112- Strangers on a Train

Analysis and comedic take on the 1936 thriller Sabotage directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  This is not the 1942 thriller by Hitchcock called Saboteur which starred Robert Cummings.  Secret Agent might have been a better title for the movie by Hitchcock had already used it earlier in the year for a differnt thriller.  Sabotage concerns the a mild-mannered movie theater owner in London name Karl Verloc that works as a Secret Agent for a foriegn power.  Somehow, he does his extra-carricular activities without any suspicion of his young wife, who thinks he is just a sweet man that struggles to run a movie house.  The couple is joined by the wife's young brother, a pre-teen who seems to be living the charmed life getting to see his fill of movies by just venturing out their apartment door.  Unfortunately for the boy Stevie this is as close to Cinema Pardiso as the movie gets.  The McGuffin is a movie tin.  The Hitchcock cameo is a quick one, but there is a second surprise cameo in store.

Analysis and comedic take on the 1955 who done it directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  The movie seems to be straight out of a Shakespearean comedy of errors lending itself to the absurdity of the plot as four characters at first individually and the en mass attempt to deal with Harry.  You see the trouble with Harry is that he is dead.  Although the movie was a favorite of Hitchcock, because of how the studio marketed the premise it did not do well at the box office except for a single theatre in Paris in which it sold out for six months straight.  The movie marks the film acting debute of a young Shirley MacLaine.  The technicolor captures the fall colors of Vermont at their peak.  Oh, Yes. Hitchcock literally trys to slip into a shot unseen.

Analyis and comedic take on the 1951 thriller, Strangers on a Train directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  The movie centers around the random meeting of two strangers in the club car of a train commuting from New York to Washington DC.  The hero is Farley Granger (previously one of the pychopaths in Rope) who as Guy Haines has been unsuccessful in divorcing his current wife to be able to marry a Senator's daughter (Ruth Roman).  The villian is Robert Walker who plays the sociopath Bruno Anthony who is irritated by his father's insistance that he be gainfully employed.  Near the end of the train ride Bruno suggests that they murder each other's problem.   The McGuffin is a cigarette lighter. Hitchcock's appearance is a humorous bit following the inital train ride so be vigilant.

Analysis and comedic take on the 1963 horor thriller The Birds directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  The movie stars Tippi Hedron (mother of Melanie Griffith) as a young woman of means who on a whim decides to deliver a pair of love birds to the little sister of a man she met briefly in a pet store in San Fransisco.  The man played by Rod Taylor lives in a seaside community of Bodega Bay, which for an unknown reason is set upon by the local bird population with murderous intent shortly after the arrival of Hedron.  Does this have something to do with the love birds?  Hitchcock's appearance is early and easily recognizable so your vigilance can be lax.

Analyisis and comedic take on the 1928 thriller Blackmail directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  It was two...two...two films in one.  If was first filmed as a silent film but Hitchcock's studio recently obtained sound equipment so key scenes were completely refilmed to make it a sound picture.  Leading lady Anny Andra had a thick East European accent so a British actress stood out of camera  site saying her lines into a microphone while Andra  mouthed them on camera.  The story follows the girlfriend of a police detective who kills a man that was attempting to rape her, and they find themselves blackmailed by a petty thief.  The boyfriend steers the investigation toward the blackmailer and we have a chase climaxing in the domed library of a museum.  The Hitchcock cameo is one of his funniest and longest, so stay vigilant because you don't want to miss a second of it.

Analysis and comedic take on the 1950 murder mystery directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  The movie follows the attempts of Eve (Jane Wyman) to clear the name of accused murderer Jonathan (Richard Todd) by going undercover as the maid of Charlotte (Marlene Dietrich) the victem's wife.  Eve is aided by her witty oddball father The Commodore (Alistair Sim).  The film broaches the subject of truth and memory through the different stories and flashbacks shown of the inncident.  The McGuffin is a bloody dress, and we are additionally entertained by the humerous supporting role of Chubby (Pat Hitchcock).  The cameo is  Hitchcock seemingly critiquing Wyman's performance, so stay vigilanr.

Analysis and comic take on the 1946 Spy Thriller Notorious directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  Two of Hitchcock's favorite stars play the leads with CIA agent Cary Grant recruiting and subsquently falling in love with Ingrid Bergman the daughter of an American traitor who attempts to redeam her name  going undercover  by seducing and marrying Claude Raines a Nazi scientist operating in Brazil.  Since the plot sounds operatic we have assigned Leitmotifs to main characters and plot situations.  Hitchcock's cameo is one of his more amusing so stay vigilant.

Analysis and comic take on the 1938 film The Lady Vanishes directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  The Lady Vanishes main plot concerns an elderly englishwoman who disappears mid train ride and the main characters efforts to find her.  It also launched Basil Radford and Nauton Wayne as the comedic duo of the staid British citizens and cricket finatics Childers and Caldicot.  Hitch's cameo is one of his more humorous so as always stay vigilant.

Analysis and comic take on the 1935 film The 39 Steps directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  The 39 Steps is not only the title of the movie but serves as the McGuffin.  The entire movie is spent trying to discover what the 39 Steps are which is finally revealed in a dramatic climax at the London Palladium during which the foriegn operatives foiled.  Hitch's cameo is a little on the quick side so as always stay vigilant.

Analysis and comedic take on the 1954 film Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  Before there was cable television with reality TV,  and well before Rick Sanchez hooked up interdemensional cable for the Smith family on Adult Swim, there were Peeping Toms (I mean there was Rear Window).  Jimmy Stewart plays a professional photographer laid up with a broken leg who spends his days watching the antics of his neighbors from an apartment overlooking a Greenwich Village court yard. when he thinks he may have witnessed a murder.  Hitchcock makes his cameo as a guest of one of the neighbors.  But which one and when.