st-shot
Joined Nov 2006
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Detective Scotty Elster (James Stewart), recuperating from a traumatic vertigo event is contacted by an old acquaintance, Gavin Elster (Tom Elmore) and hired to tail his disturbed wife Madeline (Kim Novak) to get at the root cause of the malady. She follows a routine daily by driving her ostentatious Rolls Royce about San Francisco and visiting a museum when one day she decides to toss herself into San Francisco Bay. Elster rescues her and the two draw close but she remains guarded.
Vertigo's greatest mystery to me is its late rise in prominence over the decades where Sight and Sound called it the finest film in history in a critics poll. In my opinion it is not even the best of his output during the 50s. Stewart as vulnerable failure is more than adequate but Novak comes across bland and unemotive. The plot overall is a touch improbable and there's a hint Hitch paints himself into a corner by utilizing flashback rather than tie matters up at the end of the picture.
Similar in many ways to Chinatown (74) and directed by Hitchcock acolyte, Roman Polanski, I find Vertigo the inferior work in which the student's work outclasses the master's in nearly everyway. An OK Hitch, its king of the hill status more than dubious, however.
Vertigo's greatest mystery to me is its late rise in prominence over the decades where Sight and Sound called it the finest film in history in a critics poll. In my opinion it is not even the best of his output during the 50s. Stewart as vulnerable failure is more than adequate but Novak comes across bland and unemotive. The plot overall is a touch improbable and there's a hint Hitch paints himself into a corner by utilizing flashback rather than tie matters up at the end of the picture.
Similar in many ways to Chinatown (74) and directed by Hitchcock acolyte, Roman Polanski, I find Vertigo the inferior work in which the student's work outclasses the master's in nearly everyway. An OK Hitch, its king of the hill status more than dubious, however.
Playwright Barton Fink (John Turturro) is out to fight for the little man in society. He yearns to be their voice and after writing a Broadway hit feels he is in a position to write the great American play but instead reluctantly acquiesces to an offer from Hollywood. Ensconced in The Earle, a fleabag hotel, he immediately develops writers block while dealing with a mysterious next door neighbor (John Goodman) and the bombastic tirades of a studio head ( Michael Lerner). He's befriended by an alcoholic writer and his partner who eventually complicate matters when matters begin to spiral out of control.
Turturro is somewhere between being a Coen doppelganger and Harold Lloyd as he encounters a myriad of obtuse personalities in La, La land and battles the block with few words forthcoming. Goodman conveys an amiable disturbing menace while studio bosses played by Tony Shalhoub and especially Michael Lerner wreak rapid fire havoc on underlings with over the top aplomb.
Roger Deakins delivers his usual superb lensing while the production, art and set direction do a wonderful job of capturing the period and the contrasting settings of the seedy hotel and sunny California and the spacious offices of studio heads.
The last quarter hour however leads to speculation with a sharp surreal turn that debatably fits into the story or simply implodes it. A character rich tragicomedy.
Turturro is somewhere between being a Coen doppelganger and Harold Lloyd as he encounters a myriad of obtuse personalities in La, La land and battles the block with few words forthcoming. Goodman conveys an amiable disturbing menace while studio bosses played by Tony Shalhoub and especially Michael Lerner wreak rapid fire havoc on underlings with over the top aplomb.
Roger Deakins delivers his usual superb lensing while the production, art and set direction do a wonderful job of capturing the period and the contrasting settings of the seedy hotel and sunny California and the spacious offices of studio heads.
The last quarter hour however leads to speculation with a sharp surreal turn that debatably fits into the story or simply implodes it. A character rich tragicomedy.
Edmund O'Brien womanizers and chain smokes as he climbs his way to the top in 711 Ocean Drive. An indictment of illegal gambling and its effects upon society, the message is soon lost in favor of the rise and fall corrupted by power.
Workaday slob Mal Granger (O'Brien) is more than content with his lifestyle of a day's pay laboring as a phone technician and chasing chicks. Marriage is simply out of the question. When his bookie shows him the inner workings of gambling syndicate, he wants in and given his acumen is found to be a valuable asset. In no time he becomes a partner and eventually takes over after said partner is whacked.
The East syndicate soon comes calling and wants in on the action while Granger becomes fixated with the wife (Joanne Dru) of the emissary strongly played by Don Porter. Living the high life in a Malibu waterfront it soon starts to unravel.
O'Brien's Granger is a confident go getter from the start and it eventually leads to his downfall as the mob from back east turns the screws. Posing as honorable business men they are open to negotiation but rely on violence if called for. A smarmy but determined Otto Kruger perfectly symbolizes the legitimate looking criminal with swarthy minions to do his dirty work.
A banal declaration precedes the opening of the film in an attempt to be a public service but is actually a rise and fall character study with mixed results.
Workaday slob Mal Granger (O'Brien) is more than content with his lifestyle of a day's pay laboring as a phone technician and chasing chicks. Marriage is simply out of the question. When his bookie shows him the inner workings of gambling syndicate, he wants in and given his acumen is found to be a valuable asset. In no time he becomes a partner and eventually takes over after said partner is whacked.
The East syndicate soon comes calling and wants in on the action while Granger becomes fixated with the wife (Joanne Dru) of the emissary strongly played by Don Porter. Living the high life in a Malibu waterfront it soon starts to unravel.
O'Brien's Granger is a confident go getter from the start and it eventually leads to his downfall as the mob from back east turns the screws. Posing as honorable business men they are open to negotiation but rely on violence if called for. A smarmy but determined Otto Kruger perfectly symbolizes the legitimate looking criminal with swarthy minions to do his dirty work.
A banal declaration precedes the opening of the film in an attempt to be a public service but is actually a rise and fall character study with mixed results.