Liars and Saints

 With "The Birds," Hitchcock stepped outside of his comfort zone; he made a slightly supernatural movie. Swarms of birds gather and attack mild-mannered humans. No explanation is offered. The birds cause fires, scratch at eyes, and torment children in a schoolyard.  The current blockbuster, "Final Destination: Bloodlines," made me think of Hitchcock's unusual late-phase work. Mid-century, a young woman visits a newly opened "Space Needle" stand-in. She has a premonition that many people in the building will die, so she manages to save several of them. (That's not to say that death *doesn't* occur. A glass floor caves in. A piano falls on a malevolent child. A gown is engulfed in flames.) Having cheated death, the woman realizes she is in trouble. Death, or DEATH, is now angry. DEATH will hunt down each of its intended victims in creative ways; if the Space Needle didn't work, then a train accident will have to suffice. A beheading will have...

  People are more emphatically themselves, at Halloween. In Maplewood, the season means that one parent will publish a shrill post on Facebook: "Hey! Enough with the artificial spider webs! They're bad for the birds." Another parent will write: "It's this kind of liberal hysteria that will help to ensure that Trump gets elected in a few months." A third worries that certain decorative choices are too scary for little ones. This writer has actually photographed a neighbor's display--its theme, "demon ghoul babies"--and then labeled the photo "unacceptable." My husband gave me a small bobble-head figurine; it's Chucky, from "Bride of Chucky." The doll carries a knife. My daughter then smuggled the Chucky into school; I imagine the prop inspired some fruitful conversations. My own great desire this season--a chance to see "North by Northwest" on the giant screen, at Manhattan's Paris Cinema--was thwarted. Chil...

 One kind of Hitchcock film rejects "the omniscient narrator": We're stuck with the mind of our protagonist, who may or may not be right to think that a supporting character is acting in a sketchy way. This is the trick in "Rear Window," and in "Suspicion." Is our neighbor awake at 3 AM because he is trying (covertly) to bury the corpse of his wife? Or is he awake just because he is awake? A new movie, "Watcher," seems to borrow from Hitchcock. An American woman moves to Romania because her husband has found a job. A killer is on the loose--"the Spider"--and our heroine starts to think that she has unmasked the Spider by chance, against her own will. Our heroine's well-intentioned husband is skeptical; and, at times, our heroine herself is skeptical. Does a guy sit deliberately, directly behind our heroine (the setting is a screening of "Charade")? Is this an intimidation tactic? Or is one particular seat just really d...

 A new book on Hitchcock, "The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock," points out a problem in current critical writing. There's a habit of calling any suspense film "Hitchcockian." So SPLIT can be called "Hitchcockian." THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN can be called "Hitchcockian." The new book argues that something is very wrong here. SPLIT is *not* Hitchcockian because it's not funny. If you take away the humor, you lose the comparison. "Hitchcockian" must mean BOTH suspenseful AND funny. I think it's this unique blend that makes Hitchcock special; it's why viewers today will happily watch a Hitchock film, while rolling their eyes at many other proposed classics (according to Roger Ebert). Yesterday, Marc and I watched DIAL M FOR MURDER--not in Hitchcock's top tier, but still so much fun. The story is gripping. A sociopath worries his wife will leave him--and take her money--so he arranges for a killing. He finds a thug and black...

It's almost Halloween. May I recommend "Rear Window"? Critics say "Vertigo" is better. But I find "Vertigo" a bit slow in parts. The convolutions of the plot get to be a bit much. Here are things to cherish, in "Window": *The maid. James Stewart's helper is a real asset, especially when she speaks up in favor of Grace Kelly: "Good sense belongs wherever it finds itself." In other words: It doesn't matter if you're fancy. If you're sensible, you can adjust to any circumstances. *The final image. When Grace Kelly and James Stewart seem to have reached a truce, Grace Kelly indicates her new status with her choice of reading material. We see her scanning "Beyond the High Himalayas": She is going to rough it. She is going to leave her fancy life and be an adventurer, like her future husband. But as soon as Stewart falls asleep, Kelly drops her book. And she picks up a copy of "Vogue." The NYT s...

The best cupcake in New York City is from Magnolia Bakery. In fact, the best Saturday imaginable involves a trip to Magnolia. The one on Bleecker. The one that Carrie Bradshaw made famous. You go and you get your cupcake. (Bleecker St. has become less crazed since the days of SATC, and if you pick an odd hour, say, 11 AM, you're not going to face insufferable lines at Magnolia. Who says you can't have a cupcake at 11 AM? I say you *can* ....) You get your morning cupcake, and you sit in the little park across the street with the chess tables. The cupcake should have a chocolate base, and then the frosting should be buttercream. What's special about Magnolia is that there really is no effort to pretend that the cake itself is important. The cake is, like, the width and depth of a dime. A Magnolia cupcake is merely a vehicle for the delivery of frosting--and I like that Magnolia doesn't "pretend." I tend to hate duplicitousness. Not only is Magnolia frosti...

You first hear about Hitchcock via "Psycho." I remember Disney's MGM Studios would highlight the magic of sound engineering via Hitchcock's famous "shower scene." (I'm certain this has now been removed. Someone, at some point, must have questioned the wisdom of introducing very small children to the shower stabbing. I, for one, attended that demonstration, then became convinced that someone would murder me in my own shower at any moment. I was ten years old. For many months thereafter, I showered with a bottle of Pantene Pro-V clutched tightly in one hand; I was prepared to bludgeon anyone who came at me with a knife.) When I actually saw "Psycho," in my teens, I was pleased to discover how not-scared I was. That was because the low-tech aura was distracting; no one had prepared me for the fact that a movie made mid-century would not have the same computer-enhanced advantages of, say, Will Smith's "Independence Day." Certain a...

What is a plot? It's an effort one character makes to get what he wants. If you have an ambition, duplicitousness will almost certainly follow. It's in the nature of human behavior. You package your motives in nice, fancy paper, and you hope that no one looks too closely. You try to get other people to behave in the way you desire--and misunderstandings and comedy almost certainly pop up, as a result. For Shakespeare, a metaphor for life's messiness was cross-dressing.  You have  a grand dream? The realization of that dream will almost always entail pretending to be a  boy,  when you're a  girl,  or vice versa. At least in the land of Shakespeare. For John le Carre, a wish almost always involves spying. You pretend to be an ally when you're not, and you gather info covertly, and the tension inherent in a "performance" is the tension that keeps readers turning pages. In my view, one of the most scintillating recent Broadway plots is not actually from a ...