Over the pre-Valentine’s weekend, Tom and I saw one British TV series Season 1, that he borrowed for free from our wonderful local library, one documentary he bought for a nickel from the library, and three films we borrowed from Netflix.
“North by Northwest”: In the ancient days, we used to own a decent collection of movies on videotape. (Remember videotape?) About thirty movies, including the Hitchcock movies “North by Northwest”, “Rear Window”, and “Vertigo”. Sadly, we had to dump the videotapes when DVDs arrived and the machines could only play DVDs.
We got interested in seeing “NBN” again because The Hollywood Reporter recently had an article about villains’ houses, including a large photo of Van Damm’s house in NBN—a super-modern gorgeous house in the style of a Frank Lloyd Wright (but a NOT a FLW). The film’s climax takes place in that house (and outside of the house).
Inspired, we borrowed NBN from Netflix.
Hitch’s wife reportedly chose the jewelry, the handbags (beautiful handbags), and the clothes of Hitch’s women characters. Pictured below is the Kafin bracelet I inherited from my mother. There is Cary Grant’s secretary hurrying on a crowded Manhattan street, taking notes, a Kafin bracelet dangling from her wrist. So, too, Grace Kelly wears a faux-pearl Kafin bracelet in “Rear Window”. She bangs the dangling bauble on a table and the sound track dutifully goes “clunk”.
Kafin bracelets come in all colors (I don’t know why my mother chose green; her color was blue) and don’t come in precious metals and gemstones. But they are uniquely distinctive, detailed, and with the same dangling bauble. And collectible. You need a jeweler’s loupe or a magnifying glass to see the writing on that tiny, tiny tag: Kafin, New York. They were popular in the late Fifties and early Sixties. I was thrilled to wear my own Kafin bracelet while seeing “North by Northwest”. (I have simple tastes.)
NBN and Rear Window have happy endings. Vertigo has a terrible ending—I love the movie but hate the ending. I first saw “Vertigo” as a child on late-night TV—the film scared the hell out of me. I thought I was seeing something supernatural—but Hitch doesn’t do supernatural. He tricks you. It’s a murder mystery,
I’ve seen every film Hitch has made—the three mentioned above, plus “The Birds”, “Marnie”, “To Catch a Thief”, “Psycho”, and “Topaz”.
I think “North by Northwest” is his BEST movie. An exciting score by Bernard Hermann, a perfect blend of suspense-thriller, comedy, and romance wins the day. “Rear Window” takes place in the photographer’s apartment; “Vertigo” takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area. But in NBN Hitch moves his hero all over the place. There are several iconic scenes—the crop duster scene is featured in an advertisement for an expensive watch on one of my magazines today. Cary Grant is hilarious. The film was made 63 years ago, but every scene looks Modern. Highly recommended!
The rest of the movies were a let-down. Tom enjoyed “City of Vice”, Season One, a British TV series (the British do a great job with TV series). It is 1753, the City of London. The city is “a monster”, rife with violence, crime, and bloodshed. The City also has no police force. The premise is that Henry Fielding (the author of Tom Jones and other novels), his blind brilliant brother John (who can recognize 3,000 criminals by their voices alone), and others try to form an informal police force to investigate crimes. (They can’t get funding from the City.) Recommended only for viewers who enjoy bloody violence.
“The Unbearable Weight of Enormous Talent”: features Nicolas Cage playing Nicolas Cage. He is estranged from his family and nearly broke when he meets a filmmaker who wants to reprise all the movies in which Cage has been featured. The result is very funny. Some people dislike Nick Cage as an actor, but we like him fine. (He was excellent in the National Treasure movies.) Recommended for viewers who enjoy Nick Cage and a funny, enjoyable movie.
Then we have “The Lost City”, featuring Sandra Bullock as a successful romance novelist who goes off an adventure that could be in one of her books with her cover model. He wears a blond wig on the covers, but he’s not a really a blond. They have Bullock dressed in a sparkly red jumpsuit. She looks unpleasantly emaciated. Recommended for viewers who like an enjoyable, cute movie.
And last, “The Barbary Coast: Sin, Fire, and Gold”, another excellent documentary by PBS.: The film features the host, Greg Sherwood, and San Francisco historian Daniel Bacon, as they tour sites that survived the Great Earthquake and the Fire: the Old Mint Building, the Flood Building, Portsmouth Square, and Maiden Lane, among others. I know about the Barbary Coast—the more unpleasant features—in my historical research for my novel, The Gilded Age. Recommended for viewers who are interested San Francisco.
Happy Movie Weekend!
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From the author of ODDITIES: 22 Stories is on Kindle worldwide, including in the US, in the UK, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, in the Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil, India, and Japan. ODDITIES: 22 Stories is in Print as a beautiful trade paperback in the US, in UK, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Japan. New! Now in Print in Australia
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