Favourite Films of the 1950s

Warning: Spoilers for many of the films listed below

I consider the 1950s the greatest decade in film history. It was the decade in which Hitchcock made several of this greatest films- including the film many regard as his masterpiece, Vertigo. Akira Kurosawa made Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood. Ingmar Bergman would have Smiles of a Summer's Night and The Seventh Seal. Marlon Brando would come on the scene deliver one of the greatest screen performances of all time- as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront. Fellini would give us Nights of Cabiria and La Strada. James Dean became of the great screen icons with all only three films. Billy Wilder made what is considered the funniest film of all time with Some Like It Hot, as well maybe the best film about Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard.

I wanted to discuss my favourite films of the decade. They include multiple appearances by a few directors, especially Mr. Hitchcock. So, here they are, my favourite films of this wonderful decade of cinema. Again, there will be spoilers. 

Rear Window (1954) 

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window is one of the rare films that I would argue is perfect.  L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (Jimmy Stewart) is a photographer who- after breaking his leg photographing a racetrack accident- is confined to a wheelchair and passes the time spying on his neighbours in the courtyard where he lives. He soon starts to suspect that Lars Thorwold (Raymond Burr)  has murdered his invalid wife.

Hitchcock takes what sounds like an uncinematic concept and crafts it in to a commentary on cinema, voyeurism and the how the two are intrinsically connected. Hitchcock always believed in what he called "pure cinema," meaning the story should should be told using the specific tools of cinema. We see most everything from Jeff's perspective as he's looking in to the other apartments. We as the audience are also voyeurs and accomplices in Jeff's preoccupation. Even when there's dialogue- Jeff interacts with and involves in his investigation his girlfriend Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly), nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) and police friend Tom Doyle (Wendell Corey). But even in dialogue scenes Hitchcock still tells the story visually: who can forget Lisa's introduction- seen through Jeff's blurred vision as she comes in to kiss him.

Rear Window is also a commentary on our relationship to our neighbours and how we perceive people and their actions. And overall it's just an incredibly entertaining film. More than 60 years on, it's still an exemplary example of its genre and Hitchcock's filmography.

 12 Angry Men (1957)

Sidney Lumet's debut film only has one scene set in a courtroom but it ranks amongst the greatest films about the justice system. It also remains an relevant examination about racial prejudice in America.

On a hot summer day 12 jurors must decide the fate of a 18 year old Hispanic boy charged with murdering his father. For most of the jurors it's an open-and-shut case that the boy guilty. Juror 8 (Henry Fonda) wants to discuss the details of the case to make certain they're not sending an innocent person to their death. Throughout the afternoon the other jurors will confront their own biases and preconceptions. Juror 3 (Lee J. Cobb, one of the great character actors) has the most powerful and significant transformation. His decision is the culmination of the whole drama.

Fonda is perfectly cast as Juror 8. Fonda almost always portrayed noble character and here represents what a juror should be: open-minded and desiring a fair verdict. Aside from Fonda and Cobb, the superb ensemble cast also includes a who's who of character actors: Jack Klugman, E.G. Marshall, Martin Balsam, and Jack Warden.

As I've gotten older the film has become more ambiguous and complex. When I was younger I thought it was clear the boy was innocent. I now think there's a possibility the boy could be guilty. The larger point is he got a second chance at life and the possibility of redemption.  

 Singin' in the Rain (1952)

The late Debbie Reynolds made her screen debut in Singin' in the Rain, which is my absolute favourite movie musical. Energetic, sweet, and with a humourous commentary on how Hollywood switched from silent films to "talkies," this may be the happiest film ever made, or at least among the most happiest. Taking place in the late 1920s, Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) is a silent film star who's paired in films with Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen).  Don and Lina's latest film The Dueling Cavalier is  to be turned in to talking picture after the success of The Jazz Singer but Lina's shrill voice wasn't made for talkies. Don meets Kathy Selden (Reynolds) and the two fall in love. Kathy is eventually employed to dub Lina's voice when Don, Don's best friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor) and Kathy get the idea to turn The Dueling Cavalier in to a musical

The film is famous for the scene of Hollywood star Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) singing the title song but the film is full of other memorable musical set pieces, including "Good Morning, Good Morning," "Moses Supposes" and O'Connor's "Make 'Em Laugh." It's a shame this film was only nominated for two Oscars- Best Scoring of a Musical Film and Best Supporting Actress for Hegan's performance. In a better world, the film, Kelly, Don O'Connor, Director Stanley Donen and Reynolds would all have been nominated.

 Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Sunset Boulevard is one of Billy Wilder's essential masterpieces, a darkly funny, biting and ultimately tragic story about the way Hollywood both gives and takes away- and the obsession with maintaining one's fame and the audience's love. Joe Gillis (William Holden) is a struggling screenwriter who- while escaping from men attempting to repossess his car- finds himself at the mansion of former film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). When Joe recognizes her and comments she used to be a big star she says "I am big. It's the pictures that got small."  She's written a screenplay for her "return" (she hates the word comeback) and Joe persuades her to let him rewrite it.

Norma Desmond is one of the great film characters- sad, scary, funny, incredibly confident and yet vulnerable to the core. Swanson- who was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar- plays Norma just broadly enough to make her outlandish but not cartoonish. Her tragedy is of someone who had everything and can't live without being a star. She eventually brings Joe down with her, their two fates intertwined.

While Joe can physically leave the mansion, he is still a prisoner of Norma's and his own desires. Casting a handsome movie star like Holden as a down on his luck screenwriter is actually a great joke. And casting actor-director Eric von Stroheim as Norma's former husband and director, now butler Max von Mayerling also functions as meta-joke.  

Wilder and Charles Brackett, whom had co-written several previous films with Wilder, won Oscars for writing Sunset Boulevard but it was to be their final collaboration. Wilder- hailing from Germany- always looked at America from an outsider's perspective. I think he was both cynical of American society was still compassionate, never looking down on his characters- and even finding hope for them in The Apartment and Some Like It Hot. And even Norma finds happiness in her delusions.

 Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is a prime example of film that wasn't well liked at the time of its release but was later on re-valuated. Vertigo is now seen as Hitchcock's supreme masterpiece. In 2012 it dethroned Citizen Kane in Sight and Sound's greatest films poll. Whether Hitchcock intended it or not, Vertigo is the revealing of his own psychology, his obsession with a particular kind of woman and manipulation of women.

John "Scottie" Ferguson is a retired police officer who realized he had acrophobia during a rooftop chase of a suspect, which led to the death of another officer. Scottie is hired by an old college friend Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) to follow his wife Madeline, whom Elster believes has been possessed by the ghost of her great-grandmother Carlotta Valdes. Scottie Madeline and subsequently saves her life after she throws herself in to the bay under the Golden Gate Bridge. He soon becomes romantically involved with Madeline but he is unable to stop her from committing suicide by throwing herself off the top of a bell tower. Scottie is found not responsible for Madeline's suicide and spends some time in a sanitarium. Plagued with guilt, Scottie eventually meets a woman named Judy who looks remarkably like Madeline, whom he then begins to make in to the image of his dead love.

Vertigo is like a maze and Hitchcock is leading you through it. I think when one first sees the film his or her focus will mostly be on the plot.  But on re-watch once you know where the story is going, one is able to focus on the film-making and the psychological complexity of the story. The plot is a red herring. Like Scottie we are led down multiple paths, not realizing the grand design until it's too late.

On re-watch, one is also able focus on character study of Scottie. Even from the beginning of the film Hitchcock establishes Scottie's fragile mental state and how Scottie will eventually blame his vertigo for mot being able to save Madeline. As Scottie begins to trail Madeline, this is where is obsession begins, and he's the one who ultimately becomes possessed- not by a ghost but by romantic obsession.

The casting of Stewart is brilliant due to his relatability and image as the every man. In him audiences saw who they could be at their best. In Vertigo we see ourselves at our worst. If Stewart can be consumed by a twisted obsession, we all can  

A trope of Hitchock's filmography is the "Hitchcock Blonde," cold, cool, mysterious women. Just as Scottie is obsessed with an image that doesn't really exist- the "Madeline" he knows is just Judy, an actress playing a part- Hitchcock was obsessed with a particular image of a woman. Vertigo is largely about the extent someone will hurt another as part of their art. Hitchcock is known for his cruelty towards Tippi Hendren and his obsession with her and several other actresses with whom he worked. Vertigo is Hitchcock as his most self-reflective even while imbuing the film with a hypnotic mystery and elusiveness. 

The Seventh Seal

Endlessly homaged and parodied, The Seventh Seal-  was many North American audiences' introduction to director Ingmar Bergman.  As with Woody Allen- who was heavily inspired by Bergman- and Annie Hall, this was a transitional film for Bergman, forging the way for his later masterpieces. The film chronicles the journey of knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow, in his first of many films for the director), who has returned from fighting in the crusades, along with his squire Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand). Sweden has been struck by the Black Plague. Block comes face to face with Death  (Bengt Ekerot), whom has come for Block. Block then challenges Death to a chess match for his very soul.

At the film's core is Block's crisis of faith, his feeling of God's absence. The existential crisis that can plague one's life is universal- regardless of one's faith. I think The Seventh Seal is maybe Bergman's accessible film due to the literalness in which Bergman approaches this subject. But while Bergman arguably made more complex films later on, this doesn't diminish the visual and thematic impact of the film.

The Seventh Seal's personification of Death is definitive He's drily funny-  in one scene he is sawing down a tree, killing an actor. But he's also very ominous and matter of fact. When he reappears at the end of the film it's a harrowing climax.

It's easy to parody Bergman due to his earnestness but its that very earnestness that makes The Seventh Seal such a haunting experience 60 years on.

The Night of the Hunter

Harry Powell ranks as one of the terrifying villains in film history, a boogieman that feels he's been ripped right out of your nightmatre Powell is a "preacher" who is sentenced to prison due to driving a stolen car. Powell shares a cell with Ben Harper (Peter Graves). Harper had robbed a bank and killed two police officers in the process. Powell learns enough from Harper to know infer Harper's children, John and Pearl, know where the money is. Harper is executed and when Powell is released he locates Harper's widow, Willa (Shelly Winters). Powell marries her so he can get closer to the money. He eventually murders Willa and the children have to escape, with Powell coming after them.

Powell is portrayed by Robert Mitchum, whose screen image was defined by a laconic and laid back quality. He didn't seem to care about being a movie star, which made him cool. Powell, in contrast, isn't very cool. Mitchum's other characters didn't care and if they did, they didn't show it. Powell cares too much. He'll terrorize children if it'll help him get rich. Mitchum's characters usually were upfront about who they were but Powell is deceptive and slick. He cons the naive town in to thinking he's a good man. And even when he's showing his true self, it doesn't feel like we're seeing a real person. Rather, Powell is a personification of evil rather than a flesh and blood man. This contrast between Mitchum's typical screen persona and the characterization of Powell is what makes him the character so terrifying. Mitchum is an actor with whom the audience is usually so comfortable. Here he takes the form of a monster. Powell's monstrosity is countered by Lillian Gish's Rachel Cooper, who looks after stray children. Powell is a man who wears the mask of a good Christian man but Rachel is the true light in the darkness.

The Night of the Hunter is the only film directed by actor Charles Laughton. That is was Laughton's sole film is a significant part of this film's mystique and power. In this one film we glimpse Laughton's mastery as a filmmaker. Laughton crafted a film that can't be boiled down to a one genre or description. It's a surreal horror film, a southern noir, a gothic fairytale, and a commentary on organized religion in America. It feels like a nightmare, which eventually turns in to a peaceful dream. The film wasn't a critical or commercial success. This disappointed Laughton greatly, which led him to never direct another film.

Stanley Cortez's cinematography provides the film with much of its unsettling atmosphere. Cortez had previously photographed Orson Welles' The Magnificient Ambersons and Fritz Lang's Beyond the Door. Cortez would later photograph Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss, as well as Roman Polanski's Chinatown. 

The Night of the Hunter is another film that was not appreciated in its time. In many ways it was ahead of its time. It would inspire future filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee. But while ahead of its time it also tells a timeless story of good and evil. It ends with the hope that goodness and love can win in the end.

The Quiet Man

The Quiet Man is John Ford's most personal film and one of his warmest as well. Ford would win his fourth and final Best Director Oscar for this film. Frequent Ford collaborator John Wayne plays Sean Thornton, a former boxer and Irish-born American. Sean returns to Ireland to reclaim his family's farm. While there is he falls in love with Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O'Hara). The two eventually marry and several complications arise including Mary Kate's brother Will (Victor McLaglen), a landowner who has a beef with Sean.

Ford, whose parents were Irish Immigrants, is one of the quintessential American filmmakers. Before making Citizen Kane Orson Welles watched Stagecoach numerous times in preparation. He defined the image of the American Western and made Wayne a movie star. But while was Ford is associated with classic Western, he would never win an Oscar for any of his Westerns. He won for The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green is My Valley and as mentioned before, this film.

When I was writing for WhatCulture! a few years back, I included The Quiet Man on the list of 10 great "Hang-out movies," a term made popular by Quentin Tarantino. I included the film because of its roster of colorful characters, and it's charming and funny atmosphere. In four years Ford would make one of the darkest westerns with The Searchers but The Quiet Man sees Ford at his most nostalgic and gentle. And Ford's nostalgia for this world is passed on to the audience through this film, whatever one's individual background 

Throne of Blood

Throne of Blood is the first of Akira Kurosawa's Shakespeare adaptations. It would be followed by The Bad Sleep Well (1960, a variation on Hamlet) and his late career masterpiece Ran (1985, a film whose story through the writing process became more like King Lear). Throne of Blood is a re-telling of Macbeth and follows the basic story of the play closely. In this version Macbeth is Taketoti Washizu (Toshiro Mifune) and Banquo is Yoshiyaki Miki. Isuzu Yamada plays Asaji, this film's version of Lady Macbeth. Instead of encountering three witches Washizu and Miki come upon  a spirit in the forest who tells them their future. The scene where they encounter the spirit is one of the spookiest sequences ever captured on film and displays Kurosawa's gift for bizarre yet entrancing imagery.

The ending, where Washizu is swarmed by arrows, is one of Kurosawa's greatest set pieces. And while I'm a huge Shakespeare fan I prefer this film's ending to the play.

While the film doesn't employ any of Shakespeare's language, it's atmosphere and performances invoke the feeling of the play. But the film also works as its own piece of art. Shakespeare took inspiration from other works and actual history to craft his art. Kurosawa does the same with Shakespeare. Kurosawa is one of those directors I would put on a Mount Rushmore of film directors.

North by Northwest

The first Hitchcock film I ever saw is also the proto-James Bond movie. From Russia With Love's (1963) helicopter showdown is known to be inspired by North by Northwest's iconic crop-duster sequence. North by Northwest's star Cary Grant  was also considered for Bond in Dr No. Grant's performance in Notorious is probably the best example of what he could've brought to Bond if he was younger when they made Dr. No. The film's ending even has a naughty visual gag that rivals that of the Bond films.

Hitchcock constantly returned to the theme of the wrong man in his films, inspired by an incident in his childhood when his father sent him to the police station with a note. Young Alfred was put in a jail cell for several minutes and was told this was what happened to bad little boys. 

Roger Thornhill (Grant), is a New York ad executive who is mistaken for a spy named George Kaplan by Philip Vandamm (James Mason). Vandamm's plan to kill Thornhill fails. Vandamm's thugs try again and accidentally kill a U.N. Diplomat. Thornhill is mistaken as the assassin he has to go on the run. On a train he meets Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who isn't what she seems. 

North by Northwest can best be described as a comic thriller but falls in to camp or becomes too serious. It's light not overly slight and it's still superior entertainment to many modern blockbusters. It's also the one that made me a Hitchcock fan.

 Witness For The Prosecution

Billy Wilder, like his contemporary Howard Hawks, made films in various genres and styles during his career, sometimes within the same film. Sunset Boulevard is both a film noir and a Hollywood satire. The Apartment is a romantic comedy but also a drama about isolation. Some Like It Hot, another romantic comedy, is also a period piece, buddy comedy and gangster film.

Witness For The Prosecution is Wilder's take on the courtroom drama, with a dose of film noir. Charles Laughton plays Sir Wilfrid Robarts, a barrister in ill health who takes on the defence of Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power). Vole is accused of murdering an elderly woman named Emily French. He had met French and she became very infatuated with him. She named him the main beneficiary in her will. Things become complicated when Vole's German wife Christine (Marlene Dietrich) is called as a witness for the prosecution.

The film is based on short story- and later a play- by mystery writer Agatha Christie. It's twisty plot and denouement have the Christie touch. She was always ahead of her time in regards to subverting reader expectations.

Laughton and Elsa Lanchester (Laughton and Lanchester were married in real life) as Robarts' nurse provide much of the film's humour. Power is great casting because his matinee idol image contrasts with the possibility he could be a cold-blooded murderer.

 The Searchers

The Searchers wasn't John Ford's final western but it sfeels like a definitive statement on Ford's part on the genre he both came to define and which defined him. In this film Ford is looking back at the racism inherent to the genre and which was found in his own westerns.

Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) is an civil war veteran who has returned to his brother Aaron's (Walter Coy) homestead after a long absence. Soon after, his nieces Debbie (Lana Wood) and Lucy (Pippa Scott) are kidnapped by Comanches led by a man named Scar (Henry Brandon). The homstead is burned down, with Aaron and his wife Martha (Dorothy Jordan) dead. Ethan, Lucy's finance Brad Jorgensen (Harry Carey Jr.) and Debbie's adopted brother Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) go after in pursuit. When Lucy is found dead Brad rides in to the Indian camp and is killed.

In Ethan's mind, Debbie has become one of them and needs to be killed. Throughout the film and even at the film's conclusion, Ethan is an unapologetic racist. While he ultimately doesn't kill Debbie (whose is played by Natalie Wood in later scenes), this isn't a complete justification for his attitudes nor does it mean his attitudes have completely changed. The final shot of Ethan framed in the doorway of the Jorgensten homestead as the door closes on him symbolizes how Ethan is a man of the past. He has not place in the changing world.

 Sweet Smell of Success

Alexander Mackendrick's Sweet Smell of Success is a wry blend of cynicism and entertainment. Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman's brilliant script spares no one in its examination of a New York gossip columnist J.J. Hundsecker (Burt Lancaster) and press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis), whom Hundsecker enlists to help him smear the jazz musician that is romancing his sister. If it was made today Falco would be the hero who becomes bad but then makes the right choice and is redeemed. But here Falco is just as bad- and probably even worst than Hundsecker.

Sweet Smell of Success is a dialogue driven film that also manages to be cinematic. The film is a time capsule of New York in the 1950s James Wong Howe's cinematography makes New York the most noirish is has ever looked in a film. 

 All About Eve

Released the same year as Sunset Boulevard, All About Eve is another film about being woman in an industry that sees 40 as being old. Bette Davis gives one of her greatest performances as Margo Channing, a famous stage actress, Margo meets aspiring actress Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), whom has followed Margo's play across the country. She tells Margo and her friends a sad story about being poor and losing her husband in the war. Margo takes to the girl and makes Eve her personal assistant. But Eve is a manipulative schemer and she becomes a big star in the theatrical world, upstaging Margo at every turn. 

Writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz would win his second consecutive Best Screenplay and Best Director Oscars for All About Eve (He won both the previous year for A Letter to Three Wives) and the film would win Best Picture. It was nominated for 14 Oscars, a record only matched by Titanic. George Sanders would win Best Supporting Actor for his sardonic turn as theatre critic Addison DeWitt. In a case of life imitating art, Davis and Baxter would both be nominated for Best Actress. They would cancel each other out and the Oscar went to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday.

Mankiewicz's script is one of the best ever written, balancing humour and drama flawlessly. The film would also mark an early appearance of an actress by the name of Marilyn Monroe.

Ace in the Hole

I think this Billy Wilder's most cynical and angry film. Kirk Douglas is brilliant as Chuck Tatum, a disgraced reporter who after his car breaks down in New Mexico, talks his way in to a job at an Albuquerque newspaper. When a man named Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) becomes stuck in a cave collapse while digging for artifacts Tatum sees an opportunity for a story. He manages to prolong Leo's rescue the story eventually becomes a circus sideshow.

While the film wasn't a commercial or critical success upon release it's stature grew over the years. It has become only more relevant in our age of 24/7 news and the ability of the media to make anyone a celebrity. It's ultimately a tragic film about how the human element can be forgotten amongst media coverage. Tatum is a real bastard but Douglas is magnetic in the role, creating one of the great cinematic anti-heroes.    

 In A Lonely Place

In Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place, Humphrey Bogart gives perhaps his greatest performance, a haunted and visceral depiction of rage and heartbreak. Bogart plays screenwriter Dixon "Dix" Steele who is assigned to adapt a novel. At a nightclub the coat check girl Mildred (Martha Stewart) is reading the novel. Dix takes her home so she can explain the book to him. Dix's new neighbour Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame) sees him and Mildred coming home. Dix gives Mildred cab fare home after she explains the novel. The next morning Mildred is found dead. Dix is taken in to the police station. He gets Laurel to explain that Mildred left Dix's alive. Dix and Laurel- an actress- soon fall in love and Dix begins to write more.

However, Dix has severe anger problems and Laurel begins to suspect that Dix actually did kill Mildred. But at its core the film isn't really a whodunit. It's about a man who can't escape his own violent impulses and how he ultimately pushes away the woman he loves. It remains one of the darkest films about Hollywood ever made. I mentioned Bogart's performance but credit also has to be given to Grahame. She gives Laurel plenty of confidence and allure but then shows her vulnerability as Dix becomes more violent. Grahame and Ray were married at the time of the film's making.

Ray was a filmmaker who blended sensitivity with brutality. Like Elia Kazan, Ray was interested in the realistic psychology of human beings, particularly men. Rebel Without a Cause, Bigger Than Life, On Dangerous Ground and In a Lonely Place are all startling explorations of mentally unbalanced me. For me, In a Lonely Place is Ray's finest achievement as a director in this regard.

 Strangers on a Train

Yes, I'm a really big Hitchcock fan. Strangers on a Train was adapted from Patricia Highsmith's novel of the same name. Highsmith of course was the creator of Tom Ripley, the brilliant psychopath of The Talented Mr. Ripley and subsequent novels. Strangers on a Train another film that explored Hitchcock's favourite theme of the wrong man. Guy Haines is a tennis player who meets a man named Bruno Antony on a train. Bruno recognises Guy and knows about his troubled marriage to Miriam (Laura Elliott). Bruno hates his own father and proposes to Guy the idea of a murder swap. Two people murder someone for each other, thus there's no motive for the crimes. Guy thinks Bruno is joking and plays along but Bruno thinks Guy is agreeing the plan. Bruno kills Miriam, which makes Guy a suspect. Now Bruno wants Guy to murder Bruno's father.

Bruno is one of Hitchcock's great villains, someone that is both to be pitied but who is also frightening. What makes Bruno so sinister how sincere and friendly he seems. Walker never plays Bruno as a villain. Sadly Walker would die shortly after the film was released at the age of 32- this was due to an adverse reaction to prescription drugs.

Granger, whom Hitchcock had previously cast in Rope (1948) brings both sensitivity and darkness to his portrayal of Guy. While Guy is innocent of murder we see he's not too far from being pushed over the edge.

The film is full of vintage Hitchcock visuals. The most famous is the murder of Miriam seen through her glasses on the ground. Then there's the shot of Bruno amongst the audience watching the tennis match. Everyone's heads are going back and forth but Bruno is staring at Guy. Hitchcock made it all look effortless which is why I think he was often unfortunately seen as merely an entertainer but not an artist.

The Wrong Man

Oh my God, I know, another Hitchcock. The 50s was a great period Hitchcock. It makes sense that Hitchcock would eventually make a film entitled The Wrong Man. As I've mentioned before it was a theme he returned to frequently. In the case of this film Hitchcock was inspired by a true story. Christopher "Manny" Balestero (Henry Fonda) is a New York club jazz player. He and his wife Rose (Vera Miles) are having money problems but they are very much in love. When Manny goes in the insurance office to take out a loan he is falsely identified as the man who twice had held up the office. The police have Manny walk in to a deli and liqour store, both which had also robbed. The owners- like the clerks at the insurance office- identify Manny. Manny being falsely accused weighs heavily on Rose. She blames herself for Manny's arrest and suffers a nervous breakdown.

I would argue The Wrong Man is Hitchcock's most serious-minded film, particularly in regards to its exploration of the wrong man theme. While he had used this this conceit as the launching point of twisty thrillers, here Hitchcock treats it with a sober sense of realism. The film- with the exception of Fonda's casting- is very un-hollywood. Hitchcock even filmed on actual locations, including an actual prison for the scene where Manny is locked up.

While Fonda's casting is a case of white-washing, it works because of Fond's noble and upright image. Seeing Fonda treated so ignobly adds to the film's power. Miles is devastating as she shows us Rose's breakdown. Rose eventually recovered and she, Manny and their children moved to Florida. Miles was to play Madeline in Vertigo but she became pregnant. Hitchcock would cast her again as Lila Crane in Psycho, a role she would reprise in the 1983 sequel.

The Wrong Man remains one Hitchcock's most undervalued works in many respects- and one his most mature as well.

Paths of Glory

I don't know if there's a more harrowing anti-war film than Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory. One of Kubrick's earlier films, it shows that Kubrick was already a master of camera movement and composition. Kirk Douglas- already a Hollywood heavyweight- put a lot of faith in Kubrick as a director. Douglas gives a sturdy and impassioned performance as Colonel Dax, whom defends three soldiers accused of cowardice during Word War 1 in France. The commanding generals sent the troops to take hold of a German position. It's essentially a suicide mission but they still decide three men must be punished. While Dax pleads for mercy, the three men are executed.

The film is full of righteous anger and Dax's outburst at General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) is one of the most powerful pieces of acting I've ever seen in a movie. Looking back at Ace in the Hole and Paths of Glory it's a shame Douglas wasn't nominated Oscar nominated for either performance. 

This feels like Kubrick's most cynical film. Kubrick is often seen as a cold, emotionless filmmaker who hated humanity. However, Paths of Glory is a deeply humane film that shows us the goodness along with the cruelty of humankind. I believe Paths of Glory was Kubrick's first masterpiece and his most emotionally affecting film.

Anatomy of a Murder 

Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder is considered to be a very accurate depiction of the justice system. Made two years after 12 Angry Men and Witness For The Prosecution, it may be the best courtroom drama ever made. I don't know if any film in the genre has surpassed it.

The film is based on a novel by John D. Voelker (writing under the pen name Robert Traver) who was a Michigan Supreme Court Judge, and inspired by a trial in which Voelker was the defence attorney. Jimmy Stewart plays small-town lawyer Paul Biegler who lost the re-election bid for District Attorney. Biegler becomes the defence attorney for Lieutenant Frederick "Manny" Manion (Ben Gazzara), who murdered innkeeper Bernard "Barney" Quill, whom Manny says raped his wife Laura (Lee Remick). Biegler plans his defence around Mannie being temporarily insane. 

George C. Scott plays Claude Dancer, who has been brought in to help the prosecution. Scott's performance is perhaps the most vicious and smug depiction of a lawyer on film. Both Scott and Stewart would be Oscar nominated for their performances- Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor respectively- though Hugh Griffith and Charlton Heston would win in those respective categories for their performances in Ben-Hur.

What I admire about Anatomy of a Murder is it has no heroes. Biegler is manipulative and twists the facts to fit his case. In this regard Anatomy of a Murder is the most unsentimental honest depiction of the trial system. For Biegler and Dancer it's all about winning.

Ruthless material like this needs a ruthless director, which is why Preminger, who was known for being notoriously rough on actors, was perfect. Wendell Mayes' screenplay balances the personal scenes with the courtroom scenes, giving enough weight to both arenas. The film was very controversial for its frank discussion of rape and the use of the word "panties." While this dialogue is tame by today's standards, the film was an important taboo breaking landmark.

Some other favourites: The 400 Blows, The Band Wagon, Roman Holiday, Sabrina, Seven Samurai, Smiles of a Summer's Night Some Like It Hot.

    

The Essential Films: "Rear Window" (1954)

The Essential Films: A Series of Writings on Films that I feel are essential viewings for film lovers, coupled with films that are personal to me.

Spoilers Ahead

Rear Window is probably my favourite film of Alfred Hitchcock's. It takes a concept that sounds like it'd be the most uncinematic of movies, a man stuck in his apartment spying on his neighbours, and makes it in to an ultimate cinematic experience- and like Vertigo, it's a perfect metaphor for the way we watch movies, how movies represent a form of voyeurism that is supposed to make us a feel innocent. By calling attention to movies as voyeurism, Hitchcock shows us that we, as we're sitting down in a movie theatre, are not as innocent as we think we are.

In Vertigo, we, just like Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart), become obsessed with the image of Madeline Elster (Kim Novak), and become accomplices in Scottie's makeover of Judy (Novak again) in to his dream image. She represents the  woman we see in a film who we know we can never have but pursue relentlessly, like a lovesick puppy- except that puppy is chasing it's own tail. Not many people can live up that image we have of them on screen. Even Cary Grant once remarked, "Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant." Madeline was always an image, something Scottie couldn't grasp until it was too late, after he was already swallowed up by his obsession.

Rear Window is also about a man obsessed with the images of others. In the film, photographer  L.B. "Jeff " Jeffries (Stewart again) is stuck in his apartment after breaking his leg while taking photographs in the middle of a race track. He has nothing to do but look out his window and spy on his neighbours. He soons becomes suspicious of the salesman Lars Thorwold (Raymond Burr) after seeing him make numerous trips out of the apartment one night. He starts to believe Thorwold murdered his invalid wife. Like Jeff, we too become obsessed with the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Thorwold's wife, as well as with the lives of the other neighbours. The film is not only a metaphor for our fascination with the private lives of people in movies but in ourr fascination in the private lives of people in real life as well- even they're bored and sad people. One of the people Jeff sees in a woman he calls "Miss Lonelyhearts"- a woman who pretends to have dinner with a man. As she raises a glass to her imaginary beau, Jeff raises a glass. It's an achingly poignant scene and one that I relate to on a personal level. I also like how it shows Jeff's compassion towards her, that he does care about these people on some level.

Hitchcock's films, even when they had high concept premises such as this, always were able to ground themselves with nice character relationships that give the characters texture and personality. The emotional centre of this film is probably the relationship between Jeff and his high society girlfriend Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly). I like that the main conflict in their relationship is Jeff feels she's too perfect for him. As a photographer who travels around the world, Jeff needs someone who can live the kind of life that requires you to get dirty, to live out of a suitcase and, according to Jeff, eat food you wouldn't be able to look at when it was alive. When he looks at Lisa, he sees a woman who belongs at fancy restaurants and parties. We see Jeff's point but also see that Lisa does care about Jeff and is intelligent enough to make her own decisions. We also sense a inner strength, which Hitchcock shows us later on when Lisa starts to believe and support Jeff's suspicions about Thorwold. And when Lisa sneaks in to Thorwold's apartment to leave a note, when she comes back, Jeff's face, full of pride, says it all.

James Stewart was, and I think still is, the quintiessential "everyman" actor, someone who, despite being a movie star, you could relate to and feel represented the values of normal people. That was there in the films he did for Frank Capra, Mr Smith Goes to Washington and It's a Wonderful Life. It's a persona that also fit perfectly in to Hitchcock's universe, which would frequently involve normal people caught up in extraoridinary circumstances. By having Stewart play Jeff, we get involved with his obsession and investigation him because we feel we are him on some level. I think that's one of the keys to Hitchcock's greatness- his films exist in a heightened reality but are populated by characters that feel real. I just rewatched The Birds and that film, while being an almost apocalyptic story about birds waging war on humans, is at its heart a character drama about two women, a mother and the woman her son may love, learning to co-exist. I like Thelma Ritter as Jeff's nurse Stella. She feels like the most wise character in the film and acts as a confidente for Jeff in certain scenes. I also like how she, along with Lisa do come to believe Jeff. Even his detective friend Tom Doyle (Wendell Corey) at first sees some validity in Jeff's suspicions. This is a nice change of pace from
the type of movie where absolutely no one would believe Jeff. Again, this helps make the characters feel more realistic. It's not just a movie one smart man (Jeff) and some not so bright people.
It's really impressive how Hitchcock, like Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Synechode New York, essentially creates an entire universe out of one set- a play with multiple little stories going on at once. Mostly everything is seen from Jeff's perspective, which puts us in his mind and allows us to put our own meaning on what we see- much like he does. In typical Hitchcock fashion, while there's plently of talky scenes, it's also a very visual film- and we get sucked in to the visual rhythms of looking with Jeff outside his apartment.

A nice detail of the film is how Jeff and Lisa want Mrs. Thorwold to be dead so their suspicions can be confirmed. It's a dark moment when Lisa tells Jeff they should be happy she's alive (after Doyle says Mrs. Thorwold picked up her bags at the train station). It's also a very human moment, especially since we realize we'd be giddy too if we stumbled upon a potential murder. Hitchcock actually uses the murder of Mrs. Thorwold to provide some signature macabre humour. Funnily enough we find ourselves sympathizing with the dog Thorwold kills because it almost uncovered something he buried.

For me, the most powerful scene is when the woman who owned the dog cries out in the middle of the night    "You don't know the meaning of the word 'neighbors'. Neighbors like each other, speak to each other, care if anybody lives or dies! But none of you do!" This scene highlights a central theme of the film, which is the disconnection in society between people. Until this scene, everyone in the courtyard is disconnected from each other, only to be finally  united by this woman's grief. The theme of disconnection is also highlighted by the fact that a murder happened right under everyone's noses and only Jeff noticed. Looking back on the film, I started to think about the story of Kitty Geneovese, the woman was murderd in the early sixties outside her apartment, while her neighbours were not quite sure what was happening or if they should help.

The final confrontation of the film occurs when Thorwold comes in to Jeff's apartment. While seemingly a straightforwars climax, what's striking about it is it's the first time someone other than a friend has come in to Jeff's apartment. Thorwold has turned the tables on Jeff, not just spying Jeff spying on him but violating Jeff's space as well. We've seen Thorwold from a distance for so long- now we see him up close.

In the final scene, we see things have changed: new dog, new paint job for Thorwold's apartment, Miss Lonelyhearts meets the musician in the courtyard- but at the same time you feel life goes on-it has to. Some people feel the need to change but for Lisa, after proving herself adventurous- and as she switches from a foreign travel book to Bazaar- she shows she's quite comfortable being herself.

Hitch, Marty and Chris: Vertigo and Its Spiritual Descendants

Warning: Spoilers for Vertigo, Shutter Island and Inception Follow

In 2010, Leonardo DiCaprio starred in two films that were linked not just by his presence but by their obsession with reality versus dreams, the deconstruction of professionalism through emotional turmoil, the way romantic desire can be twisted by the mind and...obsession. The two films were Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island and Christopher Nolan's Inception. While Comparing the two of them would be fascinating, I'd like to link them back to Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo. Shutter Island and Inception, arguably moreso than the other genres and films they refrence, contain significent thematic similarities to Hitchcock's film.

All three films are essentially mazes crafted by their respective directors, and also by characters in the films. for their protagonists to travel through, reaching an emotional chararis or realization about themeselves. The catch is the characters don't know they're in a maze or think they know what kind of maze they're in. In Vertigo former detective John 'Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart) feels he understands what's happenng every step of the way At first, he believes that Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) just has an active imagination, that his wife Madeline (Kim Novak) couldn't really be possessed by a sprit- but as he learns more about Madeline's great-grandmother Carlotta Valdes, he begins to believe there's something to Elster's story.

What Scottie fails to understand is he's part of  Elster's plan to murder his real wife. The Madeline Scottie follows is just a decoy. Scottie sees what he believes to be Madeline committing suicide from jumpng of the top of a bell tower. What he actually sees is the dead body of the real Madeline Elster. With Scottie a witness, Elster gets away scott free.

Scottie is also part of Hitchcock's maze, which ties the plot and the psychological aspects of the Scottie character together. Htchcock takes Scottie on a journey from a man emotionally detached but curious former detective to a man obsessively in love with Madeline, so in love that he makes over Judy (Novak again), the decoy Madeline, back in to Madeline. Hitchcock eventually leads Scottie to finally overcoming his acrophobia. Hitchcock also brings Scottie to a revelation about his obsessive love for Madeline: it can never be real because Madeline was never real, at least not the one he knew. By makng Judy over all he's done is, like Elster, strip away Judy's identity for a dream. Men, and I speak as one myself, sometimes cling to a fantasy woman rather than something tangiable in front of us. What's disturbing is in Scottie's case the fantasy woman and the real woman are the same. He comes to the realization about his obsession, it's too late to go back- and as Judy falls to her death, for real this time, Scottie loses the real woman he could not love. As Scottie is standing outside the bell tower, he's come out of the maze- what kind of man and what his future holds remains one of the great mysteries of film.

In Vertigo, Scottie is a former detective, spendng most of the film outside of his profession while still taking part in it. In Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a former US Marshall who is a patient at Ashcliffe Hosptal for the Criminally Insane on Shutter Island. His real name is Andrew Laeddis and he went insane after killing his wife Dolores (Michelle Williams) who in turn had murdered their three children.Teddy spends the movie outside of his profession yet taking part in it as well. He has created a reality where he is still a US Marshall and has come to Shutter Island to invetigate the disappearance of a patient named Rachel Solondo (Emily Mortimer).

As with Vertigo, the plot mechanics of Shutter Island are a fabrication. In this case, a fabrication made by Teddy to esccape from his guilt of not helpng his wife who he knew was mentally ill. Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) allows Teddy to play out his fantasy, which also includes Nazi experiements done on the island, so that Teddy can come to realize the truth and come to accept what's he done. Vertgio takes us through what seems like several genres, thriller, mystery, ghot story, gothic romance until it reveals itself to be a character study about obsessive love. Shutter Island travels through film noir, paranoid conspiracy thriller, horror and romance, and, at the top of a lighthouse, reveals itself to be a story about the way film narratives comfort and help us escape from reality. Scorsese creates a tribute to the films he loves and also ties them in to the pyschology of the Teddy character. Teddy has created a world that, uncomforting as it is, is more bearable than the truth.  Horror movies can scare us but they do so in mangeable ways. Film noirs have a cynicism to them but they also have style to burn.

I think the strongest link between Vertigo and Shutter Island are the themes of lost love and trying to reclaim that love through fantasy. Teddy constantly dreams about and imagines Dolores. Part of his illusion is that Dolores died in an apartment fire started by ''Andrew Laeddis," who Teddy is looking for on Shutter Island. Teddy has preserved Dolores the way she was rather than what she became. He preserves her in time like Scottie preserves Madeleine and just as Scottie made over Judy, Teddy has made over his subconscious. Teddy, like Scottie, has to come to the realization, that his love is a fantasy. The real Dolores, and his relationship with her was destroyed when she murdered her children. Teddy has to confront the real woman, not the dream, not the fantasy.

Vertigo and Shutter Island are both about the crumbling of professionalism through romantic desire. Scottie is at first a detached but curious observer but things become more complicated when he falls in love. Teddy's mission, while a fantasy, is complicated by the appearance of Dolores, who feeds in to his paranoia, thus making his fantasy much more dangerous.

A dead wife who appears in the protagonist's dreams is the most humourous connection between Shutter Island and Christopher Nolan's Inception. Nolan has been compared to Stanley Kubrick and drew inspiration from Ridley Scott and Michael Mann for his Batman films. For me, I see him comparisons between him and Hitchcock. Like Hitchcock, Nolan's films exist in a heightened reality. On the surface are films driven by twists and turns, elements that have led Nolan to be labelled a shallow director -"amusing but mechanical"- according to critic Jim Emerson. In his time Hitchcock also seemed to be the victim, I and I think still is, of being labelled shallow.  But, like Hitchcock, beneath Nolan's plot mechanics lie interesting psychological studies of obsession.

I think Inception, out of all Nolan's films, has the strongest thematic links to Hitchcock, which brings me back to the role of the dead wife in the film. Leonardo DiCaprio again has a lost love on his mind. He plays Dom Cobb. He's an extractor, a man who is hired to steal infomation from powerful people. He does this by having an architect build a dream world he and the subject can enter. Once inside Cobb can extract the information needed. Things are complicated by the constant appearance of Cobb's deceased wife Mal (Marion Cotillard).

Cobb and Mal spent 50 years in the dream world known as Limbo. Mal began to lose track of reality, which led Cobb to perform inception on her, convincing her that they needed to kill themselves in order to wake up. Once in the real world Mal still believed she was in a dream world, which led her to suicide. In Vertigo, it was partly Scottie's guilt for what he believed was Madeleine's death that led him to make over Judy in to his lost love. In Inception, it's also guilt that causes Cobb to hold on to the memory of his wife, to create a vision that doesn't blame him for anything, that's preserved in time, even moreso than Madeleine or Dolores. Like Teddy, Cobb has made over his subsconscious, and even stays in it to visit and be with Mal.

Inception is all about mazes. The dream worlds Ariadne (Ellen Page) create for the job to incept Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) are all designed to be mazes- and ultimately the film is a maze that not only the Cobb and his team send Fischer through, but that Nolan sends Cobb through as well. The maze in case requires Cobb to downwards, both literally and metaphorically. "Downwards is the only way forwardss" he says- which speaks for his character arc. To let go of his guilt and the fantasy he clings on to, he must go downwards back to Limbo.

All three films end on the top of a building of somesort. In Vertigo, it's the bell tower, In Shutter Island it's the lighthouse and in Inception the film ends on the top floor of a building in Limbo. In in these places where everything is revealed and the characters reach an emotional catharsis of sorts. It's in this building that Cobb tells Mal

"I can't imagine you with all your complexity, all you perfection, all your imperfection. Look at you. You are just a shade of my real wife. You're the best I can do; but I'm sorry, you are just not good enough"

 Cobb realizes he can't bring back Mal back from the dead. Like Scottie, all he can do is create an image, a fantasy. There are echoes of Andrei Tartovsky's Solaris in Shutter Island and Inception, and Solaris may owe much to Vertigo. All four films are about a romantic desire that's can't be completely fullfilled, how you can never really know who the person you love really is.

Vertigo, Shutter Island and Inception all concern the nature of dreams and their relationship to filmmaking. Much has been made of how we never see how Scottie got down from the roof at the beginning of the film. Is everything after the first scene some kind of dream. The film almost moves like a dream, with plot points that don't make sense and several concidences. The scenes of Scottie following Madeleine also have a dreamy quality to them. Shutter Island's dream sequences evoke different genres, from melodrama to horror, relating to the movie Teddy has crafted for himself in the real world. Inception combines several genres, the heist film, the spy thriller, film noir, sci-fi and even a little bit of Fred Astaire. Nolan does this to emphasize how movies themselves are like dreams.

All three films also involve continous loops, relating to the constant loops films are on- when we rewatch them the characters go through the same motions even if we know the story. Scottie ends the movie standing over an abyss, where he began the film. Cawley compares Teddy to a tape that's on a endless loop. Inception begins with Cobb in Limbo and eventually returns to that scene at the end. Teddy breaks this endless loop by pretending to regress again, making the surgeons perform a lobotomy on him. Cobb makes Saito (Ken Watanabe) realize he's in Limbo, making Saito shoot himself and Cobb to wake up.       

The last shot of Inception is Cobb's totem spinning on the table. The film cuts to black before we know if it topples. Cobb, while happier than Scottie is at the end of Vertigo, is suspended between dreams and reality. We're always suspended between not knowing what is real and what isn't. Are we constantly dreaming? We ultimately have to accept what is given to us- if life is a dream, make it a happy one.

A Daring Experiment in The Macabre: An Essay on Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope"

            This is an essay I wrote for a film class in 2009

                  In 1948, what is arguably Alfred Hitchcock’s most innovative film was released. The film was Rope. The film is based on an English play by Patrick Hamilton entitled Rope’s End. The play and the film are also based on two real life murderers named Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. They were college students who killed for intellectual thrills. In the film Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Farley Granger) kill their friend David Kentley (Dick Hogan) because they feel they are above society’s laws. They hide him in a chest and have a dinner for his friends and relatives in the very apartment where they killed him. This macabre set up is not unlike Mr. Hitchcock yet Rope was a daring experiment for him and everyone involved. Through discussion of the film’s experimental nature, intriguing casting choices, and themes, this essay will argue that Rope, for the audience of its time, would be an exciting and sometimes unsettling film experience.

                 A big part of what makes Rope a daring film is its visual technique. Arthur Laurents, playwright, and the screenwriter of Rope, recalls Mr. Hitchcock telling him his idea for the film: “Right from the beginning he’d tell me he was going to do it as a play and with, I think, nine takes or nine reels, something like that” (“Rope”). Upon watching the film he was bothered by the fact that when the film runs out in the camera, the camera closes in on someone’s back.  When this happens more film is put in and then the camera pulls out from the back (“Rope”). This technique creates the illusion that the film is in one take; aside from a few visible cuts. This adds a play like feel to the film, which is appropriate considering its stage origins. At the same time, this technique does not hinder the film as cinema. What this technique does is allow the story to feel like a play and a film at the same time, creating the atmosphere of a four dimensional play. The audience sometimes feels that they are “on stage” with the characters. This visual technique is daring because the camera movements had to be choreographed in advance. As Mr. Hitchcock recalls in his 1948 essay “My Most Exciting Picture:” “To shoot Rope with stage technique under sound stage conditions but with continuous action called for months of preparation and days of exacting rehearsals. Every movement of the camera and the actors was worked out...” (Gottlieb, 276). 

If anything was to go wrong during the filming of a segment then the entire segment had to be reshot.

                Of course, reviews of the film take note of its innovative visual technique. The best way to understand an audience’s reaction to the film in 1948 is to read reviews from that time. Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, did not give the film a favourable review. In regards to the filming technique he says “one must bluntly observe that the method is neither effective nor does it appear that it could be,” and “[t]he physical limitation of the camera to one approach compels it to stay as an eavesdropper on a lot of dialogue and lots of business that are dull. And the yarn, by the nature of its writing, is largely actionless.”  Still, this review would not necessarily keep audiences away. The mention of the film’s visual technique would be intriguing to a reader not already familiar with this aspect of the film; and even Mr. Crowther says the “Hitchcock camera is not inflexible.” Another reason why a filmgoer would not stay away altogether is Mr. Crowther’s dislike with the elements of the macabre in the story: “Also—and this may be simply a matter of personal taste—the emphasis on the macabre in this small story is frightfully intense.” Depending on whom the reader is this mention of the macabre may sound very exciting.

                A more positive review came from an anonymous writer in Time Magazine. He says of the filming technique that “[i]n photographing the action, Director Hitchcock brought off a tour de force... This Hitchcock stunt also required of the actors a sustained discipline that is fairly new to the screen. The result is quite exciting. Continuous action builds a tension all its own.” Continuing on with the actors he says “[t]he players, too, are keyed unusually high by the intensity and interest of trying something new, so that, although their performances are elementary, they have a vividness and vitality which are rare in current movies.

                These two reviews have contrasting opinions. Mr. Crowther believes the film is not cinematic while Mr. Anonymous believes the film is a tour de force in terms of its visual language. The fact that two reviewers could have differing opinions about one film is an exciting prospect for filmgoers. It suggests that the film can spark arguments about its quality. It will not be a film where everyone either likes or dislikes it. Most importantly, these two reviewers focus on Mr. Hitchcock’s directorial innovation. In fact, even Mr. Hitchcock thought this film was exciting.

Mr. Hitchcock dictated an essay in 1948 entitled “My Most Exciting Picture.” The film discussed in the essay was Rope. He recounts a prop men’s exhaustion while working on this film:

“This,” he announced, “is the damnedest picture I ever worked!”

All of us, including myself, seemed to agree with him.

Yet Rope was probably the most exciting picture I’ve ever directed.  Observers called it “the most revolutionary technique Hollywood had ever seen” (Gottlieb, 276).

It is quite interesting that Hitchcock picked Rope as his most exciting picture up to that time since he already had a strong body of work, including Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and Notorious (1946). The fact that he thought it was his most exciting picture at that time suggests that an audience would be excited as well; especially since Mr. Hitchcock was a director interested in how to manipulate his audience.  

Another reason why this film would be exciting for the audience at the time is the use of Technicolor.  In the essay, Mr. Hitchcock brings up the fact that this was his first film in Technicolor and the role it played in the film:

Technicolor helped but it wasn’t the star of the picture. Rope, incidentally, is the first time I’ve ever directed a Technicolor picture. I never wanted to make a Technicolor picture merely for the sake of using color. I waited until I could find a story in which color could play a dramatic role, and still be muted to a low key. In Rope, sets and costumes are neutralized so that there are no glaring contrasts. The key role played by color in this film is in the background. I insisted that color be used purely as the eye received it (284).

Part of what makes Rope an exciting film is the contrast between its subject matter and its use of Technicolor. The first interior shot in the film, inside Brandon and Phillip’s apartment, is darkened by closed curtains. There are shadows as well, suggesting film noir rather than a Technicolor film. Brandon and Phillip’s jackets are brown and dark blue. The contrast between the subject matter of this film and the use of Technicolor is very effective in showing the audience that Technicolor can be used in films with dark subject matter. At this time Technicolor was used for films that were fantasy or had an epic scope. Dramas were black and white affairs. The use of Technicolor in this film foreshadows how colour would eventually become common in dramatic films, especially with the emergence of Eastman Color in the 1950s.

The marketing of this film emphasizes the authorship of Mr. Hitchcock. In the theatrical trailer the film is called “Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope” when the title is first seen on the screen. This relates to what the auteur theorists thought about some filmmakers, that they were the principal authors of a film; but that is beside the point. This moniker suggests that the people behind the trailer knew Mr. Hitchcock’s name was a huge selling point for the film. The name “Alfred Hitchcock” means excitement and suspense and would suggest that audiences of the time would be excited to see his new film. The trailer shows Brandon and Phillip’s former house master Rupert Cadell (James Stewart) confronting them at the end of the film. In some respects this spoils the film; though the trailer almost seems to be saying that because the director is Alfred Hitchcock the audience will still see the film. Also, the trailer cuts to black as Rupert and Phillip wrestle with a gun while shots are fired. The element of suspense is still there. What is also interesting about the trailer is how it does not reveal the visual technique of the film; almost as if it should be a secret to audiences walking in. If some audience members did not read the reviews or hear anything about this technique, the visual language of the film would be quite shocking.

In the trailer, James Stewart’s name is also emphasized. Mr. Stewart became a frequent collaborator with Mr. Hitchcock, starring in three subsequent films for him; Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and Vertigo (1958). In Rope, similar to Vertigo, Stewart is cast against type as Rupert Cadell. In Brandon and Phillip’s college days he talked about the idea that murder is an art form and only the privileged few should be able to commit murder; the victims being “inferior” individuals. At the party he talks callously of how murder could solve everyday problems; no waiting in line, and so forth. His callous nature towards talking about murder during Brandon and Phillip’s college days leads to the death of David Kentley. Mr. Stewart was known for playing more wholesome and idealistic characters than Rupert Cadell, such as Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939), and George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946). Both films where directed by Frank Capra, who was a more sentimental director than Mr. Hitchcock. In his review for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, New York Times film critic Frank S. Nugent says of Mr. Stewart: “As Jefferson Smith, James Stewart is a joy for this season, if not forever.” Mr. Crowther said of his performance in It’s a Wonderful Life that “[a]s the hero, Mr. Stewart does a warmly appealing job, indicating that he has grown in spiritual stature as well as in talent during the years he was in the war.” Both of these quotes demonstrate the type of actor he was, one of warmth, an actor who epitomized “the good guy”. Rupert is more morally ambiguous than either Jefferson Smith or George Bailey. While he does become a hero figure at the end of the film, he is still partly to blame for David’s death. He did not think what he said would be taken very literally by Brandon and Phillip. Seeing Mr. Stewart in a role like this would have been fascinating and sometimes unsettling to an audience who see him as a more wholesome figure.

Farley Granger, who plays Phillip, played a Russian in The North Star, a film about a Ukrainian village protecting itself from Nazi invasion. In the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers Mr. Granger is compared and contrasted with Gregory Peck. Both made their film debuts in wartime epics “as youthful romantic and Slavic figures;” Peck in Days of Glory (Jacques Tourneur, 1944) and Granger in The North Star (Lewis Milestone, 1943). Mr. Granger is blinded in that film, made into a figure of pity. Granger’s next film was The Purple Heart (Lewis Milestone, 1944). In the film he plays a bomber crew member captured and interrogated by the Japanese. While the IDFF says that unlike Peck, “Granger’s screen persona suggested neither confidence nor the power to lead,” as weak as Phillip is, the casting of Mr. Granger would be a little saddening after seeing him as a hero in a film like The North Star. Phillip is not a romantic figure at all. He is someone who seems powerless in the presence of Brandon. While the audience may pity him, it would not be the same pity as in The North Star, where he is a heroic figure.

The characters of Brandon and Phillip are at the heart of why this film would be unsettling and even controversial. The idea of two people believing they are above moral values is a theme that would have been shocking to audiences; especially if they were familiar with the Leopold and Loeb case. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were two college students who murdered a 14 year old boy named Bobby Franks in order to try to commit the perfect crime and, as Alan M. Dershowitz puts it in his book America on Trial: Inside the Legal Battles that Transformed Our Nation, “to prove their perverse misunderstanding of Nietzsche’s philosophy of the “superman,” who was above all laws so as long as he made no mistake” (256-257). The story of Rope, disturbing by itself, is even more effective with the knowledge that real people actually thought like this.

Rope was actually a film that caught the attention of the censors during the time of its release. In an article from The New York Times Thomas M. Pryor discusses how censors wanted the strangulation at the beginning of the film removed. It’s one of the first images the viewer gets in the film and is quite startling. The fact that the censors wanted it removed suggests the audiences would be shocked by it. The fact that a dead body is in the room at all times would also be unsettling to audiences.

Another element of the film that was controversial was the fact that Brandon and Phillip are gay. Mr. Laurents discusses the subtext of the story and the censoring of it:

Rope really comes from an English play by Patrick Hamilton called Rope’s End. And I thought it was going to be easier than it was to make it American. The trouble was when you translated the English dialogue, it became very homosexual, unintentionally...What was curious to me was Rope is obviously about homosexuals. The word was never mentioned...It was referred to as “it.” They were going to do a picture about “it,” and the actors were “it”... The picture was much more successful in Europe ’cause I suppose in Europe, they were used to “it,” and we weren’t here...At that time, because of thing called “a legion of decency” and the Catholic Church, they had a watchdog of censors. And you had to be careful. There were certain rules... With Rope of course, you could never say that they were “it” (“Rope”).

Rupert was also supposed to be gay and to have had an affair with one of the boys. Mr. Laurents believes Mr. Stewart never had that subtext when playing the character: “He was very good as a detective but he had no relation to those boys at all” (“Rope”).  People may have caught on to the fact that Brandon and Phillip are gay. This would be quite shocking to them at the time, especially since Brandon and Phillip are central characters in the film. What also may have shocked them is, as Mr. Laurent says, that the film is a sophisticated portrayal of two gay men (“Rope”). Fortunately, they are not reduced to stereotypes.

                What made Rope exciting for its time were its experimental nature and the casting against type of James Stewart as the morally ambiguous Rupert Cadell. The themes of killing for intellectual thrills and of homosexuality were also elements that would have shocked audiences. The elements that were exciting for its time are still exciting today. Many of Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers have this quality. Rope is sometimes thought of as a failed experiment but the film is a daring experiment in the macabre if there ever was one.