Shadow Of A Doubt

We can get at least one week of classic movies in.

I hadn't heard of Shadow Of A Doubt until not that long ago, I believe it came to my attention through previously reviewed documentary Nightmares In Red, White, And Blue so I knew bare basics of plot but what an interesting thing it must have been to walk into this movie blind with maybe a film trailer back then. The plot follows a young woman named Charlie who is a bit fed up with her mundane life in an idyllic small town before her uncle also named Charlie comes to visit, and right off the bat you know something is up. Her uncle is being followed by two men, he acts suspicious for brief moments of time, but for a good chunk of the movie you don't actually know what the deal is and the twist reveal is handled incredibly well. Then the plot only thickens from there. It's pretty damn good, and a good deal of it can be laid solely on the shoulders of our leads, Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright, I of course recognize Joseph as the best friend of Orson Welles in Citizen Kane and he does a real effective job playing an antagonist, and Teresa has a lot of optimistic love that wanes as the film goes on. The film has great camera work with the most excellent use of dutch angles I have seen in a long, long time and good lord did this movie remind me why I love black and white pictures so much. It looks so good, give me those shadows, give me those oblique angles, give me those dramatic shots, I absolutely loved it. I will however note two things that were just...what? Okay, I know this was totally not the intention of the film, less than zero percent even, but wow the relationship between Charlie and her uncle is pushing so friggin' close to romance it's not even funny. Like you can just see it in her eyes she is head over heels for this man and I'm sitting there just praying it doesn't take that next step. The other thing was, and this I actually believe was intentional, is that uncle Charlie got in a rough accident as a kid and fractured his skull and after he recovered he started getting into trouble while he was a quiet child before the incident. Because that's how criminals are made! But in all seriousness this is a great film, I really got super into it and had no idea what was going to happen next, and as the film that Hitchcock said was his favorite of all that he made, I can see why. It's for sure a movie deserving to be at least viewed once, even if only because of Joseph's great performance. 4 stars, 8/10, and the party keeps on going with this director so see you tomorrow.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes

What a strange and yet surprisingly charming movie.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes, one of Vincent Price's strangest roles to say the least. The story follows Phibes on a revenge mission against the doctors who failed to save his beloved wife, and the police in an attempt to stop him. Kind of a slasher film in a way with one of the most unique ways of dispatching people I have ever seen in a movie, Phibes uses the ancient plagues of Egypt to enact his revenge making for one of the most gruesome and striking collection of death scenes in any movie. Vincent Price commands the entire picture and the odd thing is you do not hear him speak until about 30 minutes in. Phibes went through a terrible accident that severely disfigured him and destroyed his voice, forcing him to make this weird phonograph machine plugged directly into his voice box in order to talk, so for the first third of the whole movie his on screen time is based solely on his presence alone, and my God is it excellent. He gets his point across through a cold stare, dark attire, and horriffying actions. Phibes also has a female assistant who doesn't speak a single line, we know nothing about her or how she knows Phibes and yet, I don't really mind. Mystery is the keyword in this movie, very much reminds me of Phantom Of The Opera in a way, a disfigured genius hiding behind a mask with a penchant for the organ and the violin, has an undying love for the woman of his life, invents many contraptions and death traps, and has no qualms about killing those that stand in his way. The film is gorgeous to look at in Phibes' lair, full of color and spectacle with some shots looking so nice they would be right at home framed on my wall. The film also has some slight dark comedy in it, primarily with the inept police force, it has great dry witty british humor in it. The way Phibes kills people gives thought to another horror villain with a taste for traps and theatrics, yep Dr. Phibes was an inspiration for Jigsaw in the Saw franchise, pretty awesome. The blood and gore is both light and very heavy somehow, showing truly horrifying end results and yet hardly showing it at all, it has a PG-13 rating which is odd since that rating didn't exist until the 80s, so maybe it was an R rating back then. It's the most strange, surreal, horrifying yet charming, beautiful, and even a bit emotional movie I have seen.

Tomorrow we review the sequel to this well made horror film.