Well, dear readers, it is Sunday and by gum and by golly and buy bonds the day is mine, and whoever says nay shall receive a bitch-slap from here to eternity and hell and back. I have no plans, other than to write a page or two – otherwise I shall do whatever takes my fancy. I likes to do what takes my fancy, what takes my fancy I likes to do. What am I, Wildcat all of a sudden? Speaking of Wildcat, yesterday I had a perfectly pleasant day from start to end. For example, I got up. That was pleasant. I then shipped a few packages, and then toddled off to the Ray Courts show, day two. I hung out with some dealer friends, did a bit more trading, got a few more interesting CDs, and then came home. I took my first jog in two weeks and it was insanely difficult. A Jew of my age cannot take two weeks off from jogging, and I shan’t do that again. After the jog, I supped, and then came home to settle down to some serious DVD viewing.
Last night, I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled Whisper In The Dark, an Eyetalian giallo of sorts. Most of these Eyetalian giallos were not very good, despite what people who do the box copy try to tell you – one would think these were all undiscovered masterpieces. Well, I only wish Whisper In The Dark had remained undiscovered, me-wise. It was terrible – a sort of pointless riff on Turn Of The Screw, but without any sense, without any anything, just 100 minutes of abject nothingness. The two American stars were John Philip Law and Joseph Cotton – so, even though the film plays better in Eyetalian with English subtitles, I watched it in English – badly dubbed, but that’s the only way you get Law and Cotton’s voices. The film does have a nice musical score by Pino Donaggio, and some nice photography, and the transfer is really top-notch. But the movie was like the Chinese Water Torture, whatever the HELL that is. To wipe away the bad taste of that film, I then decided to watch a Motion Picture Masterpiece on DVD entitled Rear Window. I hadn’t watched it since the new Hitchock box set came out a couple of years ago. What a marvelously marvelous motion picture masterpiece it is, too. Perfect direction by Mr. Hitchcock – completely controlled, and amazing in just about every way, considering all but one or two shots take place from within one room in an apartment. I had the privilege of seeing Rear Window in 1969 at the Writer’s Guild, with Mr. Hitchcock in attendance – the film was clearly a favorite of his and it perfectly encapsulates everything he was about as a filmmaker. The language of the film is astonishing – one of the opening shots gives you so much information and back story in one single thirty second shot that filmmakers today should be forced to watch and understand how economical you can really be. The camera pulls back from the window – we see Mr. Stewart sleeping, his face sweating from the heat. We then see he’s in a wheelchair, with the camera revealing his leg ensconced in a cast that reads “Here lie the broken bones of L.B. Jeffries. The camera continues to dolly back revealing a smashed-up camera on a table, then the photo the camera took prior to being smashed (a race car hurtling directly toward it), then various other photographic equipment, a negative of a woman, and then finally a magazine cover with the photo of the negative. It’s seems like a simple thing, but its conception is breathtaking and quite brilliant. The plot is courtesy of Mr. Cornell Woolrich, whose short story the film is based on. But Mr. John Michael Hayes’ contribution and fleshing out of the story is incredible – with sparkling and witty dialogue, great suspense, and perfect construction. The cast, of course, is flawless, with Mr. James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr, and Wendell Corey all turning in stellar performances. And the large gallery of rear window dwellers are all perfection – Jessalyn Fax, Judith Evelyn, Ross Bagdasarian (who, under the name David Seville, would create The Chipmunks), and many others. There are a couple of moments of suspense that never fail to take my breath away (SPOILER AHEAD if you’ve never seen the film), none more so than when Grace Kelly is in Mr. Burr’s apartment and signals to Mr. Stewart that she has an incriminating wedding ring on, followed by a pan up to Mr. Burr watching her signal and the realizing where she’s signaling to. At the Writer’s Guild screening the entire audience gasped, and I do, too, every time I see that scene. I remember how impressive Mr. Hitchcock’s IB Technicolor 35mm print was, with wonderful, evocative color, and incredible sharpness. I also owned a 16mm IB Tech print that looked great. This DVD is taken from new elements created by restorationists Harris and Katz. There are all sorts of reasons offered as to why the image is less than stellar, but I’m not sure I buy any of them. And I think if Universal had done this on their own through Lowry or another company of its ilk, the results, at least on DVD, would have been much more satisfying – it also probably would have cost Universal a lot less dough.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get my beauty sleep so that I can have an entire day to do what takes my fancy.
As I’ve said, today is mine to do with as I please. I’ll try to sleep in a bit, try to write a page or three, maybe take a nice drive, definitely try to jog, but mostly just sit around like so much fish and catch up on DVDs.
I’ve got lots to do this week – meetings with my various gals, pulling together all the Brain reviews and press to send to various and sundried interested parties, doing a final update on the Brain script before sending it out, and preparing for our CD release partay.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, jog, drive about in my motor car, and relax and smell the roses or the coffee or the tamales. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings as I do what takes my fancy.