Favorite Films (lists up to participating site members)

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

Yes, Marriott was a delight. "Next train's gone."

The film with Peck and Bergman was called Spellbound. Bergman gets a lot of lecturing from her old professor on the need for her, as a woman, to keep her emotions in check. The ending has the gun turning 180 degrees and shooting its owner (I won't say the name in case anyone reading this hasn't seen it). I don't know whether that had ever been done before, or whether it was Hitchcock's own idea.

[Mayerling]

Hi Jeff

Yes, Marriott was a delight. "Next train's gone."

The film with Peck and Bergman was called Spellbound. Bergman gets a lot of lecturing from her old professor on the need for her, as a woman, to keep her emotions in check. The ending has the gun turning 180 degrees and shooting its owner (I won't say the name in case anyone reading this hasn't seen it). I don't know whether that had ever been done before, or whether it was Hitchcock's own idea.

I have a funny story about "Spellbound" (and thank you for naming that film). It has to do with exactly with your action of withholding the name of the killer. Years ago I was watching the television in my apartment when my sister and I were living with our parents. Lee wanted to see something on the set, and I was watching "Spellbound". It turned out she had seen it. Lee frequently does twisted things when she thinks of it. As she left the room, noting how intently I was watching the film, she said out loud, "Blank Blank is the killer!!" Of course it was "Blank Blank". I did not feel like saying anything polite to her for awhile.

The interesting thing about that business with the gun turning 180 degrees. It was not the performer's hand when the sequence was shot, but a model of the hand holding the gun. Hitchcock explained it to Francois Truffault in the interview book "Hitchcock/Truffault" published in the late 1960s. The hand pivots mechanically, and faces the holder who supposedly fires it to commit suicide. Then there is a momentary splash of red in the film, supposedly blood from the bullet (if you recall "Spellbound", despite the Dali artwork, was a black and white film, so the effect was to be an additional jolt. My own problem with that is that if one fires a shot into one's head, I doubt if the brain will register seeing blood. But then, since the proof is a deadly type of experiment we won't perform, who knows?

Jeff

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

You could have got even by waiting till Columbo was due on, and then telling your sister "I've seen that one. I know how it begins....."

Re the shooting, as is normal with human beings if something can happen, it will happen : a Texas man called Jim Saunders was shot in the head and has had a bullet lodged in his brain for more than thirty years.

[Steadmund Brand]

Mayerling.. wow what a list....I was thinking what I could add to it...the only one I could think of that wasn't there is the BBC version of Rogue Male with Peter O'toole (1976)... I know it is more of a chase film.. but the story is about a man's failed attempt to shoot Hitler...fun film that suprisingly few people remember ( see.. this is a " re-make" that wasn't bad.. because it wasn't a true re-make of Man Hunt ( the Fritz Lang film from the early 40's I believe, can't remember for sure)

Oh how I love this thread!!!


Steadmund Brand

[Robert]

The Cat And The Canary (Bob Hope) was a decent mystery.

[Mayerling]

Hi Jeff

You could have got even by waiting till Columbo was due on, and then telling your sister "I've seen that one. I know how it begins....."

Re the shooting, as is normal with human beings if something can happen, it will happen : a Texas man called Jim Saunders was shot in the head and has had a bullet lodged in his brain for more than thirty years.

Hi Robert,

Re Columbo: Lee moved out of the apartment by the time that series was on television, so I was out of luck with that clever idea you suggested.

The sad death of Leonard Nimoy recently made me aware again of how the many guest stars on that show have passed in recent years, especially the antagonists. Falk himself died (tragically with Altzheimer's) a number of years ago. Among the guest antagonists now gone are (besides Nimoy), Anne Baxter, Ray Milland, Jackie Cooper, Patrick McGoohan (in several great episodes), Robert Culp (likewise in several episodes), Jack Cassidy (not only in several episodes, but also tragicaclly decades ago in a fire), Ricardo Montalban, Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis, Sal Mineo (ironically, himself a murder victim in the series and in real life), Johnny Cash, Ida Lupino, Roddy MacDowell, James Gregory, Richard Kiley, Juliette Mills, Dick Sargent, Nancy Walker, Donald Pleasance, Ruth Gordon, and many others. That's one of the less pleasant aspects of viewing any old film or television series - the memento mori that crops up.

As for the matter of the man who had a bullet in his head for thirty years and lived, the question is - did the bullet improve anything?

Jeff

[Mayerling]

The Cat And The Canary (Bob Hope) was a decent mystery.

And a funny one - Hope was good with both of his co-stars, Paulette Goddard and Willie Best, whom Hope later would say was one of the hardest working comic actors he ever appeared in a film in. I know that actors like Best and Lincoln Perry "Stepp'n Fetchit" are stereotypes, but if you watch them carefully they frequently show more common sense than the supposedly smarter "white folks".

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Mayerling.. wow what a list....I was thinking what I could add to it...the only one I could think of that wasn't there is the BBC version of Rogue Male with Peter O'toole (1976)... I know it is more of a chase film.. but the story is about a man's failed attempt to shoot Hitler...fun film that suprisingly few people remember ( see.. this is a " re-make" that wasn't bad.. because it wasn't a true re-make of Man Hunt ( the Fritz Lang film from the early 40's I believe, can't remember for sure)

Oh how I love this thread!!!


Steadmund Brand

Hi Steadmund,

I never saw the the Peter O'Toole remake, but I loved the 1941 original by Fritz Lang with Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders. It was a very clever idea - and one that (unfortunately) nobody in Europe really thought of doing before 1939. I sometimes wonder if the novel, "The Day of the Jackell" was also influenced by "Rogue Male".

There was also a remake of "The Thirty Nine Steps" that was closer to the actual John Buchan novel than the Hitchcock classic with Robert Donat. The actor Robert Stephens played "Richard Hannay" in it. It too I never saw.

Jeff

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

Yes it is sad when stars we used to watch are no longer with us. It can also be a shock when they age, if you haven't seen them in years. This can happen with pop stars - someone whom you last saw prancing around on TV 40 years ago, gives an interview and it's "oh, no!"

Do you mean Juliet Mills the daughter of John and sister of Hayley? As far as I know, she's still alive.

On the 39 Steps, I think the third version - the one with Robert Powell - was the best one. I'm assuming you meant Powell? Robert Stephens did a Sherlock Holmes film.

[Steadmund Brand]

Hi Jeff

Yes it is sad when stars we used to watch are no longer with us. It can also be a shock when they age, if you haven't seen them in years. This can happen with pop stars - someone whom you last saw prancing around on TV 40 years ago, gives an interview and it's "oh, no!"

Do you mean Juliet Mills the daughter of John and sister of Hayley? As far as I know, she's still alive.

On the 39 Steps, I think the third version - the one with Robert Powell - was the best one. I'm assuming you meant Powell? Robert Stephens did a Sherlock Holmes film.

Ohh it's even more frightening when you find pictures of yourself from years ago then look in a mirror...... happened to me just last week... what a shock.. I felt as if I hadn't really aged but seeing those pics... yikes!!!!

39 Steps--- The 1978 version is great, but I still prefer the 1935 version, I admit I never saw the one made between the 2, in the early 60's i believe.. and I have yet to see the 2008 version, but have heard it's terrible, but I can't judge it.

By the way.. some sad news to pass on, Gregory Walcott, character actor probably best remembered as Pilot Jeff Trent, the star of Ed Woods Plan 9 from Outer Space died on March 20th at the age of 87...Walcott was in over 30 films and 300 TV shows in a career that spanned 5 decades...RIP Mr. Walcott

Steadmund Brand

[Robert]

Hi Stead

That's sad. Another one gone.

I've decided not to die - there's no future in it.

[Mayerling]

Ohh it's even more frightening when you find pictures of yourself from years ago then look in a mirror...... happened to me just last week... what a shock.. I felt as if I hadn't really aged but seeing those pics... yikes!!!!

39 Steps--- The 1978 version is great, but I still prefer the 1935 version, I admit I never saw the one made between the 2, in the early 60's i believe.. and I have yet to see the 2008 version, but have heard it's terrible, but I can't judge it.

By the way.. some sad news to pass on, Gregory Walcott, character actor probably best remembered as Pilot Jeff Trent, the star of Ed Woods Plan 9 from Outer Space died on March 20th at the age of 87...Walcott was in over 30 films and 300 TV shows in a career that spanned 5 decades...RIP Mr. Walcott

Steadmund Brand

Hi Robert and Steadmund,

I'm sorry to hear that one of the last links to Wood's "Masterpiece" (???) has passed on. All I can say (in keeping with that immortal dialogue), "He stopped breathing...and something must have happened!"

Juliet Mills did die about fifteen years or so ago - I was surprised to hear about it at the time. I know Hayley is still alive. Sir John passed on some time back too. I was lucky enough to see Sir John Mills on the Broadway stage in the late 1980s. He was in a production with Peter O'Toole, Amanda Plummer, and Lionel Jeffries of "Pygmalion", playing "Alfred Doolittle".

Jeff

[GUT]

Ohh it's even more frightening when you find pictures of yourself from years ago then look in a mirror...... happened to me just last week... what a shock.. I felt as if I hadn't really aged but seeing those pics... yikes!!!!

39 Steps--- The 1978 version is great, but I still prefer the 1935 version, I admit I never saw the one made between the 2, in the early 60's i believe.. and I have yet to see the 2008 version, but have heard it's terrible, but I can't judge it.

By the way.. some sad news to pass on, Gregory Walcott, character actor probably best remembered as Pilot Jeff Trent, the star of Ed Woods Plan 9 from Outer Space died on March 20th at the age of 87...Walcott was in over 30 films and 300 TV shows in a career that spanned 5 decades...RIP Mr. Walcott

Steadmund Brand

Just imagine the movies they make in movie afterlife.

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

Juliet was doing all right a year ago :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3089724/

http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/television/2014/03/10/juliet-mills-back-nannying-twist?page=full

[GUT]

Hi Jeff

Juliet was doing all right a year ago :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3089724/

http://www.advocate.com/arts-enterta...wist?page=full

hope so, her and Hayley are coming to Aus shortly.