Recent Posts Jackpot?
How embarrassing:
As of today, five of the six "recent posts" on Topaz are all mine.
Don't leave me out there alone.
"Topaz" is worth discussing. Somebody? Anybody?
Yes, it is. Hitchcock leaves the relationship in Topaz open to the audience. Producer Alan Burnett who worked on Batman Animated Series is a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock. He liked John Vernon's performance a lot. So he suggested to cast John Vernon to play Rupert Thorne in Batman Animated Series.
shareWell, there you go.
You might say that John Vernon is another "Hitchcock discovery." Hitch found Vernon in JOhn Boorman's "Point Blank." From "Topaz," Vernon went on to Don Siegel's "Dirty Harry" and "Charley Varrick," Clint Eastwood's "Outlaw Josey Wales," and, unforgettably, Dean Wormer in "Animal House" ("Somebody's got to put his foot down with those punks...and that foot is me!")
Plus Batman and, I think, Iron Man in the cartoons?
SPOILERS
Did you notice Hitchcock mentioning Oscar Wilde's famous quote ""You destroy the thing you love" in the interview with Peter Bogdanovich.
Suspicion (1941) marks the beginning of theme. It also works with current ending.
Many of his films have this theme in it.
1) Suspicion (1941) - Lina loved Johnnie and she "almost" destroyed Johnnie's life.
2) Shadow of A Doubt - Little Charlie and Uncle Charlie
3) Under Capricorn - Samson Flusky and his horse
4) Marnie - Marnie and Forio
5) Topaz - Rico Parra and Juanita de Cordoba.
Yes, Hitchcock did have a way of applying fairly simple famous quotes quite well to the somewhat more complex themes of his films. Bottom line: they FIT. He had an astute understanding of "the basics."
I enjoyed somebody asking him why the villain quoted some famous author in "Frenzy":
Hitchcock: Oh, he probably heard it somewhere.
Still, the "why" of the killing of the ones they loved was oftimes different. Hitchocck himself said that Marnie, in having to kill Forio, "killed her father."
And again, he left it at that. Not the FINAL answer. But a simple one. Maybe the only one that ocurred to Hitchocck.
Its up to us to add a few more answers.
But hmmm:
Does Scottie kill the one he loves in "Vertigo"?
Does Norman kill the one he loves in "Psycho"?
Is Eve prepared to kill the one she loves in "North by Northwest."
Probably....