HITCH

Having just seen Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren in Hitchcock I have to admit that I left the cinema feeling somewhat underwhelmed. Portraying such a well known character like Hitchcock is clearly a tough task for any actor. Hitch himself of course was well known for appearing in his own movies but there have been surprisingly few portrayals of the great man. You would think that he would be easily mimicked as he was frequently on the small screen and cut a distinctive figure, but not so. Here are the faces of Hitchcock as played by others.

Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock

Homer Simpson as Alfred Hitchcock

Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock

Roger Ashton Griffith as Alfred Hitchcock

Raymond McNally as Alfred Hitchcock

The Man Himself

MY HIT LIST: RKO RADIO PICTURES

http://youtu.be/_VNnsepByso

http://youtu.be/CqwIFr4N91A

'AN RKO RADIO PICTURE', how I loved to see that message at the start of a movie, accompanied by the Morse code and expanding radio transmissions, or the silky art deco version or the plethora of subtle variations on the theme. I'm not going to go into a history or story of the company, just talk about how much I loved the movies they made. This was a label not as glamorous as MGM, not as gritty as Warner Brothers, not as famous as Paramount or 20th Century Fox but when one looks at some of the films associated with RKO there are an incredible amount of seminal and notable films.

Including two of the most famous movies ever released King Kong and Citizen Kane

http://youtu.be/_CSLN23h3Lo

King Kong

Cimmaron-The first western to win the Academy award for best picture

King Kong-one of the most iconic movies of all time

Top Hat- a classic Hollywood musical

Bringing up Baby-the benchmark of screwball comedy

Room Service-Classic Marx Brothers

The Hunchback of Notre Dame-yet to be bettered

Stranger on the Third Floor-Widely recognised as the first true Film Noir

Suspicion and Notorious-Hitchcock on great form

Cat People and I walked with a Zombie-seminal horror/Noir

Out of The Past and They live by night-Noir milestones

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon-integral to the Western movie cannon

http://youtu.be/pqz2rekeYMc

Citizen Kane

As distributor RKO bought us such genuine classics as

Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Bambi and Dumbo, Citizen Kane,The Best Years of our lives, It's a Wonderful life and Rashomon

http://youtu.be/IELMoOcSKf8

the best years of our lives

RKO movies had a certain feel, they were generally not too long and often featured Hollywood outsiders.It was in existense in it's full form mfor just thirty years which makes the list of movies all the more impressive.

Kings of the B movie, Champions of Film Noir, Art Deco dance masters, RKO was a great Company and I can remember settling into my chair at the sight of those three letters knowing I was in for a a movie that would be many things but always watchable.

http://youtu.be/KIcl_OcpXTc

Room Service

As Orson Welles said when commenting on the RKO design as his "favorite among the old logos, not just because it was so often a reliable portent. ... It reminds us to listen."

http://youtu.be/o-EkAb1h2OM

bringing up Baby

http://youtu.be/7CM4QIebC0A

http://youtu.be/8aav_jlinVw

http://youtu.be/1w5J_IQl8jk

FILM STUFF:Cary Grant's Suit

The suit in North by North West: pure style

Mad Men anyone? 

Roger Thornhill advertising Executive- a cut above

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub98bHdoFWI

MY HIT LIST #52 Arbogast gets it in PSYCHO

Psycho is truly a phenomenal movie. It's trademark sequence, that has gone down in film history, is the shower scene. Seen a myriad of times, rightly celebrated and studied. However, the scene where Martin Balsam's Private Detective Arbogast enter the Bates House is a masterful piece of cinema and has always been in the shadow of Janet Leigh's shower death.

From the slow suspense of climbing the stairs, the use of music, the overhead shot, the door slowly opening, Norman Bates brisk yet unrushed approach, the angle of Arbogast's fall downwards, and the surreal plummet to the raised and falling blade, this scene is a masterpiece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvPqSRLO5Ms
Arbogast