Alfred Hitchcock: 5 underrated movies

There are several films of the filmmaker, commonly known as the 'Master of Suspense', which are always selected in all the tops and lists about Cinema, coming from the four corners of the world. Titles as "North by Northwest", with its bumpy espionage adventure, or the psychological horror of "Psycho" and also the obsession with the illusion of "Vertigo" (which now can not get rid of the 'Best Film of All Time' label, thanks to the notorious list of the magazine "Sight and Sound") made Hitchcock a director who is in the memory and growth of several generations of moviegoers and directors. However, despite these popular selections of the greatest titles in the history of Cinema (that have more or less dubious criteria - such as the Empire ones), there are a few titles of the Master that remain hidden from the general public - or at least devalued by a good part of it. Maybe because, in that motion pictures, the viewers were waiting to find a purely hitchcockianism visible in other films (such as the three mentioned earlier), or because they thought the film would be one thing and turned out to be something completely different, or because, in some of these more 'obscure' movies, Hitchcock did not explored only the suspense and the tension and decided to go much beyond, filming stories with epic proportions about the disorders of relationships and mankind. This article wants to resurrect five titles which, in my opinion, deserve to be seen, or revised or rethought. There are five works of the Hollywood era of Hitchcock, who were, perhaps, thanks to the mediatism and attention obtained by so many masterpieces that the director elaborated in the states. Hope you'll enjoy, and find (more) good reasons to learn in detail the brilliance of one of the greatest masters of cinema. As if there were not already enough!

1. - Lifeboat [1944]

Like "Rope", "Dial M for Murder" and "Rear Window", "Lifeboat" has its story confined to a single scenery, where all interactions and conflicts between the different characters are developed. It is a film that reflects the concerns of a time, by speaking of World War II and the danger of how Nazi threat could spread to the rest of the world. And this is demonstrated through the boat, which can even be seen as a metaphor for humanity, and to the way thar one single person can cause panic to many people. Hitchcock focuses here his usual tension in an unexpected way, unpleasant for some, but interesting and even addictive, for others. Besides having one of the most original filmmaker cameos, "Lifeboat" is a stunning exercise in narrative that, despite having characteristics that could be easily adapted to a play, was constructed in an brilliant manner, that only the Cinema could come true. An outstanding deconstruction of the sad atmosphere of war, and a flawless picture of suspense that makes us think in  the most generous and cruel things of the human being.

2. - Spellbound [1945]

Just talking of collaboration that Salvador Dali gave the film (creating the most memorable sequence of the story, which was longer than what it is on the theatrical and final cut) can make you understand how, despite some flaws (there are a couple of completely pointless scenes),"Spellbound" is another Hitchcock film that deserves to be discovered. It's a story of crime, amnesia and surreal dreams, with the beautiful Ingrid Bergman and with Gregory Peck in a role that many consider today too exaggerated. However, the disturbances of his character very well reflect the doubts and mysteries beyond the most obtuse cases of psychoanalysis, and being Hitchcock an expert in the art of manipulating the minds of viewers, it would come the day when science would be used in one of his films. A very interesting movie that lives of the chemistry between the two protagonists, that is so dangerous, because of the consequences of the scientific methods, and for the crime they attribute to the amnesic patient, in circumstances that will be unveiled step by step, throughout the plot.

3. - Under Capricorn [1949]

It is the only color film on this list, and it is probably the most undervalued and trampled of them all (even with the big acclaim from the gang of "Cahiers du Cinéma"), especially because it's the most 'anti-Hitchcock': "Under Capricorn" is not a thriller itself, like other films of the director, and among the various non-thrillers that he did this should be the one this deviates more of the best known iconic ideas in the style of filmmaker. Revolves around a love triangle, in the 19th century Australia, filming the social hierarchy that provides several contradictions between the characters and the feelings they cherish one another, divided for reasons of power, but also by dark secrets of the past and by mysteries that are waiting for an answer. With a fabulous cinematography and a magnificent set and costumes, and exciting in the construction of the romantic intrigue and the opposition between different factions of the nobility society of the time, "Under Capricorn" has very few moments of suspense, but the center of the melodrama and other components of the narrative are very well thought out in a way that only Hitchcock could have done - even if nothing in this movie looks like so many others of his curriculum.

4. - I Confess! [1953]

Among all underrated Hitchcock films (or between at least those who constitute this list), "I Confess!" is my favorite. It was poorly received at the time of the original release in the USA, because of the connection between the plot and some rituals of catholicism, whose meanings were inconceivable to American culture - the secrecy of the confession, which makes the intimate relationship between the priest and the sinner in something akin to a psychiatrist and his patient, but with spiritual matters. And that's why Father Michael Logan (a masterful performance by Montgomery Clift) does not reveal the identity of the murderer, who assumed the crime in an improvised confession shortly after the occurrence, and this will bring to the priest some problems - including the fact that he will become the no. 1 suspect of a crime he didn't commit. Compliance with the rules is assumed instead of individuality in this story, and this makes the theme of "innocent who becomes criminal in the eyes of public opinion" receive a new dimension in theHitchcockian universe: because in this case, Father Michael knows every detail that could exonerate him of the false accusation ... but he can not use them, because of the priesthood duty. "I Confess!" has a brilliant suspense that we could only find in other great films of the Master. Why was thrown into the ditch of oblivion? The passage of time can help you to look this movie in other way to the principles of the restricted and complex religion that is portrayed - and this is only a small part in this diabolic work about ethics, values​​, despair and cowardice.

5. - The Wrong Man [1957]

The plot is the same of  'I Confess' and many other Hitchcock movies, that his, the man accused of a crime he did not commit (one of his beloved themes). But here we see the adaptation of a true story - and despite that, it overlapse reality, and to a mere television and recreation of facts, to be an invention very well imagined by the filmmaker. However, we should not forget that Hitchcock didn't forgot the real side of the story, emphasizing, from the beginning, that the situation we described throughout the film is more amazing and unusual than many fictional elements we find in some of its most solid and provocative thrillers. Played by the brilliant Henry Fonda (in one of his most exciting performances) and Vera Miles in the role of the fragile wife of the accused, which ultimately feel physically and psychologically the consequences of the judicial error, "The Wrong Man" starts with simples elements for telling something that, unfortunately, became the most banal type of tragedies of our time, to create a sense of discomfort and concern in the viewer, who feels not only close to the characters that came on the screen, but also that what is happening to them has also to do with him, and with his condition in the middle of a disorganized and weakened society. Another great Hitchcock film that, even it is the least underrated title of this selection, it ended up to be unfairly forgotten, in comparison to other and more popular films of the director.

Quick Reviews: Hard Eight/Sydney - Paul Thomas Anderson [1996]

Noir tale of tricks, tough guys and gambling. It is the first motion picture of Paul Thomas Anderson, in a solid crime drama with powerful performances (Philip Baker Hall is the biggest badass), and some of the techniques that PTA would use in later movies (the quick travellings, the sarcastic sense of humour of his characters, the language, etc). So, Hard Eight is much more than just the debut of a great director.

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Quick Reviews: A Short Film About Killing (Krótki film o zabijaniu) - Krzysztof Kieslowski [1988]

Powerful analysis of the construction of a murder and its consequences for the person responsible for the crime and the social and political system in which he operates. Krzysztof Kieslowski disturbs the viewer and manipulates our conscience: would we end up siding with the supposed "villain"? A seemingly simple great film, that encourage several interpretations and raise many issues for reflection and discussion.

* * * * 1/2

Quick Reviews: The Last Picture Show - Peter Bogdanovich [1971]

Love stories, the memory and the decline of Cinema, the growing importance of television and a group of lives that intersect and collide. This is The Last Picture Show, first hit film of Peter Bogdanovich. More than a tribute to the cinema, is an invocation in honor of spectators, more or less moviegoers, who made popular the art and made ​​it part of their lives. What a great movie.

* * * * 1/2

Quick Reviews: The LEGO Movie - Phil Lord, Christopher Miller [2014]

An amazing and cinematic reinvention of the LEGO Universe. Without resorting to constant stereotypes of so many animated films, it discovers new comic and narrative ways, that turn The Lego Movie not just a movie for children, but also a delight for grown ups. Perhaps the best example of what is a film, in the literal sense, for the entire family, since Toy Story 3. Kids will enjoy it and adults are going to love it.

* * * * 1/2

Quick Reviews: The Awful Truth - Leo McCarey [1937]

Charming comedy movie, one of the most intelligent american classics of the genre. It's not just a screwball comedy with great performances and a terrific script, but it's also a satire of the americans and the consequences of love, marriage and divorce. Wonderful comedy, and the first appearance of Cary Grant's famous "persona", the one that brought popularity and eternity to the brilliant actor.

* * * * 1/2

Angels with Dirty Faces - Michael Curtiz [1938]

This review was first published in portuguese for the blog Companhia das Amêndoas. This is a translated and adapted version for the english language.

After watching this fascinating movie for the first time, I picked up a book, in one of those coincidences that life gives to us that are completely unlikely, with the name Famous Quotes From Famous People. And in one of the various quotes that were printed in the pages of that little book, there was one that caught my attention, because it corresponded to the opinion I formed about this excellent work of art that my eyes had the pleasure to behold. The quote is from Robert Frost, one of the greatest authors of north-american poetry, and he says: "It is absurd to think that the only way to tell if a poem is lasting is to wait and see if it lasts. The right reader of a good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken an immortal wound — that he will never get over it." And if we change the "Poem" mentioned by Frost for "Movie", the opinion of the writer perfectly suits to Angels with Dirty Faces... and to many other movies I love, I confess. I say this because I think this film, directed by Michael Curtiz (the filmmaker who would make, some years later, that unforgetable classic called Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart too, but here in Angels he has a supporting - but terrific! -  role), has always been in the shadow of other great movies, much more popular, and this one had just endured because it obtained, over the decades, a legion of numerous fans of the treasures of Cinema (the picture has now a score of 8.0 on IMDB, which is very good). But if it were only "time" causes, as Frost said, Angels with Dirty Faces would be lost in that decade (not so) far away that was the thirties. If we expected the film would endure over the years (having neither great acclaim from critics the following decades, or the recognition of major institutions such as the American Film Institute), it would be as if it never existed. I mean, watching the quality of the negative (and we do not know if it is "the" negative) that was converted for the DVD so-so special edition of this motion picture, it's noticeable that it never had appropriate conditions of conservation (there are various faults, very visible, in the reels and in many frames, throughout the film).

But I said the movie was in the shadow. And then I talk again in Casablanca. That is, probably, the most popular title from Michael Curtiz's filmography. But it hid many other great movies of the director, such as this one. And I love Casablanca, it is one of my other favorite movies of all time. But it's sad when a motion picture almost "destroy" all the work of a filmmaker who, by the way, was one of the greatest professionals in his area at that time, because Curtiz has so much to explore (in quality and in quantity - in the year Angels was release, Curtiz made three other movies, almost simultaneously. And today, that's a big achievement, if we compare with the super-productions, many of them so uninteresting, that take too long to be made...), and this wonderful picture is the exemple of that quality, of the american classic Cinema that is impossible to remake today, because they are of a decade and of a period of Hollywood where the excellence of the production of the great directors were so inspiring, touching, and original. Angels with Dirty Faces is a movie of a genre that was fashionable at the time it debuted: the gangster movies, and when were made terrific and terrible and "standard" titles in that genre. It is like the westerns. Many of them were made in the "golden ages" of the cowboy movie stories, but very few of them stood out. Many of the gangster movies had just beatings, corruption and vulgar love stories...

However, there are always isolated spots in the middle of the ocean, and Angels with Dirty Faces elevates the genre of the gangster film to a higher level, as can also give some touches of film noir and good drama that attach to this work a superlative quality. The story is told in a fluid way, very quickly but without losing any shred of credibility. We follow Rocky Sullivan (played by a smashing James Cagney), a gangster who, after having spent fifteen years of prison to prison, come out and involves himself into more schemes, to return to the criminal underworld. On his way he finds Jerry (Pat O'Brien in one more collaboration with old pal Cagney), his childhood friend who became a priest. He not only intends to put Rocky on the right track (because he thinks there's still hope for the salvation of his soul), but also wants to prevent a group of boys (played by the Dead End Kids, who had succeed on Broadway) to not follow the same paths of the most feared criminal in the city. However, the unscrupulous attorney of Rocky (Humphrey Bogart), who decided to steal Rocky's money that he was ordered to save while he was in jail, wants to withdraw his "client" of the way when he returns from prison. And join other gangsters join him, to destroy Rocky's reputation. And there is a love story, too.

The result of this variety of stories (which are all very simple, but with more depth than they appear) is a powerful and unparalleled work in the Classic Cinema. Michael Curtiz's achievement is intelligent and emotionally overwhelming, and I enjoyed the strong use of light in the scenarios, the photography of the scenes (which loses some of its glimmer because of the degraded copy of the DVD), the performances of the actors, the script, which has great quotes and is very well planned, executed and interpreted. The soundtrack is excellent and fits perfectly with the whole film, being well selected and organized. I emphasize also the camera angles, approaching us from the characters and the environments that surround them (and with that Curtiz showed one of its greatest strengths and talents), and that was the cause of my excitement with the last moments of the film ((such as the apotheosis of Cagney and O'Brien, showing that friendship and human dignity has no limits, regardless of the environment in which we were born). Angels with Dorty Faces is, for me, and I say this without fear, a masterpiece. This movie shows how certain classics, even if they can not withstand the time, the lists of critics and all those things, they can always, if they're good, get a cult of fans delighted with it, managing to increase interest in discovering this movie treasures.

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