BornAugust 13, 1899 in Leytonstone, London, England, UK
DiedApril 29, 1980 in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, USA (renal failure)
Birth NameAlfred Joseph Hitchcock
NicknamesHitch
The Master of Suspense
Height5' 9" (1.75 m)
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and Eileen Hitchcock (born 1892). Raised as a strict Catholic and attending Saint Ignatius College, a school run by Jesuits, Hitch had very much of a regular upbringing. His first job outside of the family business was in 1915 as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company. His interest in movies began at around this time, frequently visiting the cinema and reading US trade journals.. - (IMDb)
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000033/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Discovery Spot
Winter Kills (Comedy, Drama, Mystery) (1979)
The Pickering Commission concluded that a lone gunman killed U.S. President Timothy Kegan (John Warner) in 1960, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Nineteen years later a dying man confesses to being the real shooter hired to kill him. Kegan's brother and filthy rich father investigate.
Director: William Richert
Writers: Richard Condon (book), William Richert (written for the screen)
Stars: Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Anthony Perkins - (IMDb)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080139/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Trash & Treasure Corner
Next of Kin (Horror, Mystery) (1982)
In a rest home for elderly people, a daughter reads her mother's diary. Soon events that are mentioned in the mother's diary begin to happen to the daughter.
Director: Tony Williams
Writers: Michael Heath (screenplay), Tony Williams (screenplay)
Stars: Jacki Kerin, John Jarratt, Alex Scott - (IMDb)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084408/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_4
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00:00:00
Generic: All right, let me go to the movies, play it for Harry,
00:00:04
play it for me.
00:00:05
Just put your lips together and look, go ahead. Make my day.
00:00:09
Fasten your seat bill. It's going to be a bumpy nut. I got a
00:00:13
bad feeling about this. We're not in Kansas. Frankly.
00:00:17
I don't give a welcome to the Classic Film Club with Richard
00:00:21
Kipper.
00:00:22
Hello and welcome to this meeting of the Classic Film
00:00:25
Club. The podcast dedicated to taking a fresh look at movie
00:00:28
classics and asking how well they've stood the test of time.
00:00:32
We're also here to shine a light on lesser known gems and guilty
00:00:36
pleasures from the past century of cinema.
00:00:38
Richard Kuipers: I'm your host, Richard Kipper, a film critic
00:00:41
for the international trade paper variety documentary
00:00:43
producer and film festival programmer. And I've been a film
00:00:47
fanatic since before I could read or write later on. I'll be
00:00:51
talking about an obscure 19 seventies film that's very
00:00:54
timely in terms of the US election.
00:00:56
But first, I want to take us into the world of suspense with
00:01:00
the master himself. Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock was more
00:01:04
than just the master of suspense. He was also a master
00:01:07
showman and publicist, whose name has become an adjective to
00:01:11
describe films that employ techniques he established and
00:01:14
perfected.
00:01:15
Hitchcockian is how critics and buffs describe certain types of
00:01:19
thrillers and suspense films in much the same way as Orwellian
00:01:23
describes science fiction films set in dystopian futures. And
00:01:26
Fellini esque is shorthand for films with flamboyant visuals
00:01:30
that invoke the atmosphere of a circus or a carnival.
00:01:34
Born in 18 99 Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock directed 54 feature
00:01:39
films starting with The Pleasure Garden in 1925 and ending with
00:01:43
family plot in 1976. In the 19 fifties and sixties, he
00:01:48
presented over 350 episodes of the TV series. Alfred Hitchcock
00:01:53
Presents and the Alfred Hitchcock Hour, which helped
00:01:56
launch the careers of many fine filmmakers.
00:01:59
More about that later, Hitchcock received five Oscar nominations
00:02:03
for best director without winning one, but he did receive
00:02:07
the Academy's Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award in 1968. I will
00:02:12
now recite his acceptance speech in its entirety. Thank you very
00:02:17
much. Indeed, Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most written about
00:02:21
and analyzed filmmakers of all time.
00:02:24
He worked almost exclusively in the studio system. His films had
00:02:27
big stars and were commercially minded productions for
00:02:30
mainstream audiences, but such was his mastery of technique. He
00:02:35
was also revered and celebrated by critics and scholars who saw
00:02:39
him as not merely a filmmaker but a great artist with a
00:02:42
distinctly personal identifiable style.
00:02:46
Unsurprisingly, it was French critics in the 19 fifties and
00:02:49
sixties that first championed Hitchcock, one of these was
00:02:53
Francois Truffaut who was so severe on some respected French
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filmmakers such as Jean Renoir and Robert Brison, that he
00:03:00
became known as the grave digger of French cinema.
00:03:04
But Truax who became a filmmaker and created cinema classics such
00:03:08
as the 400 blows and day for night, admired Hitchcock and he
00:03:12
interviewed him for 50 hours on August the 13th, 1962
00:03:16
Hitchcock's 63rd birthday, the tapes took four years to
00:03:21
translate and to organize, eventually being published in
00:03:24
1967 as Hitchcock, Truax, it remains one of the most
00:03:29
fascinating and important movie books of them all do track down
00:03:33
a copy if you can.
00:03:34
It's fantastic reading, the renowned British critic and
00:03:38
author John Russell Taylor said in 1978 that Hitchcock was the
00:03:42
most universally recognizable person in the world.
00:03:45
He also called him a straightforward middle class
00:03:48
Englishman who just happened to be an artistic genius. The son
00:03:52
of an East End Green Grocer Hitchcock entered the British
00:03:55
film industry in 1919, working at Islington Studios as a
00:04:00
designer of inter titles or title cards, those used in
00:04:03
silent films to convey dialogue and plot information.
00:04:07
Hitchcock's Islington Studios connection is interesting and
00:04:11
important in British film history. Islington was also
00:04:14
known as Gainsborough Studios and was closely associated with
00:04:17
Gainsborough Pictures, producers of fine movies, including the
00:04:21
wicked Lady Fannie by Gaslight and Alfred Hitchcock titles of
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the twenties and thirties such as the man who knew too much
00:04:28
secret agent and sabotage.
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Islington Gainsborough Studios were demolished to make way for
00:04:34
apartments in 2004. The most striking feature of today's
00:04:38
Gainsborough Studios apartments complex is a spectacular five
00:04:42
story high steel sculpture of Alfred Hitchcock's unmistakable
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face.
00:04:48
But long before Hitchcock began working in the movies, he had an
00:04:51
experience that would shape his life and have a huge impact on
00:04:54
his work when he was five years old. Even before he began his
00:04:59
strict Catholic Jesuit education with all its teachings on guilt
00:05:03
and fear.
00:05:04
Young Alfred Hitchcock was given a note by his father and told to
00:05:07
deliver it to the local police station after handing over the
00:05:11
note, the boy was taken to a cell and locked in for five
00:05:14
minutes. That's what we do with naughty boys said a policeman
00:05:18
after releasing the youngster, the incident instilled a
00:05:22
lifelong fear of police in Hitchcock to the point where he
00:05:25
wouldn't even drive a car.
00:05:26
So great was his anxiety about the possibility of getting a
00:05:29
ticket. As late as 1973. Hitchcock went on the record
00:05:34
admitting he was quote, scared stiff of anything to do with the
00:05:39
law. Hitchcock's fear of police is just one small component in
00:05:43
an array of obsessions, fetishes and perversions that shaped how
00:05:47
he made films and how he treated his stars.
00:05:50
Especially blonde females such as Grace, Kelly Kim Novak and
00:05:54
Tippi Hedren. As his career progressed, Hitchcock's
00:05:58
treatment of female characters drew much attention and it
00:06:01
remains a principal lens through which we see his films starting
00:06:05
with his first big success, The Lodger in 1926 and especially
00:06:10
those from the 19 fifties onwards as British broadcaster
00:06:13
and journalist, Beita wrote in The Guardian in 2010.
00:06:17
There's the vamp, the tramp, the snitch, the witch, the slink,
00:06:20
the double crosser and best of all the demon mummy. Don't
00:06:24
worry, they all get punished. In the end, the most important
00:06:28
woman in Hitchcock's life was undoubtedly his wife, Elma
00:06:31
Revel.
00:06:32
Revel began working at Twickenham Film studios as a tea
00:06:35
girl in 1916 at the age of 16. Before becoming an editor at
00:06:40
Paramount's famous players, Lasky Production Company. She
00:06:44
wrote about editing. The art of cutting is art indeed with a
00:06:48
capital a and is of far greater importance than is generally
00:06:52
acknowledged.
00:06:53
Alma and Alfred first worked together on the 1923 production
00:06:57
woman to woman. She as editor, he as co writer and art
00:07:01
director. They married three years later and remained
00:07:04
together until his death in 1980. At a time when few women
00:07:09
occupied senior roles in film production outside of wardrobe,
00:07:12
hair, and set dressing.
00:07:14
Alma moved from editing to screenwriting. Her name appears
00:07:17
on the screenplay of many Hitchcock films including
00:07:20
Murder. Juno and The Peacock and Rich and strange in the 19
00:07:24
thirties, shadow of a doubt suspicion and the pad case in
00:07:28
the forties and stage Fright from 1950 starring the great
00:07:32
Marlena Dietrich.
00:07:34
Hitchcock's career falls into several very broadly categorized
00:07:38
stages beginning with the British films that made him
00:07:41
famous in the thirties and opened the door to Hollywood. He
00:07:44
and Elma moved to the US in 1939 after Hitchcock signed a seven
00:07:48
year contract with legendary producer David O Selznick, their
00:07:52
first collaboration was the smash hit Rebecca in 1940.
00:07:55
The only Hitchcock film to win the Oscar for best picture.
00:07:59
Wartime brought saboteur, Lifeboat suspicion and shadow of
00:08:03
a doubt after the cells. Nick contract expired. Hitchcock
00:08:07
flirted briefly with independent production including the flop
00:08:11
under Capricorn set but not filmed in Australia before
00:08:15
recovering with a string of hits from the early fifties to the
00:08:18
mid 1960 s.
00:08:19
This was Hitchcock's golden age, rear window Dial M for Murder
00:08:24
North by North West, strangers on a train, the man who knew too
00:08:27
much. And Vertigo, the 1958 film that many critics and viewers
00:08:32
didn't really get. At the time.
00:08:35
In 2012, Vertigo ended Citizen Kane's 50 year run as the
00:08:40
greatest film of all time in the British Film Institute's highly
00:08:44
respected sight and sound critics poll with the studio
00:08:48
system in its dying days and younger audiences wanting more
00:08:51
realistic treatment of strong adult subject matter. Hitchcock
00:08:55
took the biggest gamble of his life with psycho. In 1960 it
00:08:59
paid off brilliantly and it led to the Birds.
00:09:02
And Marie, two of his most psychologically unsettling
00:09:06
films. Hitchcock's 19 sixties ended on a tepid note with the
00:09:11
inconsequential thrillers Topaz and Torn Curtain before he
00:09:15
bounced back into form with Frenzy in 1972. And his final
00:09:19
feature, the delightful caper family plot in 1976 in what I
00:09:24
suspect could be just the first of several Hitchcock themed
00:09:27
installments of the Classic Film Club.
00:09:29
His filmography is so vast and his influence is so enormous.
00:09:33
I'm going to take a look at three of the master's films. One
00:09:36
from the thirties, one from the fifties and one from the
00:09:39
seventies, two of them count as lesser known Hitchcock.
00:09:42
And one comes from that dream run in the fifties when it
00:09:45
seemed he could do no wrong at all. So let's go back to the 19
00:09:49
thirties. Now with young Alfred Hitchcock establishing his
00:09:52
reputation as a maker of mystery thrillers with fast paced plots,
00:09:56
clever twists and smart doses of humor along the way. He was
00:10:00
prolific too turning out 25 features between 1923 and 1939.
00:10:07
Although the Lodger was a hit in 1927 Hitchcock had mixed
00:10:11
fortunes until 1934 when he had a string of great successes
00:10:16
starting with the man who knew too much, followed by the 39
00:10:19
steps in 1935 secret agent and sabotage in 1936 the Lady
00:10:25
Vanishes 1938 and Jamaica Inn in 1939 Hitchcock actually hated
00:10:31
Jamaica in his adaptation of Daphne Du Mari's novel.
00:10:34
But it was still a big box office winner in the middle of
00:10:38
this great run. In 1937 Hitchcock made one of his most
00:10:42
charming and breezy thrillers, young and innocent, an
00:10:46
adaptation of the novel, A Shilling For Candles by
00:10:49
Josephine Tay.
00:10:50
The title sums up his formula at the time. Young people running
00:10:54
desperately from the law and or shady types to prove their
00:10:58
innocence after being accused of ghastly crimes on the basis of
00:11:01
overwhelming circumstantial evidence. The young and innocent
00:11:05
man in question here is Robert Tisdel Derek Damai, a writer who
00:11:10
finds a body on the beach.
00:11:12
The body is that of famous actress Christine Clay. We know
00:11:16
from the start that Tisdel is innocent. In the opening scene,
00:11:19
Clay is locked in a bitter argument with her ex-husband
00:11:22
guy, Robert Curzon. He's a violent man with nervous
00:11:26
twitching eyes.
00:11:28
But that doesn't stop Tisdell being arrested on the strength
00:11:31
of just enough circumstantial evidence, including the fact
00:11:34
that he knew the deceased. Just listen to the way the cops asked
00:11:38
Tisdel how well he knew Christine Clay. This was the 19
00:11:42
thirties and intonation said it all with things looking very bad
00:11:46
for Tisdel.
00:11:47
We meet Erica Nova Pil Beam, daughter of local chief
00:11:51
constable, Colonel Bego Percy Marmont. When Tisdel makes a run
00:11:56
for it during a court appearance, Erica inadvertently
00:11:59
becomes involved naturally, she wants to turn the fugitive in,
00:12:02
but just as naturally, she eventually becomes convinced of
00:12:06
his innocence and sets out to help improve it.
00:12:09
What's so charming about young and innocent is its light tone.
00:12:12
Britain still had the death penalty at this time, but Tisdel
00:12:16
treats his life and death situation like a spot of bother
00:12:19
that jolly well, needs to be sorted out.
00:12:22
There's lovely chemistry between Derek Damai and Nova Pil Beam as
00:12:25
the couple on the run. It's one of Dearie's very few lead roles
00:12:28
along with Uncle Silas in 1947 Nova Pil Beam also played the
00:12:33
lead in Hitchcock's, the man who knew too much and she was David
00:12:37
Os Nick's choice for the lead in Rebecca.
00:12:39
He saw her as a potential international star, but it never
00:12:43
happened here. Pil Beam is delightful as the plucky young
00:12:48
lady who's learned a thing or two from watching her policeman
00:12:51
father at work and uses her mouse to help Tisdel evade the
00:12:54
law and catch the real killer.
00:12:57
It's a very funny film too with police seen as bumbling fools
00:13:01
and Tiss lawyer portrayed as a money hungry incompetent. But
00:13:05
when the tension and suspense are called for the film really
00:13:08
delivers and there are some splendid narrow escapes and near
00:13:12
misses, including one at a railway crossing.
00:13:14
It's done with miniatures, but they're pretty impressive for
00:13:17
the times. It's also fascinating to see rural England in 1937
00:13:22
with horses and carts just as common as the rickety car, Erica
00:13:26
drives and has to start by hand cranking the engine. It's still
00:13:30
great viewing today. But there's one aspect that's jarring.
00:13:34
A band playing at a dance hall are all wearing blackface, which
00:13:38
would not happen in a contemporary film unless there
00:13:40
was a very specific and important reason. But in 1937
00:13:44
this was not an uncommon sight and so reflects the times and I
00:13:49
believe it should be understood in that light.
00:13:53
You can find young and innocent online. And if you haven't seen
00:13:56
any or much of Hitchcock's pre-war work, I hope it'll lead
00:14:00
to discovering more from this stage of his brilliant career.
00:14:03
Four out of five stars from me, much better known.
00:14:07
And the second film I'd like to look at a bit more closely is
00:14:10
the last of three films Hitchcock made with Grace Kelly,
00:14:13
a Classic Hollywood blonde and one of the most beautiful and
00:14:16
elegant women ever to appear on screen. Kelly only made 11
00:14:21
feature films winning an Oscar for best actress in the country
00:14:24
girl in 1954 and retiring in 1956 aged 26 to become Princess
00:14:31
Grace of Monaco.
00:14:33
In 1953 she starred in Hitchcock's Dial M for murder
00:14:37
filmed in 3D and in the same year played opposite James
00:14:41
Stewart in rear window in 1954 Hitchcock and Kelly reunited on
00:14:46
the French Riviera for To Catch A Thief. An adaptation of the
00:14:51
1952 novel by David Dodge to Catch A Thief was filmed in
00:14:56
glorious technicolor and vista vision.
00:14:58
The fine grain high definition 35 millimeter format used by
00:15:03
Paramount pictures from 1954 to 1961 and later used for special
00:15:08
effects photography on a decent little sci fi film called Star
00:15:12
Wars.
00:15:13
It's not one of Hitchcock's most suspenseful films, but as a
00:15:17
sleek mystery romance thriller, there is so much to like
00:15:21
starting with the locations and the cast. Kelly doesn't appear
00:15:25
until the 32nd minute, which must be some sort of record for
00:15:29
the top bill actor in a big Hollywood film until then. Well,
00:15:33
we just have to make do with Cary Grant at his smooth and
00:15:36
sophisticated best.
00:15:38
He plays American ex pat, John Roby before the war. Roby was a
00:15:43
clever jewel thief. They called the cat. After helping the
00:15:46
French resistance. Roby retired from the cat burglary business
00:15:50
and now lives in a magnificent house in the hills. I can't see
00:15:54
how he makes a living, but this is Cary Grant in an escapist
00:15:57
Hollywood film of the 19 fifties.
00:15:59
So it's probably a bit too much to ask and really who cares no
00:16:03
matter what matters is that some rascal on the Riviera has
00:16:07
started robbing the rich of their rocks and suspicion
00:16:10
inevitably falls on Robie. His cunning plan is to catch the new
00:16:15
cat and in the process clear his own name, but has Robbie really
00:16:19
retired and does he intend to frame a patsy when the film was
00:16:24
released in 1955?
00:16:26
Audiences would have loved the opening section with Lynn
00:16:29
Murray's lush score playing over aerial footage showing off the
00:16:32
cote D in all its beauty while a cat burglar scurries over
00:16:36
rooftops in the dead of night. Next up, Cary Grant appears in
00:16:41
his Classic stripy skivvy and neckerchief outfit as Roby.
00:16:45
He's attempting to prove his innocence to the local cops and
00:16:48
get info from old resistance buddies like restaurateur Botai
00:16:52
Charles Vernell Bata's head waiter, Foad Jean Martinelli and
00:16:57
especially Fo's fetching daughter Danielle Brigitte Abe
00:17:01
who was taught English by robe and clearly has a crush on him
00:17:06
apart from the gorgeous locations and entertaining plot.
00:17:09
What's remarkable about these establishing scenes and the
00:17:12
whole movie in fact, is the amount of French language
00:17:15
spoken, none of it subtitled and little of it translated by the
00:17:19
characters, but we know what's going on.
00:17:22
One thing that dates so many older movies, especially
00:17:25
Hollywood films is watching characters from non English
00:17:29
speaking countries, talking to each other in English with
00:17:32
applicable accents. Think about just about every Hollywood war
00:17:36
movie made before the 19 eighties, for example, that
00:17:39
doesn't happen here and it really helps when watching this
00:17:42
in 2020 with all the expectations we have for
00:17:45
authenticity and credibility.
00:17:47
Now it's worth waiting those 32 minutes I spoke about for Grace
00:17:51
Kelly to appear in all her immaculate impossible beauty as
00:17:56
Francis Stevens. She's the daughter of Jessie Stevens.
00:17:59
Jessie Royce Landis, a widowed American millionairess, taking a
00:18:04
continental vacation with her daughter.
00:18:06
The Stevens and their vast collection of jewelry are
00:18:10
staying at the Carlton Hotel, the most famous place in town
00:18:14
and where movie royalty stayed during the Cannes Film Festival.
00:18:18
I spent a lot of time at the Carlton in the nineties when I
00:18:20
covered the festival for an Australian TV show, I produced
00:18:24
the lobby has an ambience. You can hardly believe stars
00:18:27
everywhere. The world's greatest filmmakers everywhere.
00:18:31
It really feels like it's the center of the universe when the
00:18:34
festival is in full swing and it must have seemed like that when
00:18:37
Grace Kelly a movie star and soon to be real royalty arrived
00:18:42
for filming at the Carlton in May 1954 to catch a thief is
00:18:47
high gloss, highly enjoyable entertainment with Robby
00:18:51
enlisting British insurance man H H Hewson John Williams in a
00:18:55
plan to meet the Stevens women and use their diamonds to trap
00:18:59
the cat or is he going to steal them himself?
00:19:03
The sparring between Grant and Kelly is spicy and very nicely
00:19:07
played by the leads with Grant debonair and slightly dangerous.
00:19:11
And Kelly playing Catherine as an innocent before revealing a
00:19:14
rather more worldly side to her character. In fact, she turns
00:19:18
out to be quite a game and adventurous type who wants to
00:19:21
help Robie pull off his daring plan.
00:19:24
Naturally, they fall out and bicker for a while. But once Roy
00:19:27
escorts her to her suite and they watch fireworks together
00:19:30
from her window, we're in no doubt they've taken their
00:19:33
relationship to the next level as they say, what would the
00:19:37
movies do without the metaphor of fireworks?
00:19:40
There is a significant 25 year age gap between Grant and Kelly.
00:19:44
Such gaps are still common in mainstream Hollywood movies and
00:19:47
elsewhere. But the chemistry between the stars helps smooth
00:19:51
things over and not make it cringe worthy at all.
00:19:54
Apart from Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, there's a great
00:19:57
supporting cast, especially Williams as the upper class
00:20:00
insurance agent and Jessie Royce Landis as Mrs Stevens, she
00:20:05
starts out all posh, but soon shows her true colors as an old
00:20:09
fashioned Oklahoma woman whose dead money bags hubby was really
00:20:14
quite a crook.
00:20:15
I also like it when she talks about the supposed glamour and
00:20:18
excitement of casinos and the chances of winning, maybe I
00:20:22
should just mail them the money.
00:20:23
She says to catch a thief won the Oscar for best color
00:20:27
cinematography, Robert Burkes, who also shot other Hitchcock
00:20:30
films including the Birds and Marie and it features stunning
00:20:34
costumes by eight time Oscar winner Edith Head, some of the
00:20:38
rear projection looks wobbly by today's standards and it doesn't
00:20:42
have the pulse pounding suspense of Hitchcock at his best. But 65
00:20:46
years later, it's still a joy to watch.
00:20:49
Perhaps the best way to sum it up is with this quote from
00:20:52
Washington Post critic Richard Coe when the film was first
00:20:56
released, co called it one of those deluxe pictures in which
00:21:00
everyone lives in glorious, workless luxury on the French
00:21:02
Riviera looks wonderful, speaks amusingly and is unconcerned
00:21:07
with transit strikes or hurricanes.
00:21:09
I loved every minute of it. I did 2, 4.5 out of five before I
00:21:16
take a look at one of Hitch's final films. It's worth a detour
00:21:19
to mention his work in television. From 1955 to 1965.
00:21:24
Hitchcock hosted and sometimes directed episodes of Alfred
00:21:28
Hitchcock Presents and the Alfred Hitchcock Hour at a time
00:21:32
when small screen production was considered very much the poor
00:21:35
cousin of feature films. How times have changed. Hitchcock
00:21:39
embraced the medium and used it to increase his fame and
00:21:42
celebrity.
00:21:44
Is Alfred Hitchcock still the most recognizable name of any
00:21:47
film director ever Scorsese Kubrick Tarantino Nolan. 40
00:21:53
years after his death, Hitchcock must still be at the top or very
00:21:57
close to it. But back to his TV work just briefly because it
00:22:01
didn't just provide a great stage for Hitchcock.
00:22:03
It also provided a place for young up and coming filmmakers
00:22:07
and unfairly forgotten directors to show their wares just as
00:22:11
shows like the Twilight Zone would do in the 19 sixties.
00:22:14
Here's just a small selection of directors that worked on Alfred
00:22:17
Hitchcock Presents and the Alfred Hitchcock hour, Stuart
00:22:21
Rosenberg.
00:22:22
Cool Hand Luke, the laughing policeman, Robert Altman
00:22:25
Nashville, Mash, the player, Robert Florey, the Beast with
00:22:29
five fingers. Murder in the room. Morgue John Brah, the
00:22:33
Lodger Hangover Square, Ida Lupino, the Hitchhiker Sydney
00:22:39
Pollack out of Africa Tutsi and William Friedkin, the exorcist.
00:22:45
When asked to talk about the ingredients in his films,
00:22:47
Hitchcock put it simply murder, mayhem, violence, sex,
00:22:52
beautifully expressed lovely costumes, perfect cutting and a
00:22:56
joke or two, which brings us to the third and final film in this
00:23:01
Classic Film Club meeting dedicated to the master of
00:23:04
suspense.
00:23:05
After the disappointments of Topaz and Torn Curtain, both
00:23:09
espionage thrillers Hitchcock returned to England in 1972 with
00:23:14
indeed murder, mayhem, sex violence and a joke or two in
00:23:19
mind. The result was Frenzy, an adaptation of Arthur La Benes
00:23:23
1966 novel Goodbye, Piccadilly. Farewell Leicester Square.
00:23:28
Gone are spies and skullduggery Frenzy returns to Classic
00:23:32
Hitchcock territory of an innocent man who's accused of
00:23:36
murder and can only avoid jail by finding the killer himself.
00:23:40
And now this is not just any culprit but an especially
00:23:43
sadistic serial rapist and murderer. This is Hitchcock's
00:23:47
most gritty and grimy thriller by some margin.
00:23:51
The innocent man is Richard Blaney John Finch, a hotheaded
00:23:55
former R A F officer with a chip on his shoulder and a broken
00:23:59
marriage. He's just been sacked from his job as a Barman in a
00:24:03
pub near Covent Garden Market where much of the film unfolds.
00:24:07
It's a great noisy, vibrant, busy location.
00:24:10
It's significant for Hitchcock as well. His father was a Covent
00:24:13
garden merchant. Everything points toward Blaney being the
00:24:17
necktie killer. A modern day Jack, the Ripper whose latest
00:24:21
victim is seen floating down the Thames in the opening sequence.
00:24:25
Hitchcock never worried about revealing the killer's identity
00:24:28
early in proceedings.
00:24:30
That's not the mystery or source of suspense. It's whether our
00:24:33
man can track him down before it's too late. Aside from the
00:24:37
shower scene, from psycho Frenzy features the most brutal scenes
00:24:41
Hitchcock ever directed, not just the murders but the
00:24:44
murderer attempting to cover his tracks.
00:24:47
It's startling stuff and it's Hitchcock making a statement. He
00:24:51
may have been 72 years old, sick and infirm he directed some of
00:24:55
Frenzy from a wheelchair, but he's fully in touch with modern
00:24:59
audiences and he's giving them what they want. He's also
00:25:03
inevitably having fun in the midst of all these grisly and
00:25:06
ghastly crimes.
00:25:08
There's a wonderful running gag involving chief inspector Oxford
00:25:12
Alec Mccowan, the cop who arrested Blaney before he
00:25:15
escaped and Oxford's wife, a delightfully dotty type played
00:25:19
by Vivian merchant Mrs Oxford has decided to expand her
00:25:23
culinary repertoire with some of the most outlandish and un
00:25:27
appetizing continental cuisine.
00:25:29
You've ever seen pigs trotters anyone. It's very, very funny.
00:25:35
Also in the cast is Anna Massey as Babs Blaney's only friend
00:25:40
Clive Swift as his old R A F buddy, Tony Billy Whitelaw as
00:25:45
Tony's hot tempered wife, Hetty Barry Foster of seventies TV
00:25:50
fame as Dutch detective Van Der WK.
00:25:52
For those who remember he plays fruit and veggie Merchant Bob
00:25:56
Rusk and also Jean Marsh, the creator and star of famous TV
00:26:01
series Upstairs Downstairs. She plays Monica an oddball working
00:26:06
at a dating agency. Yes, a dating agency where people
00:26:10
enrolled to find love and romance. In the days before
00:26:13
swiping left and swiping right became the norm.
00:26:17
John Finch is terrific in the lead role. He's one of my
00:26:20
favorite British actors of the era. Finch also appeared in Lady
00:26:24
Caroline Lamb, the Vampire Lovers, a Juicy Hammer Horror
00:26:28
and he'd just played Macbeth in Roman Polanski's 1971 film
00:26:33
before starring for Hitchcock. Not Bad.
00:26:36
Straight from Polanski's set to Hitchcock's set written by
00:26:40
Anthony Schaffer, also the writer of British classics,
00:26:43
Sleuth and The Wicker Man Frenzy was a big hit both critically
00:26:48
and commercially and it stands up really well today.
00:26:51
But there is one glaring moment a bit like that scene I
00:26:54
mentioned before from young and innocent, it's so dramatically
00:26:58
of its time and really sticks out in 2020 here, a couple of
00:27:02
middle class, middle aged men are discussing the necktie
00:27:06
killer. One of them makes a comment about the nature of his
00:27:09
crimes, rape and murder that would outrage audiences today
00:27:14
and rightly so, but in 1972. It's just part of the
00:27:18
conversation.
00:27:19
Listen for it. They're in a pub at the time. It's just a very
00:27:22
brief scene with characters we never see again, but it's there.
00:27:25
And you can hardly believe what's said. Frenzy was
00:27:29
Hitchcock's penultimate film. He returned to Hollywood to make
00:27:32
family plot in 1976 a film.
00:27:36
I like a lot, especially with its cast, including Barbara
00:27:38
Harris, Bruce Dern, William Devine and Karen Black, the
00:27:42
Immortal Karen Black fresh from her role as chief stewardess
00:27:46
Nancy Pryor in airport 75 Sir, Alfred Hitchcock passed away on
00:27:52
April 29th, 1980. His films will shorten the breath and quicken
00:27:57
the pulse of audiences forever more.
00:28:00
spk_2: You know how to whistle. You just put your lips together
00:28:03
and.
00:28:03
spk_3: You're listening to the Classic Film Club with Richard
00:28:07
Kipper.
00:28:08
Richard Kuipers: Now to our Hidden Gems segment. You might
00:28:11
be joining this meeting of the Classic Film Club before during
00:28:14
or after the US election on November the third after
00:28:18
watching the Trump Biden debate. Can we even call it that? And
00:28:22
with so many conspiracy theories in the air these days, I was
00:28:26
reminded of Winter Kills, a great black comedy conspiracy
00:28:30
thriller from 1979 directed by William Rickett and starring
00:28:34
Jeff Bridges.
00:28:35
Winter Kills flopped on first release and was quickly
00:28:39
withdrawn from circulation in the US. It only received a tiny
00:28:43
release in Australia in 1981. I was at school then and I
00:28:47
remember taking the red rattler train over the Harbor bridge to
00:28:51
see it at the only place where it was screening the Great
00:28:54
Walker Street Cinema in North Sydney Winter Kills is based on
00:28:59
the 1974 novel by Richard Condon.
00:29:01
He also wrote the Manchurian candidate and Pritz. He's honor.
00:29:05
The central character is Nick Keegan played by a young Jeff
00:29:09
Bridges. 19 years ago, Nick's brother United States, President
00:29:14
Timothy Keegan was assassinated during a motorcade. An
00:29:18
investigation declared President Keegan was killed by lone gunman
00:29:22
Willie Arnold before Arnold could stand trial, he was killed
00:29:26
by nightclub owner Joe Diamond.
00:29:30
Does this sound familiar? Yes, it's the J F K assassination
00:29:34
with names and places changed but all the key ingredients are
00:29:38
in place including family patriarch Park Keegan, one of
00:29:43
the US, A's richest, most powerful and most corrupt men
00:29:46
just like Kennedy patriarch Joe Kennedy or Bootlegger Joe as
00:29:51
they called him. Park Kgan is brilliantly played by John
00:29:55
Houston.
00:29:55
Director of American classics, including the Maltese Falcon.
00:29:59
Houston said acting was much easier than directing and in a
00:30:03
proper world. He would have at least been Oscar nominated for
00:30:06
his performance here. The fabulously complicated plot
00:30:09
kicks off with Nick receiving information about the assassin's
00:30:13
rifle being hidden in a drain pipe in a Pennsylvania office
00:30:16
block from there.
00:30:18
It snowballs into a wild adventure with Nick following
00:30:21
leads involving organized crime figures, Cuban connections,
00:30:25
sinister surveillance types, a crazed millionaire who uses army
00:30:30
tanks and rockets for recreational purposes. And of
00:30:33
course Hollywood movie stars, the further Nick investigates
00:30:38
the muddier the waters become and the more people around him
00:30:41
start dying.
00:30:43
It's a dizzying dazzling film that for all its flights of
00:30:46
Fancy and jet black humor rings true at its core. You don't have
00:30:52
to be a conspiracy theorist to believe this is exactly how
00:30:55
political power is attained and maintained. As one character
00:31:00
says, they will pile falsehood upon falsehood until you can't
00:31:04
tell a lie from the truth and you won't even want to.
00:31:08
That's how the powerful keep their power. Does this remind
00:31:12
you of any well known political leader and the tactics he's
00:31:15
employed. Winter Kills was filmed by the legendary
00:31:18
cameraman Vilmos Sigmond, close encounters of the third kind,
00:31:22
the deer hunter.
00:31:23
And it has an amazing cast including Anthony Perkins,
00:31:27
Sterling Hayden, Elizabeth Taylor Richard Boone Eli Wallo,
00:31:33
Japanese legend Tashiro Maune, and Dorothy Malone, who won an
00:31:38
Oscar in Douglas Sur's 1956 masterpiece written on the Wind.
00:31:43
But perhaps the most fascinating cast member is Australian
00:31:46
Belinda Bauer. She plays Nick's elusive and mysterious
00:31:50
girlfriend, Yvette Belinda Bauer was born Belinda Todman.
00:31:54
Her family founded Tobin's Paints. She moved to the US and
00:31:58
became a successful New York model in the seventies. This was
00:32:02
her film debut and the following year she starred with Jeff
00:32:05
Bridges again in the American Success company, also directed
00:32:09
by William Rickett Belinda also appeared in flash Dance and Robo
00:32:13
Cop Two before retiring from acting and becoming a
00:32:17
psychologist, Winter Kills also has an incredible production
00:32:22
history.
00:32:23
The original producers were drug dealers, Robert Sterling and
00:32:27
Leonard Goldberg. They ran out of cash, forcing the production
00:32:31
to declare bankruptcy. Goldberg was shot dead before the film
00:32:35
was finished and Sterling ended up being sentenced to 40 years
00:32:38
in prison.
00:32:39
Yet, somehow the film was finished largely because cast
00:32:44
and crew worked for little or no money at various times. And we
00:32:48
need to be thankful for that because this is one of the great
00:32:51
American conspiracy films. It's more timely relevant and funny
00:32:55
now than when it was released. Winter Kills is available on DVD
00:33:00
and Blu Ray, but it can be hard to find on streaming platforms.
00:33:04
It's well worth seeking out any way you can find it. Five stars
00:33:08
from me. It's been a long meeting of the Classic Film
00:33:12
Club. Thank you all for listening just before I sign off
00:33:15
a quick trip to the trash and treasure department where I
00:33:18
pluck out an exploitation movie gem, something that I recommend,
00:33:22
especially if you're not usually drawn to horror fantasy or weird
00:33:26
cinema in general.
00:33:28
This time, I'm proud to say it's an Australian film from 1982
00:33:33
that just came back into my view recently when its soundtrack was
00:33:36
released 38 years after the fact German electronic rock legend
00:33:42
Klaus Schulze composed the outstanding score for Next of
00:33:46
kin. An atmospheric haunted house tale directed by New
00:33:50
Zealander Tony Williams.
00:33:52
The story follows 24 year old teacher Linda Stevens, Jackie
00:33:56
Kerin who's inherited Montclair, an imposing mansion in rural
00:34:01
Victoria that was turned into a retirement home by her late
00:34:05
mother and her great aunt Rita. No sooner has Linda taken
00:34:09
possession than strange things start happening. Lights and taps
00:34:13
turning on by themselves.
00:34:15
The mysterious death of a resident, the usual events one
00:34:18
expects in the circumstances where next of kin really excels
00:34:23
is psychologically, especially when Linda discovers her
00:34:26
mother's diary and starts to remember fragments of the
00:34:29
childhood she spent at Montclair. It's stylish creepy
00:34:33
stuff with memorable images by D P.
00:34:36
Gary Hansen and strong support from John Jarrett as Linda's
00:34:40
boyfriend, Gerda Nichols as nurse, Connie and Alex Scott as
00:34:45
Barton, the facility's doctor who may or may not be conspiring
00:34:49
with Connie to hide a deep dark secret. The exteriors of Next of
00:34:54
Kin were filmed at over Newton Castle in Kela. A stunning
00:34:58
Victorian Tudor Pile that looks like it belongs in a hammer
00:35:02
horror movie more than an Australian psychological
00:35:05
thriller.
00:35:05
And that's part of the reason the film works so well with its
00:35:10
moody slow burn approach, electronic score and rich
00:35:14
European flavor. It reminds me in some parts of the films of
00:35:17
Dario Argento and Mario Bava Next of Kin stands out as a
00:35:22
highly unusual and highly effective Australian horror
00:35:26
movie.
00:35:27
It disappeared pretty quickly from view in 1982 and has just
00:35:31
resurfaced on prime video. It's an obscurity worth investigating
00:35:36
and I'll be back to investigate, assess and reassess more Classic
00:35:40
and offbeat movies soon in the next meeting of the Classic Film
00:35:43
Club. Thank you for listening. Bye for now. You can't go now,
00:35:48
work here is done. I love a happy ending.
00:35:51
Generic: You've been listening to the Classic Film Club with
00:35:54
Richard Kuipers, available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,
00:35:59
Spotify, Iheart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:36:03
This has been another quality podcast production from bitsz
00:36:07
dot com.