Wednesday, December 26, 2007
THROTTLED
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Hitchcock's
with Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright.
It is somewhere in Hitchcock's middle period. And, in a way, is atypical.
There is an innocent caught up with evil but the evil this time is in a nice conventional small town with a nice conventional family.
The machinery does creak a little and I am sure that it was scarier then than it is now because the settings are outdated and not familiar and safe.
On the other hand, Hitchcock's thing has never been so much fright as dread and anxiety. A foreboding.
He carries this off in every way. The camera tilts a bit and the shadows become more pronounced when evil wanders into the picture.
The musical score also plays a great part of it but is totally subliminal. You are seldom aware of it except when he wants you to hear it loud and clear but it always is working on us.
Cotten is a very convincing psycho and Wright makes for a slightly smart ingenue who 'knows' that everything is not OK with her uncle.
There are some nice parts for Henry Travers, McDonald Carey and Hume Cronyn.
I enjoyed it.
I will give it a good average 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
