2012 arrives...

...and A Month of VERTIGO is about to begin...

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A Month of VERTIGO: the Bloggers...

Arriving with 2012 will be this blog’s first major event, A Month of VERTIGO. The month will feature 10 11 bloggers and one ‘vlogger' reflecting on facets of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958).

Unpopular with critics and audiences when it was released, Vertigo has endured. Today it is generally considered the great auteur's masterpiece of masterpieces and is one of the most highly regarded films in movie history. Vertigo is an ambitious work of grand scale and reputation - a staggering review subject for the lone blogger. And so, we eleven twelve have joined together to contemplate this masterwork from many angles.

Here's what to expect at The Lady Eve's Reel Life during January 2012:

January 1, R.D. Finch of The Movie Projector offers Deadly Obsession: Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

January 4, Whistlingypsy of Distant Voices and Flickering Shadows muses on Bernard Herrmann ~ Composer of Haunting Music and Treacherous Dreams.

January 7, Christian Esquevin of Silver Screen Modiste and author of Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label takes a look at the costumes and the characters who wore them with The Costumes of Vertigo.

January 10, Brandie Ashe of True Classics considers Kim Novak in Vertigo: A Hypnotic Presence.

January 13, Michael Nazarewycz of Filmoria.com, ManILoveFilms.com and ScribeHard on Film contemplates the setting of Vertigo, that "jewel of American cities," with More Than Just the Streets of San Francisco.

January 16, Steven DeRosa, author of Writing With Hitchcock, looks at Vertigo from the perspective of  screenwriter Samuel A. Taylor with An Inconsequential Yarn.

January 19, John Greco of Twenty Four Frames offers his recent interview with preeminent Hitchcock biographer Patrick McGilligan (Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light) on the subject of Vertigo and the filmmaker who conceived it.

January 22, Allen Hefner of Bit Part Actors honors those with roles small and momentary in Vertigo’s supporting cast with Vertigo, the Bit Players.

January 25, Classic Film Boy of Classic Film Boy’s Movie Paradise assesses James Stewart's iconic and complex performance as ‘Scottie Ferguson’ in Vertigo.

January 28, Brandon Kyle Goco of TCM’s Classic Film Union, Brandon Kyle the Cinephile and guest host of TCM’s October podcast series will ‘vlog’ (video blog) about his passion for Vertigo.

January 31 - Dan Auiler, author of the most essential book on Vertigo out there, VERTIGO: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic. A late addition to the guest contributor group, Dan offers Marking Vertigo, which he describes as "understanding Vertigo as Madeleine with Chris Marker as guide.

February 3 - I'll ponder Vertigo in relation to the the French noir novel it was adapted from, D'Entre Les Morts by Boileau-Thomas Narcejac.

Each post will include a bit of background on its author plus links to the contributor’s blog or site. Please join us for what promises to be a month of wide-ranging commentary on the Hitchcock film that critic David Thomson called "a masterpiece and an endless mystery," and about which he wrote, "It's a test case: If you are moved by this film, you are a creature of cinema..."

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A Blog Full of Gifts From Me to You...

The Lady Eve offers a blogful of holiday cheer this year. Here's what's under the tree...

~ Two Icons Singing: Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra sing "White Christmas" on a December 1957 TV special...

~ A Festive Romp From the 1970s: Kenneth More and Albert Finney sing "I Like Life" in the 1970 film Scrooge...

~ From Disney's Fantasia (1940): "The Nutcracker Suite"...

~ Judy, Judy, Judy...No holiday would be complete without hearing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" at least once. Here's Judy singing to her children, Lorna and Joey, in 1963 on the 'Christmas Show' for her CBS TV program...

~ A Holiday Movie: The Mitchell Leisen directed, Preston Sturges penned, yuletide classic Remember the Night (1940), starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck - all one hour and 33 minutes of it...

Happy Holidays!

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'TIS THE SEASON...

 

The weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful...which means it's a perfect time to snuggle down into a favorite chair, remote in hand, and decide: DVR or DVD?

With Christmas just a week away I've picked a few long-time holiday favorites to watch along with one or two that have come into my life more recently...

Remember the Night

Remember the Night  (1940), directed by Mitchell Leisen from a Preston Sturges' screenplay, debuted on Turner Classic Movies a few seasons ago, which is where I first encountered it. A jewel! Fred MacMurray stars as an Assistant D.A. who falls for thief Barbara Stanwyck during the holidays. With Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson and Sterling Holloway, music by Frederick Hollander (known for his work with Marlene Dietrich). Remember the Night is a compelling tale delivered by a very sharp script and a superb cast, qualities that should establish it as an enduring holiday classic.  Click here for more on Remember the Night from Jim Lane's Cinedrome.

I've already watched Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) once this season. It is Vincente Minnelli's simply magical confection of 100% pure fine-spun Americana. Set in turn-of-the-century St. Louis, the film follows "a year in the life" of the Smith family. Margaret O'Brien famously portrays precocious (annoying?) tyke "Tootie" Smith to the hilt, but it is Judy Garland as Esther Smith who glows as the film's centerpiece. And there are the songs, now classics, she introduced in the film..."The Boy Next Door," "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." I'll probably watch Meet Me in St. Louis one time more before the holidays are over.

Christmas in Connecticut

Christmas in Connecticut (1945) has been on my "every year" list for a while now.  I can't resist this home front romp about a career woman (Barbara Stanwyck) with zero homemaking skills who falls for a Navy vet (Dennis Morgan) who dreams of home cooked meals and every domestic delight.  Last year I blogged about the movie and the year in which it was released, 1945. It was the year World War II ended, the year American troops were finally home for Christmas. Click here for my 2010 reflection on Christmas in Connecticut.

The Shop Around the Corner (1940), is my favorite film of director Ernst Lubitsch and contains one of James Stewart's finest performances along with the best of Margaret Sullavan, Frank Morgan and Felix Bressart. I posted on Shop, a must-see film, just a week or so ago...click here, if you missed it. And if you've missed the film so far this year, it airs in just about an hour (Dec. 18, 10am Eastern/7am Pacific) on Turner Classic Movies.

The Bishop's Wife

In The Bishop's Wife (1947) Cary Grant stars as an angel...typecasting at its finest, I'd say! I first saw The Bishop's Wife in the 1980s and, when I discovered it, was surprised I hadn't heard of it before. Now it surfaces every year, everywhere, a seasonal standard (and it will air once more on TCM  this year - late on Christmas Eve). The fine cast includes David Niven, Loretta Young, Monty Woolley, Gladys Cooper, James Gleason, Sara Haden and Elsa Lanchester. The film's yuletide sentiment is reflected throughout and nicely encapsulated in the Bishop's final sermon, "Let us ask ourselves what we would wish for most, and then let each put in his share. Loving kindness, warm hearts and the stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth." 


...Because she does it so well, here's Peggy Lee singing a holiday standard that expresses my wishes for each of you (click to listen)...

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...More About "A Month of VERTIGO"

Not long ago I sat down with the 1956 British translation of Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac's D'Entre Les Morts (1954). The book is now published under the title Vertigo (it was originally called 'The Living and the Dead') owing to the legend that is the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock film based on Boileau/Narcejac's novel. When I finished reading, I wanted to blog about Vertigo and decided to try to do it "with a little help from my friends." One of these friends (Brandon Goco) even created a 'teaser' for what turned into the project we're calling A Month of VERTIGO:

A Month of VERTIGO will begin January 1 and run through the month (and into early February) - with ten bloggers (including me) and one 'vlogger' (video blogger) contemplating Vertigo from a variety of perspectives. More details will appear soon about Reel Life's first major blog event.

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The Shop Around the Corner (1940): A Lubitsch Christmas

It is only occasionally that a film ages with extraordinary grace. Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 classic,The Shop Around the Corner, has mellowed in the manner of a rare and prized bottle of Hungarian Tokaji Aszú...

Balta Street, Budapest

Director Lubitsch, revered for sophisticated films spun with his light-as-air "touch" and at an artistic peak in 1940, took special care with The Shop Around the Corner. It was one of his favorites of own films, and he wrote, “Never did I make a picture in which the atmosphere and the characters were truer…” This atmosphere is unmistakable. With the first strains of “Ochi Tchornya” heard over Leo the Lion’s roar, in the dreamlike setting near Budapest’s historic Andrassy Street and in unique and distinctive characters, the spirit of old Europe is alive on screen. 

Set during Christmastime in the snow-dusted capital, the story follows a series of mix-ups and missteps between employees of a picturesque gift shop in the heart of the city. Two clerks carry on a battle-of-the-sexes while romantically pursuing anonymous pen pals; the shop owner suspects betrayal at home and at work; a duplicitous clerk is up to ugly mischief and a wisecracking errand boy has an eye for the main chance…

Matuschek's gift shop

Samson Raphaelson (Suspicion, Green Dolphin Street) penned a screenplay based on Nikolaus (Miklós) László’s play; William H. Daniels (The Naked City, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) shot it and Werner Heymann (Ninotchka, To Be or Not to Be) wrote the score.

A sparkling ensemble cast features several of MGM’s top supporting players. Among them is Frank Morgan in one of his most interesting roles as Mr. Matuschek, the colorful charmer who owns the gift shop. A somber turn in the subplot gives Morgan a chance to portray his character's darker emotions.

Peerless Felix Bressart plays the meek/endearing clerk, Pirovich. Versatile Joseph Schildkraut defines ‘loathsome’ as Vadas. Also in the featured cast are Sara Haden, William Tracy and Inez Courtney.

Felix Bressart and James Stewart

The legendary  chemistry between stars James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan illuminates the screen. Stewart is at his most appealing as Mr. Kralik, head clerk and right hand man to Mr. Matuschek. In this role, Stewart's broad signature mannerisms are tempered by the sensitivity with which he portrays Kralik's romantic yearnings. But it is Sullavan's performance that mesmerizes. Her Klara Novak, a headstrong shop girl blinded by lofty ideals, is a high-strung romantic whose breathless eagerness is offset by her brittle fragility.

Margaret Sullavan

Margaret Sullavan was discovered on Broadway by director John M. Stahl (Leave Her to Heaven) who brought her to Hollywood to star in Only Yesterday (1933) with John Boles. By this time Sullavan had already married and divorced Henry Fonda and would soon marry director William Wyler. By 1936 the actress was married to agent/producer Leland Hayward and about to make her best films: Three Comrades (1938), for which Sullavan earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination, The Shopworn Angel (1938), The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and The Mortal Storm (1940). In the last three she co-starred with Stewart. The pair had first worked together on Next Time We Love (1936), a result of Sullavan suggesting her friend Stewart for the part. In The Shop Around the Corner, the third of the their four collaborations, the co-stars seem to all but dance together, such is the rhythm between them.

With the closing scenes of The Shop Around the Corner, Lubitsch demonstrates his consummate finesse…

Frank Morgan and Charles Smith

Mr. Matuschek returns to his store on Christmas Eve to total the day’s receipts, thank his staff and hand out bonuses. It is closing time and as the wistful shopkeeper departs, he says goodnight to, and we have our last glimpse of, most of the other characters as they depart for the holidays.

When the shop's new errand boy, Rudy (Charles Smith), emerges, Matuschek takes him under his wing and out to a glorious Christmas dinner of roast goose, potatoes in butter…and “a double order of apple strudel in vanilla sauce.” The two, no longer facing a lonely Christmas Eve, strike up a jubilant rapport.

Inside the darkened shop, Stewart and Sullavan move in perfect harmony as Kralik and Klara finally discover each other. This last scene, one of the most deeply romantic and witty ever confected, reveals the distilled essence of Lubitsch’s “touch.”

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THESE AMAZING SHADOWS: The Film Preservation Act and the National Film Registry

Independent Lens, the Emmy-winning PBS series, airs Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton’s These Amazing Shadows, a one-hour documentary, on Thursday, December 29, at 10:00pm (check local listings).

These Amazing Shadows is an often kaleidoscopic swirl of film clips iconic and obscure, from Casablanca, Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz to 2001, The Godfather and E.T., plus culturally noteworthy home movies, the odd sound film demo and theater intermission bumper. The documentary also outlines the background of the Film Preservation Act and the creation of the National Film Registry.

The Night of the Hunter

When Ted Turner purchased MGM in 1986 for $1.6 billion he sold off parts of his acquisition, but kept the film and TV libraries, which included those of MGM/UA, RKO and Warner Bros. With the hope of expanding the appeal of classic black and white films on his ‘SuperStation’ WTBS and elsewhere, Turner devised a plan to “colorize” them. In September 1986, Turner Broadcasting System released a list of 100 films set for “colorizing” – the list included Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Out of the Past and other legends of black and white American cinema. Turner’s decision met with loud opposition from Hollywood filmmakers. The Director’s Guild was outspoken and an indignant Billy Wilder snarled: “Those fools! Do they really think that colorization will make The Informer any better? Or Citizen Kane or Casablanca? Or do they hope to palm off some of the old stinkers by dipping them in 31 flavors? Is there no end to their greed?”

The outcry against Turner’s penchant for colorizing the classics culminated in Congressional hearings. These Amazing Shadows navigates the colorization controversy, illustrating the hue and cry with news footage of directors Sydney Pollack and Woody Allen appearing before Congress and clips of James Stewart speaking out on network TV. In 1988, the Film Preservation Act was passed and, through the Library of Congress’ National Film Preservation Board, brought about the National Film Registry.

Gus Visser and his Singing Duck

Among the tumble of Registry “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” films glimpsed in These Amazing Shadows are dramas, comedies, musicals and animated features. The documentary‘s tone is generally serious, but there is also a fair sprinkling of whimsy. The grim but seared-into-memory footage of Abraham Zapruder’s famous home movie of the Kennedy Assassination is on the list as is a thought-provoking home movie (Topaz) taken in a U.S. internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II. Yet there’s the bizarre sound film demo of Gus Visser and His Singing Duck, not to mention the jaunty theater intermission promo, “Let’s All Go to the Lobby (to get ourselves a treat)”…a mélange!

These Amazing Shadows covers a lot of ground in an hour. There are nearly as many interviews (Debbie Reynolds, Paul Schrader, Christopher Nolan, Rob Reiner, Peter Coyote, John Waters and many others) as there are film clips. The program features reflections on movies in general as well as specific films and genres but also explores attitudes and issues (race relations, women in film, cold war propaganda). Naturally, D.W. Griffith’s legendary Birth of a Nation has its moment in the spotlight. Though an innovative groundbreaker, this film affects me in the same way Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will does. Each is historically and cinematically relevant but promotes deeply offensive propaganda; Riefenstahl extolled the Nazis, Griffith the Ku Klux Klan.

The Godfather

A central point, hammered home as the documentary comes to its conclusion, is the importance of preservation and restoration. It was news to me that the original negative of The Godfather had been reduced to “tatters.” Overused because of the film’s immense popularity (“loved to death”) it was at one time in dire need of restoration. It’s no stretch to imagine that if The Godfather could nearly come to ruin, a terrible fate could easily befall less prominent, smaller films.  And why would anyone care about saving movies? Well, that’s not a hard question for a film lover/blogger like me. Without film, my soul would shrivel and die. These Amazing Shadows takes the larger view - film is “our family album,” a part of American history and culture.

Currently there are 550 films listed in the National Film Registry. Each year the Librarian of Congress, with input from the public and the National Film Preservation Board, picks 25 films to add to the Registry. To learn more about These Amazing Shadows, an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival, click here.

A footnote: I can’t ignore the irony that Ted Turner, who eventually abandoned colorization (a prohibitively expensive process), just a few years later launched Turner Classic Movies. The channel stands today as a beacon in the night for classic film fans - and airs predominantly black and white films...

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Coming Soon to REEL LIFE...

Some Came Running

A sampling of a few posts and one event (my first!) on the near horizon for The Lady Eve's Reel Life:

The Families of Vincent Minnelli

A look at some of the director's most memorable family-themed films, including Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Father of the Bride (1950), Some Came Running (1958) and Home From the Hill (1960). Plus a look at the award-winning artist's own life.

These Amazing Shadows

Late in December the PBS series "Independent Lens" will spotlight  "culturally, historically... aesthetically significant" American films included in the National Film Registry with the one-hour documentary, These Amazing Shadows. The registry's beginnings with National Film Preservation Act of 1988 is also covered. I'll be previewing the documentary ahead of its air date.

The Shop Around the Corner

Just in time for the holidays...a reflection on Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 classic. The director's own favorite among his films, it is set at Christmastime in Budapest, features a sparkling ensemble cast led by James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan and Frank Morgan...and 'tis perfection.

A Month of Vertigo

A great group of guest contributors - and me - will blog on myriad facets of Alfred Hitchcock's masterwork. I'm hoping A Month of Vertigo makes for a very interesting beginning to 2012...

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Family Thanksgivings: Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

I'm looking forward to spending some time with one of my favorite families this Thanksgiving weekend, Hannah and Her Sisters (as well as her other relatives and friends).

Dianne Wiest, Oscar winner

Hannah and Her Sisters, Woody Allen's, by turns, clever and outright hilarious 1986 classic, has been judged by many as his best film of the 1980s, but I think it might well be the best of his best work. Allen's own Oscar-winning script is a tour de force testament to his astounding facility as a screenwriter - he has a record 14 screenplay Oscar nominations to his credit; he's won two (the first for Annie Hall in 1977). Two member's of the film's superb ensemble cast, Dianne Wiest and Michael Caine, were awarded supporting Oscars for their performances. Allen himself delivers one of his own very best and Max von Sydow (who has some of the film's best lines, which is saying something) and Lloyd Nolan are especially memorable in slightly-more-than-cameo roles.

The film begins with one family Thanksgiving dinner and ends with another. Opening credits roll as the Harry James Orchestra croons "You Made Me Love You," and the story begins to the same band's snappy version of "I've Heard That Song Before." It is Thanksgiving in Manhattan and Hannah's family comes together in her spacious, character-drenched, softly-lit Upper West Side apartment. The parents of Hannah (Mia Farrow) and her sisters, a crusty and eccentric pair of old-school show biz troupers (Lloyd Nolan and Maureen O'Sullivan) take a moment to sit down at the piano and sing a duet on "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," a tune that recurs, usually by way of tinkling ivory keys, throughout the film. Meanwhile, Hannah's husband Elliott (Michael Caine) has been ruminating on his fascination with his wife's sister, Lee (Barbara Hershey).

O'Sullivan and Nolan

A tumble of interconnected episodes from the lives of family and friends flows between the two Thanksgivings. Mickey (Woody Allen), ex-husband of Hannah and future husband of her sister Holly (Dianne Wiest), goes through a health crisis that leads to a spiritual crisis; Lee is unfaithful to her long-time lover (Max von Sydow) with Elliott. Bickering between the sisters' parents gets ugly and leads to bawdy, if amusing, accusations.  Along the way, flashbacks reveal bizarre and comical past events (bad first dates are traditional fodder for hilarity, but who knew infertility could be so entertaining?). By the second Thanksgiving, life seems to be on a more harmonious course for Hannah and Her Sisters. Elliott and Hannah are once again content with each other, Lee has married an entirely new man and Holly and Mickey, who once went through a date from hell, are now wed. A maid fusses with candles on the dining table, "I'm in Love Again" can be heard in the background, on piano, and one of the couples shares a private, irony-tinged moment...fade to black.

'Holly and Mickey' in Central Park

As so often with Woody Allen's films, Manhattan's alluring presence lingers in the background...Central Park, Greenwich Village, 5th Avenue, the Chrysler Building, Columbia University, The Carlyle Hotel, CBGB's - east side, west side, all around the town - accompanied by scintillating tunes that accentuate story and setting. The soundtrack is saturated with some of the great American standards of 20th century song: "Where or When," "You Are Too Beautiful," "Isn't it Romantic," "If I Had You," a Dave Brubeck version of  "I Remember You," Count Basie's "The Trot," "The Way You Look Tonight" sung by Carrie Fisher, "I'm Old-Fashioned" sung by Dianne Wiest - not to mention Bobby Short performing "I'm in Love Again" at the Carlyle...plus interludes of Bach and even a moment of "Madame Butterfly."

Hannah and Her Sisters brims with warmth as it casts a wry gaze on the misadventures of its confused but not-difficult-to-relate-to characters. It deservedly earned three Academy Awards (Weist, Caine, Allen) and was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, art direction and editing.  It is a gem.

~

The gifted Mr. Allen, now 75, is the auteur director of more than 40 films over the past 45 years, a writer on nearly 60 films and actor in 40+. Along with his screenwriting Oscars, he's won a Best Director award for Annie Hall. Allen began as a comedy writer for Sid Caesar's popular Show of Shows during TV's golden age of the 1950s, became a successful stand-up comedian, had short stories published in The New Yorker and wrote two Broadway hits, Don't Drink the Water and Play it Again, Sam. Today he continues to make films and also performs as a classic New Orleans-style jazz clarinetist.

Woody Allen (center) on the set of Hannah and her Sisters

Woody Allen has had one of the most prolific, varied and celebrated careers of the 20th and 21st centuries. My own favorites of his films are Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway (1994) Match Point (2005) and Midnight in Paris (2011). Also on my list are Annie Hall (1977), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Stardust Memories (1980) and Play it Again, Sam (1972). I haven't seen every one of his films and haven't loved everything he's done (Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Interiors come to mind), but I admire his lifelong devotion to creatively exploring and expressing his own unique personal vision - and I'm deeply grateful for the decades of intelligent entertainment and long, loud laughs he has given me.

Many thanks to Chris of Movies Unlimited's MovieFanFare website and Ivan of LAMB's 'Classic Chops' for republishing this post during Thanksgiving week 2011.

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A Chill in the Air - Part II

For a few years now, Turner Classic Movies has traditionally aired The Uninvited (1944) during Halloween season. A gothic mystery/romance with a lighter heart than Rebecca (1940), The Uninvited is another of my cold night favorites.


Though lacking any gun or knife, let alone even a drop of blood or a hint of gore, The Uninvited can subtly spook the unsuspecting viewer. The action begins jauntily enough as a pair of vacationing Londoners, brother and sister, hike the cliffs of Devon and Cornwall and find, fall in love with and purchase a long-empty mansion overlooking the sea. The two later come to the realization that their new home is haunted and that their new friend, the former owner's lovely granddaughter, is a target of the malevolent apparition who inhabits the house. This is a phantom whose arrival, sometimes partially materialized, brings with it a penetrating chill that terrorizes all who encounter it...including the family pets. And there is the sudden overpowering scent of mimosa that signals an unseen presence as it fills a room. Heightening these spine-tickling proceedings is a rapturous score by Victor Young with a haunting motif that later became the popular standard, "Stella by Starlight." The film was directed by Lewis Allen and photographed by cinematographer Charles Lang (Midnight, A Foreign Affair, The Magnificent Seven, Charade) who was Oscar-nominated for The Uninvited.

The Uninvited stars Ray Milland, one of Paramount's most charming and enduring players, and Ruth Hussey as the brother and sister duo. Donald Crisp is the former owner of 'Windward House,' and Gail Russell appears in her first film role as his granddaughter, Stella. Cornelia Otis Skinner portrays one Miss Holloway, a sinister creature reminiscent of Rebecca's Mrs. Danvers - and any number of characters played by Gale Sondergaard...

Cornelia Otis Skinner as Miss Holloway

This year in tandem with watching The Uninvited, I read the book on which it was based. Irish author Dorothy Macardle's novel was first published in 1942, four years after du Maurier's smashing success, Rebecca, appeared in print and two years after the enormously popular Hitchcock/Selznick 'picturization' was released. It, too, is of the modern gothic genre with roots reaching back to Bronte's Jane Eyre.

Macardle's book is engaging, lively and, though not equal to du Maurier's classic in any sense, it entertainingly transports today's reader to a time, place and world view now several decades gone. Macardle could weave a tale and hold one's attention, telling her spooky story of warring spirits from the first person perspective of the protagonist, Roderick Fitzgerald, a London journalist whose move to the seaside brings with it hair-raising adventure, a new turn in his writing career and new love.

Dorothy Macardle

Author Dorothy Macardle, I discovered, was involved in far more than writing novels during her 69 years (1889 - 1958). Born in Ireland into a well-heeled brewing family, she taught after graduating from college but was soon involved in political and social activism. She gained an international reputation as an Irish nationalist writer and was an intimate associate of Eamon de Valera, a leader in Ireland's fight for independence and president of country from 1959 to 1973. Macardle is best known today for her historical opus, the nearly 1,000 page The Irish Republic, an account of Ireland's struggle for freedom between 1916 and 1923. Quite amazing that the woman could also write a plausible ghost story in her spare time...

The adaptation from novel to screen is largely faithful. The book is peopled by a greater variety of characters and the back story of each principal is more detailed. On screen, the haunted mansion's name changed from 'Cliff's End' to 'Windward House,' Roderick Fitzgerald is referred to as 'Rick' rather than 'Rod' and Miss Holloway's role is expanded. Fitzgerald's profession was changed from writer to composer - perhaps in order to ease giving Victor Young's "Stella by Starlight" its center-stage moment in the film.

Young's theme for The Uninvited enhances the film's romantic and mysterious story. By comparison, Franz Waxman's score for Rebecca, though also dramatic and powerful, seems to me, at times, overwhelming. I knew Bernard Herrmann had, when he was with CBS Radio, scored an earlier radio presentation of Rebecca and I found this intriguing given his later association with Hitchcock.

In December 1938 Orson Welles' Campbell Playhouse (formerly the Mercury Theatre on the Air) premiered and featured the first radio adaptation of Rebecca; it starred Margaret Sullavan as the second Mrs. de Winter, Welles as Maxim de Winter and Mildred Natwick as Mrs Danvers. Bernard Herrmann provided the score:

In the end, the music Herrmann scored for Rebecca eventually made its way to the screen; much of it was used in Jane Eyre (1943) starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine.

Gail Russell

19-year-old Gail Russell, in her screen debut as Stella Meredith, is another high point in The Uninvited. Fresh-faced, with dark, tousled hair and long, thick lashes, Russell projects a fetching mixture of fragility and intensity as a young girl faced with a deadly threat just as she experiences first love. Russell followed The Uninvited with a role in Our Hearts Were Young and Gay - coincidentally, she portrayed Cornelia Otis Skinner in the film (she played Skinner again in Our Hearts Were Growing Up). In 1945 Russell was cast in a quasi-sequel to The Uninvited called The Unseen (with Joel McCrea), and she made a number of films co-starring with John Wayne, who befriended her when they made Angel and the Badman in 1947. But Russell's life and career were blighted by serious personal demons. A beautiful teenager who'd been embarrassed by the nickname "The Hedy Lamarr of Santa Monica High," she had long suffered from crippling shyness. When Paramount Pictures came calling she agreed to pursue a movie career; her mother had insisted, the family needed money.  Russell developed a habit early on of drinking before she faced the cameras - it helped steady her nerves. This habit developed into a deadly addiction that shortened her life; she died in 1961 at age 36.

The characters of Stella Meredith in The Uninvited and Rebecca's second Mrs. de Winter are fairly similar - both are young, inexperienced and in need of  protection and guidance. But one character evolves more than the other. Throughout The Uninvited, Stella remains a maiden in need of rescue by older, wiser Roderick Fitzgerald. In Rebecca, the second Mrs. de Winter begins as an awkward, coltish young lady utterly intimidated by all that her new status as bride of an aristocrat brings. But when Maxim de Winter confesses his role in Rebecca's death and reveals his vulnerability, her transformation into a more confident, assured woman begins. Fontaine's portrayal of this maturing is seamless.

Joan Fontaine as the second Mrs. de Winter

Joan Fontaine, who became a star with Rebecca, enjoyed continued success. Cast again by Hitchcock in 1941's Suspicion, with Cary Grant, she won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Other noteworthy films include Jane Eyre in 1943 with Orson Welles and Max Ophuls' stunning Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948). She continued to work in film and on TV until the mid-1990s and just recently celebrated her 94th birthday; she and her older sister Olivia de Havilland, however, remain estranged...

My meanderings through Rebecca and The Uninvited on page and screen began as I sought enjoyable ways to spend the crisp, dark evenings that come with the late months of the year. This quest brought several cozy nights charged with chills, thrills and romance and now I'm tempted to continue...perhaps with another foray into the realm of the gothic  -  once defined as the Cinderella story gone very wrong...

In the meantime, I've been trying out different hot drink confections to help fend off the chill. My latest experiments involve a healthier cocoa mix called 'WonderCocoa' and a new twist on the hot toddy called 'The Laureate.' Click here for ideas on what to sip to stay warm on a cold, dark night...

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A Chill in the Air - Part I

Halloween has come and gone, a time change looms (“fall back”) and winter is just around the corner. Early twilight and cool evenings are here and it seems to me that when the weather starts getting nippy and night falls early, nothing satisfies like a crackling fire, something either steaming or iced to drink and a well-chosen book or movie to settle into. What I'm reading and watching as autumn deepens this year are books and the films that were made of them.

The Uninvited, 1944

I’ve been reading Dorothy Macardle’s classic ghost story, The Uninvited, a novel that made its way to film by way of Paramount Pictures in 1944. I’d seen The Uninvited again recently and became curious about its original source material.  I’ve also picked up Daphne du Maurier’s romantic thriller Rebecca once more and have happily revisited the 1940 Hitchcock-directed Selznick production.

Rebecca, 1940

I don’t know how old I was when I first read the words, “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again,” but do know I was young because, when I came upon du Maurier’s description of 50-foot rhododendrons I didn’t know what they were or how to pronounce the word (...if only I could remember what I called them in my imagination back then...). As I re-read Rebecca, I realized how completely Hitchcock’s Oscar-winning film had supplanted the book, erasing nearly all but the opening line and “rhododendrons” from my memory.

The film is a generally literal adaptation, barring Production Code-dictated changes (most notably, Rebecca's death is accidental in the film rather than outright murder as in the book) and a few other alterations. This is largely thanks to producer David O. Selznick, who was wary when it came to tinkering with literature.

Selznick, Fontaine & Hitchcock at Academy Awards dinner

Hitchcock and Selznick weathered a famously rocky collaboration on Rebecca, Hitchcock’s first American film and his first under contract to Selznick International Pictures. The director counted himself lucky that Selznick was still involved with Gone with the Wind - which lessened his interference on Rebecca to some extent. For his part, Selznick was flabbergasted by the director’s stubborn habit of shooting very little ‘coverage’ – or extra footage, effectively “editing in camera” (filming only what he wanted for the final cut). Once Hitchcock completed the shoot, the producer did what he could to more explicitly stamp the production as his own. In particular he supervised the film’s score, having music added to almost every scene – which accounts for intermittent intrusions of musical bombast. Selznick biographer David Thomson writes that the producer learned that no matter how involved he was, “there were secrets of craft, nuance and meaning that only a director controlled.” According to Thomson, Rebecca had been a battle between director and producer that left Selznick feeling defeated.

He should not have been so glum. Rebecca is plainly a Selznick project, a glossy and rich first rate production. The film was an unqualified success and brought the producer his second Best Picture Oscar in a row, one of the two Oscars Rebecca won out of the eleven total nominations it received. But Selznick was accustomed to dominating his directors and Hitchcock had outfoxed him…

Despite the fact that Rebecca has been called the least ‘Hitchcockian’ of the director's films and that Hitchcock later virtually disowned it, it bears unmistakable signature touches. The character interpretations of Florence Bates (Mrs. Van Hopper) and George Sanders (Jack Favell) are darkly witty comic turns - entirely in the Hitchcock tradition. And from relatively inexperienced Joan Fontaine in the central role, the director determinedly mined the performance of her young life. Judith Anderson’s iconic Mrs. Danvers, a brilliantly shaded tour de force, evolved out of a collaboration between actress and director about which she remarked, “I knew I was in the presence of a master; I had utter trust and faith in him.”

Judith Anderson and Joan Fontain in Rebecca

Rebecca's visual style also bears the recognizable imprint of its director. Hitchcock and cinematographer George Barnes concocted a persistently foreboding atmosphere that permeates the film from its first frames.  In fact, the film's opening images - of Manderley's ornate iron-gated entrance, its misty landscape and the mansion's ghostly silhouette - are often cited as an influence on Citizen Kane. Hitchcock and Barnes also notably and inventively contrived to create a character, or the presence of a character, who never once appears onscreen - the titular Rebecca. The scene above beautifully illustrates...

Daphne du Maurier and her children at Menabilly

Daphne du Maurier once described Rebecca, her most well-known and popular novel,  as a study in jealousy. Many have offered opinions on what inspired the plot - was it du Maurier's relationship with her mother and father? Was it based on the writer's insecurities about her husband's beautiful, glamorous, dark-haired former fiancee? It is known that du Maurier spent time during childhood at two grand country mansions, Milton Hall in Cambridgeshire and Menabilly (which she later owned) in Cornwall, and that the two estates were both likely models for Manderley and its grounds. Regardless of conjecture about du Maurier's inspirations, few have questioned that Rebecca is a triumph of its genre - it has been continuously in print over the eight decades since its original publication.

Daphne du Maurier

Du Maurier's Rebecca is a shrewd, seductive 20th century update on the gothic mystery/romance. Its persistent lure is dream-like imagery and a vulnerable narrator's voice throbbing with melancholy and hinting at dark secrets and heartbreak. Soon enough the reader is trapped, like the second Mrs. de Winter, in the world of psychological torment that is Manderley.

For me, du Maurier's novel and the Hitchcock/Selznick film are, taken together, an unbeatable way to greet the season's chill...

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The Haunting Melody of The Uninvited (1944)

 
The Uninvited, from Paramount Pictures in 1944, is an elegantly spooky Rebecca-esque romance with more than one haunting quality. Yes, Windward House, the sea cliff-situated home central to the story, is haunted by a malevolent woman’s ghost, but the film’s music is equally haunting (though not at all spooky).

Victor Young (who composed the film’s Rachmaninoff influenced score) and his orchestra introduced “Stella by Starlight” in The Uninvited. The melody is a thematic refrain throughout, but takes center stage in a romantic scene between Ray Milland (Roderick Fitzgerald) and Gail Russell (Stella Meredith). The pair is spending an evening together at Windward House and Rick begins to play the music, which he has written, on his grand piano:

(Jan. 2013 update: sadly this video is no longer available on YouTube)

Victor Young wasn't Academy Award-nominated for his rhapsodic score for The Uninvited, but did garner 22 Oscar nominations over his prolific career. He was nominated for as many as four films in a single year, but his only win came posthumously, for Around the World in 80 Days (1956). His scores for Golden Boy (1939) and Written on the Wind (1956) were among many nominated for the gold statuette - and he also scored The Palm Beach Story (1942), Shane (1953), Johnny Guitar (1954) and The Country Girl (1954). Young died in 1956 with hundreds of film credits to his name.

As with Laura, another notable film of 1944 with an evocative musical theme, song lyrics were composed for "Stella by Starlight" after The Uninvited was released and became a popular movie. In 1946 Oscar-winning lyricist Ned Washington (“When You Wish Upon a Star”/Pinocchio and “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’”/High Noon) created lyrics to accompany the music.

In 1947, two versions of "Stella by Starlight," one recorded by Frank Sinatra the other by the Harry James Orchestra, climbed the pop charts. In 1952, iconic saxophonist Charlie Parker made the first jazz recording of the tune; the song remains both a popular standard and jazz standard today.

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