Written as part of the blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. If you like movies, then you should join in: Just pick three movies that relate to the week's theme and tell us about them!
I love my mother. We share a very special, friendly, loving relationship (as most gay boys do with their mothers). A relationship, it must be said, that is COMPLETELY unlike any of the relationships in the films I have picked for this week's All In The Family Edition of Thursday Movie Picks.
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946) Everyone goes on and on about the
technically non-existent mother-son relationship in Hitchcock's masterpiece
Psycho, but this one shits all over that, if you ask me. Alex Sebastian (super suave Claude Rains) is a Nazi spy living in Brazil after the War, who meets and falls in love with Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), the daughter of one of his former compatriots. But his mother Anna (the terrific Leopoldine Konstantin) suspects that not all is as it seems with Alicia. Turns out she's right - Alicia is spying for the United States - so she contrives to poison Alicia to keep her from reporting to her handler (Cary Grant) until her son sees to reason. It really is Madame Sebastian who holds all the cards in this household, just like...
The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962) ...Mrs. Iselin, who would do anything to see her husband elected to the highest political office. She's the perfect supportive political wife and mother. Except for that one little thing... SPOILER...
she's a Communist agent using hypnosis and brainwashing techniques on her son and other soldiers to install a Communist into the Presidency. If you haven't seen it, all I'll say is that if you only know Angela Lansbury as the sweet old lady from
Bedknobs and Broomsticks and
Murder, She Wrote, then you ain't seen NOTHING yet!
Friday the 13th (Sean S. Cunningham, 1980) Okay, yeah, this kinda feels like a cheat, but COME ON. If you've seen this film - or the opening scene of Wes Craven's
Scream - then you know that Jason isn't the killer in the original
Friday the 13th. His mother is. And frankly, who can blame her? Those stupid kids were off having sex, doing drugs, and listening to rock & roll music instead of watching her darling little boy, and what do you think happens? He drowns! So Mrs. Voorhees does all she can to honor her son's memory and make sure those damn kids never have any fun. After all, isn't killing for someone the best way to show them you love them?
Friday the 13th is an interesting choice, means I could have also picked Psycho (which you mentioned in your first choice) which is like Friday the 13th where we only see one of the characters (the son instead of the mother).
ReplyDeleteI have actually seen all your choices (which are all good) but they're not fresh in my mind. Did like them but Notorious isn't one of my favourite Hitchcocks
Thanks! Notorious is absolutely in my top ten favorite Hitchcock films, and on any given day MIGHT be in the top five.
DeleteLOL I love that you chose Friday the 13th. That's a good one. I haven't seen the other two, though I probably should start making my way through Hitch's filmography.
ReplyDeleteOh, you absolutely should! Such a treasure trove of great films - you really can't go wrong if you start with anything he did in black & white.
DeleteHehehe Friday the 13th.... it was between that and Back to the Future but I figured plenty of people would pick that/have picked it for past weeks.
Love your first two picks, and Friday the 13th is a great pick and of the series the best of the bunch (as originals of series tend to be) but I'm not a slasher movie fan. Notorious is Hitch at his peak, it's one of my top five favorites of his films, and Madame Konstantin perfection in her role.
ReplyDeleteAngela Lansbury had such a great year in '62, have you ever seen her other film from that year All Fall Down? The film itself is a bit wobbly but she is great in it. She's brilliant and deeply disturbing in Candidate, a very strong film overall. It's a tough choice between Patty Duke and she for that Oscar win, Patty could really be considered a co-lead in Miracle Worker if she had been placed in lead I think Angela would have won in a walk.
I was excited for this week since I was able to include three favorites, and I really like my bonus which was the first that came to mind. I was sure it would show up on someone's list but I haven't seen it so far.
Beautiful Thing (1996)-Wonderful tale of two youths in working class London and their slow realization as they discover their true natures and fall in love. One, Ste, lives with his abusive father and brother but the other, Jamie, lives with his extremely direct and down to earth mother. Their sometimes combative but always strong relationship is a key factor in the film beautifully played by Linda Henry and Glenn Berry and all set to a great Mama Cass Elliott soundtrack.
I Could Go On Singing (1963)-Despite being a world famous singer Jenny Bowman played by Judy Garland is lonely and adrift. During an engagement in London she visits an old love, Dr. David Donne played by Dirk Bogarde, with whom she had a son years before. Having relinquished the boy, Mark, with the agreement that David and his wife would raise him as their adopted son, never letting him know his true paternity. However David is now a widower and Mark is living at boarding school. Jenny requests to see him and despite some reservations David allows the visit with a reminder of her promise. Secret mother and son hit it off and while visiting Jenny invites them both to her opening night and again with some trepidation David accepts but then is called away to an emergency in Rome. While he is gone Jenny attempts to forge a relationship with Mark...but will she be able to keep her promise? Not a musical but a drama with musical performances. This was Judy's last film, she and Bogarde have an incredible scene near the end that the two rewrote to make it more impactful, and while not looking her best she's in full command of her talents which she amply demonstrates.
The Mating Season (1951)-A mother who wants to help her only son allows his new wife to think she's the maid to help them out and not interrupt their "mating season". He objects but she tells him it's this way or she leaves for parts unknown and he reluctantly goes along. Because of their close relationship everything goes along fine at first but then the wife's snobbish mother comes to stay with them and things get rocky. The film is fill of sly humor and terrific performances by all but the real standout is Thelma Ritter as the mother, she was Oscar nominated (in support but she's the lead) and this is the role she should have won for. A real hidden treasure.
Honorable Mention-Mother (1996)-A neurotic writer (Albert Brooks) moves back in with his mother (Debbie Reynolds) after his second marriage falls apart to try and figure out what's at the root of his problems with personal relationships. Their sometimes contentious usually humorous interchanges, you’ll learn terribly useful things like freezer burn is really just a protective ice coating that must be removed to get to the perfectly good food trapped beneath it!, provide the crux of the story. Debbie drives the film with a warm, non-jokey turn in one of her best performances.
I actually haven't seen any of the other Friday the 13th films, because I don't really "do" slashers. Too gory. But the original is pretty funny and has some good jumpy moments.
DeleteNotorious is near-perfect. I've long thought Konstantin's performance is very underrated - one of the best performances in a Hitchcock film.
Totally agree on Lansbury in Candidate. It's a brilliant performance, and it's splitting hairs between her and Patty Duke, who is also totally brilliant in The Miracle Worker - even if it is a GIANT case of category fraud.
I ALMOST picked Beautiful Thing this week. But then I decided to go in a different direction. But I LOVE that movie SO. MUCH. I Could Go On Singing I have seen parts of and what I've seen is typically strong work from Garland. I'm dying to see the whole thing. Haven't seen Mating Season but want to because Thelma Ritter is <3. I saw Mother a LOOOONG time ago and wanted to pick it this week, but to be honest I don't remember much of it, other than thinking Debbie possibly should have gotten an Oscar nomination for her performance.
Oh you'll LOVE The Mating Season I think. Besides Thelma, at her Thelma best, Gene Tierney plays the daughter-in-law-dressed by husband at the time Oleg Cassini and Miriam Hopkins is perfectly cast as her twittering budinski of a mother. There is also one of my favorite, but little known, character actors Larry Keating cast as the son's boss who gets a chance to be very charming. I love Thelma in all her films, I've seen all but three-those have proved maddeningly elusive, but this is my favorite by far.
DeleteWhile Judy tried to return to film making with Valley of the Dolls after she made I Could Go on Singing I'm glad it didn't work out since that film turned out to be a trainwreck and she was in rough shape by that point. Singing proved her a fitting grace note for an exit. It even ends, this is not a spoiler, with her belting out a song in classic Garland style. It's not her best film but I think you'll love it too.
So glad to find another fan of Beautiful Thing!! I can't tell you how many times I saw that in the theatre of how many people I insisted had to see it, all of whom ended up loving it too.
Notorious is such a brilliant choice! And Manchurian Candidate is great too, because Lansbury is such a fierce presence!
ReplyDeleteI fucking LOVE Notorious. And Lansbury gives me such chills in Candidate. I had difficult playing cards for a while after I saw it the first time LOL.
DeleteYayyyy! Another Friday the 13th pick. The Manchurian Candidate is a great film. Need to rewatch it, been years since I've seen it. I am embarrassingly behind on my Hitchcock, having only seen a handful of his films. Unfortunately, this is not one. Need to fix that. Great work.
ReplyDeleteNotorious is definitely one of Hitchcock's best. See it ASAP!
DeleteCool picks! I haven't seen much of The Manchurian Candidate but the parts I have seen, but Angelia Lansbury is mesmerizing. Love Notorious too - it always seems like an underrated flick of Hitchcock's work.
ReplyDeleteSo true - Notorious is very underrated I think in favor of his flashier later films. It's very much in a minor key, but definitely not minor Hitchcock.
DeleteThe Manchurian Candidate! That's perfect.
ReplyDeleteWhew, are there any good mothers out there, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteOh, of course there are!
Delete...uuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
Helen Parr in The Incredibles?
Ahh...I almost watched Notorious. Had borrowed a stack of DVDs from the library but unfortunately wasn't able to watch everything by due date :(
ReplyDelete