"Suspicion"

In this 1941 picture, Cary Grant is as handsome as ever and gives one of his best performances to date. Joan Fontaine stars with Cary as his wife who is convinced her man is out to kill her.

Joan meets Cary on the train. She is in first class and Cary wishes he was. He is told to shove out or pay for a first class fair. Joan forks over the cash. So far, she isn't impressed with Cary. 

After the train ride, Joan goes home to learn her hottie train friend is very desirable and quite the ladies man. Joan isn't into that stuff. She lives with her parents and has a boring rich life.

After church, Joan and Cary meet up on a scary hill. Cary calls her "monkey face" and screws with her hair. Joan is still not impressed. But she can't help but notice what a babe Cary is. She's intrigued. 

Soon they are dating and Cary meets the parents, who are not impressed. What is impressive is the massive self portrait of Joan's strict dad. Joan is mad because they think Joan will never wed.

She proves them wrong and marries Cary. They honeymoon and come back to a lavish house with a maid that Cary set up. Moments later, Joan learns that Cary is broke, and has never had a job. Father also delivers some snazzy chairs for their house.

Cary thinks they are stupid.

 Before you know it, Cary starts to act all suspicious and Joan is convinced he is going to kill her. Cary's pal, Beaky (Nigel Bruce) comes for a visit and they all play Scrabble. Joan faints after some bad word choices.

 The next shady move Cary pulls is he sells Daddy's chairs for gambling cash and buys Joan tons of gifts and a dog (which was really Hitchcock's dog named "Johnny"). Joan is pissed until she learns that Cary bought the chairs back as well.

Look at that glare!

Beaky has a near death experience when he drinks some booze and we learn he can't drink the stuff because it can kill him. 

(Foreshadowing much?)

 

Cary is such a babe but Joan is finding out too many bad things about her man. Secret business deals, lies about out of town trips, and top secret letters makes Joan sure that Cary wants to off her. One night while sick, Cary brings her some milk. She is convinced that it is poisoned and won't drink it!

How could he kill? He's such a hunk!

 Alfred put a light in the milk to make it glow and look ominous.

Joan finds out Cary is still gambling and was fired from his job for steeling. Beaky goes missing and Joan is sure he is dead from the hands of Cary. Joan wants to leave him, but decides not to, probably because Cary is so damn good looking.

On a car ride up a hill, it seems like Cary is going to try to kill both of them. Joan flips out and tries to escape. I can safely say they do not die, and Cary has to explain to his wife how he feels and ask why she is going nuts. 

This movie was supposed to have a horrid ending, the way Alfred wanted, but the studio said no way and made Alfred film a "happy" ending. This movie makes you paranoid, although it is hard to think of Cary Grant as a murderer. This was the only Oscar winning performance in a Hitchcock film (Fontaine)and the first time Alfred directed and produced a film. The cinematography is excellent, as it should being a Hitchcock flick of course. There are also some great sets.

Joan loved the part so much she offered to play if for free. Alfred makes his appearance a little while in as a pedestrian who is mailing a letter.

Picture Of The Day

Tab Hunter, soaking up the sun in a too small inner tube.

"The Wizard of Oz"

OK, everyone has seen this film, so there is no point writing a review on it.  Instead, how about a little trivia to spark up your Friday?  behind the scenes photos? Coming right up. 

The infamous opening titles.

First fun fact: the Wizard in the screenplay was intended for W.C. Fields in mind. Makes sense, huh?

But Mr. Fields didn't want the role, he wanted more cash and they said no. Diva. Nobody else wanted the role either because it was too small, so they pulled a 'high school play' move and made the new wizard role also get to play the guard, horse and buggy driver, and the gate keeper. Fun!

Buddy Ebsen was cast to play the tin man. He filmed for a while until the silver paint they used on him had dust in it and made Buddy so sick he couldn't breath, had to be rushed the hospital, and back out of the role. Jack Haley took the part not knowing all this, but the paint was changed so lawsuit #2 wouldn't happen.

Judy Garland had to wear a painful corset to make her thinner younger looking and make her look like she had not yet hit puberty. Successful?

Poor Toto, who's real name was Terry, was injured for two weeks and needed his doggie understudy when an actor stepped on him. Judy wanted to adopt him after the film but his owner said no. Leave it to actors, trying to adopt dogs that already have parents!

The munchkin characters were paid $50 a week, and Toto was paid $125 a week. Ouch.

Everyone has heard the urban legend of the hanging suicide that happened to a crew member in the background. MGM claimed it was just a bird stretching, but many still believe....

What do you think?

The colored horses got thier color from Jell-O crystals. They had to film fast before the horses started licking themselves!

In the book the slippers were silver, and that is what they started out with on the set until L.B. Mayer saw this and thought making them "ruby" would be better. Love the pastel blue and red combo!

Jeanette MacDonald wore Glinda the Good Witch's dress first in the film "San Francisco" in 1939. So fashion faux pas.

When the Bad Witch attempts to take Dorothy's shoes off, fire spits out onto her hands. Apparently this was just apple juice that was made to spray out of her shoes and was sped up to look like fire.(I am not making this up!)

I love this film, just like every other human on the planet, and it never gets old. All this blogging makes me want to watch it again. Better dust off my copy or I will have to wait until Thanksgiving.

For Fred

Well I forgot to blog the other day about Mr. Astaire's birthday, and I should be ashamed, since I am, like Fred, a proud Taurus. So today is days old celebration. Oh well. 

Happy Birthday Fred. 

When he got started the studios wrote down, "Can't sing. Can't act. Balding. Can dance a little."

Boy what do they know! 

Thanks Fred for making me want to move my feet.

"Desk Set"

OK, so there has been a lot of Katharine Hepburn films blogged about on here lately, but can you blame me? She is fabulous! An none is more fabulous that on of my favorite films ever, 1957's "Desk Set".

We meet Mr. Sumner (Spencer) who is here to speak to head honcho of the TV network about a secret project going on in the research department (aka the Internet of the 50's). 

Mr. Sumner tells Mr. Boss that he is going to need to research the research department for a few weeks to help him with his machine, a new thing called a "computer" that helps find information without opening a book. He gets the OK and is told to look for Miss Bunny Watson, who is in charge.

How amazing is this set!

Next we meet Bunny (Katharine) and the girls and see them in action. Answering phones stylishly, recalling knowledge...it makes you want to work in this office, especially since they have tons of fun too. Mr. Sumner comes in to investigate and immediately rumors swirl, leaving the whole office worried about being fired.

Before too long we learn that Bunny has been dating higher up Mike for many, many years without a proposal, and Bunny is dying to be asked. She buys a green dress for a dance and is stoked until Mike flakes on her due to work.

Over time, Bunny and Mr. Sumner become friends and have the cutest scene in the movie eating lunch on the roof during winter.

Christmas comes and the girls are still not sure why Mr. Sumner is there. They put up the aluminum tree, party hard, and exchange gifts. 

Mike gets a little jealous that his long awaiting girlfriend has been spending so much time at work with Mr. Sumner. He must fly out of town but returns when his flight is canceled to find Bunny and Mr. Sumner cozy at her apartment eating dinner!

Mike storms out and Bunny starts to think if dating him is such a swell idea. After Christmas, the buzz around work is that everyone is going to get fired, and the new "computer" is installed. It works pretty well but a new assistant has come and she has a huge stick up her ass.

The contest of man vs. the machine comes in to play and the girls are doing their best to keep their jobs. Pink slips come, but there is a twist, and Bunny finally gets a marriage proposal from Mike. But is it what she wants? What about Mr. Sumner? What about her job? The ending is adorable, as is the rest of the film.

Nora Ephron's (of Sleepless In Seattle fame, and others) parents wrote and produced this film. It is defiantly one to own. The sets, the costumes, the superb acting. This was the first color film for Kat and Spence, and their 8th out of 9 films they would do together before his death ten years later.

Quote Of The Day

"A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something."

-Frank Capra