IF YOU HAPPEN to be a Londoner who loves movies, or a movie lover who loves London, you will be, or can be, exactly where you should be starting September 1st. And that is at the BFI Southbank for screenings of Sight and Sound’s Ten Greatest Films of All Time…
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ON THIS DAY in 1172, Henry (“the Young King”), 17-year-old son of King Henry II, married Margaret of France and was crowned King of England. In 1964, he was portrayed by Riggs O’Hara in the film BECKET, directed by Peter Glenville, and starring Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton.
If you spent most of your time watching movies this past week, you might have missed these articles here at Home Projectionist:
- Netflix Streaming Surprises #3 –FEARMAKERS
- RIP Miss Phyllis Diller
- Frank (Langella) Being Frank
- Phyllis Diller and SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS: “Give the little girl a hand”
- Brian DePalma’s DRESSED TO KILL: Dressed Like Hitch
- SUMMERTREE: This looks like a must see…
- A Look Again at DON’T LOOK NOW
- An EXORCIST Playset
- Netflix Streaming Surprises #4 – THE SKEPTIC
- NORTH BY NORTHWEST Passage
- Digital and 35mm Co-Exist at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre
- A painterly Alfred Hitchcock film quiz: “Could it be an overpowering interest in art?”
- It’s a Wonderful High Noon: Similarities between two American classics
- Add IMDb Lists to Your List
- Library of Congress Bunker Houses 100 Years of Film History
- REEL HISTORY Archive
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ON THIS DAY in 1429, Joan of Arc, patron saint of France, marched triumphantly into Paris during the Hundred Years War. In 1957, Otto Preminger’s film, SAINT JOAN, starring Jean Seberg and adapted from a George Bernard Shaw play, told the story of this and other events in her life.
ON THIS DAY in 1758, King Frederick the Great’s Prussian army defeated Russian troops at the Battle of Zorndorf during the Seven Years War. Segments of Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 film, BARRY LYNDON, with Ryan O’Neal, were set against this conflict.
A WESTERN set in the 1800s would seem to have little or nothing in common with a Christmas movie set in the 1940s. One is about a dangerous outlaw seeking revenge on the sheriff who sent him to jail. And the other is about an angel getting his wings. So I would have thought up until last Monday night. That’s when I saw–for only the second time in my life–HIGH NOON, the 1951 Fred Zinnemann classic, and began comparing the two films (as well as realizing I was surely not the first moviegoer to do so).
Maybe it was the appearance of character actor Thomas Mitchell (playing a trusted friend in both films) early on that made me think of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Or maybe it was seeing a happy couple having their wedding day abruptly interrupted. In NOON’s case, the imminent run-in with a dangerous outlaw; in LIFE’s case, a dangerous run on George Bailey’s father’s bank. A curious coincidence. But then there are other similarities–some more obvious than others–between the two.
The hero is an American everyman. A man with ideals, character, and dreams–dreams of romance with a lovely, wholesome woman (Grace Kelly–a Quaker; and Donna Reed), unhappy with his life in the small town.
Good evening. A great many of Hitchcock’s characters had brushes with death. Jimmy Stewart, for example, was asked, somewhat unkindly, to exit his apartment via the REAR WINDOW. Which, unfortunately for him, was not at ground level. But sometimes Hitch’s protagonists were more concerned about paint brushes than the art of survival. This quiz will test your knowledge of the art of Alfred Hitchcock. Specifically, the artful works contained within his films.
Good luck, Mr. Thornhill, wherever you are…
Take the Quiz!(*The quiz title was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest: “Something wrong with your eyes?” “Yes”, says the sunglass-clad Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant), “They’re sensitive to questions”. At an art auction, Vandamm (James Mason) asks Roger about the purpose of his visit: “Could it be an overpowering interest in art?”)
ON THIS DAY in 1944, General Patton’s Third Army joined French forces to begin the Liberation of Paris. The 1965 film, IS PARIS BURNING?—with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Orson Welles, and a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Gore Vidal—documented this event.
Artist Andrew DeGraff is a fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 film, NORTH BY NORTHWEST. He’s also a terrific artist, as is evident with his detailed, graphic homage to Hitch’s masterpiece. DeGraff:
I’ve loved “North by Northwest” since the first time I saw it – the visuals, the music, the tiny razor gags, but most of all, the urban/rural scene hopping, from New York, to Chicago, to South Dakota. So – I thought I’d throw together a sort of scenic chart of all the actual locations in the movie – the only fictional one being the Northwest Airlines terminal, which no longer exists and I couldn’t find reference for (but for “North by Northwest”, I figured I’d take a little liberty).
Also not included are the 1212 Michigan Ave Auction house and the hospital in Rapid City, as they were shot on soundstage in Hollywood. Even with that, it was a bit of a beast.
Lots of research, lots of windows . . . The cars are also accurate from the initial 57 Skoda 440 cab to the ’51 White Freightliner the plane crashes into, to the ’52 Ford Customline Cary Grant rescues the girl in. I took color from the footage to get some of that “technicolor” feel, and blatantly ripped off Saul Bass’ opening credit arrows to show the action.
As a big fan of the movie myself, of course, I’ve taken the liberty of identifying the locations DeGraff has so beautifully and painstakingly illustrated. Be sure to check out some of his other, excellent work here.
- CIT Building, 650 Madison Ave., New York City
- Plaza Hotel, 5th at 59th, NY
- Townsend Mansion (Old Westbury Gardens), Long Island
- Glen Cove, NY, police station
- Plaza Hotel
- United Nations Building, NY
- Grand Central Station, NY
- LaSalle Street Station (414 S LaSalle St.), Chicago
- Prairie Stop, along US Hwy. 41 (actually Bakersfield, CA), central Indiana
- Ambassador East Hotel, 1301 N State Pkwy., Chicago
- Chicago Midway Airport, Northwest Airlines terminal
- Mt. Rushmore National Memorial Visitor Center, Rapid City, SD
- Area near Mt. Rushmore
- Vandamm residence (actually a movie set) near Rapid City
- Mt. Rushmore
- 20th Century Limited to New York City
ON THIS DAY in 79 A.D. (the feast day of Vulcan, Roman god of fire), Italy’s Mount Vesuvius began erupting, eventually leading to the destruction of the city of Pompeii. In 1959, THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII, starring Steve Reeves, and written by Sergio Leone, documented the events.
ON THIS DAY in 1952, the notorious penal colony of French Guiana (Devil’s Island)-in operation since 1852-was permanently closed. The 1973 film, PAPILLON, with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, was based on the book of the same name, written by a Devil’s Island prisoner’s memoir.
If you’re a film fan in New York City–particularly a fan of Alfred Hitchcock–you’ll want to be at Tribeca 92/Y, 2012 92nd Street, tonight for the next installment of the “Bastards of Hitch” program. It’s the last in their series exploring films were by works of the great Master of Suspense.
During August, Tribeca 92/Y has screened Jonathan Demme’s Hitchockian-themed THE LAST EMBRACE, Nicholas Roeg’s mysterious DON’T LOOK NOW and title designer Saul Bass’ PHASE IV. Tonight it’s Brian DePalma’s DRESSED TO KILL (1980).
I think many people might choose DON’T LOOK NOW as the best among the MUBI-sponsored series. But this DePalma film, along with DePalma’s Vertigo-esque OBSESSION, are my two favorite, Hitch-like efforts. DRESSED TO KILL, while it couldn’t quite be mistaken as being directed by Hitch himself, comes very close. Cast as the cool blonde, Angie Dickinson has the same, icy-yet-smoldering sensuality of Kim Novak, while Michael Caine, like Joseph Cotten in SHADOW OF A DOUBT or Robert Walker in STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, has just enough edge to his character to make you wonder if he could be a tiny bit off-center.
DePalma’s superb, tour-de-force museum sequence is a highlight of this very disturbing and scary film–a film that is to elevators what PSYCHO is to showers. 
Actor Frank Langella (GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, many more) says he’s had “a life like a Chekhov play”. He has many stories to tell about his co-stars in a well-reviewed new biography, Dropped Names. (“Rita Hayworth dancing by candlelight in a small Mexican village; Elizabeth Taylor devouring homemade pasta and tenderly wrapping him in her pashmina scarf; streaking for Sir Laurence Olivier in a drafty English castle; terrifying a dozing Jackie Onassis; carrying an unconscious Montgomery Clift to safety on a dark New York City street.”) He also appears in a new film with, of all things, a robot.
Frank was just interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air program. My favorite Langella film, without a doubt, is Mel Brooks’ THE TWELVE CHAIRS. Highly recommended.
ON THIS DAY in 1942, the Battle of the Tenaru, between U.S. Marines and the Japanese army, took place on Guadalcanal Island. The confrontation was featured in episode 1 of the 2010 Steven Spielberg mini-series, THE PACIFIC.
ON THIS DAY in 1940, Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded after being struck with an axe by a Soviet government assassin. The 1972 Joseph Losey film, THE ASSASSINATION OF TROTSKY, with Richard Burton, depicted this event.
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