The Five Movies I Most Recently Watched, All Were Good, None Were Botched

Suspicion with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine

Warning: spoilers abound

Suspicion (1941) Hitchcock. Suspicion is an odd sort of film. It spends most of the final two-thirds of its running time establishing the fact that Cary Grant’s character is a cheat, scoundrel and oh-by-the-way murderer. Then in the end he isn’t. In the book upon which the movie is based Grant kills his wife but that wouldn’t do for film audiences of the early forties -- nor, presumably, any other time. Grant is too beloved, he has to be redeemed at the end. We can all sigh in relief when it turns out he is suddenly remorseful, did not kill his best friend and aims to do right by his wife. Never mind that it doesn’t fit. Still, I like the film. Joan Fontaine as the beleaguered wife, and Grant are so good in the lead roles that Suspicion is ultimately irresistible despite its tacked on ending. Grant is charming and menacing, playful and frightening. Yes, he was a big movie star, but like many such Hollywood luminaries, he could act (see Notorious, His Girl Friday and Mr. Lucky as compelling evidence). Suspicion also has one of those oddball Hollywood romances mixed in, a love-at-first-sight special. I’ve seen Suspicion enough to no longer be frustrated by it and am able to enjoy its gifts.

Body Heat (1981) Kasdan. I hadn’t seen Body Heat in decades and wondered if it would hold up. It does. For one thing a young Kathleen Turner is simmering hot and will stay so for many more decades to come. My goodness. The film is a rarity for me in that Lawrence Kasdan directed it and I still like it — a lot. It ranks right up there with two similar films, The Postman Always Rings Twice and the great Double Indemnity. In all three, a single man falls for a married woman, she falls right back at him and they plot and execute the murder of the husband.  In all three the man doesn’t get away with it. In Body Heat the woman does. William Hurt is the poor sap in this iteration and he’s damn good. So too is a pre-Cheers, Ted Danson who plays a prosecuting attorney who’s both friends with Hurt and on to him. The love scenes in Body Heat are seamy and sizzling and highlight Ms. Turner’s deliciously long legs. (There’s also that voice of hers — oh my.) It’s a tried and true formula for a film and here it is well-told.

The Long Goodbye (1973) Altman. The mumbling detective. I love The Long Goodbye. Elliot Gould was a bold choice to play Phillip Marlowe (after Bogart played him, everyone else is) but he pulls him off with a seventies sensibility. The plot is manageable and interesting and pays homage to the source material (book of the same name) updating it to a time when female neighbors do topless yoga outside. It is not quite a perfect film principally because of two supporting players. Sterling Hayden was drunk and stoned when he did his scenes and he positively chewed up the scenery to the extent that it was a major distraction. Every time I see the film I want him to shut the hell up, already and take his walk into the ocean. Mark Rydell is fine as the mob boss but they give him far too much to ramble on about in a way that gets tedious. (What is it about a lot of film villains that they yammer on so much?) Jim Bouton was an interesting choice as Terry Lennox. He was more renowned as a baseball pitcher and author. He was no actor and it showed. Still, this is one of director Robert Altman’s many home runs of the seventies, a decade in which he cranked out hit after hit, many with Gould in the lead.

The 39 Steps

The 39 Steps (1935) Hitchcock. I’ve been watching The 39 Steps for about thirty-five years and never tire of it. It’s fairly early Hitchcock (he started in the silent era) and it presages many of his later work. Here we see the innocent man (Robert Donat) being falsely accused and on the run from the law and the bad guys while pursuing the truth that will set him free and foil the forces of evil. We also have the famous Hitchcock McGuffin, the plot device around which all the action centers. We also have our hero hook up with an initially reluctant blonde who comes to see his innocence, in this case played by the lovely Madeline Carroll. And we also have our hero hide in plain sight in public and we also have the climatic scene in a very public place. The 39 Steps is classic Hitch in so many ways not the least of which being how beautifully it is shot in glorious black and white. The framing, the shadows, the camera angles are all in support of wonderfully engaging story that I can’t wait to watch again.

Alice in the Cities (1974) Wenders. Here at last we have a film I’d not seen before and aside from 39 Steps it may be the best of the lot. How I missed Alice in the Cities for the entirety of its first forty-seven years? What a gem. Director Wim Wenders’ film recalls the best of other directors such as Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismäki who also manage to make entertaining road pictures sans chase scenes, explosions, evil villains or dazzling special effects. Instead he tells a human story. A man returns to Germany from assignment as a journalist in the U.S. and ends up escorting a ten-year old girl (Alice) whose mother will rejoin them in Amsterdam in a day — only she doesn’t. They have to hit the road. In doing so Wenders avoids cliches and makes something of a German version of Paper Moon, only as a more grounded, believable story. Masterpiece. Alice is a character and a movie that I look forward to re-visiting.