#3: Psycho (1960)

Director Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” isn’t just The Great Slasher/Haunted House film of all time, it’s also one of the greatest films period. And what’s most remarkable is that though the story of Marion and Norman and Mother is now a full half-century old, there is no movie-lover walking around today too “sophisticated” to be knocked over by it. No matter how many films, horror or otherwise, you might have seen over the course of your post-modern lifetime, if you walk into “Psycho” cold — unaware of Hitchcock’s treasure trove of groundbreaking surprises — your jaw will still hit the floor at the precise moments the then-60 year-old director wanted it to.

And that’s the other thing that’s so impressive and unique, “Psycho” doesn’t look, feel, or perform like a story told by a middle-aged director at the top of his creative game. The films immediately surrounding it, “North By Northwest” “Vertigo” and “The Birds” most certainly do (which isn’t a criticism), but tucked in the middle of those polished, elegant accomplishments is this gritty, low-budget ($807,000), black and white grinder that’s positively bursting with the kind of energy, fresh ideas, and healthy contempt for the rules that you only ever see in audaciously arrogant and talented young directors looking to stake their claim. “Psycho” is the “Reservoir Dogs,” the “Easy Rider,” the “Night of the Living Dead” of its era, but those were all films birthed by first-time directors. Prior to 1960, Hitchcock had helmed over fifty features!   

From the opening Saul Bass titles set to Bernard Hermann’s iconic and immortal score, Hitchcock starts things off with the promise of a high-level energy experience he never breaks, thanks mainly to the fact that what the mischievous master has planned for his unsuspecting audience is one the greatest cinematic mind fucks of all time. (more…)

If you head South on the Hollywood Freeway, there’s a nice-sized mural of Tony Curtis to greet you as you pass under Sunset Boulevard. Why Tony Curtis? Who knows. With so many screen legends available for such an honor, why the man who was born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx in 1925? No doubt there’s a story behind it, but I was always glad this singular honor was there for an actor and movie star who was respected but never seemed appreciated quite enough.

I discovered Tony Curtis as a kid in the ’70s on the Saturday Afternoon Movies. My dad was a fan and everything in the house stopped cold whenever ”Houdini” or “The Great Imposter” aired. As for my sister and I, we loved the somewhat infamous Technicolor swashbuckler “The Black Shield of Falworth.” Back then there was no such thing as home video or cable television, so you watched what was on. One of the advantages of the Vacuum Tube Age was seeing films like these. Unlike the classics, these programmers were most likely cheaper for local television stations to rent so you were exposed to all kinds of terrific films you might not have normally bothered with had all of today’s choices been available.

Janet Leigh and husband Tony Curtis, holding Daughters Kelly Lee and Jamie Lee.

Which isn’t to say Tony Curtis didn’t star in classic films. He most certainly did, and a respectable number of them: “Sweet Smell of Success,” “The Defiant Ones” (incredibly, his only Oscar nomination), “Some Like it Hot,” “Operation Petticoat,” “Spartacus,” and “The Boston Strangler.”

It’s become cliche to make fun of Curtis’s New Yawk accent which popped up occasionally in period films like “Spartacus” and “The Vikings,” (and “Falworth”), but I’m biased and choose to blame the directors. Curtis himself had considerable chops and nowhere did he prove this more than in “Sweet Smell of Success,” where he more than holds his own on screen where many a lesser actor was blown away — next to The Mighty Burt Lancaster.

“Success” would make any list of mine naming the films I re-watch the most. As J.J. Hunsecker, a ruthless columnist who holds court in all the best Manhattan night clubs, Lancaster’s a marvel of passive aggressive evil, but the movie really belongs to Curtis’s Sidney Falco; a sniveling, needy little grasping press agent caught in a trap of his own making. Other than his stunning good looks, Curtis was also known for characters filled with boundless energy and can-do American optimism. Through Falco, Curtis showed us the dark side of those qualities, what can happen when they bump up against the reality of a harsh world. (more…)

This month TCM is running a fascinating series, Shadows of Russia, a history of Russia and the Soviet Union as seen through Hollywood’s lens. If you care about movies and politics, you should check out these movies.

The idea for this series originated with the fine film blogger Self-Styled Siren and the New York Post’s Lou Lumenick. Self-Styled Siren explains how it came about here.

Marlene Dietrich, The Scarlett Empress, 1934.

First up, Josef von Sternberg’s—real name Jonas Sternberg—The Scarlett Empress, 1934, starring Marlene Dietrich as Catherine The Great. Catherine was born to an obscure noblemen of the tiny and dirt poor realm of Anhalt-Zerbst. She was brilliant, precocious and, ah, not too attractive.

Hollywood being Hollywood—thank heavens—rewrites and recasts history in a big way. Marlene Dietrich first appears as an innocent young girl, all blond ringlets—very Shirley Temple. It’s great seeing Dietrich do a virgin: she pouts and poses, melding innocence and nymphomania. (more…)

At first glance that steamy noirish poster might come off as a pretty deceptive piece of advertising for what looks like just another boy meets girl, post-war, studio Christmas film. But bubbling beneath the surface of  “A Holiday Affair” are some pretty heavy themes that give this under-rated classic an unexpected emotional maturity and complexity.

Though only 22 years-old at the time, the heart-stoppingly gorgeous Janet Leigh is superb and mature beyond her years as Connie Ennis, a war widow and single mother who understands that her young son Timmy needs a father even though she’s unwilling to betray the memory of her dead husband by falling in love with someone else.  This is what makes Carl (the always excellent Wendell Corey) a perfect suitor. Buttoned down, bland and safe, Carl’s a good man who will always love and take care of her and Timmy, but Connie doesn’t and will never fall in love with him. 

Enter Steve Mason (Robert Mitchum) to really complicate things. 

Steve’s a devil-may-care drifter working this job and that and in no hurry to save money for a sailboat when — in a pretty effective meet-cute — Connie gets him fired from his job as a toy department sales clerk just a few days from the holidays. A number of believable plot contrivances keep Steve and Connie in regular contact until a potential romance blooms that makes things stickier for Connie than she would like. (more…)