Reviews

So, Hitchcock buys the rights to a French story and decides to re-set it in San Francisco. Attempts to come up with a workable script initially fail but someone glues a lot of bits and pieces together and comes up with this tedious mess.

It might have worked with a different cast - Jimmy is too old, too stiff, Kim is just too stiff.

Stupid 1950s American prudishness crippled this turkey from the start. Apparently Hitchcock was very conscious of the censor's interest in his films, so much so that even Madeleine's bra could not be shown on the clothesline in Scottie's apartment after he "rescued" her. A scene of him relishing undressing her might have added some kinky veracity to his unexplained desire.

I guess Midge was a friend with benefits, but of course in those days Hitchcock couldn't go there either. Whatever, there's way more chemistry between Midge and Scottie than between Scottie and Madeleine/Judy. Scottie trying to remould Midge as an interim Madeleine might have been interesting.

The stagey backdrops are awful, particularly Midge's apartment at night and the studio-planted Joshua tree by the coast, presumably done to have total control over lighting and sound. Those fifties technicians had no idea their work would be scrutinised in high definition sixty-odd years later, so maybe that's forgivable.

There may be some kind of story potential here, who knows? Hitchcock was over budget, out of time and the whole thing has a whiff of desperation.

I loved "The Lady Vanishes" and "Foreign Correspondent" and remember "Rear Window" very fondly. All three are way, way better than "Vertigo".

This is the story, based on fact, of a gaggle of white, British one-percenters and B-list aristocrats sitting out World War II in Kenya.

There's some relatively brief topless nudity but it's totally appropriate to the story. The tabloid press got hot under the collar but, as an annoyed Greta Scacchi said, "They talk about steamy sex scenes but there's some rather icky voyeuristic nudity, and that's all. I'm not saying I condone the way the film has come out. I think in "White Mischief" maybe we could have had more eroticism and less of my nudity. But I didn't find it particularly suggestive. It's the press who have interpreted it as being lurid stuff and it's not".

In fact, the most erotic scene in the movie is when Dance's conquests are gathered around his laid-out body. One lifts up her skirt, reaches into her underwear and rubs back and forth. She then goes to the coffin and waves her hand over Dance's face, willing her scent to bring him back to life.

I certainly hope this little gem will be available on Blu-ray one day soon.

I've only watched one episode of this but that's enough. Natasha Lyonne was a bit of fun in "Orange Is the New Black", but all that trashy-but-lovable lesbo stuff got pretty tiresome after a while.

I won't be bothering with this show again, but I advise everyone to take note of an earlier review that includes this very well-made point:

"In the first episode, we see a scene in which the killer is able to murder someone in the dark with a single shot. Later in that episode, there is a scene in which the same killer is unable to kill the protagonist, even though they are in a well-lit hallway about the same distance away from each other as the first kill. She does get shot while running away in a straight line (after the killer missed two times), but the wound is apparently so inconsequential that she could drive for a couple of days without going to the hospital, and was fine after some truck lady put superglue on the wound."

Case closed.

Elsewhere a reviewer noted the "ludicrous chase with moronic outlaws" and that sequence gave me problems too.

At first I thought good, they're showing how hard it was to hit anything using a handgun from a galloping horse.

After a while I began to wonder why they kept right on doing it, wasting ammo until they were conveniently blasted out of the saddle.

Quite watchable, but nothing out of the box judged by that first episode.

After two episodes I think it's tedious, ugly and unconvincing, and the 9.1 rating is absurd.

Lorne Malvo Goes West.

My god, after eight episodes it is even duller. The cloying, faux-poetic narration is nothing short of stomach-churning. The relationship with the Comanche, not even wiping the bison blood off her face, the chaps and vest. Come on! That's it for me.