Lots of good background info here. Stewart, in his first film for Hitch, is wonderful, as the teacher who gradually sniffs out what is going on. Hitch preempts Birdman, 1917 and Adolescence with his continuous take film. It's the scenes with props you look out for - opening champagne, lighting candles - if any of these things go wrong you ruin the whole ten minute take. Ten? I thought it was twenty? Clearly some of the cover-ups were subtler than I realised (maybe the one cut - to Stewart - is one of them?) You could watch it for the subtly changing backdrop alone.
John Dall, Farley Granger, Edith Evanson (housekeeper), Douglas Dick, Joan Chandler, Cedric Hardwicke and Constance Collier.
'Mouvement perpetuel' by Poulenc is the slightly maddeningly appropriate piano music which Farley Granger is clearly not playing. I've definitely heard it in a black and white film as well, not so long ago...
 |
| Not Hitch. His shape appears somewhat enigmatically as a flashing neon sign later?? |
 |
| Art: Milton Avery 'Girl in White Dress' (1943) |
 |
| Art: Fidelio Ponce de Léon 'Five Women' (1941) sold from Hitchcock collection at Sotheby's 1991 |
No comments:
Post a Comment