strange and random happenstance

Rebecca
Based on the book by Daphne Du Maurier
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, Leo G. Carroll, and Alfred Hitchcock
Release Date: 1940
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Maxim de Winter has taken a new bride. After a hasty proposal followed by a hasty marriage in a registrar office in the south of France, the newlyweds are off to England and his great estate of Manderley. The second Mrs. de Winter feels lost and out of place there. She feels as if everything she does is being compared to Maxim's first wife, Rebecca. Rebecca whose initials are strewn all over the stationary, Rebecca whose room is keep as a shrine by the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, Rebecca who could pull off class and wear a black dress and pearls without anyone batting an eyelash. And finally, Rebecca, whose memory sends her new husband into sulks and fits of rage. Will Rebecca be the end of them? 

My entire life I have had a little bit of a Hitchcock obsession. It could be that I'm drawn to great filmmaking with a darker edge, or it could be that I have embraced him because we share the same birthday, either way his films are the pinnacle of what cinema is about for me. For years I went back and forth between Rebecca and Rear Window as to which was my favorite of his films, that was until I saw Vertigo and it can now never be shifted in my heart as his true masterpiece. In recent years I've taken to watching Hitchcock movies on the big screen and only resorting to watching my DVDs if I can't help it.

For some reason Rebecca is never shown in these retrospectives at the various art house cinemas. This means I haven't seen Rebecca in many years now. It was an odd and jarring experience rewatching the movie. I've revisited my other two favorite Hitchcock films so many times that they have changed and grown with me, but Rebecca feels as if it belongs to a different me. I can still see the reasons I loved it back in high school, I can picture myself begging my parents for a copy of the movie poster for my room, and yet... and yet I see the flaws more clearly.

Of course, ideally you shouldn't finish the book, set it down and reach for the remote, that can never end well. And yet I did just that. Yes, despite knowing that this couldn't end well, I did it anyway. All that was wrong jumped out at me with more force then ever before, I wasn't charmed by the old film, I was baffled that I ever saw anything but a bad miniature as Joan Fontaine narrates the opening lines of the book. This isn't to say that the movie is a train wreck, far from it, this is the best adaptation of Rebecca out there. It just doesn't compare to the depth you get in the book.

The truth is that this is a perfectly cast movie that suffers from not having enough time to do the story justice and not having the technology needed. You can see why they have mistakenly tried to remake it so many times, I'm warily eyeing you Netflix, because the movie has the potential but falls short. But all these other wannabes, they don't realize they can never ever match the greatness of Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. Seriously, Charles Dance as Maxim de Winter? NO! Whomever thought that, just no. They deserve to die with a bolt through the gut, if you know what I mean. In fact if you look at the scenes that are almost directly lifted word for word from the book, I'm thinking particularly of the scene where Maxim confesses to his new bride in the cottage in the cove, it enraptures you. The spark between the characters and the way it's shot, with "Rebecca" rising from the daybed. Some of the best cinema you will ever see.

But it's not just the spark between the leads that makes it perfectly cast. Fontaine has that wonderful bewildered look that she has mastered to perfection, but also she has such a gaucheness that you wonder at times if it's inexperienced acting, but when you get to the end of the movie you realize that it was a purposeful naivety, it's no wonder she was nominated for an Oscar for this role. As for Olivier? He is Maxim. There is no other actor that can ever do this role justice which again makes the flaws that much more obvious. As for Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers? The way she's able to keep that severe yet distanced look in her eyes that goes into crazy overload when she shows off Rebecca's room. I defy you to find someone who could do that as well!

One aspect of the movie that I had the biggest problem with though was something that they really couldn't control and that is that the movie is in black and white. Yes it did come out a year after The Wizard of Oz premiered in glorious Technicolor, but Hitchcock was never swayed by what he could do instead doing what he thought worked with the movie. Why else was Psycho in black and white? He must have thought that color was untried and that black and white adhered to the Gothic nature of the story. But that's what makes the book so unique. It is a Gothic story but there is riotous color in the book. The red flowers being a bloody reminder of Rebecca, the bluebells and the hydranga flowering in the woods and along the drive. There is such colorful life flowing from every page that it jars you to see this bleak world on screen. Yet another reason to space out your reading and your watching of Rebecca.

But hands down, the biggest issue I had was with the music. A lot of people I think don't take music into consideration in films and movies. It's just something there in the background that fuels the mood. Yet if it's done badly it jars discordantly and pulls you out of the moment. I am probably more aware then most people of this because my brother is a music nut and I've spent enough time around him that I am aware of music more often then not. I was overjoyed recently when I was able to successfully "hear" that Grantchester was scored by the same person who does Downton Abbey.

If you really want a shock, go back and watch some of your favorite movies from the 80s and you'll be in for a musical surprise, as your eardrums bleed. Rebecca's music is like a pendulum, either overly cheerful like you're skipping through a woods on a summer morning, or bizarrely ominous. There is no middle ground. The music is very bi-polar in this regard. You can see why later Hitchcock stuck to using composers like Bernard Herrmann, who were able to create memorable music that fit the movie and elevated it to another level. The very least Rebecca could do to improve itself is get a new score.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Charles Dance, Daphne Du Maurier, Downton Abbey, Du Maurier December, Grantchester, Hitchcock, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, Laurence Olivier, Maxim de Winter, Mrs. Danvers, Psycho, Rear Window, Rebecca, Vertigo

Rebecca
Based on the book by Daphne Du Maurier
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, Leo G. Carroll, and Alfred Hitchcock
Release Date: 1940
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Maxim de Winter has taken a new bride. After a hasty proposal followed by a hasty marriage in a registrar office in the south of France, the newlyweds are off to England and his great estate of Manderley. The second Mrs. de Winter feels lost and out of place there. She feels as if everything she does is being compared to Maxim's first wife, Rebecca. Rebecca whose initials are strewn all over the stationary, Rebecca whose room is keep as a shrine by the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, Rebecca who could pull off class and wear a black dress and pearls without anyone batting an eyelash. And finally, Rebecca, whose memory sends her new husband into sulks and fits of rage. Will Rebecca be the end of them? 

My entire life I have had a little bit of a Hitchcock obsession. It could be that I'm drawn to great filmmaking with a darker edge, or it could be that I have embraced him because we share the same birthday, either way his films are the pinnacle of what cinema is about for me. For years I went back and forth between Rebecca and Rear Window as to which was my favorite of his films, that was until I saw Vertigo and it can now never be shifted in my heart as his true masterpiece. In recent years I've taken to watching Hitchcock movies on the big screen and only resorting to watching my DVDs if I can't help it.

For some reason Rebecca is never shown in these retrospectives at the various art house cinemas. This means I haven't seen Rebecca in many years now. It was an odd and jarring experience rewatching the movie. I've revisited my other two favorite Hitchcock films so many times that they have changed and grown with me, but Rebecca feels as if it belongs to a different me. I can still see the reasons I loved it back in high school, I can picture myself begging my parents for a copy of the movie poster for my room, and yet... and yet I see the flaws more clearly.

Of course, ideally you shouldn't finish the book, set it down and reach for the remote, that can never end well. And yet I did just that. Yes, despite knowing that this couldn't end well, I did it anyway. All that was wrong jumped out at me with more force then ever before, I wasn't charmed by the old film, I was baffled that I ever saw anything but a bad miniature as Joan Fontaine narrates the opening lines of the book. This isn't to say that the movie is a train wreck, far from it. It just doesn't compare to the depth you get in the book.

The truth is that this is a perfectly cast movie that suffers from not having enough time to do the story justice and not having the technology needed. You can see why they have mistakenly tried to remake it six times, because the movie has the potential but falls short. But all these other wannabes, they don't realize they can never ever match the greatness of Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. Seriously, Charles Dance as Maxim de Winter? NO! Whomever thought that, just no. They deserve to die with a bolt through the gut, if you know what I mean. In fact if you look at the scenes that are almost directly lifted word for word from the book, I'm thinking particularly of the scene where Maxim confesses to his new bride in the cottage in the cove, it enraptures you. The spark between the characters and the way it's shot, with "Rebecca" rising from the daybed. Some of the best cinema you will ever see.

But it's not just the spark between the leads that makes it perfectly cast. Fontaine has that wonderful bewildered look that she has mastered to perfection, but also she has such a gaucheness that you wonder at times if it's inexperienced acting, but when you get to the end of the movie you realize that it was a purposeful naivety, it's no wonder she was nominated for an Oscar for this role. As for Olivier, he is Maxim. There is no other actor that can ever do this role justice which again makes the flaws that much more obvious. As for Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers? The way she's able to keep that severe yet distanced look in her eyes that goes into crazy overload when she shows off Rebecca's room. I defy you to find someone who could do that as well!

One aspect of the movie that I had the biggest problem with though was something that they really couldn't control and that is that the movie is in black and white. Yes it did come out a year after The Wizard of Oz premiered in glorious Technicolor, but Hitchcock was never swayed by what he could do instead doing what he thought worked with the movie. Why else was Psycho in black and white? He must have thought that color was untried and that black and white adhered to the Gothic nature of the story. But that's what makes the book so unique. It is a Gothic story but there is riotous color in the book. The red flowers being a bloody reminder of Rebecca, the bluebells and the hydranga flowering in the woods and along the drive. There is such colorful life flowing from every page that it jars you to see this bleak world on screen. Yet another reason to space out your reading and your watching of Rebecca.

But hands down, the biggest issue I had was with the music. A lot of people I think don't take music into consideration in films and movies. It's just something there in the background that fuels the mood. Yet if it's done badly it jars discordantly and pulls you out of the moment. I am probably more aware then most people of this because my brother is a music nut and I've spent enough time around him that I am aware of music more often then not. I was overjoyed recently when I was able to successfully "hear" that Grantchester was scored by the same person who does Downton Abbey.

If you really want a shock, go back and watch some of your favorite movies from the 80s and you'll be in for a musical surprise, as your eardrums bleed. Rebecca's music is like a pendulum, either overly cheerful like you're skipping through a woods on a summer morning, or bizarrely ominous. There is no middle ground. The music is very bi-polar in this regard. You can see why later Hitchcock stuck to using composers like Bernard Herrmann, who were able to create memorable music that fit the movie and elevated it to another level. The very least Rebecca could do to improve itself was get a new score.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Charles Dance, Daphne Du Maurier, Downton Abbey, Grantchester, Hitchcock, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, Laurence Olivier, Maxim de Winter, Mrs. Danvers, Psycho, Rear Window, Rebecca, The Wizard of Oz, Vertigo

Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock
Based on the story by Cornell Woolrich
Release Date: August 1st, 1954
Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy
L.B. Jeffries is on the last week of his cast confinement after stepping into the middle of a race track to get the best shot. He's itching to get on assignment and get his lens back in the loop. Also it will be nice to get away from Stella, his nurse, who keeps trying to persuade him that perhaps a nice quiet life settled down to his socialite girlfriend, Lisa Carol Fremont, is just what the doctor ordered. For a man who craves excitement, watching the lovely, lanky, Miss Torso dance about and entertain gentlemen callers can only keep you diverted for so long. The lives of his neighbors, while interesting, lack mystery... until Lars Thorwald takes away many suitcases in the middle of the night and then ties up a large steamer trunk with heavy rope. Instantly sure of foul play it doesn't take long to convince Lisa and Stella as well, even if the police aren't convinced. Soon they are climbing fire escapes and digging up flower beds in Jeff's stead, as he nervously watches from his confining wheelchair. But will a man who has most likely killed his wife and a poor defenseless dog stop at just the two murders? Or will there be more to follow?

This movie is sheer perfection. The dark sense of humor coupled with voyeuristic tendencies is my nirvana. This is easily one of my favorite movies Hitchcock did. Not just the story but the setting. This little microcosm we see where these people are all aware of each others lives but don't interact. We all wonder what our neighbors are up to and here we have a worst case scenario. You also have to ask, if you saw what Jeff saw, would you react the same? Would you try to catch this man or would you just wait for him to leave and forget all about it. Plus, as many reviewers have noted, the struggle in the relationship between Jeff and Lisa is played out in all the windows. There are the newlyweds, Miss Lonelyhearts, the musician, one thing different and that could be Jeff or Lisa's future. There really is no way for me to elaborate more on this film. I've loved it for so long, I will also admit, I built a little shrine to it... backstory on shrine, in high school, we had to do a project on the concept of "windows" and I decided to depict the world outside Jeff's window, so yeah, little obsessed, and don't listen to my friends who said I had "brick" issues... so yes, shrine. I find it's hardest to talk and quantify that which you care for most, so just go watch this movie, the acting, the costumes, the story, it stands the test of time and repeat viewings and is a fitting movie to end the Hitchcock Hoot'nanny on!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cornell Woolrich, Grace Kelly, Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, L.B. Jeffries, Lars Thorwald, Lisa Carol Fremont, Miss Lonelyhearts, Miss Torso, Rear Window, Voyeurisim

Rear Window and Other Stories by Cornell Woolrich
Published by: Penguin
Publication Date: 1950
Format: Paperback, 176 Pages
Rating: ★★ (Rear Window aka It Had to Be Murder only)
Out of Print

Hal Jeffries has never been one for reading. So when he's laid up in his swelteringly small apartment he doesn't have the solace of books to turn to, instead he turns to his window and the lives of his neighbors. He becomes fascinated with their routines. The young newlyweds who stay out every night who always forget to turn out the light and come rushing back five minutes later to turn it off. The young mother who tarts herself up every night after tucking her son into bed. The devoted husband who waits on his ill wife. But why he keeps her shut up in that hot apartment while the building is under construction and never calls a doctor worries Jeff. But then again, those people and their worries are all he's got. One night the husband's behaviour strikes him as odd. He surveys the surrounding apartments not in the detached way of one under strain but in the highly observant way of a man who has something to hid from those around him. Soon little things start to pile up, curtains drawn, the man sleeping in the living room but never really succumbing to dreams, his glowing cigarette a reminder of his wakefulness. When Jeff realizes that the wife is no longer in residence he calls his friend Boyne who works homicide. There was no time that the wife could have left without him seeing so it has to be murder. But after a perfunctory check, it turns out the wife left town for her health and that's the end of that. Jeff knows that's not the whole story. He sends his manservant Sam over their to investigate this Lars Thorwald. Sam also comes up empty handed. Jeff decides that perhaps Lars can be baited into confessing... just a look would be enough for Jeff. He sends an anonymous note saying he knew what he did, followed with a phone call arranging a time and a place for the "exchange." Jeff thinking that if Thorwald is willing to pay a blackmailer then it's a sure sign of his guilt. But Jeff sees Thorwald leave for the assignation with a gun and he realizes that not only has this man killed once, but he's willing to kill again to cover up his first crime. Can Jeff save himself from Thorwald and prove to Boyne that it had to be murder all along?

It's very hard to find the suspense in a forty page short story. There's not much time for character development and therefore there is no real connection to the characters. It might have been purposeful, that our look into this world of Jeff's is just as sketchy as his glimpse into the world of his neighbors, but still, what Hitchcock later brought to this story was depth. The plot is surprisingly very similar to the film, with many of the same things happening. It's just that Hitchcock was able to give a pacing and a depth that Cornell Woolrich couldn't in those few short pages. We don't even know what Jeff's injury is till the last page and never learn more than his name. How can you feel for Jeff when Thorwald becomes a threat if you know nothing of Jeff. His death would be just another death, nothing traumatic to the reader, just a fact. That is what I feel this story is, just facts laid out one after the other. Some more substantial than others and then it's over. Jeff thinks it's murder, and murder it is. You don't share his journey of discovering, you don't watch with him, you're just told the facts. Perhaps it's just the bare writing style of the times, paring it down to grim, noir details, but I like a little substance in my literature and I love Hitchcock's Rear Window, so perhaps there was no way I could fully get along with the story, but I think I've come to accept that, and we're good with each other.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 3 comments  

Labels: Boyne, Cornell Woolrich, Hal Jeffries, Hitchcock, It Had to Be Murder, Lars Thorwald, Rear Window, Short Story

You've heard the whispering in the halls. A shifty glance from a co-conspirator. So you've heard the rumors are true? Why would I spread false gossip? I'm turning a year older this month, so therefore I must leave behind rumor and insinuation and proudly declare my age (but only if you message me secretly by carrier pigeon). My birthday, besides being extra cool cause it's on Friday the 13th, is also cool for the fact I share it with a very famous film director. I'm sure you're dizzying with anticipation! Yes, if you didn't get the picture above or the lame joke, I share my birthday with Alfred Hitchcock. Besides being perhaps the best film director ever for suspense he also has a long connection with literature. Many, in fact, almost all of his movies are adaptations of books. Rebecca being the more obvious, as the book by Daphne Du Maurier has fame equal to the movie. But even Vertigo and Rear Window have their basis in literature. I thought it would be fun to read the books and then compare them to the movies for a month long Hitchcockian Hoot'nanny (yes, I did struggle to think up some good alliteration for that, but alliterate I did do.) What will I be reviewing... well, I'm going to do one book and movie combo a week, so that's at least four, and no, I did not do this just to have a Daphne Du Maurier binge, even if that's what it looks like... There will be Vertigo, Jamaica Inn, Rebecca and Rear Window or The Birds (depending if I can find my copy of Rear Window... I know it's around her somewhere, and no, that wasn't a stack of books falling over and burying me alive that you heard!) But besides that, there will (hopefully) be guest posts and of course a giveaway! Drop me a line if you want to participate, or just read and watch along! The more the merrier! Now onto the giveaway...

The Prize:
The Alfred Hitchcock movie of your choice on DVD from Amazon, full list here, or use the widget on the left hand side.

• +1 for answering the question: Which is your favorite Hitchcock movie and why?
• +2 for becoming a follower
• +10 if you are already a follower
• +10 for each time you advertise this contest - blog post, sidebar, twitter (please @MzLizard), etc. (but you only get credit for the first post, so tweet all you like, and I thank you for it, but you'll only get the +10 once). Also please leave a link!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 12 comments  

Labels: Birthday, Daphne Du Maurier, Giveaway, Hitchcock, Hitchcockian Hoot'nanny, Jamaica Inn, Rear Window, Rebecca, The Birds, Vertigo

The Curse of the Spellmans (The Spellmans Book 2) by Lisa Lutz
Published by: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: March 11th, 2008
Format: Paperback, 409 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Order

Isabel is firmly back at Spellman Investigations, the lure of the PI life being too much for her. But she has removed herself from the attic and is subletting a rent controlled apartment from her Uncle Ray's friend Bernie. Some time has passed since Rae's disappearance. But the aftereffects are still felt, the fallout being manifold. Besides having to rewrite Webster's definition of "vacation" and "disappearance" in an effort to disabuse Rae of referring to her self kidnapping as her vacation, she has also gotten a new best friend. Henry Stone, the detective who investigated her disappearance (used in the original sense of the word), has become Rae's new bff, that is until she accidentally runs him over while he's teaching her how to drive. The incident with the car begins a downward spiral that will result in several arrests for Isabel and the possibility of loosing her PI license if her octogenarian lawyer, Morty, can't save her from jail time. The fateful day of the accident is the day she meets the Spellman's new neighbor, John Brown. Attractive in a Joseph Cottony way, but there's something off about a man who gardens and has such an untraceable name. The inkling that something's not right is present before Isabel finds out he has a locked room in his apartment, which sends her a clear message, she must find out what's in that room. He has also been linked to the disappearances of at least two women, as far as Izzy can tell.

But it's not just John Brown who's behaving mysteriously. Her mother is trashing someone's motorbike in the middle of the night, her father appears to be going to the gym, Milo her bartender is off, Petra her best friend and David's wife is MIA, David is depressed and acting guilty, and Rae is annoying everyone because Henry wants some alone time and she can't figure out why her teacher is hoarding his own snot. And to top it all off, Izzy becomes homeless when Bernie shows back up on the scene. What follows is only something that could happen to Izzy, who has an obsessive need to find out the truth before taking her own safety, future or sanity into account. After an ill attempt at dating John Brown, he becomes her subject, the one thing that keeps her going. The one thing that lands her in hot water and results in broken ribs, two b&e charges as well as a restraining order and grand theft auto charge. And can she solve the one case her parents have given her? A person or persons repeating her crimes to a neighbors holiday themed yard displays from her delinquent youth? But despite it all Isabel is growing closer to Henry Stone and he even takes her in when she has nowhere else to go. Will Izzy be able to save herself and her PI license, because if any of the charges stick she can kiss her license goodbye... or does that even matter anymore if she can't find out what everyone is hiding?

A little more disjointed than the first, but just as enjoyable. The framing of the story within the Morty/Isabel pre-arraignment consultation in his garage is less successful then the Stone interviews of the first book. Plus I feel that once we have the portent of doom with Isabel being arrested for the 2nd(4th) time, that cutting back to Morty just saying, get on with it, is unnecessary. But the mystery is far more Hitchcockian, with all the overtones of Rear Window, even if John Brown looks more like Charlie Oakley in Shadow of a Doubt and not so much Raymond Burr. Also the introduction of Henry as basically another member of the family is too perfect (plus The Stone and Spellman Show... priceless!). He is Isabel's match in so many ways. Sure they have great dichotomies of neat versus slob... but they say opposites attract. Plus he's able to take on her family, stand Rae, and help out, even if it is to provide Rae and Isabel with a Doctor Who outlet. By far, the best is Isabel's discovery of the new Doctor Who! For someone who is a Get Smart addict I thought that Doctor Who is a fitting natural progression. It's just like watching an old tv show from the 60s, but updated with all the technology of the present. Too too perfect, and also reflects how I am with my tv viewing. This book, like the last, is composed of loosely stringed vignettes of the Spellman's lives that result in a full story, like the following of clues from point a to point b through a wacky and humorous circuitous route full of wit. But there is also an undercurrent of true emotion and connection. The scene where Olivia realizes that for once, Isabel is number one in her heart, is just touching beyond anything. Really, I can't wait for the next installment and then the next, but most of all I can't wait for Isabel to finally give the cop her number.

Make sure to enter my Surfeit of Spying Spellmans Giveaway to win this, or any of the other Spellman books. All signed 1st editions!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Book Review, Curse of the Spellmans, Dr. Who, Get Smart, Henry Stone, Hitchcock, Isabel, Joseph Cotton, Lisa Lutz, Morty, Rae, Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt, Spellman Investiagtions