#stories for late at night by Alfred Hitchcock

[jazznoisehere]

Alfred Hitchcock presents 12 Stories for Late at Night (DELL, 1967)

[alightinthelantern]

Movies on Youtube:

Brief Encounter (1945, David Lean)

Opening Night (1977, John Cassavetes)

Close Up (1990, Abbas Kiarostami)

Taste of Cherry (1997, Abbas Kiarostami)

The Song of Sparrows (2008,  Majid Majidi)

Russian Ark (2002, Alexander Sokurov)

Dreams (1990, Akira Kurosawa)

Dersu Uzala (1975, Akira Kurosawa)

The Idiot (1951, Akira Kurosawa)

Drunken Angel (1948, Akira Kurosawa)

Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujirō Ozu)

Early Summer (1951, Yasujirō Ozu)

Late Spring (1949, Yasujirō Ozu)

The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (1952, Yasujirō Ozu)

Good Morning (1959, Yasujirō Ozu)

An Autumn Afternoon (1962, Yasujirō Ozu)

Sword for Hire (1952, Inagaki Hiroshi)

Rebecca (1940, Alfred Hitchcock)

Thunderbolt (1929, Josef von Sternberg)

Larceny (1948, George Sherman)

Among the Living (1941, Stuart Heisler)

Andrei Rublev (1966, Andrei Tarkovsky)

Mirror (1975, Andrei Tarkovsky)

Solaris (1972, Andrei Tarkovsky)

Ivan’s Childhood (1962, Andrei Tarkovsky)

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972, Werner Herzog)

Fitzcarraldo (1982, Werner Herzog)

Medea (1969, Pier Paolo Pasolini)

Medea (filmed stageplay)

Is It Easy To Be Young? (1986, Juris Podnieks)

We'll Live Till Monday (1968, Stanislav Rostotsky)

Ordinary Fascism (aka Triumph Over Violence) (1965, Mikhail Romm)

Battleship Potemkin (1925, Sergei Eisenstein)

The Third Man (1949, Carol Reed)

Johnny Come Lately (1943, William K. Howard)

Mister 880 (1950, Edmund Goulding)

Beethoven’s Eroica (2003, Simon Cellan Jones)

Katyn (2007, Andrzej Wajda)

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004, Brad Silberling)

Mean Girls (2004, Mark Waters)

The Neverending Story (1984, Wolfgang Petersen)

The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990, George T. Miller)

The Thief and the Cobbler (Richard Williams)

Osmosis Jones (2001, myriad directors)

Megamind (2010, Tom McGrath)

Ghost in the Shell (1995, Mamoru Oshii)

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004, Mamoru Oshii)

Steamboy (2004, Katsuhiro Otomo)

Badlands (1973), Terrence Malick

Wargames (1983, John Badham)

By the White Sea (2022, Aleksandr Zachinyayev)

White Moss (2014, Vladimir Tumayev)

The Theme (1979, Gleb Panfilov)

The Duchess (2008, Saul Dibb)

Bed and Sofa (1927, Abram Room)

Fate of a Man (1959, Sergei Bondarchuk)

Ballad of a Soldier (1959, Grigory Chukhray)

Uncle Vanya (1970, Andrey Konchalovskiy)

An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (1977, Nikita Mikhalkov)

Family Relations (1981, Nikita Mikhalkov)

The Seagull (1970, Yuli Karasik)

My Tender and Affectionate Beast (1978, Emil Loteanu)

Dreams (1993, Karen Shakhnazarov & Alexander Borodyansky)

The Vanished Empire (2008, Karen Shakhnazarov)

Winter Evening in Gagra (1985, Karen Shakhnazarov)

Day of the Full Moon (1998, Karen Shakhnazarov)

Zero Town (1989, Karen Shakhnazarov)

The Girls (1961, Boris Bednyj)

The Diamond Arm (1969, Leonid Gaidai)

Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures (1965, Leonid Gaidai)

Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession (1973, Leonid Gaidai)

Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia (1974, Eldar Ryazanov & Franco Prosperi)

Office Romance (1977, Eldar Ryazanov)

Carnival Night (1956, Eldar Ryazanov)

Hussar Ballad (1962, Eldar Ryazanov)

Kin-dza-dza! (1986, Georgiy Daneliya)

The Most Charming and Attractive (1985, Gerald Bezhanov)

Autumn (1974, Andrei Smirnov)

War and Peace: Part 1 (1966, Sergei Bondarchuk)

War and Peace: Part 2 (1966, Sergei Bondarchuk)

War and Peace: Part 3 (1967, Sergei Bondarchuk)

War and Peace: Part 4 (1967, Sergei Bondarchuk)

The Red Tent (first half) (1969, Mikhail Kalatozov)

The Red Tent (second half) (1969, Mikhail Kalatozov)

Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939, Sidney Lanfield)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939, Alfred L. Werker)

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942, John Rawlins)

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943, Roy William Neill)

Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943, Roy William Neill)

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943, Roy William Neill)

Sherlock Holmes: The Spider Woman (1944, Roy William Neill)

Sherlock Holmes: The Scarlet Claw (1944, Roy William Neill)

Sherlock Holmes: The Pearl of Death (1944, Roy William Neill)

Sherlock Holmes: The House of Fear (1945, Roy William Neill)

Sherlock Holmes: The Woman in Green (1945, Roy William Neill)

Sherlock Holmes: Pursuit to Algiers (1945, Roy William Neill)

Sherlock Holmes: Terror by Night (1946, Roy William Neill)

Sherlock Holmes: Dressed to Kill (1946, Roy William Neill)

If any of the links don’t work, try looking up the film in this playlist: link

[nitrateglow]

Halloween 2023 marathon: 12-15

Rope (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1948)

Brandon and Philip do everything together: share aesthetic philosophies, go on road trips, and commit thrill kills in their living room. After strangling a classmate, they hide the body in a chest. They also happen to be throwing a dinner party that night. The thrill of possibly being caught excites Brandon, but Philip is on the verge of a breakdown all night. And when their old prep school headmaster Rupert shows up and starts to notice their combined strange behavior, matters grow potentially deadly.

I watched this one with my grandmother, who had never even heard of it before. She ended up really liking it, which made me happy because I think Rope is Hitchcock's most underrated film. Hitchcock himself dismissed the movie as a failed experiment. The central gimmick is that the film appears to be shot in a single take, lending the story the sense that it's all unfolding in real time. It's not a seamless illusion, but it is effective, so sorry Hitchcock, you're wrong.

Rope is a great companion piece to Dial M for Murder. Both are based on plays and both feature debonair, egomaniacal killers who seem more excited about the plotting of their crimes than any material benefit they could get from them. (Someone please write a crossover where Tony and Brandon compete to commit the best perfect crime ever. Like that is the fanfic content I want!)

Jeopardy (dir. John Sturges, 1953)

Doug and Helen are an ordinary American couple vacationing in Mexico with their young son Bobby. They go to a remote fishing spot to picnic. The pro of this spot is its nostalgic quality for Doug. The con is that its remoteness is inconvenient when you get trapped under heavy ass timber just as the tide's coming in... which happens to Doug. With only four hours to save him from drowning, Helen drives off to find help. Instead she gets kidnapped by Lawson, an escaped criminal who isn't shy about murdering people. He's uninterested in helping Doug, so Helen has to find a way to either escape her captivity or manipulate Lawson into helping her before it's too late.

What an underrated thriller! I mainly watched it for Barbara Stanwyck, but Jeopardy is a great suspense film with a fiendishly simple set-up. It's the perfect example of writing advice I once received about how to deal with writer's block: just keeping making your main character's life worse. Got a husband about to drown? How about being kidnapped by an escaped criminal while you're trying to get help?

It runs at just 69 minutes and not a second of that runtime is dull. I had planned on only watching half of the movie before going to bed because it was very late, but I was so wrapped up in it that I said "Screw it" to getting a good night's sleep.

Stanwyck is of course amazing. Her character Helen is written as a terrified housewife susceptible to "hysteria" (hello casual 1950s sexism), but she's actually pretty crafty. Stanwyck plays her as a fighter and even when her captor gets the upperhand, you can see in her eyes that she's scrambling for the next potential escape plan.

The best scenes are between Helen and Lawson. There's both an antagonism and undeniable sexual tension between them from the start. When she seduces him in a shack, she starts lounging about and puffing at her cigarette like her character Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity, which is both funny and awesome. In addition, it's ambiguous how into Lawson Helen exactly is. You could say she seriously considers running away with him once he helps her husband out, but the opposite might be true as well.

In this kind of story, it would be easy to make the husband a wet rag in comparison to the attractive villain, but Doug is super likable, keeping a cheerful face on his increasingly hopeless situation, and his attempts to keep his son calm and optimistic are truly touching. And that just adds to the suspense-- you don't want to see that guy drown, even if Lawson is also charming and charismatic.

And hot. Cannot deny, Ralph Meeker is super hot in this, like holy shit. He's got some definite Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire vibes going on.

Also this promotional image of Stanwyck and her two male co-stars cracks me up. It's the polar opposite of the film's actual tone.

The Sealed Room (dir. DW Griffith, 1909)

In an unspecified century in an unspecified country, an unspecified king finds out his mistress is having an affair with the court minstrel. What's worse, they have their trysts in a hidden room the king likes using as his love cave. He decides to brick the two up alive, just as a gotcha.

The Sealed Room is one of my favorite nickelodeon era movies. It's got a great Poe-themed story, enjoyably hammy acting (the king makes so many reaction image worthy faces and poses, I just CAN'T--), and a pretty sophisticated use of composition and space that emphasizes the claustrophobic terror inherent in the premise.

This movie also features a great example of what I often call "silent movie logic." It's those scenes where something happens that would technically make a hell of a lot of noise but other characters don't notice and most of the time, I don't notice unless I think about it too hard. But in this case, it's hard to miss-- the king's servants start bricking up the exit to the hidden room while the mistress and the minstrel are like five feet away. Those servants are either very good at their job or the lovers are too horny to pay attention to anything else.

It Follows (dir. David Robert Mitchell, 2014)

When high school girl Jay loses her virginity at the end of a date, she expects her life to change. And it does-- but not in the way she expects. Her date tells her he's just passed on a curse to her-- a mysterious figure will follow her around until it gruesomely kills her and the only way to get it off her trail is to transmit the curse to someone else via sex. Terrified and hurt, Jay and her friends try to find a way to stop the monster permanently.

It Follows had so much hype around it back in 2014. It was the horror movie du jour, with everyone praising the hell out of its old-school vibe and intriguing premise.

I'm sad to say I was underwhelmed. The premise IS cool, as well as a fun meta commentary on the traditional sexual politics of the slasher genre, and the lead actress Maika Monroe is very good as the soulful young Jay. I was never really scared though-- and if you're a regular of this blog, then you know it's not because I don't like slow-burn horror. I love it, especially when there's a bare minimum of crappy jump scares. This one just felt meandering, slow for the sake of resembling artsier classics of cinematic horror, and I lost interest halfway through. Even the monster ceased to creep me out by the end.

And that makes me sad, because I loved the score and the atmosphere of the film. There's a weird out of time quality to it-- the score is very 80s synth, characters watch old horror movies on the TV (Jay and her date even go to see Charade at a movie theater), and there isn't much in the way of teens staring at their phones (though one of Jay's friends has a cool clam-shaped e-reader). However, I just could not get into the story. It just lacked that extra something to make me love it. Or maybe I just wasn't in the proper mood.

I don't know. It could very well be a "me" problem.

[alias-sam]

Pierced by a Golden Soul JJBA x reader fic Masterlist

Finally decided to crosspost a fic on here, we'll see how it goes!

The full fic is already finished and posted to Wattpad

Summary: Fate is a bizarre concept with countless more bizarre implications. In life sometimes such extraordinary events happen that the only reasoning left must be fate. The tragedies that constantly befall the Joestar bloodline for example may be the unluckiest series of cards drawn in human history, or perhaps the work of a greater power. There is no way to tell for sure. Had Dio Brando or Jonathan Joestar moved slightly on a divergent path the world itself would be left very different. The fate or luck of the noble Joestar bloodline has led to destruction of evil likes of the Pillar Men and DIO. This story is of a similar caliber to that of the other Joestars (as I am sure you are familiar with them). This is a story of lost souls, compassion, hope, and above all fate.

A Normal Day in a Normal Life

2. A Less than Normal Day in the Life of a Stand User

3. High School Never Ends

4. Know Your Enemy Part 1

5. Know Your Enemy Part 2

6. Close Call

7. Getting Patched Up

8. Familiar Figure

9. Punching Can't Solve Every Problem

10. Elecrifying

11. Fiesta Time...?

12. Picture This

13. Video Killed the Radio Star

14. J-Jesus?

15. Jigsaw

16. Blueberry Blast

17. Alfred Hitchcock Can Bite Me

18. Sleepless Nights and Suspicious Minds

19. Bug Boy

20. Cum On

21. Feel the Noize

22. Quiet Riot Part 1

23. Quiet Riot Part 2

24. The Crushing Weight of Guilt

25. Under the Radar

26. Late Night People

27. Unexpected Accomplice

28. Close Encounter

29. Welcome to the Jungle

30. An Enemy's Offer

31. Cutthroat Company

32. Wide Awake

33. Pompous Pricks and Portals

34. Eavesdropping

35. Enemy Encounter

36. Mother Knows Best

37. Dodgeball is a Cruel and Unusual Punishment

38. Spot

39. (Don't Fear) the Reaper Part 1

40. (Don't Fear) the Reaper Part 2

41. (Don't Fear) the Reaper Part 3

42. Sleepover

43. Little High, Little Low

44. Stand Users Assemble

45. Blueberry Blast Strikes Again

46. Coming Through, Coming Through, Coming Through Now

47. Sethan

48. Coral Pink

49. Foggy

50. Bubblegum Bitch Part 1

51. Bubblegum Bitch Part 2

52. Bubblegum Bitch Part 3

53. Bubblegum Bitch Part 4

54. SPW Snooping

55. Enemy Ally

56. Child of Divorce

57. Mannesh Vita

58. Loli ho~ Part 1

59. Loli ho~ Part 2

60. Loli ho~ Part 3

61. Brioche

62. By No Means an Artist

63. Early Morning Excursion

64. Bite the Bullet

65. Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)

66. Whipping Post

67. Julius Rossi is a Protective Brother

68. The First Cut is the Deepest

69. Put Out the Lights

70. Mourning

71. All Apologies

72. The Noiz Returns

73. Punching Can Solve Certain Problems

74. House of Memories

75. The Last Place Anybody Would Look

76. We Didn't Start the Fire

77. Seeing Double

78. Oblivion

79. Who Lives Who Dies

80. Justice

81. A Normal Day in the Life of a Stand User

<- To Be Continued

[judgeitbyitscover]

Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories for Late at Night & Alfred Hitchcock Presents More Stories for Late at Night compiled by Alfred Hitchcock

Cover illustration by Fred Banbery

Dell Publishing Company, 1961 & 1962

Happy Friday the 13th!

Did you know that Fred Banbery is most well known for illustrating A Bear Called Paddington?

[filmnoirfoundation]

ASK EDDIE returns Thursday, September 21, 7:00 PM PT to our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/filmnoirfoundation/live

FNF prez Eddie Muller responds to film noir fan questions fielded by the Foundation's Director of Communications Anne Hockens. In this episode, we discuss Eddie’s short story “Doc’s Oscar”, the essential Italian noirs and film museums, the disreputable noir characters of wholesome TV icons, memorable bell tower scenes, and more. We wind up the show with a discussion of our favorite film noir openings. On the cat front, Charlotte and Emily are too tired to participate.

Want your question answered in a future episode? We solicit questions from our email subscribers in our monthly newsletters. Sign up for free at https://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/signup.html

Everyone who signs up on our email list and contributes $20 or more to the Film Noir Foundation receives the digital version of NOIR CITY Magazine for a year. Donate here: https://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/contribute.html

Can’t join us on Thursday? No problem! A recording will be up on our YouTube channel, @NoirCity, on Friday, September 22: https://www.youtube.com/user/NoirCitySF

Note: Eddie will not be able to answer questions posted during the livestream nor ones left on our social media accounts

This week's questions:

In a recent episode, Eddie highly recommended the film ROSAURA AT 10 O’CLOCK [ROSAURA A LA 10]. Is it possible for ROSAURA to be restored by the Foundation and made available through Flicker Alley?

Michael, Post Falls, Idaho

Just read your short story, "Doc's Oscar", in the JEWISH NOIR VOLUME 1. Can you give us a little background on its origin? When did you write it?

Jay and Connie, Ann Arbor, MI

I'm planning a trip to Italy.  Please recommend your essential Italian crime/noir films.  Also, I hope to visit a museum dedicated to cinema. Any ideas

Steve in Mississippi

Have you read “Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City” written by Nicholas Christopher? 

Sean Land O Lakes, FL

For me one of the biggest surprises of seeing familiar actors in Film Noir was seeing Raymond Burr as the heavy. What other later-known actors are the biggest surprises for someone getting into Film Noir.

Carlton, Atlanta, GA

Why does Eddie sometimes use the alias "Eddy von Mueller" for some of his Blu-Ray commentary tracks?

David

The late-'60s and the '70's are thought of as the time of the great neo-noir films, but what about offerings designed to play at drive-in theaters or so-called grindhouses? I'm also curious about regional films or filmmakers since that era was rich with localized film production. Are you aware of any that could fall under the mantle of film noir?

Kathy and Michael, Rockford, Illinois

In the past Eddie has mentioned certain movies that he considers to be more “message pictures” than full blown noir for him. I would love to hear you both talk about what the difference for you is between movies like NO WAY OUT, CROSSFIRE, FORCE OF EVIL etc. and movies that have tinges of Noir but fall into the Message Picture category and maybe some examples of those and why they don’t make the cut. Thanks!

Nathanael from New Braunfels, Texas

I recently watched the Douglas Sirk 1951 film noir, THUNDER ON THE HILL, and noted the similarities between the bell tower scene in that movie with the great bell tower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 VERTIGO.  Are there other films noir that include a bell tower scene?  And, more generally, what other films noir have great staircase scenes? 

Cliff in Fort Collins

Wondering if you know anything about scenes cut from THE MAN I LOVE DVD. The film is listed as being 96 minutes long, but the DVD version is only 90 minutes.

Michael, Chicago, IL

My question is about some very difficult to find Alan Ladd titles, specifically, CHICAGO DEADLINE with Donna Reed and SAIGON. Are these Alan Ladd films tied up in litigation or bound in some type of financial dispute? Is there any hope for their release in the US?  

Don

Openings.  I have always been fascinated by the first 90 seconds of noir films and I’d just like to pay tribute to my favorite openings and listen as you add in yours as well.

Chuck

[daveinediting]

With the 48 hour horror film project kicking off in two days, I'm settling myself into a particular headspace by revisiting my childhood and teen years because horror... is where I started. Not Friday The 13th horror but Edgar Allen Poe. H.P. Lovecraft. 

Alfred Hitchcock.

Even my first pair of books from Scholastic in grade school were horror story collections.

Not sure why... but that's how I rolled back in the day. And one of my big takeaways of that experience, looking back from my current vantage point, is that horror existed entirely in my head. The suspense, the scares, didn't have to take place on a screen. They could play directly inside my head.

These days you can look up the kind of thing I'm remembering on YouTube any time of the day or night: scary stories. Over the last years, I was reacquainted with my childhood experiences through a series called Creepypasta. But seriously. Search for scary stories or horror stories on YouTube, and you'll get the drift. They’re not short films or streaming content, you see.

They're sound only. The stories are either narrated or the voices of the characters carry the narrative or a combination of both.

That's now, of course. Any time. Day or night. When I was a kid, though, there was only one way to hear these stories: radio. In my case, transistor radio.

What's a transistor radio, you ask?

Well, they're cheap radio receivers that fit in your hand. Battery powered. Portable. A.M. reception only. A product of the late fifties, they were hugely popular through the sixties and seventies until boom boxes made them obsolete in the eighties.

I was a kid in the seventies, so... I owned a small, black, transistor radio at the same time I was mad for scary stories. And a local station had a show. Certain nights. Horror stories. Definitely after my bedtime.

So.

I'd hide my transistor radio under my pillow and, when the time came for the show to air, I'd plug in an earpiece (one ear only), jam it in my ear, and turn the radio on. No need to dial it in. There was only one thing I ever listened to.

And there, in the dark, under the covers of my bed, I'd listen to these scary stories.

Okay no. I didn't listen to them. I experienced them.

I was there. Locked into a dark narrative entering through one ear... but happening in every corner of my brain.

I was hooked.

Later, after my transistor radio phase passed, maybe this was late jr. high, maybe high school or later... I caught a promo for a dramatic presentation of Stephen King's "The Mist". On the radio. In 360 degree sound.

So when the time came, I plugged my dad's headsets into my boom box, dialed the station in and, at the appointed time, the room I was in, the house, everything around me receded as "The Mist" asserted itself all over my brain.

I was there.

And only there in that Maine grocery store.

The sound effects, by the way, were frightening. I can't imagine what my parents thought... but I was sitting at the dining room or kitchen table next to my boom box gripping my dad's headphones tightly with both hands on either side my head.

It was an immersive experience, through and through. It was a finely crafted experience that captured all of me. Suspense and tension, after all, are transmitted through muscle. So there's definitely a physical dimension to the experience along with an emotional one, along with a conscious and subconscious one. 

And it's an experience I've never forgotten.

But definitely.

Definitely it’s an experience I hope to command as an editor and sound designer this weekend.

🤐🤐🤐

[station451]

1961 Book Club first edition of Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories for Late at Night.

The hardcover includes 24 entries, which were later split up into smaller volumes for paperback. 

There are some fairly well-known stories in here, foremost being Jerome Bixby’s “It’s a Good Life,” which was adapted into a classic Twilight Zone episode for TV that was later retooled for the Twilight Zone film.

This might be a good volume to pull out as it gets closer to Halloween. My copy isn’t in the greatest condition, but I do think the $5 price was pretty fair. 

[gameraboy2]

Alfred Hitchcock Presents 12 Stories for Late at Night Dell 9178, 1962 Cover by Fred Banbery

[blackswaneuroparedux]

I've never understood the cult of Hitchcock. Particularly the late American movies … Egotism and laziness. And they're all lit like television shows … I saw one of the worst movies I've ever seen the other night [Rear Window] … Complete insensitivity to what a story about voyeurism could be. I'll tell you what is astonishing. To discover that Jimmy Stewart can be a bad actor … Even Grace Kelly is better than Jimmy, who's overacting.

- Orson Welles on Alfred Hitchcock

[drst]

So I was watching the 1995 adaptation of “Persuasion” last night, as one does, and I thought of something Alfred Hitchcock said about suspense. It seems incongruous to bring up Hitchcock in reference to this movie but hear me out.

When asked about the tension and suspense in his movies, Hitchcock said (paraphrasing from memory here) that suspense is just a function of information. Give the audience information the characters don’t have. If you show a scene of two people in a cafe talking and then the cafe blows up, there’s shock but no suspense. But if you show a bomb under the table that the characters don’t know about, that creates suspense, because the audience knows something the characters don’t.

What in the world does this have to do with “Persuasion”? It struck me again last night how completely oblivious every character in the story is to what’s actually happening. There are only 3 characters who know the full tale of what’s going on here: Anne, Wentworth, and Lady Russell (who doesn’t truly know the whole story, and is not present for the majority of the film). As far as everyone in Uppercross and Lyme knew, Captain Wentworth and Miss Anne Elliot had crossed paths briefly a number of years ago. It was an inconsequential acquaintance, and they have not had any long or visible interactions in the present. Their own respective sisters are totally clueless, even.

But we, the audience, know. The film shows us Anne’s state, her misery over the loss of Wentworth, that she still has memories and mementos of him. We  see her shock and then relief when Sophy Croft talks about her brother’s marriage and then adds it was the other brother. We see her grabbing the chair for support. Nobody else around Anne notices this, but of course the audience, being given pieces of information about Anne’s history with Frederick is looking for those moments and the film is focusing us on them. And then as Anne beings to regain her spirits, we see Wentworth’s feelings for her soften, then his jealousy starting to rear it’s head, and so on. 

That’s what all films do, of course, make us look at certain things, call our attention to moments, details, in order to bring us into the story. But I feel like this movie does it better than others and it feels to me quintessentially Austen to tell the story this way. Her books are much like this too, where you as the reader see the inner workings of the main characters that they don’t always reveal to the other characters. (We know Elinor is heartbroken at a level her family doesn’t realize until late in the book, we know Elizabeth’s opinion of Darcy has altered wildly while her family still thinks she hates him, etc.)

I think this is one of the reasons this adaptation is the one I keep coming back to. Watching it is basically being given insider knowledge. We get to see the reconciliation and romance between Anne and Wentworth even as all their friends and family don’t notice. It’s like being let in on a secret. Everyone around them has been oblivious to this romantic story unfolding in their midst, and at the end, Anne and Wentworth are so lost in each other they are oblivious to a literal circus walking past them.

[tcm]

The Spirit of SPARKLE By Constance Cherise

A precursor to the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, SPARKLE (‘76), a film about three young Black sisters in late-1950s Harlem with dreams of stardom, is commonly believed to be loosely based on the story of The Supremes (rest easy Mary Wilson). Like THE WIZ (‘78), initially, SPARKLE did not do well in the box office, and like THE WIZ, it also became a classic Black film garnering fan loyalty. If the sizzling 1992 rendition of “Giving Him Something He Can Feel” by En Vogue wasn’t proof enough of its endurance, the 2012 remake of SPARKLE (tragically Whitney Houston's final film) should be sufficient evidence.

Directed by Sam O’Steen, with music by ‘70s producer extraordinaire Curtis Mayfield, SPARKLE shares notable ties to classic film. One of its screenwriters, Joel Schumacher, whose extensive portfolio includes the film adaptation of THE WIZ, noted Billy Wilder as his favorite director. In a 2010 interview, Schumacher recalled a mischievous youth, watching black-and-white films in a theater near his home. “I was watching the Golden Era of Hollywood...watching Elia Kazan and John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, I could go on…” Schumacher stated. Although Robert Stigwood is not credited on screen as the producer, the film was made under the banner of his production company. The all-around entertainment impresario, called by Newsweek “the Ziegfeld of the disco age,” also released the everlasting SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (‘77), GREASE (‘78) and SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (‘78).

Another Classic Hollywood tie is Lonette McKee, who portrays Sister. McKee had her breakout role in 1983 as the first mixed-race woman to portray Julie, starring alongside Donald O’Connor, in her Tony-nominated performance of the Broadway musical Showboat. The character was previously depicted by white actresses, most famously Ava Gardner, who won the role over her best friend Lena Horne in MGM’s 1951 film. The decision was made by the studio due to Horne’s race, which she maintained cut her deeply. If you haven’t seen Horne’s rendition of “Can't Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” in TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY (1946), watch it and you will understand Horne’s justified frustration.

Although SPARKLE is a story about three sisters—Sparkle, Sister and Delores—and their short-lived rise to fame, the catalyst of the tension in the story truly begins with Sister (McKee). Well aware of her unique beauty, she becomes involved with Satin (Tony King), whose focused attention towards her further inflates her ego cause her to not see him for who he truly is: an abuser and gangster. He openly engages Sister with another woman at his side, and Sister witnesses him punch this woman in the stomach and pull the fur coat from her back. Yet Sister’s reaction seems to be more of excited intrigue. In that moment of silent acceptance, she seals her fate. Not only is it apparent this cannot possibly end well, the resulting repercussions on her and those who truly love her soon come into grave focus.

In the scene where Satin is introduced to Effie (Tony Award-winning Mary Alice), the mother of the three hopeful sisters, and sits beside her, Effie’s expressionless glare takes over, all her years of wisdom instantaneously coming to the surface. Everything Satin is flashes in Effie’s eyes. Instinctively, Effie knows – and Satin knows she knows – that Sister is headed in the wrong direction. When Effie arrives backstage to congratulate her daughters after a successful show, she straight-talks Sister, cradling her face, looking into her eyes almost as a lover. With precise articulation, she tries to ensure her daughter comprehends her words of wisdom.

“I’ve lived in Harlem all my life. I do know a rat when I see one.”

Considering Effie’s domestic employment, when her white employer notices her sullen mood and states that she hopes Effie considers her “enough of a friend to confide in,” there are multiple takeaways. We can conclude that Effie’s employer is wholly oblivious to her authentic identity and her role as a maid, and we get a snapshot of Effie’s sacrifice for her daughters. Powerfully poignant, Alice's performance embodies a silent strength present in many of her performances. As she quietly endures the deconstruction of her family, you have to wonder about the substantial weight she holds within.

A youthful Phillip Michael Thomas is as gorgeous and equally as captivating in SPARKLE as he was during his days of palm trees, Miami pastels and pink flamingos, portraying the character Ricardo Tubbs in the TV series Miami Vice. Although the film’s main characters are all beautiful women, you simply cannot take your eyes away from him; when Thomas is in the scene, he steals it every time.

Most famous for her role as Coco in the film FAME (’80), which caused a measurable rise in attendance at performing arts schools internationally, Irene Cara’s career began at the tender age of 3. She was only 13 years old when she played Sparkle, but her performance is so spectacular, she competently rivals her elder co-stars. In a role that could easily escalate to excessiveness, Cara underplays. Her scene with Thomas, after a funeral, is a perfect example. Years in the entertainment industry expertly result in a stellar performance.

With a time-capsule quality much like other Stigwood films, SPARKLE seems like two separate yet cohesive stories – a tragedy that is unexpectedly a comforting diversion. In the end, the abiding spirit of SPARKLE satisfies.

[alightinthelantern]

Books read and movies watched in 2022, and whether I’d recommend them:

Books:

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Stuart Turton): Yes

The Devil and the Dark Water (Stuart Turton): No

At Bertram’s Hotel (Agatha Christie): Yes

A Murder is Announced (Agatha Christie): Eh

The Murder at the Vicarage (Agatha Christie): Yes

Destination Unknown (Agatha Christie): Eh

A Pocket Full of Rye (Agatha Christie): Eh

Pavilion of Women (Pearl S. Buck): Yes

O Caledonia (Elspeth Barker): Yes

The Mask Carver’s Son (Alyson Richman): Yes

(Poetry) Ordinary Words (Ruth Stone): Yes

(Poetry) Thirst (Mary Oliver): No

(Poetry) Howl & Other Poems (Allen Ginsberg): Yes

Movies:

Lady Bird (2017, Greta Gerwig): Yes

High Treason (1929, Maurice Elvey): Eh

Brief Encounter (1945, David Lean): Yes

Les Visiteurs du Soir/The Devil’s Envoys (1942, Marcel Carné): Yes

Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz): No

Rear Window (1954, Alfred Hitchcock): Yes

North By Northwest (rewatch) [1959, Alfred Hitchcock]: Yes

Once Upon A Time in America (1984, Sergio Leone): NO

A River Runs Through It (1992, Robert Redford): No

The African Queen (1951, John Huston): No

Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujirō Ozu): Eh

Rebecca (1940, Alfred Hitchcock): No

I Married a Witch (1942, René Clair): No

La Belle et la Bete (1946, Jean Cocteau): No

Medea (1969, Pier Paolo Pasolini): No

The Letter (1940, William Wyler): Yes

Among the Living (1941, Stuart Heisler): No

Johnny Come Lately (1943, William K. Howard): Yes

Thunderbolt (1929, Josef von Sternberg): Yes

The Plane that Disappeared (1961, Reginald Le Borg): No

Larceny (1948, George Sherman): Yes

The Woman in the Window (1944, Fritz Lang): No

The Spiral Staircase (1946, Robert Siodmak): No

High Sierra (1941, Raoul Walsh): No

Raising Arizona (1987, Joel Coen): YES

Close-Up (1990, Abbas Kiarostami): Yes

Night Train to Munich (1940, Carol Reed): Yes

Mister 880 (1950, Edmund Goulding): Yes

Encanto (2021, Jared Bush & Byron Howard): Yes

[trashmenace]

Alfred Hitchcock Anthologies

Woe be to the Alfred Hitchcock anthology completist.

Genius director and garbage can of a human being Alfred Hitchcock's name has been attached to over a hundred books and hundreds of digest magazine installments with thousands of stories of mystery and suspense. With a possible exception of the very beginning, he neither selected the stories nor wrote the introductions in his name.

A better history is at Casual Debris. A 95% accurate and complete bibliography at Casual Debris and The Hitchcock Zone. A cover gallery and an index for the magazine is at Galactic Central.

After a handful of scattered titles in the 40s, things picked up after the beginning of the 1955 TV series. Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine began in 1956, and a book series followed in 1957. I don't think they were formally connected, but they had some synergy, with the books reprinting and the TV show filming some magazine stories.

Most of the books came out in hardback and dividing in half for two paperbacks. Some of the paperback titles had a first installment sharing the hardback title, such as Stories for Late at Night, with the second half as More Stories for Late at Night, or with a different title such as Skeleton Crew. So you get the same book with multiple titles, and multiple books with the same title. The hardbacks during this era were mostly from Random House and the paperbacks from Dell, but there are exceptions.

On top of that, there were different editions with different art, and on rare occasions slightly different story lineups, or abridged versions with a couple stories shaved off.

There was a series aimed at children, with the same caliber of stories, and a British series edited by Peter Haining, possibly the hardest to find. There were several French editions, but I haven't compared the table of contents to see if they are straight translations or new lineups.

Meanwhile the digest magazines have been published continuously since 1956 to this day, the second longest running mystery digest next to its sister title Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. There were reprint titles in the UK, Australia, and India. From 1957 to 1968, mostly in the fall, there was a sampler magazine. These were literally three random unsold magazines with the covers ripped off and stuck in a generic cover. I have a couple with the same cover and each has different titles underneath.

Things get confusing again with the series of 27 anthologies more directly linked with the magazine, edited by Eleanor Sullivan and Cathleen Jordan, published between 1977 and 1989. Some were numbered editions in thicker digest format, some also reprinted in hardcover, some reprinted in two large print hard covers as part one and two, some reprinted in the numbered series Alfred Hitchcock's Book of Horror Stories. Despite being more closely tied to the magazine, not all the stories came from there.

The hardback anthologies continued through the 90s, and began to be combined with stories from Ellery Queen. Cynthia Mason edited the later anthologies, with the theming focusing on theme (holidays, cats, etc) and the mention of Alfred Hitchcock being minimized.

[akiraofthefour]

You know the sensation one has, peering into the half-life of a vivarium?  One sees bark, pebbles, a few leaves, nothing more.  And then, suddenly, a stone breathes--it is a toad; there is a chameleon, another, a coiled adder, a mantis among the leaves.  The whole case seems crepitant with life.  Perhaps the whole world is.  One glances at one's sleeve, one's feet.

John Collier, “Evening Primrose”

[365days365movies]

Western August VI: The Naked Spur (1953) - Recap (Part One)

Director-actor duos are a common thing in Hollywood.

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, Wes Anderson and Bill Murray, Nora Ephron and Meg Ryan, Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke, Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant, Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson, the Coen Brothers and Frances McDormand, M. Night Shyamalan and M. Night Shyamalan...it’s a long list. In Westerns, you’ve got Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone, as an example. We will, of course, get to them later. And for today’s movie, we’ve got a different less-talked about pairing.

Anthony Mann was an American director of the 1950s and ‘60s. Beginning his career in theatre, and as an actor in the ‘20s, he eventually transitioned into directing films primarily, as well as plays. He remained in obscurity in Hollywood until the late 1940s, with films noir. But his first big success was The Furies, a 1950 Western with Paramount. He hopped around from studio to studio, but next struck it big with his next movie, during which he met the actor he’d work with on seven subsequent films.

James “Jimmy” Stewart is possibly one of the most famous actors of his day. He also began on stage, specifically on Broadway, until transitioning into film in the 1930s. He also remained in relative obscurity until getting his first major role in legendary director Frank Capra’s ensemble comedy You Can’t Take it WIth You. And BOOM! Launched into the role of one of Hollywood’s first major leading men. A fantastic actor with an iconic voice, he was now bankable for studios.

But his career still didn’t take off immediately. His next few films were failures, but he teamed up with Capra again for the comedy-drama Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. And again, BOOM! Stewart’s back in the game, babyyyyyyy! Destry Rides Again, The Shop Around the Corner, The Mortal Storm, The Philadelphia Story, hit after hit after hit! And then...Nazis!

Jimmy Stewart was first in line in Hollywood to enlist in the Army. He came from a military family, so it made sense for him to enroll. Eventually, he climbed his way up to colonel in four years, a very short time period compared to the majority of soldiers. Dude was dedicated, what can I say? He would eventually serve in lighter duties in the Air Force Reserves during the Vietnam War, and was later awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1968. But let’s not fast forward too far.

In 1946, Stewart was offered a new film role, once again by Frank Capra. It was a small role in a fantasy drama, in which he played a family man down on his luck and suicidal, wishing that he was never born during Christmas Day. Upon meeting his guardian angel, Clarence, he’s transported to a world where he was never born, and finds out what his little community is like without him. This film, of course, is It’s a Wonderful Life.

The film wasn’t considered great by critics, but is absolutely Stewart’s most famous role today. If you haven’t seen it, then GODDAMN, you’ve never watched TV around Christmastime. It’s one of the most influential films ever, and it would go on to be Stewart’s personal favorite. But after that films wasn’t successful, Capra’s production company went out of business, and he was pretty much out of the game.

Stewart was feeling the pressure, too, as he was in his 40s at this point. New actors were moving in, and he felt that he was about to be pushed out. Granted, he still made some iconic films, like Harvey in 1947, and Rope in 1948, which began a new career with Alfred Hitchcock as director. But his career was still on the decline. That is, until the revitalization of another genre: the Western. And with that, Jimmy Stewart met Anthony Mann, and their first of eight collaborations launched them both into newfound stardom. And that film was...

Yup. Winchester ‘73. I’ve never heard of it either.

But even if I haven’t heard of it, this film was a big success! It’s a classic Western, and brought both lead actor and directors careers into new prominence. And it actually was on my list, but I chose a different film. Anyway, this one was quite successful, and it’s in my list to watch in the future. 

After that, Stewart starred in Broken Arrow, he started a new stage career with an adaptation of his film Harvey, he won a bunch of awards, and even had a minor role in Cecil B. DeMille’s acclaimed film The Greatest Show On Earth. And then, in 1952, he and Mann had their second collaboration...

Yup. Bend of the River. Also critically acclaimed, but still not the movie I’m watching today. But why am I looking at their third collaboration, rather than WInchester ‘73 or Bend of the River? Because the 1953 film The Naked Spur was the only Western in their collaboration that was nominated for an Academy Award. Specifically, an award for Best Screenplay, which only two other Westerns have ever been nominated for, with How the West Was Won actually winning that year. And don’t worry, I’ll get to that one.

So, yeah, of the five Westerns to two have made, this one’s apparently a big deal. Now, we don’t really hinge to much on the Academy in this house, but it’s still a sign of critical quality. Plus, this and most of the other Mann-Stewart Westerns have a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Not that that’s a sure indicator of quality, either. Let’s just say that it’s got me curious. And so, without further ado...

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap - Part One

Howard Kemp (Jimmy Stewart) is in the countryside, wearing a naked spur on his boots. He happens upon Jesse Tate (Millard Mitchell), an old prospector wandering around the Colorado wilderness. After putting down his gun, Kemp tells Mitchell his purpose in this country: to hunt a man guilty of killing a U.S. Marshall in Abilene, Kansas.

While Tate doesn’t now where the man is now, he knows of a fire that he was using nearby. Kemp offers him $20 to lead him there and help him find the trail of this fugitive. After gladly taking it, the two head out on the trail of the outlaw. At the campsite, they suspect that there are in fact two people for whom they are searching. In the middle of that search, they’re ambushed by a rockslide, which is caused by someone. They escape, and are soon encountered by Roy Anderson (Ralph Meeker).

Anderson has been discharged from the United States Army, and is listed as “morally unstable” on his papers. Which is...terrifying, but OK. The two move on past Anderson to find the person who caused the rockslide, and Anderson follows behind lawman Kemp. As Tate distracts the man on the cliff with gunfire, Kemp tries to sneak up behind him by climbing up the cliff, but falls off. Anderson volunteers to climb up instead. I tell ya, I don’t trust him.

Tate keeps firing at the assailant, and is faced with more rockslides. But Roy manages to make it to the top of the cliff, where someone is indeed waiting. This is the right guy, Ben Vandergoat (Robert Ryan), and Anderson holds him at gunpoint. He gets him to surrender his gunbelt, only to be ambushed from behind by Lina Patch (Janet Leigh), a young woman apparently working with the sociopathic Vandergoat.

After a tense scuffle on the cliffside, Ben is apprehended, alongside Lina. She is, apparently, the daughter of another outlaw that Kemp went after. And it’s here that we find out that Kemp is not a sheriff, as Tate had assumed, but a bounty hunter. And Ben is wanted for $5,000. On the knowledge of this reward, Tate and Roy both demand their share of the money. Irritated as hell, Kemp agrees to the conditions, and takes the two outlaws with them to horses.

However, Lina’s horse is ill, and beyond recovery. Kemp readies to kill it, despite Lina’s protest. Everyone else agrees, though, and Roy takes her away to comfort her as the horse dies. Which...I wouldn’t let them alone, but yeah, sure, that’s a smart idea. And, yup, they conspire as Ben tells her that she needs to be ready to make a move when the time is right. Nice, Kemp; real solid work so far.

The ride to Abilene begins! Conflict starts early, when the equally sociopathic Roy continually assaults her, to her chagrin. However, Ben encourages her to use her, uh, “feminine wiles” to distract the men, especially Roy. Who, yeah, is a creep. Regardless, as the journey goes on, Ben plots to plant the seeds of discord in the group, noting that the money is split better with less people to split it. Hoo boy.

Equally hoo boy is the fact that Kemp is REEEEEALLY itching to kill Ben with any excuse. Apparently, Kemp was a rancher, a former friend of Ben, and someone with apparent woman trouble...or the opposit of trouble. Hmm. Tragic past hinted at. And all the while, a Native American scout has spotted the group. When the party sees them later on, they identify them as Blackfoot. However, this is well outside of their normal territory.

On hearing about the Blackfoot, Roy panics. Turns out that his discharge was because, and a trigger warning right quick here...he raped a Blackfoot chief’s daughter. Fuckin’ YIKES. Yeah, dude’s a piece of shit. And they’re after him. Kemp tells Roy to shove the fuck off if he doesn’t want to get caught, and that this isn’t their fight. Roy leaves, and the party takes off as well, with the Blackfoot following them peacefully.

The party, sans Roy, tries to make peace with the troop, only to find that Roy’s waiting in ambush, and he shoots the leader of the group from behind a dead tree, forcing the party into fighting. And now, the Blackfoot are enemies to ALL of them. Thanks, Roy, ya fuckin’ rapist.

After the battle is done and the Blackfoot are dead, the party is mostly OK, although Kemp has been shot in the leg. Roy, the preening piece of shit, comes back to affirm his partnership with the rest of them, while the only ones to suffer were the Blackfoot and Kemp. Just gonna lay this down right now: fuck Roy. He wins this movie’s “Fuck That Guy In Particular” prize right now.

They ride on, even with Kemp’s injury, until Kemp eventually falls off of his horse near a camp. They rest, and that night, Kemp FLIPS THE FUCK OUT! In his sleep, or possibly in a delirious haze, he screams about a woman, asking where “they’ve” taken her. Ah, shit. Calling it now, Kemp lost his wife to a raid on his ranch, and she was taken away. This woman is named Mary, and she apparently disappeared after Kemp went off to the war. 

Lina comforts him in his feverishness, and Ben reveals what happens as Kemp passes out again. Turns out he signed over the ranch to her to keep safe, only for her to...sell it under him and run off with another dude, holy shit, FUCK MARY!!! Ben finds this hilarious, and Lina tells him off. But Ben doesn’t give a shit, as Kemp’s hunted him down like an animal for what he sees as no good reason. I wonder if we’re gonna get a reason by the end.

The next morning, we find out that Tate is the unluckiest prospector that ever lived, never finding any gold throughout his years of doing so. He’s also yet one more person who treats Lina fuckin’ horribly. Yeah, all of the men treat Lina terribly, except for Kemp. She goes to take care of him and dress his wounds, as he’s better this morning. The two bond a bit, as Kemp doesn’t treat her like, y’know, an animal. Basic decency and not being an asshole, is what I’m saying. Which, of course, makes Lina the Inevitable Love Interest.

But even then, Lina’s not one to settle easy. She tells Kemp off for how he treats Ben, given that Ben’s not the worst outlaw ever, and Kemp is only after him because of the money. I wonder if that’s the truth. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Roy, who proposes that the injured Kemp stay behind until he’s fit to catch up. Which, yeah, is probably just a way to get rid of him. Kemp sees that, and presses on anyway.

Ben has his own plans, as we see him fucking with the saddles, especially Kemp’s. But nevertheless, the group continues forwards, and Ben’s plan comes to fruition when he’s able to kick Kemp off of his horse while they’re on a cliffside. But he holds on despite this, and Ben acts none the wiser, the dick.

And this is as good a place as any to take a break! See you in Part Two!