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4: The Red House (1947)

For my birthday, a friend gifted me with a collection of 60 movies that span from the 1930s to the 1990s. So here we go!

When I first started watching this film, I thought, How nice! Edward Robinson and Judith Anderson get to play sweet people for a change! Robinson is best known for unsavory roles like Dathan in The Ten Commandments or dark roles like Barton Keyes in Double Indemnity. Judith Anderson, perhaps, is best known as that crazy maid in the movie that put Hitchcock on the Hollywood map, Rebecca. Here, they both seemed to be playing mild-mannered farm folk who are playing Matthew and Marilla to a doe-eyed orphan named Meg.

Was I wrong.

After watching the film, I learned that The Red House is described as a psychological thriller, and it definitely was. My fellow viewers and I were at the edge of our seats, screaming at the television: What is the RED HOUSE?! The movie keeps its secrets close. Robinson and Anderson just keep telling Meg and her boy Nath: Don’t go into the woods! Beware of the screams! It is CURSED! Gee, I wonder what the teenagers do?

I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this movie. If this were a modern film, then I could easily start to assume that there was a stabby murderer in the woods or a witch or a dimensional wormhole. But this film was made in the 1940s in which special effects were limited and censors were trying quite hard to protect the children. So a LOT of the tension depends on the actor performances, which they carry through. 

In the end, you do figure out the mystery before its revealed, but it’s nice when Robinson confirms your suspicions. I don’t know if I ever would’ve picked up this movie, but I’m glad I saw it!

2: The 39 Steps (1935)

For my birthday, a friend gifted me with a collection of 60 movies that span from the 1930s to the 1990s. So here we go!

I don’t know when it happened, but it did: The 39 Steps became and is my favorite Alfred Hitchcock film. It’s one of the handful he made in England before he came over to collect his Hollywood fame, too. 

The 39 Steps is full of everything that makes a Hitchcock movie great: murder, intrigue, romance, humor, etc. When watching it, you can just see the director’s great touches, regarding how to set up a scene. For example, innocent Richard Hannay, played by Robert Donat, is on the run for a murder he didn’t commit. He runs off to Scotland in which he finds himself in the house of an academic. While the guests at the academic’s party talk about Hannay, Hitchcock focuses solely on the nonverbal tension between Hannay and the professor. In the shot, the guests are really nothing but light-hearted voices, laughing about a murderer. But that murderer and the man who knows he is accused of that murder are sitting on the edge of their seats, waiting for the axe to fall.

Another great thing about Hitchcock movies is that they’re actually love stories. Instead of the romance getting smooshed into the action and suspense, the action and suspense build it. The same happens here between Donat and his costar Madeleine Carroll, who plays Pamela, a young woman who gets accidentally caught in the conspiracy. We end the movie with the mystery solved and the romance in full bloom. Hitchcock gives us a shot of just Hannay and Pamela’s hands reaching out to hold each other while the chaos over the titular 39 steps goes off in the background.

Day 07 – The most surprising plot twist or ending

As vmiaiet said, there are movies that are probably going to be talked about no matter what: The Sixth Sense and The Usual Suspects. I would also add Se7en.

The thing with plot twists and surprise endings is that they’re no longer surprising after the fact. So all you can do is remember the films that left you off-kilter and in shock and caused you to recommend the film to others for those same feelings. I’ve got four that come to mind:

1) Psycho

I was very lucky to have never been spoiled on the ending. If you were like me, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you weren’t like me, then I think the question is, Did you still find the movie as suspenseful? Were you able to lose yourself in the moment?

2) The Spitfire Grill

I haven’t seen this movie since I was a little girl, but I remember how shocked I was by the tragic ending. It really made the movie, and it was the reason why I recommended it to people to watch for years.

3) He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Audrey Tautau was famous for her portrayal of the waifish protagonist in Amelie, and all her roles since then have capitalized on that image. This movie was like if Amelie had been told from the perspective of the guy. It seems like a simple, unimaginative story until that plot twist when the whole thing gets placed on its head. It’s creepy!

4) The Triplets of Belleville

This movie never happened the way I thought it would, which is its greatest charm. To guess the story is to do the impossible. To ponder the ending is to try to pull a Cassandra: No one would believe the truth. Every turn is a twist, and every twist is a turn. This is perhaps one of the most delightful movies I’ve ever watched, and the suspense is all in the most basic tenet of storytelling: What will happen next?

And now I’m also thinking about how shocked I was at the ending of Fight Club back in the day… .

Fun Fact: The first I’d ever heard of The Triplets of Belleville was on the show So You Think You Can Dance? So when I watched the movie, I kept looking out for the piece of music performed to by our contestants. Truly a fantastic surprise when it happened!

Day 05 – Favorite love story in a movie

I’m sure I have many other answers to this one, but the only movie that is coming to mind RIGHT NOW is Rear Window, as directed by Alfred Hitchcock. (By the way The 39 Steps is one of my favorite Hitchcockian films!)

Who’s the couple? Well, we got Grace Kelly as Liza Carol Fremont and James Stewart as “Jeff” Jeffries or that guy with the two broken legs in a wheelchair. He lives the fastpaced life of a travel photojournalist. He generally lives out of a suitcase and doesn’t eat well. She’s a socialite with great clothes and a full docket of dinner engagements. She wants to get married. He doesn’t because he just can’t ever see Liza fitting into his lifestyle.

What I love most about Rear Window is all the stories that happen on the periphery of the murder plot. Each of these stories has a full arc and gets wrapped up by the end—Miss Lonelyhearts isn’t lonely anymore, the pianist is inspired, Miss Torso’s guy comes home. But the best story is the one that you don’t even realize is the main story: the love story. The murder is the event that changes how Jeff sees Liza. In writing, we call it the “turn.” Every story is about an event where the characters are not the same as they were before it and never will be again. For Jeff and Liza, it’s the murder.

He doesn’t realize how feisty and capable Liza is until then. He also doesn’t realize how much he loves her. For Liza, it’s her chance to shine in a setting that isn’t her usual—she’s climbing gates, digging through bushes and following murderers. She gets show Jeff that’s she’s not just a rich girl in a fabulous dress.

And I think it’s so telling that the movie ends with Liza. She’s sitting in Jeff’s apartment, reading about the HImalayas, but then she puts that down for a magazine about fashion. The couple will always have their differences but Liza has proven herself, and she always wins. Oh yes, and that main theme that’s been happening throughout the movie? It’s finally given lyrics in the end, and they’re all about Liza.