tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post398928024196610324..comments2024-03-28T10:31:55.774-07:00Comments on The Passing Tramp: On the Occasion of Hitch's 123rd birthday: Mending the Reputation of "Torn Curtain" (1966): The Passing Tramphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-86278771712846187942022-09-21T21:53:54.102-07:002022-09-21T21:53:54.102-07:00Whoops! Yeah, Landau would be North b Northwest l...Whoops! Yeah, Landau would be North b Northwest lol. Both great actors! And thank you!!The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-78228137073054669372022-09-20T13:46:36.237-07:002022-09-20T13:46:36.237-07:00A slight error in your article, Curt, when you men...A slight error in your article, Curt, when you mention Martin Landau being pushed or falling down a stairway in Psycho....I think you meant to say Martin Balsam, playing the interestingly named character Arbogast who enters the Bates mansion and meets his death precipitately soon after! Thanks for your spirited and intelligent recap of Torn Curtain. You illustrate its defects and shortcomings very persuasively, along with its Hitchcockian virtues. You inspire me to watch it again.DouglasWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17079605686794757280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-55450560040778552612022-08-14T12:49:44.811-07:002022-08-14T12:49:44.811-07:00I haven't seen A Double Like. It sounds good. ...I haven't seen A Double Like. It sounds good. <br />Hitch first proposed Grant as Hamlet in the 1940s, when it was just about feasible, but he tried to persuade Grant again years later - when Grant was in his sixties and firmly retired.<br />I'd think Hamlet is probably the most difficult Shakespeare tragedy to update Lear, MacBeth and Othello all have definite themes and strong plots, whereas Hamlet is about plots which don't come about. I wonder if Hitchcock or Grant had seen The Bad Sleep Well, which turns Hamlet into a noir.<br />Max Beerbohm in his dramatic criticism referred to the ability of drama and actors to "illude" - to persuade us to accept something which is manifestly untrue. In his later films Grant actually does a good job of illuding us: the big challenge to the belief that he's a young romantic lead - as with the actors made to look younger in The Irishman - is in his movements.Roger Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11012987757094423896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-68668192566296369282022-08-14T12:30:54.258-07:002022-08-14T12:30:54.258-07:00I never heard of that one, Roger, maybe it would h...I never heard of that one, Roger, maybe it would have been like that Ronald Colman film, A Double Life!The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-40164777564092181042022-08-14T12:29:24.784-07:002022-08-14T12:29:24.784-07:00I'm glad you mentioned the Bernard Herrmann ep...I'm glad you mentioned the Bernard Herrmann episode, because though this blog piece is 2500 words, I left out some things, like that! That's another thing the film gets faulted for and I have to say I have heard the opening credits theme Herrmann and it's very memorable. That discordant blaring: Da-dah, da-dah, da-da-dah! By the way, the opening credits are really compellingly filmed, with those fires and the distorted faces from the film.<br /><br />I heard it Addison score the other day and I don't recall it at all. The credits theme wasn't bad, just not as memorable. But I suppose, ironically, it was more "commercial," which was want the studio wanted. Addison had won the score Oscar for Tom Jones. I also saw that he wrote the score for A Bridge too Far, which I certainly remember, having seen that as a kid and long loving Elgar so much. And he wrote the theme for Murder She Wrote! Not surprised he won an Emmy for that. I see he also got an Oscar nomination for Sleuth, so he definitely contributed to the mystery genre like Herrmann.<br /><br />But Herrmann and Hitch seem a match made in Heaven--or somewhere else, perhaps. ;)The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-5694303304400098662022-08-14T08:04:11.160-07:002022-08-14T08:04:11.160-07:00A really interesting review Curt . For me ,as a re...A really interesting review Curt . For me ,as a retired professional musician , Hitch's biggest " failure " was falling out ( manufactured by a studio wanting a more " hip " sound track ) with Bernard Herrmann. Think Vertigo /North by Northwest /and Psycho without those world class scores . I am sure that a Herrmann score could have just made that bit of a difference with some of those shortcomings which you mentioned. Alan Pendleburyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12749986629644723888noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-37989823826047960212022-08-14T02:20:19.626-07:002022-08-14T02:20:19.626-07:00Three years before Torn Curtain, in Charade Cary G...Three years before Torn Curtain, in Charade Cary Grant was worried he was too old to act as romantic lead opposite Audrey Hepburn (six years older than Julie Andrews), so it isn't surprising he turned down Torn Curtain.<br />The great unmade Hitchcock-Grant film would have been a version of Hamlet as a modern thriller with Grant in the title role. Even if it was a disaster (who would play Claudius and Gertrude?) it would surely have been a magnificent disaster.Roger Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11012987757094423896noreply@blogger.com