Notable cast/crew: James Stewart as Dr Benjamin McKenna. This was his third of four films with Hitchcock. Doris Day as Josephine Conway McKenna. Daniel Gelin as Louis Bernard. Carolyn Jones as Cindy Fontaine. Costumes by Edith Head. Original Music by Bernard Herrmann.
Running time: 120 minutesDirector: Alfred Hitchcock
MacGuffin: None
Hitchcock cameo: Watching the acrobats
Hitchcock themes:
- Murder
- Blondes
Verdict: This is an okay film, but it's always been hard for me to get into it after having seen the earlier version with Peter Lorre. Outside of Stewart and Day, the rest of the cast is relatively unknown to American audiences. The film won an Academy Award for Best Song for "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)". This is one of the "Five Lost Hitchcocks". In response to fellow filmmaker François Truffaut's assertion that aspects of the remake were by far superior, Hitchcock replied "Let's say the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional."
Bernard Herrmann, the composer, makes an appearance as the conductor of the orchestra at the climax of the film. Herrmann was given the option of composing a new cantata to be performed during the film's climax. However, he found Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds from the original 1934 film to be so well suited to the film that he declined, although he did expand the orchestration and insert several repeats to make the sequence longer.
In one of the most memorable scenes, the plot calls for Louis Bernard to be discovered as "not Moroccan" because he was wearing black makeup. The makeup artists couldn't find a black substance that would come off easily, and so they painted the fingers of James Stewart white, so that he would leave pale streaks on the other man's skin. This idea was suggested by Daniel Gélin who played Bernard.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
Bernard Herrmann, the composer, makes an appearance as the conductor of the orchestra at the climax of the film. Herrmann was given the option of composing a new cantata to be performed during the film's climax. However, he found Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds from the original 1934 film to be so well suited to the film that he declined, although he did expand the orchestration and insert several repeats to make the sequence longer.
In one of the most memorable scenes, the plot calls for Louis Bernard to be discovered as "not Moroccan" because he was wearing black makeup. The makeup artists couldn't find a black substance that would come off easily, and so they painted the fingers of James Stewart white, so that he would leave pale streaks on the other man's skin. This idea was suggested by Daniel Gélin who played Bernard.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
No comments:
Post a Comment