Dedications: My four late friends Rory, Stan, Bryan, Jeff - shine on you crazy diamonds, they would have blogged too. Then theres Garry from Brisbane, Franco in Milan, Mike now in S.F. / my '60s-'80s gang: Ned & Joseph in Ireland; in England: Frank, Des, Guy, Clive, Joe & Joe, Ian, Ivan, Nick, David, Les, Stewart, the 3 Michaels / Catriona, Sally, Monica, Jean, Ella, Anne, Candie / and now: Daryl in N.Y., Jerry, John, Colin, Martin and Donal.

Thursday 31 December 2015

Midge's place ...

Looking at VERTIGO once again on Blu-ray is  a revelation - like those other Hitchs on Blu, its the music that grabs one - those great scores by Bernard Herrmann - here, and in PSYCHO particularly, they add so much more to the film ....  but now VERTIGO has something else for me: another Apartment We Love - Midge's place - is it  studio? is there a bedroom? overlooking San Francisco. Its just too divine and like Kate Hepburn's fancy New York apartment in DESK SET, or the Harrisons' swish London one in THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE or Jack Buchanan's so tasteful  (pure Minnelli) town house in THE BANDWAGON or of course the perfect mid-50s house created for NORTH BY NORTHWEST - we want to live there. 
I particularly like the ideal little kitchen area where Jimmy Stewart's Scottie makes some coffee - so compact with those ideal shelves and all one would need ...... Barbara Bel Geddes too creates one of Hitch's most sympathetic second female leads as Midge, just like Suzanne Pleshette in THE BIRDS or Diane Baker in MARNIE.
Even reading how the scene where Kim jumps into the bay was shot does not spoil the mood - it was actually a stand-in for that shot, and he jumped into parachute material, and the shot of Kim in the water was a tank shot, so nobody was actually in the ocean - movies, how we love them ! 

4 comments:

  1. Hello, Michael- Two other terrific apartments - Ingrid Bergman's in "Indiscreet" and Barry Nelson's in "Mary, Mary" (which is identical to the set of the Broadway play on which it is based.)

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  2. Yes, INDISCREET of course, I have never had a chance to see MARY MARY. I also should have included Julian Kay's very L.A. apartment in AMERICAN GIGOLO, and that lovely Irish cottage inerior (with the half doors) in THE QUIET MAN !

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  3. Funnily enough, I just watched Ophuls' THE RECKLESS MOMENT last night and it was the interior of Joan Bennett's house that made the greatest impression on me. We should collaborate on a book "Apartments at the Pictures" :)

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  4. I recorded THE RECKLESS MOMENT to see again soon, I liked the Tilda Swinton remake too ...

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