Oh happy day! The Edge of the World and The Innocents arrived today! Now I just have to wait for the other 3 that I ordered over the weekend Stanley, what have you done?!

Thank you, tinners.   I'll immediately discount my resentment that you acquired the Hitchcock DVD box set for a a few pounds less than I did!       Just aint funny.  Just aint.   Cackled at the Freudian slip which I didn't know and I'm confident that Hitch would have done the same.

I'm inclined to agree that Vertigo is his masterpiece and I view my DVD copy quite regularly.   The film was released in 1958 and only did fair -to- middling business at the box office.   Ollie, in an earlier thread, made an astute point about audience reaction to the end scene of "North by North West" in the late fifties when it was greeted with an absorbed silence;  and on one of its frequent re-releases in the seventies when audiences roared with laughter at the denoument.   Same thing happened with "Psycho" (1960); total silence as the detective explained transvestism and character transference with all the finesse of a drug -store psychiatrist; but, a dozen years later, the NFT exploded with mirth during this exposition.  It remains a hoot.   

Of course, in its day Vertigo was only considered as an unsettling mystery thriller.   Few people, and I include myself, would have known what necrophilia meant, far less would we have had an understanding of control freakery - an essential part of the Hitchcockian lexicon.    He made a fortune trading on the essential innocence of the age.   The times they were a-changin'.   His ingredients were auto-suggestion, fantasy, sadism, control freakery and irony.   A potent mix.   I trust that you've seen "Notorious" (1947) with its mental abuse of Ingrid Bergman and the mother-control of mature diplomat, Claude Rains; cleverly used again in Strangers on a Train (1951) and Psycho (1960).    The use of melodrama concealing his psychological private demons.  Remarkable story telling.

I'd hazard a guess that 1960 was the year which triggered the loss of innocence and the catchy tunes of pop music covered the subtext of the neuroses of, say, the age of rock - this, or course, requires much closer dissection and analysis - perhaps it has been done and the parade has passed me by!   I do recall several key points in reaching this conclusion.     The Lady Chatterley trial and the widespread gasp of disbelief when the Prosecution asked the Jury (very Hitchcock territory)  "Would you allow your servants to read this book?"    Total innocence and ignorance in the educated upper classes, too.   After the verdict, Foyles had to add trestled tables to supply the demand for the DH Lawrence novel to queues which stretched down the Charing Cross Road.  3/6d each, no more than two copies per customer.    The validity of the Lord Chamberlain's Office in the theatre and cinematic censorship began to be questioned within the Establishment.    Remember that, a few years earlier, we had to take out Theatre Club membership to see "A View From the Bridge" and "Tea & Sympathy" (an innocuous gay undercurrent) at the rightly named Comedy Theatre, Panton Street, W1.    Two cinema versions of Oscar Wilde - Peter Finch in one, Robert Morley, in t'other, were released within weeks of each other.   

Even today, I take my treasured copy of Gillian Freeman's 'The Undergrowth of Literature' (1967), Nelson publishers,off the shelves for enlightenment and a good chortle.   She also scripted the film version of The Leather Boys, circa 1963.   Overseas trips to France were still unusual at the time and I remember asking any posh contacts to acquire copies (banned in this country, of course) of Genet and unexpurgated Andre Gide, published in English translations by the green covered (note the colour) Gorodias (spelling suspect) Press.   In short, I think it was this expansion which finally exploded the innocence of society.   The consequences?  Perhaps the extension of Norman Bates in Psycho to Dennis Nilsen in his Muswell Hill eyrie, graphically described by Brian Masters in 'Killing For Company' (1985)  Jonathan Cape - a postcript by Anthony Storr, of course, albeit, more sophisticated than the crass detective in Psycho.  This would have been manna for Hitch and I've often wondered why this macabre history of horror hasn't been written for TV.   Nilsen is still alive, in prison, and litigious, I gather.   But, in due course...

Mort also mentions her DVD acquisition of Jack Clayton's fine version of The Innocents (1961).   How appropriate.     Cinemagoing was still a widespread habit at the time and I recall having endless spats that the narrative was subjective and told from the repression in the mind of the Governess (Deborah Kerr, first rate).    The score by Auric and the continual buzzing in her mind of the bees and the flies, quite scary.   Innocence on a different plane.  We do enjoy being scared.

Hi, Robert Dahm!        Re Vertigo, I rather suspect that the appearance of the nun in the tower is sheer mischief by Hitchcock.   It's a blatant lift from the climax of "Black Narcissus" (1947)as Deborah Kerr and Kathleen Byron struggle with the bell in the tower.

'Les Parapluies' (1964) is a sheer delight.   One to add to the theme on innocence.   And those pastel colours in the design.   Must get it off my DVD shelves (a remastered two DVD set) as I'm already humming, 'If it takes forever, I will wait for you'.    'Strange how potent cheap music is.'     

Gosh, I'd forgotten about the 'The Pumpkin Eater' until you mentioned it. Is there a scene of Anne Bancroft going to pieces in Harrod's Food Hall, or have I got my memories muddled I seem to remember 'Our Mother's House' as being very dark and unsettling. I love Bogarde. One of my favourite actors.

I was lured into temptation by Stanley and my boxed set of Hitchcock from HMV arrived today.  Wonderfully fast service I must say and only £1.20 per dvd.   Got home and note from Two-Tooth Dai the Postie that he had left the parcel in the dustbin!

So, apologies to Martle for using the 'V' word, it will be Vertigo at the weekend for me I think.

I think I dimly remember OMH with Bogarde and it being unsettling. 

I think this cinema thread could become expensive.

Yet more temptation from info@moviemail-online.co.uk

A high quality selection of film noir:

          The Big Sleep (1946)    Directed by Howard Hawks with Bogie & Bacall in an electric
          partnership.   Raymond Chandler's script peppered with wit and even he didn't understand the
          convoluted plot.   I've been dipping in to his Selected Letters (1981), all week, as I need
          a good laugh and his elegance and mordant humour is a joy.   DVD £5 99    rrp  £15 99

          Double Indemnity (1944)   Adapted from James M Cain's novel by Billy Wilder and Raymond
          Chandler - what a trio!    One of the best.      DVD £5 99      rrp £9  99

          The Maltese Falcon (1941)  Special edition (ie, bonus material)  John Huston directs and
          Bogey, Mary Astor (film buffs will remember her striking beauty and personality in Dodsworth
          (1936) and The Great Lie (1941) with Bette Davis).    Huston's father, Walter, starred opposite
          Astor in Dodsworth and - if you're quick - you'll see him in The Maltese Falcon.   He delivers the
          falcon to Bogie, Sydney Greenstreet, Astor and Peter Lorre.  DVD £10 41 (sic)  rrp £16 99

          Two versions of The Killers - 1946 and 1964 on one DVD.    Hemingway's gripping short story
          of the same name was extended in the screenplay and both versions are worth seeing, although
          my preference would be for the 1946, black & white version, directed by Robert Siodmak, with
          Burt Lancaster & Ava Gardner.
          The 1964 version, directed by Don Siegel, features Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Angie
          Dickinson and Ronald Regan (rather good, too).  DVD £7 99      rrp £12  99

Thanks, offbeat.   Howard Hawks had endless conversations with Raymond Chandler over the tangled plot for The Big Sleep but was always sidelined with "Don't ask me.  I just wrote it."   I, too, relish the film for its acerbic wit; remember the gobbledegook when Bacall phones the police station, changes tack when they reply and starts a juxtaposition, involving Bogie,  "Here, you'd better speak to my father."   In turn, he adds to the confusion by asking the police why they are phoning him.   Fast, slick and very funny.   However, the real sticking point was always; Who killed Eddie Marr?

Coincidentally, I thought of you this morning as our local HMV have the WC Fields box set, in stock, reduced from £80ish to around £30.

A visit to the Youtube website today made me discover a Crown Film Unit production (circa 1950) about the quickly developing BBC Television Service. One of the segments from this film features a rehearsal for a television production of Terence Rattigan's The Winslow Boy, starring Roger Livesey. Here's the link to the four minute film:

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=50kynQCxI7M&feature=related