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Marina
Apr 21, 2003, 12:09:12 PM4/21/03
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Hello,
anyone here?
Rich Wagner
Apr 21, 2003, 4:01:10 PM4/21/03
to
Yes, I stopped by to see if anything's new too. For those who don't
watch Hitchcock's earliest films,you might like to read about what
you're missing. I've been writing detailed summaries of the films as I
see them. For those who can find this film, I recommend that you see it
first.
Here's Hitchcock's very first talking picture.
Blackmail" (1929)
As the story begins, radio dispatched agents from
Scotland Yard move in and arrest their suspect. With the aid of sound
effects and signs on doors, you're taken through the suspect
identification and booking process of Scotland Yard in the same way any
silent film would have done.
Then, it's the end of the day-shift and you hear
voices in the locker room and even a conversation when the camera
follows behind two detectives as they're leaving, but you still do not
see them talking. Since many "Silent" films had sound tracks with
talking on them, this is still not the turning point where the film
changes from a moving picture to a talking picture. But when
Detective Frank Webber enters the room where Alice White has been
waiting for him, the movie speaks for the first time as you watch them
talking to each other. As they're leaving, she complains that he's
kept her waiting nearly an hour.
From there, they take a crowded subway into town
and (in a humorous cameo role) Alfred Hitchcock is seated next to them
as an unruly boy runs around pulling on every ones's hat.
The restaurant is also crowded and a very impatient Frank
keeps insisting that they should be waited on immediately. While
waiting, Alice remembers that she's left her gloves at another table and
Frank goes and gets them for her. Later on, these gloves will play a key
role in the story.
While they're waiting, Frank tells Alice that he wants
to go to the movies and when she tells him she doesn't want to go, he
storms off leaving her money to pay the bill. What Frank
doesn't know is that another man has been making a play for Alice and
she's had just about enough of Frank's self-centered ways. The mystery
man shows up right on schedule and he and Alice leave together. A
surprised Frank was ready to go back and see if he's taught Alice a
lesson, but sees her leaving with another man instead.
As the evening ends and Alice is being walked home, the man
mentions to her that they are walking by where he lives. Of course, he
invites her upstairs to see his art studio and after some playful "don't
you trust me?" talk, she agrees. As they're going inside, a man in
the shadows approaches them and talks to the artist who simply tells the
man to leave him alone. Going in, he finds a note from his landlady
about a visitor and as the two climb the stairs to the top floor, the
background music warns of danger. We soon get to see that this is one of
those stairways where you could look down to the ground floor from any
point on the stairs.
In the studio, while he's busy fixing some drinks, Alice
nervously laughs at a clown portrait she sees and playfully asks about
painting a picture. She sees a tutu hanging in the studio and suggests
that he might use her as a model. She changes into the tutu and when
she goes to change back, he playfully hides her clothes. Alice suddenly
becomes very nervous and the sexually aroused man attempts to rape her.
There's a struggle behind the curtain and finding a knife, she kills her
attacker.
Stunned and shaken, Alice walks toward home while flashing neon
lights advertize the nightlife in the city. In a very clever special
effect, the neon cocktail glass sign transforms into an arm holding a
knife and slashing up and down much like the famous scene in Hitchcock's
"Psycho". She arrives home and manages to go upstairs and get into bed
just as her mother is coming to wake her for the start of another day.
The White's home is also the corner store where they
sell cigars, newspapers, etc. and rumors of the murder just two blocks
away was already on the street. At the same time, Frank is at the scene
to investigate the murder and when he discovers one of Alice's gloves,
he instinctively puts the evidence in his coat pocket.
Frank goes to see Alice at the store to confront her about what
he's found, but the store is filled with customers. For privacy, he and
Alice go into the phone booth where he shows her the glove that he's
found at the murder scene. Suddenly, there's a knock on the glass and
someone is asking to use the phone.
It turns out that it's the same man who had talked to
the artist the night before. He snatches the glove out of Franks pocket
while making a comment about how hard he had looked to find that glove
in the dead man's studio. When he shows Frank and Alice that he has the
other glove, they realize that the stranger knows about Alice and the
murder and also knows that Frank has removed evidence from the crime
scene.
With them caught in his trap, the blackmailer begins
to tighten the screws by having Frank first pay for his cigar purchase
and then (in spite of her mother's objections), have Alice fix him some
breakfast in her home.
Meanwhile, back at the station, Scotland Yard is
interviewing the landlady who tells them of the stranger's visit. With
some subtle humor, she gives a description of the man and identifies him
in the photo (Mug) books.
When Scotland Yard calls Frank at the store to tell him the
man's identity and that he had a criminal record, Frank sees a perfect
solution to the problem that certainly should make him look good. He
tells them to send backup because he's caught the suspect at the White's
store. Returning to the dinning room, Frank locks the
door and calls the man by name telling him that that the cops are coming
to arrest him for the murder instead of Alice. But just as the police
arrive, the man jumps through the glass window and the cops and Frank
chase after him.
Running on foot through town, he runs into the museum
and through the Egyptian Exhibit before going onto the roof, climbing to
the top of the glass dome. With nowhere else to go, he turns to reason
with the police but looses his balance and falls through the dome. As
the police look through the hole in the dome, there's the sound of more
glass breaking below and the suspect is dead. While all this
is happening, Alice has gone to Scotland Yard to make a confession about
killing the man who tried to rape her. Since she's well known as Frank
Webber's girlfriend, the desk sargent seemed surprised that she asked to
see the chief inspector and not Frank. After she fills out the forms,
she's taken to the office and finds that Frank was already with the
Chief. A nervous Frank listens as the inspector asks Alice why she
has come to see him and just as she begins to tell him the truth, the
phone rings. While the Chief is on the phone, he motions to Frank and
Alice to leave the room and a very relieved Frank escorts Alice out of
the building. As they are leaving, he has a good laugh with the desk
sargent about how silly it is to think that Alice knows anything about
such things like murder.
watch Hitchcock's earliest films,you might like to read about what
you're missing. I've been writing detailed summaries of the films as I
see them. For those who can find this film, I recommend that you see it
first.
Here's Hitchcock's very first talking picture.
Blackmail" (1929)
As the story begins, radio dispatched agents from
Scotland Yard move in and arrest their suspect. With the aid of sound
effects and signs on doors, you're taken through the suspect
identification and booking process of Scotland Yard in the same way any
silent film would have done.
Then, it's the end of the day-shift and you hear
voices in the locker room and even a conversation when the camera
follows behind two detectives as they're leaving, but you still do not
see them talking. Since many "Silent" films had sound tracks with
talking on them, this is still not the turning point where the film
changes from a moving picture to a talking picture. But when
Detective Frank Webber enters the room where Alice White has been
waiting for him, the movie speaks for the first time as you watch them
talking to each other. As they're leaving, she complains that he's
kept her waiting nearly an hour.
From there, they take a crowded subway into town
and (in a humorous cameo role) Alfred Hitchcock is seated next to them
as an unruly boy runs around pulling on every ones's hat.
The restaurant is also crowded and a very impatient Frank
keeps insisting that they should be waited on immediately. While
waiting, Alice remembers that she's left her gloves at another table and
Frank goes and gets them for her. Later on, these gloves will play a key
role in the story.
While they're waiting, Frank tells Alice that he wants
to go to the movies and when she tells him she doesn't want to go, he
storms off leaving her money to pay the bill. What Frank
doesn't know is that another man has been making a play for Alice and
she's had just about enough of Frank's self-centered ways. The mystery
man shows up right on schedule and he and Alice leave together. A
surprised Frank was ready to go back and see if he's taught Alice a
lesson, but sees her leaving with another man instead.
As the evening ends and Alice is being walked home, the man
mentions to her that they are walking by where he lives. Of course, he
invites her upstairs to see his art studio and after some playful "don't
you trust me?" talk, she agrees. As they're going inside, a man in
the shadows approaches them and talks to the artist who simply tells the
man to leave him alone. Going in, he finds a note from his landlady
about a visitor and as the two climb the stairs to the top floor, the
background music warns of danger. We soon get to see that this is one of
those stairways where you could look down to the ground floor from any
point on the stairs.
In the studio, while he's busy fixing some drinks, Alice
nervously laughs at a clown portrait she sees and playfully asks about
painting a picture. She sees a tutu hanging in the studio and suggests
that he might use her as a model. She changes into the tutu and when
she goes to change back, he playfully hides her clothes. Alice suddenly
becomes very nervous and the sexually aroused man attempts to rape her.
There's a struggle behind the curtain and finding a knife, she kills her
attacker.
Stunned and shaken, Alice walks toward home while flashing neon
lights advertize the nightlife in the city. In a very clever special
effect, the neon cocktail glass sign transforms into an arm holding a
knife and slashing up and down much like the famous scene in Hitchcock's
"Psycho". She arrives home and manages to go upstairs and get into bed
just as her mother is coming to wake her for the start of another day.
The White's home is also the corner store where they
sell cigars, newspapers, etc. and rumors of the murder just two blocks
away was already on the street. At the same time, Frank is at the scene
to investigate the murder and when he discovers one of Alice's gloves,
he instinctively puts the evidence in his coat pocket.
Frank goes to see Alice at the store to confront her about what
he's found, but the store is filled with customers. For privacy, he and
Alice go into the phone booth where he shows her the glove that he's
found at the murder scene. Suddenly, there's a knock on the glass and
someone is asking to use the phone.
It turns out that it's the same man who had talked to
the artist the night before. He snatches the glove out of Franks pocket
while making a comment about how hard he had looked to find that glove
in the dead man's studio. When he shows Frank and Alice that he has the
other glove, they realize that the stranger knows about Alice and the
murder and also knows that Frank has removed evidence from the crime
scene.
With them caught in his trap, the blackmailer begins
to tighten the screws by having Frank first pay for his cigar purchase
and then (in spite of her mother's objections), have Alice fix him some
breakfast in her home.
Meanwhile, back at the station, Scotland Yard is
interviewing the landlady who tells them of the stranger's visit. With
some subtle humor, she gives a description of the man and identifies him
in the photo (Mug) books.
When Scotland Yard calls Frank at the store to tell him the
man's identity and that he had a criminal record, Frank sees a perfect
solution to the problem that certainly should make him look good. He
tells them to send backup because he's caught the suspect at the White's
store. Returning to the dinning room, Frank locks the
door and calls the man by name telling him that that the cops are coming
to arrest him for the murder instead of Alice. But just as the police
arrive, the man jumps through the glass window and the cops and Frank
chase after him.
Running on foot through town, he runs into the museum
and through the Egyptian Exhibit before going onto the roof, climbing to
the top of the glass dome. With nowhere else to go, he turns to reason
with the police but looses his balance and falls through the dome. As
the police look through the hole in the dome, there's the sound of more
glass breaking below and the suspect is dead. While all this
is happening, Alice has gone to Scotland Yard to make a confession about
killing the man who tried to rape her. Since she's well known as Frank
Webber's girlfriend, the desk sargent seemed surprised that she asked to
see the chief inspector and not Frank. After she fills out the forms,
she's taken to the office and finds that Frank was already with the
Chief. A nervous Frank listens as the inspector asks Alice why she
has come to see him and just as she begins to tell him the truth, the
phone rings. While the Chief is on the phone, he motions to Frank and
Alice to leave the room and a very relieved Frank escorts Alice out of
the building. As they are leaving, he has a good laugh with the desk
sargent about how silly it is to think that Alice knows anything about
such things like murder.
Gumball1227
Apr 25, 2003, 3:16:36 AM4/25/03
to
Cosmos
Apr 28, 2003, 6:38:32 AM4/28/03
to
Marina <heyits...@hotmail.com> escribió en el mensaje de noticias
_IUoa.220$Mm5...@news-binary.blueyonder.co.uk...
> Hello,
>
> anyone here?
>
> Hello, how are yoy. I'm a fanatic of cinema of Alfred Hitchcock. Sorry
but, my english is very bud, because i'm spanish
I.'like specially Vertigo
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