Hitchcock Time

The Man Who Knew Too Much

My favourite Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and remade in 1956 with Doris Day and James Stewart. The Original starred Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre. I like both versions, the original one has the shoot out scene that’s missing in the newer version.

Impressive 75 minute film. The plot of the story is catchy, a couple, the Banks meet a spy, while vacationing in Switzerland, who whispers a secret of a diplomat’s assassination at London’s Albert Hall to the wife. Now assassins must prevent them from revealing what they know. So they kidnap the couple's kid as a pawn.

Hitchcock rose to fame as a worldwide household name after the release of this film. The song "Whatever will be, will be, Que sera sera" sung by Doris Day is worth listening to. My all time favourite of hers is "The Way We were" check this link to hear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBXMjXD4VGc

Doris Day began her career as a band singer and sang for Columbia Records with more than 650 recordings to her beautiful voice. She was leading actress giving box office hits for more than 15 years and did 39 films from 1948 to 1968.

James Stewart was often paired with leading ladies the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Judy Garland, Margaret Sullavan and of course Doris Day. There are so many Stewart movies I have seen but shall share those some other time.

The climax of the movie has beautiful music composed by Australian composer Arthur Benjamin- Cantata, the Storm Clouds- click on this youtube link to listen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-BR0DPO48U

An awesome suspense film. A must watch.

The Greatest Comic Actor on Skates

The Greatest Comic Actor on Skates!

The Rink

-Directed by Charlie Chaplin and Edward Brewer

So many actors try to showcase their comic side but the one and only one actor who can have your sides aching is Charlie Chaplin.

In The Rink, he plays the role of a waiter who goes to the skating rink during his lunch break and all hell breaks loose! He has been effortlessly hilarious on Skates! I mean how can anybody be comic on skates? But he has done a brilliant job, one of his best silent B& W movies.

Comic Simplicity at its best J

The man with the bushy eyebrows, the bully, and the comic foil to Charlie’s antics is none other than Eric Campbell, who was literally a towering giant at 6 feet 5 inches!!! Charlie Chaplin saw him at a play called Broadway in New York and immediately invited him to sign on their series of comic movies in Hollywood. Unfortunately, Eric met with a car accident that killed him otherwise we would have seen many more scenes of him chasing Charlie through escalators, bending lamp posts to right angles and pulverizing poor Charlie to pieces.

The movie is available for free at Internet Archive or click onto this link

https://archive.org/details/CharlieChaplinsTheRink

ENJOY ! Fun Unlimited J

Olympus Has Fallen

Olympus Has Fallen

-Directed by Antonie Fuqua starring Morgan Freeman and Gerard Butler

For days my husband wanted us to see this movie and we did yesterday night but inspite of the strong star cast, I was highly disappointed with this movie. It had so much of violence that it left a dusty bitter taste in my mouth. Perhaps it reminded me that such attacks can actually happen and news flashes of attacks in Mumbai India, 26^th November 2011 flashed before me.

Any citizen of any nationality is vulnerable to such a threat and be it security head of even the US of A, every country’s national security can be breached.

This movie was a parallel to Die Hard, where Bruce Willis as an all rugged American hero takes on the villains single handedly in the Nakatomi building.

Gerard Butler does well in soft romantic movies at least for me, I loved him in P.S. I love you and Bounty Hunter. It left me wondering why Morgan Freeman signed up for this movie as all he had were very few lines especially that, “ Get me a coffee with half and half, three sugars not in Styrofoam cup but a real mug” was not highly impressive !

As usual Asians are villains as they are born to be nothing but bad evil people with destructive genes!! When can movie Directors show some real stuff, a wake up call  is highly recommended and see the world as it is!

The action stunts in this movie were awesome and even the sets they created of the white house and Capitol building were exact. Many movies always show the huge towering monuments crashing after an earthquake or Tsunamis but this movie shows the Washington monument crack up. Many helicopters and planes crash and the white house is burnt up.

It made me very sad to see this destruction although the movie ends with Alls well that Ends well, I spent a very sleepless night.

The 36 Chambers of Shaolin

The 36 Chambers of Shaolin

-Directed by Liu-Chia Liang for Shaw Brothers Studio. Another of his famous direction is Drunken Master II starring Jackie Chan. 

One of THE martial arts movie that is a favourite with all die hard Kung Fu fans. Surely everyone as a kid has followed the kicks and punches and made Nanchucks at home to follow San Te, the character portrayed by Gordan Liu in this classic martial arts movie.

The movie opens up to the harsh treatment of common people by the Manchu Govt. and rebels standing up for their own rights. San Te, is shown as a strong, fearless boy who has the spunk to fight an evil and arrogant Landlords dominance. The story develops as his family and friends are killed and he escapes in a vegetable basket to the nearby Shaolin Monastery.
Later on, he trains in all of the 35 chambers of Shaolin, shining brilliantly as the strongest of the students to complete all chambers in the shortest time possible. The movie has beautifully depicted the kind of commitment and tough training required of Shaolin students in the monastery.

When San Te is allowed to leave Shaolin, he returns back to his village to help the people in fighting the Manchu regime by learning martial arts.

Check YouTube Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZSJQ_Q_XaA


Gordan Liu’s own parents didn’t want him to learn Kung Fu as they thought people with such skills were arrogant and ungentle. But he was determined to pursue his passion. There are many different types of Kung Fu styles and due to his friend's suggestion Gordan decided to train in the hardest and toughest of Kung- Fu styles called as Hung Gar. So he enrolled in Lau Cham Martial Arts School and rose to stardom by signing 3 year contract with the director Liu Chia Liang.

Recently, Gordan Liu has worked in a Bollywood movie, Chandni Chowk to China (Akshay Kumar Starrar), where he potrays the villain, Hojo.

Check out the Trailer-Chandni Chowk to China https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bnPo5HkyAg

 



  

Romancin' the Rain

Singin’ in the Rain

Directed by Gene Kelly, this musical comedy movie released in 1952, starred Debbie Reynolds (as Kathy), Kelly (as Don Lockwood), Jean Hagen (as Lina Lamont) and Donald O’Connor (as Cosmo). This movie shows the transition of Silent movies into talking movies. Debbie was not a dancer when she filmed this movie and Kelly was harsh to her about her performance. Fred Astaire helped her to learn the dance moves. Later she is quoted saying that her feet were bleeding after practising for the dance song, “Good Morning” with Kelly and O’Connor and that the movie Singin’ in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things in her life!!

I wonder if Donald really got hurt while doing the song, “Make em laugh” and his wall jumps seemed so acrobatic. I encourage my kids not to attempt these stunts even under supervision! Check out YouTube link.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SND3v0i9uhE

Jean is bang on her role as Lina Lamont a dim-wit actress, her nasal twang when she says, “I can’t stand him”, and “Do you think I am dumb or something”, had me cracking up throughout the movie. When the sound clip slips and the voice over is changed, the “No No No and Yes Yes Yes”, scene is hilarious. My younger brother and I loved watching this movie and we kept imitating it over and over again as kids.

Check out the YouTube links.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMzV96LV6Cc

The song Singin in the Rain was choreographed by Gene Kelly himself and this dance sequence has been used and reused by so many dancer composers all over the world. The song “Tip tip tip baarish suru hogayi”, from movie Afsana Pyar ka (Aamir Khan Starrer) just is a rip off from the song Singin’ in the Rain.

 View Gene splashing puddles in this link.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ZYhVpdXbQ

But nothing can ever come close to Gene splashing in the puddles and absolutely enjoying getting drenched in the rain which actually feels like he is drenched so much in Love. Even his move of swinging around the Lamp post as has copied by many dance composers in Bollywood movies.

The cinematographer, Harold Rosson did an awesome job on this song sequence that has such a beautiful flow to it like water cascading down a fall. It is a must watch for people who love the Rain. Check out YouTube Link.

Bollywood actor and Director, Raj Kapoor, also used a rain song sequence in his movie, “Shree 420” (1955) where he romances actress Nargis in the famous song,” Pyaar hua Ikarar hua”, a beautiful redition by Lata Mangeshkar and music composed by Shankar-Jaikishen. Check out YouTube Link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMNh-FGHPss

To me personally, all these rain drenched songs signify the warm feeling that gushes over you when you first fall in love!

Singin' in the Rain

Around the rocks the rugged rascal ran

One of my favorites from the movie Singin’ in the Rain (1952)- directed by Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor, is this song-

"Moses supposes his toeses are Roses,
But Moses supposes Erroneously,
Moses he knowses his toeses aren't roses,
As Moses supposes his toeses to be!

A mose is a mose!
A rose is a rose!
A toes a toes!
Hooptie doodie doodle”.- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tciT9bmCMq8 

Donald O’Connor and Gene Kelly are a riot in this tap number! Check out the YouTube video. Donald’s face is as malleable as he makes the funniest faces.

I wonder how many hours of dance practice Gene and Donald must have put into this number to make it seem so flawless and easy. They are well coordinated and always seem to have fun while dancing. Yep, that’s Gene Kelly for you, who makes dancing fun!

Lights. Camera. Action

When I was a teenager, Turner Classic Movies launched their channel as TNT in India  for the first time and the movies featured here were literally a huge feast for movie lovers like me who until then had largely viewed only Bollywood Hindi movies.

Suddenly the entire idea of watching a movie changed for me as I lapped up great classics like, Casablanca, Dr Zhivago, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Ben-Hur and many others including The West Side story, The Three Musketeers, A Streetcar named Desire, The Alphabet murders, Poltergeist.

Then came the “Gene Kelly “wave and that swept me off my feet.

Day in and out, I hummed and tapped to Gene’s numbers from-Me and my Gal, Anchors Away, On the Town, Summer Stock, An American in Paris and of course, Singin’ in the Rain. I was in love with Gene Kelly as I had never imagined a man could dance as gracefully as a woman without looking effeminate.

Foreword

In love with the Movies

Just as any blogger, when I thought of blogging there were so many things I wanted to write or talk about.

Then I realized that I love movies so much, I mean literally I watch Movies by the dozens. Say in a week I watch at least 2-3 movies that means by the end of the month I have watched like about a dozen of them. This is not to criticize movies but to actually share appreciation for the cinema, the hard work from concept to actual production and the final results of a team work of so many people.

In a movie the only one thing we observe but never really reflect is that the story of the movie was a sweet romance, catchy thriller or full of suspense or violence and how the actors really portrayed that character that somehow clicked within us in some sort of a way.  But in the actual sense there was a script writer who thought of the plot, and characters, the director who visualized the entire movie right from the opening to the grand THE END or happily ever after. And also the costume designers, music directors, choreographers, supporting actors, editors and so on and on.

It seems like movies just mesmerize me, the music, the colours, the scenes, the characters, their clothes, make me lose myself in those stories so much, the era they depict. I always try to reflect why the director showed a particular scene in that way or a particular actor/actress was chosen for that particular role. Although to many people, actors/actresses seem larger than life, I see them as real people who go through everyday situations like us, you know, like,” Hey where did I misplace my toothbrush” or “I am having a real bad hair day sort of days” or “My girlfriend broke up with me today” or “Give me my morning coffee or else!!”

So, this is my attempt to share my love of movies, dramas and theatre to all of you, you who like me are movie lovers or even, maybe, movie critics.