Checking out HITCHCOCK

On  yesterday's rainy cozy afternoon we rented HITCHOCK and enjoyed it.  It had a lot, and I'm sure we didn't catch it all.

It was directed by Sacha Gervasi, starred Anthony Hopkins at Alfred Hitchock; Helen Mirren as Alma, Hitchock's wife; Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh; Jessica Biel as Vera Miles; and James D'Arcy Anthony Perkins.

At first I thought Anthony Hopkins was not such a good Alfred Hitchcock but as in just a short time he convinced us he was Alfred Hitchcock.  In fact, if I saw the real Alfred Hitchcock now I would probably think he was doing a lousy job being himself, Hopkins was much better at it.

The movie takes place during the making of PSYCHO.   The studios and the banker backers was afraid to put up their own money, the movie was breaking new grounds  Hitchcock put up his own money by getting a loan with his house as collateral. 

The movie was made in such a way that you could see little bits of the Alfred Hitchcock tv series.  One time two of the lead "actresses" were talking about him in a negative way and one of them looked up and saw his silhouette shadow on the door that was opened.  The silhouette shadow was exactly the shape and look exactly like his icon on his TV series.  I'm sure that was intentionally - the movie was full of little unspoken symbols like that.

In many instances  the movie present scene was presented in such a way, you  knew what "Hitch" was thinking and what inspired him.

Interesting, when he interviewed Tony Perkins Tony had an unstable way about him and talked about an unnatural relationship with his mother and seeing his father drop dead.  You can see Hopkins mind lighting up, saying to himself, "He's out man!"

Tony Perkins must have been an attraction for "unstable" roles.  I remember once,  before PSYCHO he played   J immy Piersall, a baseball player in FEAR STRIKES OUT  who did some very unpredictable things on the playing field.

The movie suggested that Hitch's wife, Alma, made all the wise decisions when it came to film making.     It hinted that she was actually was better at directing than he was.  The same thing was suggested in another movie about HITCHCOCK.    Where there is smoke usually there is a fire.

It also hinted he had  an unhealthy obsession or compulsive for blond actresses.  Just about all his starlets were blonds.  Think of one that wasn't?  Janet Leigh, Doris Kay, Kim Novak, Grace Kelly -  and on and on.

There was a lot of trivia too!

The movie was good and put me in a mood to look for more Hitchock movies either on COMCAST's ON DEMAND  or maybe NETFLIX.