DVD Collectors Online

Rebecca, a review by Rich

Academy Award Best Picture winner 1940

Rebecca





Distant looks, pouting, meaningful glances, crap backgrounds, orchestral crescendos, stiff acting, sharp intakes of breath etc etc. There is a lot wrong with this film 70 years on, it is almost at times the perfect example of why so many people today would not sit through an old movie.
However...(and before Jon jumps all over me) scratch underneath and persevere, and you are treated to an atmospheric drama with a touch of romance, with enough suspense and plot twists to keep you guessing.  Hitchcock creates a melancholy, perhaps dark?, mood for this classic, and Judith Anderson is memorably outstanding as the spooky (lesbian??) Mrs. Danvers. Joan Fontaine is convincing as mousy Mrs De Winter part 2, but I was never sure if Olivier was the right choice as lead actor?
It is tame by todays standards, at times the acting is comical, Hitchcock made better films that didn't win an Academy Award for best picture, but once you overcome the negatives all the positives filter through to a film that is definately worth watching and I whole-heartedly recommend it.
 

(From Riches Random Reviews on February 17th, 2009)

The Lady Vanishes, a review by Jon

The Lady Vanishes (1938)
4 out of 5



While travelling home alone by train, Iris is shocked when a lady she befriended has completely vanished and the other passengers deny she ever existed. Only the annoying Gilbert and a charming surgeon are willing to help.

This great film has inspired and delighted for generations, with a water-tight screenplay that moves effortlessly between thriller, romance and comedy, never overplaying any moment and as Marie said it fairly bats along too, making short work of the 90 minutes. They seem to spend as much time in the hotel, establishing characters, than on the train.

The premise is delicously simple and Hitch enthusiastically presents it as a magic trick; surely no accident that one supporting character is a traveling magician and typically, I don't think he needed to be except for a fantastic farcical set piece. But then the whole film is full of little touches that if left out would have made little difference to the plot, but give the film a spirit that defies its age. He's always been theatrical, with The 39 Steps and The Man Who Knew Too Much both ending on large stages with a huge audience. Here he seems to relish having to force his showmanship onto a small train with no audience at all. There is a brilliant moment with two brandy glasses, pivotal to the scene, and to make them loom large in the foreground, he had two giant versions made for certain angles! The model work on the opening shot is above average for the time too.

With Secret Agent, we suggested that Hitchcock may well have been the inspiration for Bond. Here I wonder if he was one of the founding fathers of the disaster movie? Ok, this one doesn't have a disaster, but it does have a group of characters whose only function is to be trapped on a train. Trains were popular in cinema around this time and it wasn't the first he had used them and it definitely wouldn't be the last. Probably Agatha Christie is the real one to blame because of Murder on the Orient Express, but I do love how individual and detailed each passenger is and their reasons for denying the existence of Miss Froy are quite brilliant in how they fit together, never feeling contrived. Apart from the wonderful lead couple of Michael Redgrave and the lovely Margaret Lockwood, my favourites were predictably the hilarious English gents trying to get back to England for the cricket, far more put out by a lack of dignity with the cheeky maid in the hotel, than the gunplay on the train! Although the opening scene suggested for a moment their concerns may have been for country rather than team. Considering the film was made in 1938, that was really quite audacious. To be honest, the background plot is too whimsical and has dated, considering that warring European countries was about to be a lot more than Boys Own adventure. Maybe I'm misreading it though; what better "up yours" statement to Hitler is there than presenting an England so capable, frail pensioners and pompous cricket fans were ready to dismiss murder as a mere nuisance? You can't put anything past Hitchcock.

The thing I really enjoy about his films though is the sheer confidence he directs them with. He actually embraces the flaws, raising them up as shoow-pieces instead of trying to disguise them. So it is then, in a film that has several nerve jangling moments (the name on the window; the brandy), it also has lunacy and silliness so we accept the more absurd moments. Because really, the whole central plot surrounding a little old lady (the fantastic Dame May Whitty) is daft. She can't half move fast, even without a stairlift!

Did I say central plot? Sorry, that's wrong. It's actually just another of his famed MacGuffins. No, like The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes is really a romance with a thriller getting in the way. And so one of the very best examples of film writing ends rather too neatly; except was that another two-fingered salute to potential aggressors?

(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on May 21st, 2009)

Off the Map: The Complete Series, a review by addicted2dvd

Off the Map: The Complete Series (2011/United States)

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Stars:
Jonathan Castellanos as Charlie
Valerie Cruz as Dr. Zitajalehrena "Zee" Alvarez
Caroline Dhavernas as Dr. Lily Brenner
Jason George as Dr. Otis Cole
Zach Gilford as Dr. Tommy Fuller
Mamie Gummer as Dr. Mina Minard
Martin Henderson as Dr. Ben Keeton
Rachelle LeFevre as Dr. Ryan Clark

Extras:

• Bonus Trailers
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• Outtakes/Bloopers
• Closed Captioned

I just finished this complete series set. It was a new series that aired last season... made by the same people that make Grey's Anatomy. The series is more then a medical drama... it is more like a medical drama mixed with an action/adventure type series. Unfortunately it only lasted a half of season before getting canceled. Since it was canceled so quickly there isn't a satisfying ending to the series. To many questions left unanswered. While I enjoyed every minute of this series, I am not surprised that it was canceled the way it was. It isn't the best medical drama I ever seen... and I can see where some people wouldn't like it considering the main storyline and location. But personally that is one of the things I liked about it. My favorite character on this series is Dr. Lily Brenner played by Caroline Dhavernas... who coincidentally starred in another short-lived series I really liked... Wonderfalls. My Favorite episode is a little hard for me to pick since I enjoyed them all so much... but I guess I would have to go with I'm Here... an episode where the doctors had to amputate a girls leg underwater when she gets trapped in some rocks while scuba diving. Surprisingly for a short-lived series... there is a nice amount of extras. My favorite extra is normally the Outtakes/Bloopers... but not in this case as there really wasn't much to them at all this time. So in this set I would have to say the Making Of featurette has to be my favorite. It really was interesting to see all the locations and how they shot some of the stuff they did.

I would say if you can deal with the fact that there is no satisfactory ending to the series... this is one I would recommend checking out. Especially if you normally enjoy medical dramas. As this is a medical drama with a twist.




(From Off the Map: The Complete Series on February 2nd, 2012)