MEL BROOKS AND HIS HIGH ANXIETY

On this date in 1977, "High Anxiety" was released. It is really an underrated Mel Brooks film!

Mel Brooks once said of Alfred Hitchcock: "Anyone who has ever rolled a foot of film owes something to this man."

Brooks took great pains to not only spoof Hitchcock films, but also to emulate the look and style of his pictures. In an interview he said, "I watch the kind of film we're making with the [director of photography], so he knows not to be frivolous. He's got to get the real lighting, the real texture. For 'High Anxiety', it was 'What is a Hitchcock film? What does it look like? What does it feel like? How does he light them? How long is a scene? What is the cutting? When does he bring things to a boil?' We just watch everything."

Brooks hired the actual bird handler from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" (1963) for work on this picture. The bird droppings were actually mayonnaise and chopped spinach. However, Brooks reported to Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show" that the helicopter spraying the fake bird droppings scared the pigeons so much that he believed half of the bird droppings were real.

One of Brooks' favorite routines was doing a musical impression of Frank Sinatra, and in this film he performs the song "High Anxiety" in an exaggerated version of Sinatra's singing style, right down to dropping the first syllable of the word "anxiety." . Brooks wrote the song and lyrics. Brooks claimed he received singing offers from Las Vegas casinos and clubs following the release of the film.

During a special preview screening, Alfred Hitchcock's only criticism of the film to Brooks was that in the shower scene, when the shower curtain is torn off the rail, they used 13 shower curtain rings, whereas in "Psycho" (1960), they only used 10. After viewing the film, Hitchcock sent Brooks a case containing six magnums of 1961 Château Haut-Brion wine with a note that read, "A small token of my pleasure, have no anxiety about this."

A MOMENT WITH MARTIN BALSAM

While starring on an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," Alfred Hitchcock was so impressed by Martin Balsam's work that he offered him a key supporting role of Detective Milton Arbogast in "Psycho" (1960).

According to Hitchcock, a series of shots with Arbogast going up the stairs in the Bates house before he is stabbed were done by assistant director Hilton A. Green, working with storyboard artist Saul Bass' drawings only while Hitchcock was incapacitated with the common cold. However, upon viewing the dailies of the shots, Hitchcock was forced to scrap them. He claimed they were "no good" because they did not portray "an innocent person but a sinister man who was going up those stairs". Hitchcock later re-shot the scene, though a little of the cut footage made its way into the film. Filming the murder of Arbogast proved problematic owing to the overhead camera angle necessary to hide the film's twist. A camera track constructed on pulleys alongside the stairway together with a chairlike device had to be constructed and thoroughly tested over a period of weeks.

The shot of Arbogast falling backward down the stairs was a process shot of Balsam sitting stationary and waving his arms, as if losing his balance, in front of a screen projecting a previously filmed dolly shot moving down the stairs.

Balsam also performed the original voice of the HAL 9000 computer in "2001: A Space Odyssey". After his lines were recorded, director Stanley Kubrick decided "Marty just sounded a little bit too colloquially American," and hired Douglas Rain to perform the role for the released film...

REFLECTIONS: JAMES MASON ON ALFRED HITCHCOCK

James Mason on Alfred Hitchcock: "You can see from the way he uses actors that he sees them as animated props. He casts his films very, very carefully and he knows perfectly well in advance that all the actors that he chooses are perfectly capable of playing the parts he gives them, without any special directorial effort on his part. He gets some sort of a charge out of directing the leading ladies, I think, but that's something else."

Eleven years after being mentioned in "Rope" (1948) as making an excellent villain, Mason was finally cast by Sir Alfred Hitchcock as such in "North by Northwest" (1959).

Mason suffered a severe heart attack shortly after filming ended.

In 1952, Mason purchased a house previously owned by Buster Keaton. There he discovered reels of nitrate film of some of Keaton's work that was considered lost, including "The Boat" (1921). He arranged to have the decomposing films transferred to safety stock, saving them from oblivion.

"I'm a character actor: the public never knows what it's getting by way of a Mason performance from one film to the next. I therefore represent a thoroughly insecure investment."

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: A CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD THANKSGIVING

 Here is how some classic Hollywood celebrated Thanksgiving (aka turkey day)...

Andy Devine

Shirley Temple

Lillian Harvey

Howard Keel

Jeanne Crain

Alfred Hitchcock

SHADOW OF A DOUBT: 1943 REVIEW

Here is the 1943 review of a Alfred Hitchcock classic as it appeared in the New York Times on January 13, 1943...

You've got to hand it to Alfred Hitchcock: when he sows the fearful seeds of mistrust in one of his motion pictures he can raise more goose pimples to the square inch of a customer's flesh than any other director of thrillers in Hollywood. He did it quite nicely in "Rebecca" and again in "Suspicion" about a year ago. And now he is bringing in another bumper crop of blue-ribbon shivers and chills in Jack Skirball's diverse production of "Shadow of a Doubt," which came to the Rivoli last night.Yes, the way Mr. Hitchcock folds suggestions very casually into the furrows of his film, the way he can make a torn newspaper or the sharpened inflection of a person's voice send ticklish roots down to the subsoil of a customer's anxiety, is a wondrous, invariable accomplishment. And the mental anguish he can thereby create, apparently in the minds of his characters but actually in the psyche of you, is of championship proportions and—being hokum, anyhow— a sheer delight.

But when Mr. Hitchcock and/or his writers start weaving allegories in his films or, worse still, neglect to spring surprises after the ground has apparently been prepared, the consequence is something less than cheering. And that is the principal fault—or rather, the sole disappointment—in "Shadow of a Doubt." For this one suggests tremendous promise when a sinister character—a gentleman called Uncle Charlie—goes to visit with relatives, a typical American family, in a quiet California town. The atmosphere is charged with electricity when the daughter of the family, Uncle Charlie's namesake, begins to grow strangely suspicious of this moody, cryptic guest in the house. And the story seems loaded for fireworks and a beautiful explosion of surprise when the scared girl discovers that Uncle Charlie is really a murderer of rich, fat widows, wanted back East.But from that point on the story takes a decidedly anticlimactic dip and becomes just a competent exercise in keeping a tightrope taut. It also becomes a bit too specious in making a moralistic show of the warmth of an American community toward an unsuspected rascal in its midst. We won't violate tradition to tell you how the story ends, but we will say that the moral is either anti-social or, at best, obscure. When Uncle Charlie's niece concludes quite cynically that the world is a horrible place and the young detective with whom she has romanced answers, "Some times it needs a lot of watching; seems to go crazy, every now and then, like Uncle Charlie," the bathos is enough to knock you down.However, there is sufficient sheer excitement and refreshing atmosphere in the film to compensate in large measure for its few disappointing faults.

Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson and Alma Reville have drawn a graphic and affectionate outline of a small-town American family which an excellent cast has brought to life and Mr. Hitchcock has manifest completely in his naturalistic style. Teresa Wright is aglow with maiden spirit and subsequent emotional distress as the namesake of Uncle Charlie, and Patricia Collinge gives amazing flexibility and depth to the role of the patient, hard-working, sentimental mother of the house. Henry Travers is amusing as the father, Edna May Wonacott is fearfully precocious as "the brat" and Hume Cronyn makes a modest comic masterpiece out of the character of a literal-minded friend.As the progressively less charming Uncle Charlie, Joseph Cotten plays with smooth, insinuating ease while injecting a harsh and bitter quality which nicely becomes villainy. He has obviously kept an eye on Orson Welles. And MacDonald Carey and Wallace Ford make an adequate pair of modern sleuths.The flavor and "feel" of a small town has been beautifully impressed in this film by the simple expedient of shooting most of it in Santa Rosa, Calif., which leads to the obvious observation that the story should be as reliable as the sets...

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: A CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD HALLOWEEN

One of my favorite holidays is Halloween, and throughout my blog's history I have spotlighted some of the great costumes and poses that have been captured of classic Hollywood throughout the years. Here is another addition with some more great pics...

Bing Crosby

Alfred Hitchcock

Ann Miller

Pinky Tomlin & Rita Hayworth

Jackie Cooper

Elizabeth Montgomery

Past "A Classic Hollywood Halloween"...

2012

2014

2019

MORE HARASSMENT IN CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

In a story I posted last month, I took a look at the harassment that Judy Garland had to face at the hands of MGM head Louis B. Mayer. Judy Garland was not the only starlet that faced harrassment at the hands of powerful men. Judy was not the first and unfortunately she will not be the last.

In her memoir Child Star, actress Shirley Temple claimed that an MGM producer known to have an 'adventuresome casting couch' unzipped his trousers and exposed himself to her during their first meeting in 1940. She was 12. Being innocent of male anatomy, she responded with nervous laughter and he threw her out of his office. Fortunately, she had already signed her contract with MGM.

Joan Collins says she lost out on the lead role in Cleopatra because she wouldn't sleep with the studio head. 'I had tested for 'Cleopatra' twice and was the front-runner. He took me into his office and said, "You really want this part?" And I said, "Yes. I really do." "Well," he said, "then all you have to do is be nice to me." It was a wonderful euphemism in the Sixties for you know what. But I couldn't do that. In fact, I was rather wimpish, burst into tears and rushed out of his office.' The role went to Elizabeth Taylor.

Marilyn Monroe was no stranger to lecherous studio chiefs and filmmakers, and in her memoir, My Story, she didn't hold back: 'I met them all. Phoniness and failure were all over them. Some were vicious and crooked. But they were as near to the movies as you could get. So you sat with them, listening to their lies and schemes. And you saw Hollywood with their eyes - an overcrowded brothel, a merry-go-round with beds for horses.'

Hedren, one of Alfred Hitchcock's favorite leading ladies, came forward with sexual assault allegations against the famed director in October 2016, after keeping silent for over 50 years.

In her latest memoir, Hedren says Hitchcock assaulted her on multiple occasions, the first of which took place when they were working together on his 1963 film The Birds. According to Hedren, Hitchcock "threw himself" on top of her while they were in the back of a limo and attempted to kiss her. 

Later, on the set of 1964's Marnie, Hitchcock allegedly assaulted Hedren again, when she was alone in her dressing room. Hedren said she tried to fight him off, but he only became "more aggressive" and threatened to ruin her career. Afterward, Hedren said, Hitchcock refused to talk to her, even though they had to continue production on the film.

Hedren said her experiences with Hitchcock—and other men in Hollywood—came rushing back after the landslide of allegations against Weinstein.

"This is nothing new, nor is it limited to the entertainment industry," Hedren wrote in an October tweet. "I dealt with sexual harassment all the time, during my modeling and film career. Hitchcock wasn't the first."

SOURCE

RECENTLY VIEWED: PSYCHO

I would have to say that Alfred Hitchcock is easily my favourite director of all-time. I have seen most of the masterpieces he has directed. However, until recently I had never seen his 1960 film Psycho. I used to think that Hitchcock's crowning achievement was the film he made the year before North By Northwest with Cary Grant. However, my wife and I recently got into a new television show on the A&E network called "The Bates Motel" which is a sort of prequel to the Psycho story. The television series, which is surprisingly good, finally got me to see this Hitchcock original.

When originally made, the film was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous film North by Northwest, being filmed on a low budget, with a television crew and in black and white. Psycho initially received mixed reviews, but outstanding box office returns prompted reconsideration which led to overwhelming critical acclaim and four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock. It is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films.

Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and her boyfriend Sam Loomis meet for a secret romantic rendezvous during lunch hour at a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. They talk about how they can barely afford to get married. Upon Marion's return to work at a realtor's office, a client comes in with $40,000 in cash to purchase a house for his daughter. The money is entrusted to Marion, who decides to steal it and skip town.

On the road, she pulls over to sleep and is awoken by a policeman who detects that something is wrong. The policeman lets her go, but upon arriving in another town, Marion pulls into a used car dealership and hastily exchanges her car for another one. Driving during a rainy night, Marion pulls up to the Bates Motel, a remote lodging that has recently lost business due to a diversion of the main highway. The proprietor, youthful but nervous Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) invites her to a light dinner in the parlor. Norman discloses that his mother is mentally ill, but he becomes irate and bristles when Marion suggests that she be institutionalized. The conversation induces Marion to decide to return to Phoenix and return the stolen money. Marion later takes a shower in her room, during which a shadowy figure comes and stabs her to death. Norman bursts into the bathroom and discovers Marion's dead body. He wraps the body in the shower curtain and cleans up the bathroom. He puts Marion's body in her car and sinks her car in a nearby swamp.

In Phoenix, Marion's sister, Lila, and her boyfriend Sam Loomis are concerned about Marion's disappearance. A detective named Arbogast confirms she is suspected of having stolen $40,000 from her employer. Arbogast eventually finds the Bates Motel. Norman's evasiveness and stammering arouse his suspicions. Arbogast later enters the Bates' residence, looking for Norman's mother. A figure emerges from her room and murders Arbogast.

Fearing something has happened to Arbogast, Sam and Lila go to the town of Fairvale and talk with the local sheriff. He is puzzled by the detective's claim that he was going to talk to Norman's mother and states that Mrs. Bates died years ago, along with her lover, in a murder-suicide. Norman, seen from above, carries his mother down to the cellar of their house as she verbally protests the arrangement.

Sam and Lila rent a room at the Bates Motel and discover the cabin Marion stayed in. Lila explores it and finds a scrap of paper with "$40,000" written on it, and notes that the bathtub has no shower curtain. Sam distracts Norman while Lila sneaks into the house, looking for Mrs. Bates. Norman subdues Sam and chases Lila. Seeing Norman approaching, Lila hides in the cellar and discovers Mrs. Bates sitting in a rocking chair. The chair rotates to reveal a desiccated corpse, the preserved body of Mrs. Bates. Norman enters the basement, wearing a dress and wig while wielding a large knife, revealing Norman to be the murderer all along. Sam enters and saves Lila.

After Norman's arrest, a psychiatrist who interviewed Norman reveals that Norman had murdered his mother and her lover years ago, and later developed a split personality to erase the crime from his memory. At times, he is able to function as Norman, but other times the mother personality completely dominates him. Norman is now locked into his mother's identity permanently. Mrs. Bates, in a voice-over, talks about how harmless she is and how it was really Norman, not she, who committed the murders. The final scene shows Marion's car being recovered from the swamp.

The murder of Janet Leigh's character in the shower is the film's pivotal scene and one of the best-known in all of cinema. As such, it spawned numerous myths and legends. It was shot from December 17 to December 23, 1959, and features 77 different camera angles.The scene "runs 3 minutes and includes 50 cuts. Most of the shots are extreme close-ups, except for medium shots in the shower directly before and directly after the murder. The combination of the close shots with their short duration makes the sequence feel more subjective than it would have been if the images were presented alone or in a wider angle, an example of the technique Hitchcock described as "transferring the menace from the screen into the mind of the audience".

I am glad now I finally watched the movie. Although Psycho is still not my favorite Hitchcock film, I do think that every movie lover should watch it at least once. While I found the ending of Vertigo (1958) more shocking and the ending of Shadow Of A Doubt (1943) more satisfying, I did like the gritty and dark look to the film which many of Hitchcock's prior movies in the 1950s did not have. Also seeing the underrated Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, makes anyone that has mother issues see a little normal by comparison...

MY RATING: 9 OUT OF 10

INTERVIEW: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most complicated yet interesting directors of all-time. Here is a usual great interview he did in 1973. The mind of Alfred Hitchcock was just amazing...

MOVIE TRAILER: SHADOW OF A DOUBT

Here is an earlier Alfred Hitchcock movie, but one of his best. The movie centers around a mysterious uncle played by Joseph Cotten, and his niece (Teresa Wright) that uncovers the truth about him. The suspense and the thrills are great. The movie came out in 1943, but sixty plus years later, it is still great...

INTERVIEW: TIPPI HEDREN - 2007

Here is a great interview with the star of Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS(1963)...Tippi Hedren. She tells some great stories about Hitchcock, and her debut in his movie...