Quite often, movies use a particular tune as a recurring theme, varying the tempo based on the emotion on display, like ‘Lara’s theme’ in Dr. Zhivago for instance. ‘The Conversation’ uses a recorded conversation between a cheating wife and her lover as a recurring theme, as it plays on the mind of a suspicious introverted surveillance expert, who tries his best to not get involved with the content of his recording.
Mary Henry is enjoying the day by riding around with two friends but everything goes wrong when challenged to a drag race and their car gets forced off of a bridge. The car sinks into the murky depths, and all three women are assumed drowned. Some time later Mary emerges unscathed from the river. She tries to start a new life by becoming a church organist but Mary finds herself haunted by a ghostly figure that instills fear and dread into her.
A lonely sailor, Johnny Drake (Dennis Hopper), meets the beautiful, mysterious Mora (Linda Lawson) who performs as a mermaid on the Santa Monica Pier. After they become lovers, Johnny discovers that Mora's past two boyfriends inexplicably disappeared. As his suspicions grow, Mora's doomed and sinister past is slowly revealed. In his first leading role, Hopper is captivating as the naive and eager Johnny.
‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderlay again’. These first lines serve as the backdrop to the opening shot with a meandering camera making its way in the night through a large estate lying waste, only to reveal the dilapidated remains of what was once a stately residence. In the first 30 seconds, the stage is set for a riveting mystery, the answer to which the master shall reveal when he thinks you are ready. Alfred Hitchcock’s film adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s 1939 novel explores how arduous it is to deal with a memory.
The film revolves around a rich businessman, Maxim de Winter, a widower who is struggling to get over the death of his first wife, Rebecca who has drowned in a boat accident. In Monte Carlo, he comes across a much younger woman, whom he falls in love with, marries and brings back to his Manderlay estate, to become the new Mrs. de Winter.
His new wife discovers that the large mansion and estate bear the unmistakable mark of Rebecca, her insignia on every piece of cloth, her name on the lips of the staff and the part of the house that she occupied, sealed off. The housekeeper Mrs. Danvers is unwilling to accept that another woman is taking Rebecca’s place. She finds Maxim increasingly cagey about Rebecca and soon discovers that there is more to her supposed accidental death than meets the eye. How she deals with the overbearing memory of Rebecca as well as the mystery surrounding her death is what the plot tries to unravel.
The first thing you notice about ‘Rebecca’ is the fantastic interplay of light and shadow. The first shot through the run down estate, sees the lighting change as the narrator describes the surroundings and the eeriness of the context becomes evident right away. Hitchcock’s direction sees him using the elements of the mansion to create an almost ghostly atmosphere permeated by Rebecca’s indelible imprint. It is a unique situation where a memory of a dead person is almost alike in impact to her ghost.
Sir Laurence Olivier as Maxim looks every bit the aloof and reclusive aristocrat. But he seems rather awkward in his portrayal of Maxim. Stiff and machinelike almost. Whether it is his manner or the demands of the character, his portrayal of the conflict within Maxim is below par as compared to what you would expect from an actor of his caliber. Joan Fontaine as the second Mrs. de Winter does a reasonable job of portraying a woman caught in a different league. The acting honors go to the menacing and vengeful Mrs. Danvers played by Judith Anderson. One outstanding scene where she tries to use the vulnerability of the second wife to drive her to suicide is superbly executed. Her portrayal set the template, it seems for roles such as Nurse Ratched in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’.
Watch ‘Rebecca’ for it is a well executed suspense thriller that will keep you guessing right up to the very end. Hitchcock in his elements.
Gaby (Hedy Lamarr) arrives in Algiers engaged to a fat, vulgar borderline-loathsome older man who clearly regards her as a trophy bought and paid for. Why she needed this creep isn't clear. What is clear is her falling in love with the jewel thief Pepe Le Moko (Charles Boyer) who abandons the devoted and clinging Ines (Sigrid Gurie) for this right-off-the-boat hothouse beauty. A Parisian police official (Walter Kingsford) is in Algiers determined to collar Pepe. His forays into the casbah meet with no success and quiet derision from both the locals and some of the French police who understand that the casbah is honeycombed with escape routes and populated with folks eager to thwart the gendarmerie.
Holmes and Watson investigate a series of bizarre and apparently unconnected murders, and the death of a possible suspect. The trail leads to a society of hypnotists and a mysterious, glamoruos woman. The fiendish Dr Moriarty, though reported hanged in Montevideo, is belived to be involved.
It's Christmas Eve when Father Rojas at the Old Mission Plaza Church in Los Angeles discovers that the statue of the Infant Jesus is stolen from the crib. The statue's worth is only a few dollars, but it is of great sentimental value for the parish. Friday and Smith promise to try to get it back before mass on Christmas Day, but this means that they have less than 24 hours to catch the thief.
