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A Movie A Day: Quint on Hitchcock’s TORN CURTAIN (1966)
Come on, gentlemen! Cluck, cluck, cluck! You’re like chickens!

Love Hitchcock by mrfan	Jun 26th, 2008 08:24:43 PM
Great director.
Quint... by KCViking	Jun 26th, 2008 08:32:24 PM
Never heard of this movie before.Thanks for the heads up! Paul Newman in a Hitchcock film sounds like a winner! Still can't believe I've never heard of this before.
Yeah... by Finding Forrestal	Jun 26th, 2008 08:56:26 PM
TORN CURTAIN is minor Hitchcock. Although the murder sequences is one of his best directed.
hitchcock rules by rhcp2sweet	Jun 26th, 2008 09:07:06 PM
I am proud to own over 30 of his movies and they're all fantastic
The Kitchen (Gromek) Murder by heathencomics	Jun 26th, 2008 09:10:58 PM
That sequence is the only masterful thing in an otherwise mediocre to poor Hitchcock picture. I'm blown away that you would think it consisted of "random inserts thrown in that just distract from the actual struggle". I'm a storyboard artist and I'm constantly looking back at that sequence for the power of it's shot selection and cutting. You need to read Podovkin's Film Technique...urgently! Gabriel Hardman
Was this the 'big' one, Quint? by O_Goncho	Jun 26th, 2008 09:16:50 PM
You mentioned a few Movie a Day's ago there was a Hitchcock you hadn't seen but should have... I'm thinking no, so really I'm just fishing for another hint as to what it is... (I guessed Rear Window)
it is... by Quint	Jun 26th, 2008 09:46:35 PM
not the biggie. Gabriel, I'm sure a lot of people love it and the shot selection is not what I had a problem with. Look at the inserts leading up to it, with Gromek jabbing at Newman's chest. The cuts don't match. Every time they cut back to the wide his hand's in a different place. I understand the effect is the important thing and the editing makes you visualize the impact of the jabs... and the POV shot of Gromek being pulled closer and closer to the oven is fine... but compare this sequence to the famous shower scene in Psycho where nothing felt out of place and everything moved as one. Here you could see all the different parts acting against each other. I'm sure my thinking isn't the popular thing, but it's how I feel. I think the way the handled the second bus getting closer and closer and closer was much more suspenseful than the kitchen murder in the film.
Cinematography by saintaugust	Jun 26th, 2008 09:47:49 PM
I'm surprised Quint didn't mention John Warren's work in this. Even though a lesser Hitchcock film it's impeccably shot. The film uses a very unusual color palette that
Good, not great, Hitchcock by Nasty In The Pasty	Jun 26th, 2008 10:11:10 PM
The intentionally overextended murder setpiece is the highlight (referenced recently in Lust, Caution). It's hard to forgive Hitch for canning Herrmann's score, though.
Quint I have a question for you. by theredtoad	Jun 26th, 2008 10:27:12 PM
Will you do Gremlins 2 please?
Darker Than Amber by tom_joad	Jun 26th, 2008 10:36:32 PM
I was wondering if you have seen Darker Than Amber and if you haven't I hope you will include it in your viewing list. Not even sure if it is out on dvd or even vhs.
Quint, have you seen "Shadow of a Doubt"? by Mavra Chang	Jun 26th, 2008 10:38:29 PM
That is one of Hitchock's best. I believe he even considered it his personal favorite. I put it in my top five faves of his work.
I "c" I made a typo. by Mavra Chang	Jun 26th, 2008 10:42:49 PM
Duh.
Compare Herrmann's & Addison's Scores! by darthliquidator	Jun 26th, 2008 10:48:41 PM
Hitchock famously fired Bernard Herrmann in the middle of a "Torn Curtain" scoring session because Herrmann refused to write a contemporary pop score, as demanded by Universal studio bosses. (And Hitchcock, though a revered cinema Icon, was a spineless weakling when dealing with his Universal overseers) The replacement score by John Addison is pure rinky-dink TV-movie pablum. Compare it to the partial score that Herrmann wrote for the film before he was sacked..it's available on CD..he even scored the farmhouse murder. It's angry, edgy, pure Herrmann. .....speaking of Gromek's murder, Hitchcock supposedly shot a sequence in which Newman, touring an East German factory, runs into Gromek's twin brother...honest.
Intentional clunkiness? by ltgalloway	Jun 26th, 2008 10:50:26 PM
I thought the purpose of that scene. To demonstrate how really difficult it can be to murder someone if you're not experienced. Perhaps I'm giving him too much credit to think that they intentionally shot it that way to give it an awkward feeling. Perhaps it was just a slip up.
Shadow Of A Doubt is weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak by Nasty In The Pasty	Jun 26th, 2008 11:34:03 PM
That Hitch considered it one of his best movies bafles me.
Lack of experience in a murder scene... by Nasty In The Pasty	Jun 26th, 2008 11:35:51 PM
Again, check out Lust, Caution. About halfway through the film there's a darkly humorous murder scene with a victim who just plain refuses to die. In fact, there are a lot of Hichcock references in that film (even a poster of Suspicion on a theater wall at one point).
so what other hitchcock classics has quint not seen by bacci40	Jun 27th, 2008 12:31:33 AM
rear window? north by northwest? hey quint, want to totally geek out? why not do a month of just bette davis and joan crawford films, ending with whatever happened to baby jane...ahhhh...when men were men and women fucked their directors
Günter Strack is in it. by DerLanghaarige	Jun 27th, 2008 02:14:19 AM
A very popular (but already dead) German actor.
PS: Robinson Crusoe On Mars was on TV yesterday. by DerLanghaarige	Jun 27th, 2008 02:15:46 AM
I didn't like it. And usually I got a soft spot for old SciFi movies, even if they are ridiculous.
Miscasting? by Quint	Jun 27th, 2008 03:00:43 AM
Sounds to me like people thought Hitch was cashing in using the biggest up and coming actors of the time, not judging the performances they give. Just looking at it as a film, Newman is pretty great. It's not a role for Jimmy Stewart... this character is a little more... driven, I guess is the word I'm looking for. And Andrews... well, I couldn't say a bad thing about my new girlfriend even if there was something bad to say...
It tore me apart with suspense by BenBraddock	Jun 27th, 2008 03:45:12 AM
Well not really, it's OK though.
Quint, have you seen "Victor, Victoria"? by BenBraddock	Jun 27th, 2008 03:48:46 AM
I think that was the movie where your new girlfriend gets her knockers out. And at the risk of sounding like a total cliché, how can you not have seen "The Elephant Man"? It's a top tenner
Quint might want to check out The Prize by tangcameo	Jun 27th, 2008 04:50:10 AM
Made 3 years before Torn Curtain, starring Paul Newman, Edward G Robinson and Elke Sommer. About an American scientist (for real this time!) who encounters secret agents on his way to the Nobel Prize ceremonies. Coincidence?
Flawed maybe, but still good stuff by Dene	Jun 27th, 2008 07:49:25 AM
Two things: (i) Will Indy 4 be one day accepted as "really not that bad, quite good in fact" like this now is? People hated it at the time, didn't they? (ii) I'm with Hitch on the Herrmann score. It's very discordant, much more experimental than any of his previous soundtracks for him. Flame away, but all I'm saying is, I can see why Hitchcock wasn't pleased.
The Left Handed Gun? by Knuckleduster	Jun 27th, 2008 08:11:10 AM
Newman as Billy the Kid? Shit. That sounds incredible! How do I not know about this movie? I'm so ashamed now...
Coming UP- SHOCK TREATMENT by RenoNevada2000	Jun 27th, 2008 08:55:45 AM
Quint, when you sit down to watch SHOCK TREATMENT, do NOT expect the thing to be a straight continuation of ROCKY HORROR with more drugs and sex jokes. It is a completely different animal, still subversive, but about different things. I think the film is actually more relevant in today's "reality TV" culture than it has ever been. Plus its got some good songs and Jessica Parker can really belt them out...
My Sponsor...My Sponsor by The Alienist	Jun 27th, 2008 10:14:00 AM
...that line always comes to mind when I hear the title...
It's Jessica HARPER, Reno by The Alienist	Jun 27th, 2008 10:15:38 AM
and boy, do I love me some "Shock Treatment"!!!
The Shaolin Soccer reference seems out of place by TylerDurden3395	Jun 27th, 2008 01:16:16 PM
in a Hitchcock review. Oh well. I taped this off TCM and still haven't gotten around to watching it. Can't wait to see Quint's write-ups for Caligula and Shock Treatment...
Alienist by RenoNevada2000	Jun 27th, 2008 03:16:27 PM
Right you are. That was a weird, early morning brain fart...
I'm with you there Quint by studmaster	Jun 27th, 2008 10:10:09 PM
Julie Andrews was some piece of pussy in her day. She was gorgeous in Mary Poppins
Shadow by SuckLeTrou	Jun 30th, 2008 12:34:09 AM
of a Doubt is a perfect film. Maybe you just have no attention span.
Itgalloway by Munro Kelly	Jun 30th, 2008 02:52:25 PM
You are right. I read, in one of the many books about Hitchcock, that the point of the scene was that killing is hard.
GIVE ME THE AMULET, YOU BITCH!!!! by DRACULA_WANTS_THE_AMULET	Jul 5th, 2008 11:03:05 PM

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A Movie A Day: Quint on Hitchcock’s TORN CURTAIN (1966)
Come on, gentlemen! Cluck, cluck, cluck! You’re like chickens!

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A Movie A Day: Quint on Hitchcock’s TORN CURTAIN (1966)Come on, gentlemen! Cluck, cluck, cluck! You’re like chickens!

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A Movie A Day: Quint on Hitchcock’s TORN CURTAIN (1966)
Come on, gentlemen! Cluck, cluck, cluck! You’re like chickens!