Star Rating- 3
Length of Film- 126 minutes
Director- John Frankenheimer
Cast- Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, He ray Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish, John Mcgiver, Khigh Dhiegh, James Edwards, Douglas Henderson, Albert Paulsen, Barry Kelley, Lloyd Corrigan, & Madame Spivy
Oscar Nominations- Angela Lansbury (actress in support role), Ferris Webster (editing)
List of reasons why you should watch this movie:
1. Angela Lansbury plays a villain
2. Military brainwashing
3. Love of his life is murdered
4. Frank Sinatra
5. Political manipulation
Here are some fun, behind the scenes info from the book, "The Greatest Movies Ever".
*Due to its vehemently anti- Communist subject matter, the film was not released in Eastern Bloc countries until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1993.
*In the karate scene, when Sinatra smashes the coffee table with his hand, that grimace of pain isn't acting. He broke his finger that never completely healed.
Watch this movie. There were so many memorable scenes in this movie: especially when the North Korean held a forum, explaining and showing examples of how heartless the brainwasher can be and when they're told to jump, they say "how high?"
You will never look at a Queen of Diamonds the same, ever again.
Star Rating- 3
Length of Film- 113 minutes
Director- Francis Ford Coppola
Cast- Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams, Michale Higgins, Elizabeth MacRae, Teri Garr, Harrison Ford, Mark Wheeler, Robert Shields, & Phoebe Alexander
Oscar Nominations- Francis Ford Coppola (best picture), Francis Ford Coppola (screenplay), Walter Murch & Art Rochester (sound)
Cannes Film Festival- Francis Ford Coppola (Golden Palm, ppirze of the ecumenical jury-special mention)
Henry Caul (Gene Hackman) was hired to follow his clients wife, because he suspects she's cheating on him. Henry follows the couple and successfully has a recording of the boyfriend saying, "he'd kill us if he got the chance."
He gives the recording to his client, and he hears the recording, and fears for the wife and boyfriends safety. In the recording he hears that they're going to meet at specific hotel at, certain date, and time. Becoming obsessed with this case, he gets the hotel room next to theirs, he drills a hole to the other hotel room to hear their conversation.
The hotel had bathroom block windows and a body was smashed up against it, Henry viewing it all...Henry flushes the toilet, and it overflows with blood and towels.
In the end, the quote "he'd kills us if he got the chance" wasn't said by the boyfriend, worried that THEY were going to die...
In the end, Henry was threatened to keep his mouth shut, because they were listening. He tore his house to shreds to find the bug. And when I say, tear his house apart, I'm talking about the hard wood floors, and the walls.
The best party of the movie was finding out the boyfriend/wife committed murder, and seeing Henry tear his house apart, never finding the bug.
Star Rating- 3
Length of Film- 108 minutes
Director- Alfred Hitchcock
Cast- Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotton, Macdonald Carey, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge, Hume Cronyn, Wallace Ford, Edna May Wonacott, Charles Bates, Irving Bacon, Clarence Muse, Janet Shaw, & Estelle Jewell
Oscar Nomination- Gordon McDonnell (screenplay)
Serial killer leaves the city to small suburbia where his sister lives. His teenage niece, Charlie is named after her uncle, and they have this weird psychic connection. As soon as Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) is around, Charlie (Teresa Wright) has a vision of a party and hearing a specific song. We later find out it's the location where the murders happened.
Uncle Charlie said he was in business, and deposited $40,000 in the bank where his brother-in-law works. Everything was peachy keen until detectives come to town. They don't come right out and say they're detectives. They say they're working on a national survey. They come to the house, with a camera to take photos of a working class family, but they're really wanting photos of Uncle Charlie, the murderer suspect. The photographer snaps a photo of Uncle C, but he demands the film, stating he NEVER has his photo taken.
Detective Jack (MacDonald Carey), falls in love with young Charlie and proposes marriage after admitting his intentions to why he was actually there; their suspicions that Charlie is the murderer. Young Charlie does research and finds newspaper clippings and her visions fit the scene of the crime. The ring he gave young Charlie as a gift, had initials engraved in them that matched one of the murders initials.
Charlie catches on to Young Charlie's skepticism and he tries to get rid of her. The ending is a very Alfred Hitchcocky...suspenseful, edge of your seat.
