psycho era, except Frenzy. (Yes, I'm including Marnie and The Birds in there, although I suppose they are about 1/4 step above the others). One thing that really gets my goat about those films is how dated they look and sound, coupled with some pretty cardboard acting, coupled with (in most cases) lousy music scores, coupled with photography that is two or three steps down from the glory days of VistaVision in the 1950s, coupled with color palettes that look like Universal TV movies, coupled with scripts that rival ROBOT MONSTER (slight, intentional exaggeration), coupled with horrible rear projection shots (even for the day).

I see zero inspiration in these films, but heck, if I was heartbroken over losing Grace Kelley and tried to re-create her with the likes of Tippi Hedren, I'd lose the spring in my step, too.

 

By the way, has anybody bothered to check out those interviews at the bottom of post #42 in this thread? I tend to think of Hitch as being quite dour at that point in his life, but to the contrary -- he was quite cogent and out-and-out funny in spots. Time well spent.