Cinema Junkie
BONUS Midday Movies celebrate Hitchcock
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Note: This is an automated transcript and may contain inaccuracies.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK Good afternoon, here we have a quiet little motel, tucked away off the highway and perfectly harmless looking when in fact it has become known as the scene of the crime.
BETH ACCOMANDO Alfred Hitchcock loved bringing audiences to the scene of the crime whether it was the Bates Motel, hanging off the face of Mt. Rushmore or a Moroccan marketplace. But 50 years after he made his last film, audiences are still deligting in his unique brand of horror and suspence.
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BETH ACCOMANDO Welcome back to listener supported KPBS Cinema Junkie, I'm Beth Accomando.
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BETH ACCOMANDO October is upon us. That means my beloved genre of horror is for one month embraced as the fitting choice for the spooky season. It also means that Reading Cinemas is serving up its annual Hitchcocktober film series highlighting the master of suspense. The film series runs every Wednesday in October at the Angelika Film Center in Carmel Mountain. So this month, Midday Movies celebrates filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock and five of his classic films. (:38)
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BETH ACCOMANDO I need to take one quick break and then I will be back with my Midday Movies partners in crime Yazdi Pithavala, Moviewallas podcaster and Jade Hindmon, host of KPBS Midday Edition. In the meantime I’ll let Hitch continue his tour.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK This motel also has an old house which is a little more sinister looking than the motel and in this house the most dire things took place and I think we can go inside because it is up for sale but I don’t know who would but it.
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JADE HINDMONYes, it is. Well, let's get into it because it is the greatest time of year. I'm here, Beth. So Hitchcock passed away almost a half century ago. Why do you think his films have remained so popular over these decades?
BETH ACCOMANDOI think in some ways, it's because he was a genre filmmaker. I feel like genre films tend to last better than dramas made that are trying to tie into current events or try to be very contemporary to their times. Genre films have these elements that are sort of timeless. And he also moved between TV and movies, so people knew him. They knew his face. They knew his profile. They knew his silhouette. And those are also things, though, that he was criticized for. He never won an Oscar. He won a Life Achievement Award. He won some posthumous awards. But basically, he was kind of looked down upon for working in television, for making genre films. Critics were often dismissive, saying, well, he only made one kind of film, these suspense films. But it took, in part, filmmaker and critic François Truffaut to help highlight the fact that Hitchcock was an exquisite craftsman. He made amazing films. So we have these— this band of upstart French cinephiles at Cahiers du Cinéma to thank for elevating a so-called, like, pop entertainment filmmaker to the level of auteur. And Hitchcock was infamous for treating his actors badly. He— I think it's been described as treating them like cattle. I think he directed scenes from his limo because it was raining outside, and he didn't want to come out. His wife, Alma Ravel, was a key collaborator who often is not highlighted that much. But I will say that the one thing I love about Hitchcock the most, and I think it makes him stay contemporary, is his macabre sense of humor. It was delicious. And here's a trailer for Psycho where he is having way too much fun promoting his film.
CLIP PSYCHO TRAILERThe bathroom. Well, they've cleaned all this up now. Big difference. You should have seen the blood. The whole place was— well, it's too horrible to describe. Dreadful. And I'll tell you, there's a very important clue was found here.
JADE HINDMONSounds like a real likable guy. Yazdi, you get into the meta of all this kind of stuff. What are your thoughts on Hitchcock?
YAZDI PITHAVALASo I think people mostly consider him as being synonymous with suspense thrillers with a psychosexual edge. But I think if one looks at his filmography, especially his latter movies, you know, you see a much wider breadth of filmmaking. I mean, sure, he's known as the master of suspense, but he's also— apart from making Psycho and North by Northwest, he also made pure spy thrillers. And then he made proper horror films. Right. I think The Birds is one of them for sure, to even comedic thrillers that he made kind of later on in his life. And I think film lovers would actually do good to patiently go through his entire filmography. One other thing about Hitchcock is that he was kind of an anomaly in that at the height of his popularity, he was a brand in himself. People went to watch a movie because it was a Hitchcock film and not necessarily because of the actors or, you know, any other things which normally sells films. And few contemporary filmmakers today, I think, hold the same stature. I mean, Tarantino comes to mind, maybe Scorsese. And one other way in which he's kind of similar to Tarantino is that both Tarantino as well as Hitchcock liked to appear as themselves in cameos in their films. And Hitchcock famously appeared in 40 out of the 50 films that he made.
JADE HINDMONWell, the film series is Wednesdays in October, with one exception. And since this film is one of your favorites, Beth, tell us what the exception is.
BETH ACCOMANDOWell, it is Psycho, and it is going to screen on a Saturday, but it's Halloween, October 31st. This film really changed the horror landscape, and it anticipated the slasher films that we would get in the '70s and the '80s. And also, it was one of the early serial killer films. It also shocked audiences. And I don't think today we can realize just quite how shocking this was, but they killed off Janet Leigh, the star, in, like, the first 20 minutes. Oh, my God. Like, that unsettled people and made them tense through the whole rest of the movie. This came out in 1960, which was the same year that Peeping Tom came out in England. And that was another kind of more stylish, brightly colorful slasher serial killer film that came out at the same time. So there was definitely kind of a shift going on in the cinematic world. This film is definitely a precursor to John Carpenter's Halloween. And it's a perfect example of Hitchcock's meticulous pacing, His really careful shooting, the performances he got are just brilliant. And take a listen here to how good Anthony Perkins is as Norman Bates with Janet Leigh as Marion.
CLIP PSYCHOYou know what I think? I think that we're all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and claw, but only at the air, only at each other. And for all of it, we never budge an inch. Sometimes we deliberately step into those traps. I was born in mine. I don't mind it anymore. Oh, but you should. You should mind it. Oh, I do. But I say I don't.
JADE HINDMONYeah. Real, real creepy there. Real creepy.
BETH ACCOMANDOIt's so good.
JADE HINDMONYazdi, what film kicks off the official series next Wednesday? That's what I want to know.
YAZDI PITHAVALAYes, that would be Strangers on a Train from 1951. So many of Hitchcock's films are set on trains, and this one is no exception. But this one has such an amazement of a plot. 2 men with motives for murder decide that they will kill each other's targets. That way, no motive can be ascribed for either crime. It's based on a 1950 Patricia Highsmith novel of the same name, and it just works so well as something which truly defines suspense.
JADE HINDMONWell, and Beth, this is one of your favorites as well.
BETH ACCOMANDOYes. As Yazdi said, it's such a clever plot, and it's so much fun. And I think That's the thing that's a little unexpected in this sort of genre, is just how much fun Hitchcock and actor Robert Walker have in describing and planning murder. I mean, I think people are very used to thrillers where murders and the tension is very high in a dramatic sense. But here, just listen to, like, how much fun Robert Walker is having planning a murder, and how much fun Hitchcock is allowing us to have with him.
CLIP STRANGERS ON A TRAINWanna hear one of my ideas For a perfect murder? You want to hear the busted light socket in the bathroom or the, uh, carbon monoxide in the garage? Neither one. I, I may be old-fashioned, but I thought murder was against the law. What is a life for 2 guys? Some people are better off dead, like your wife and my father, for instance. Oh, that reminds me of a wonderful idea I had once. I used to put myself to I can't sleep at night figuring it out. Now, let's say that you'd like to get rid of your wife. That's a morbid thought. No, no, no, no, no, no. Just suppose. Let's say that you had a very good reason. No, let's— let's— No, no, let's— let's say. Now, you'd be afraid to kill her. You know why? You'd get caught. And what would trip you up? The motive. Ah, now here's my idea. I'm afraid I haven't got time to listen, Bruce. Listen, it's so simple too. 2 fellows meet accidentally, like you and me. No connection between them at all. Never saw each other before. Each one has somebody that he'd like to get rid of. So they swap murders.
JADE HINDMONUp next in the series is Rear Window. And this is another favorite of yours, Yazdi.
YAZDI PITHAVALAIt is. People normally associate Hitchcock with these seminal scenes. You know, there's the shower scene from Psycho. There is the crop duster plane coming down on Cary Grant in North by Northwest. But Hitchcock kind of surprised everyone with Rear Window in that the movie is set primarily in one location. And it tells the story of a retired photojournalist played by Jimmy Stewart who is confined to a wheelchair. Right. due to a broken leg. And he spends much of his time on his Manhattan balcony. And he becomes increasingly convinced that a murder has occurred in a building across from him. And Hitchcock so effortlessly proves that a film can be set from a single vantage point and be just as much of a nail-biter. Of course, when you have high-wattage film stars like Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly, They are very welcome company. But the film smartly questions if the protagonist, and by proxy, the audience itself, is simply going paranoid. Are they— are they thinking too much? Have they really seen what they think they have seen? And in many ways, that structure of putting the audience in the place of the Jimmy Stewart character subtly also speaks to the voyeuristic nature of cinema itself.
BETH ACCOMANDOWell, and of course, what's fun about this, too, is he builds tension by having Jimmy Stewart's character decide to take an active part in this murder mystery that he sees unfolding out his window. And he plans to drop this note in the supposed murderer's apartment. But he is stuck in his wheelchair, just as we, the audience, are stuck in our seats. Neither one of us can actually do anything to change anything. But here is where the voyeurism Go on, pick it up, Thorwald.
CLIP REAR WINDOWGo on, you're curious. Come on, you wonder if it's your girlfriend calling, the one you killed for. Go on, pick it up. Hello? Did you get my note? Well, did you get it, Thorwald? Who are you? I'll give you a hint. I'm the one you killed. Meet me in the bar at the Albert Hotel. Do it right away. Why should I? Little business meeting to settle the estate of your late wife. I—I don't know what you mean. Now come on, quit stalling, Thorwald, or I'll hang up and call the police. I have only $100 or so.That's a start. I'm at the Albert now. I'll be looking for you.
JADE HINDMONAll right. All right. We look at this as though it's a movie, but there are real people in this world like that. I've had a few neighbors. Well, moving on in the series, we step back in Hitchcock's career to an earlier film, Suspicion. So tell us about this one, Beth.
BETH ACCOMANDOSure. This one is airing later in the month, October 21st. And we have Cary Grant charming the shy Joan Fontaine and eventually marrying her in this film. But the young newlywed discovers some unpleasant truths about her husband, and that leads her to suspect that he might be a murderer. Here's the trailer to give you a little taste of the story in that unique Hitchcock vein.
CLIP SUSPICIONThere was something strange about Johnny Asgarth. I knew it long before I married him. It wasn't anything you could put your finger on, and yet you were always conscious of it. Conscious of something vague, restless, frightening. There was our first meeting on the hilltop. Now, what did you think I was going to do, kill you? Nothing less than murder could justify such a violent self-defense. It's so easy to think clearly after things have happened. I knew Johnny loved me as desperately as I loved him, and yet I remember now that even his real love His reassurances seemed almost sinister. I want nothing but to spend the rest of my life with you. And if you were to die first, I If I were to die first? From that moment on, my life was filled with fear. Not of Johnny. I loved him too much to really be afraid. But the fear of not knowing, the agony of waiting, of wondering how it would happen, of waking in the middle of the night shaking with terror and finding myself praying that whatever it was It would be done quickly and with mercy.
BETH ACCOMANDOBut, you know, when the suspected murderer is Cary Grant, I don't know, how much can you buy into the fact that that could be true? No spoilers there. But I mean, just think about it. Still, even with that, the film is a delicious romantic thriller. And really, Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine are so much fun to watch. They have great chemistry, very different kind of personalities that are coming across on the screen. But it is a really wonderful film.
JADE HINDMONAll right. And the final film in the series is Vertigo. And this film moved to the top spot on Sight and Sound's greatest films of all time. Beth, what makes it so great?
BETH ACCOMANDOWell, the irony here is that the film was a financial flop when it came out initially in 1958. And that was despite a trailer that was designed to play up all the things that had endeared Hitchcock to his audiences. So here's the original trailer for Vertigo.
CLIP VERTIGO TRAILERVertigo, a feeling of dizziness, a swimming in the head, Figuratively, a state in which all things seem to be engulfed in a whirlpool of terror, as created by Alfred Hitchcock in the story that gives new meaning to the word suspense.
BETH ACCOMANDOSo Hitchcock actually ended up pulling this film from distribution in the '70s and the '80s. Not quite sure what his reasoning was. But that seemed to actually build a lot of interest in the kind of like the missing film. Like, where was it? How come we haven't seen it in so long? And it may have actually helped when the film reemerged to give it this kind of resurgence and to get people's attention on it and to get people to revisit it and really think about, well, maybe it wasn't a typical Hitchcock film, but it was a gorgeous, seductive film about fear and about pent-up sexuality. It stars Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak in a tangled mystery and romance. It's a film that you can see clearly having an influence on a director like Brian De Palma across many of his films, but especially one called called Obsession. This is an especially cinematic film, so I feel like I can't play any clips because they wouldn't come across with the same impact if you're not seeing the visuals. But I tell you, this is such an amazing film to see on the big screen.
JADE HINDMONAll right. Well, before we wrap up, you each wanted to just highlight some films people should look out for outside of this film series. Yazdi, what are your suggestions?
YAZDI PITHAVALAYes, I have 2. The first one is Rebecca from 1940. So this is early Hitchcock. The film was based on Daphne du Maurier's famous novel of the same name. And in this film, Hitchcock so effortlessly conjures such a strong sense of dread, seemingly out of nothing at all, that I haven't been able to shake it off to this day. And I've seen this movie many times. The basic plot of the movie is that the young second wife of a man moves into his estate, to only find herself out of her wits and also find the place strangely possessed by his first wife. And the film is all elusive shadows and disquiet hiding just around every corner. And Hitchcock himself came of age during silent films. And so he often used the camera for storytelling as much as the script. And I think nowhere is this more evident than with Rebecca because the camera, like so many of his other films, kind of becomes a proxy for the audience. Like what this young, new bride is experiencing is what the audience is experiencing as well. So this haunting kind of black-and-white shadowy movie becomes such a good example of the kind of storytelling that Hitchcock was capable of. And completely opposite to Rebecca is the other film that I would like to recommend, which is To Catch a Thief. which was released in 1955. And in many ways, To Catch a Thief is the complete opposite of Rebecca. And for all those who associate Hitchcock with psychosexual thrillers, this film is determinedly and resolutely not that. In fact, it's like a soufflé-like concoction, a romantic comedy/thriller set in the impossibly gorgeous French Riviera and shot in dazzling Technicolor and VistaVision. It's almost like Hitchcock is discovering color for the first time and pushing it to its boundaries. And it actually makes the case that Hitchcock can do breezy just as well as horror, which is, you know, which speaks to his versatility.
CLIP TOCATCH A THIEFYou're a very nice girl, but you got too much imagination. You go around talking like that about me, and I'll wind up in a French jail for something I didn't do. You going to rob Mother first or somebody else? Well, under the circumstances, somebody else. That's nice. Mother likes you. I think Lady Kenton should be our next job. I'll listen. Isn't she on your list? She ought to be. Kenton jewels are famous. I know every inch of her villa. I can already hear your next line. The cat has a new kitten. When do we start? Don't talk like that. You're leaving fingerprints on my arm. I am not John Robie the cat. Why are the police following you?
YAZDI PITHAVALAAnd once again, the eternally debonair Cary Grant plays a retired jewel thief who becomes prime suspect when a series of copycat robberies start happening, and he needs to clear his name. I have an irrational love for this movie and how stylish and chic the film is. I would say that To Catch a Thief can go toe-to-toe with any romantic comedy made in the 75 years since its initial release.
JADE HINDMONThat's big talk, big talk.
YAZDI PITHAVALAIt's so much fun. It's just— This is what cinema is.
JADE HINDMONAll right. We've got to check that out. Well, Beth, what do you recommend people add to their viewing list?
BETH ACCOMANDOOkay, I'm going to go for something completely different. But Hitchcock made so many great films, so many entertaining films. But I want to point people to some that might be overlooked. So The Lodger is a silent film that he made in London, and it was inspired by the Jack the Ripper murders. It's an early window into Hitchcock, revealing elements of his style and theme that we would see again and again in decades to come. But it's really a wonderful film. find a version of it that has a great soundtrack. And it really is fun to see directors at an early point in their career because you will notice these things that are like, yep, that's absolutely Hitchcock, or, oh, that's something we never saw again. And the other one is The Wrong Man with Henry Fonda.
CLIP THE WRONG MAN TRAILERThis is Alfred Hitchcock speaking. In the past, I have introduced you to many kinds of people. Murderers, thieves, swindlers, many of them geniuses at the business of crime. Now I'd like you to meet an entirely different person, an average sort of fellow who leads a very normal life. The big difference is that his story is true.
BETH ACCOMANDOThe idea of the wrong man occurs in a lot of Hitchcock's films, perhaps most memorably in North by Northwest. But here, Hitchcock tries his hand at a more dramatic take on this kind of a story. It's actually based on a true story, and he delivers a really well-crafted film that finds horror in an unexpected way as Henry Fonda tries to prove his innocence. And you really get much more into the emotional life of the 2 main characters. And I think, like Yazhi was saying, I think Hitchcock doesn't always get credit for being... A a skillful director and for being able to invest his films with more depth than they sometimes are given credit for. So I really do suggest, like, just try to explore beyond the main titles that are always shown and try to see a little different side of Hitchcock.
YAZDI PITHAVALAAnd it would be a fun game because there are so many commonalities in his movies. They're often about the wrong man. They often have this platinum blonde female character as, you know, the primary female interest. They often play with female in an unfriendly, scary world. So it's kind of fun to see his themes kind of repeat in film after film.
JADE HINDMONInteresting. Well, I want to thank our midday movie critics, KPBS cinema junkie Beth Akomando and Movie Wallace podcaster Yasdeep Bhutavla. The Hitchcocktober film series at the Angelika Film Center at Carmel Mountain begins next Wednesday. And you can go to the cinema and enjoy these films on the big screen or create your own Hitchcocktober series at home, if you want to do that sort of a thing. And thanks again to both of you for sharing your love of Alfred Hitchcock. Beth Yazdi, thanks.
BETH ACCOMANDOThank you.
YAZDI PITHAVALAThank you.
BETH ACCOMANDO That wraps up another bonus edition of KPBS listener supported Cinema Junkie. If you enjoy the podcast, then please share it with a friend because your recommendation is the best way to build an addicted audience. You can also help by leaving a review.
Till our next film fix, I’m Beth Accomando your resident Cinema Junkie.
