MovieChat Forums > Saint Jack (1979) Discussion > A Touch of Hitchcock

A Touch of Hitchcock

posted 4 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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Unlike such Hitchcock copycats as DePalma(especially), Spielberg(Duel, Jaws, Raiders) and Scorsese(Taxi Driver, Cape Fear), Peter Bogdanovich wasn't much for copycatting Hitchcock during his fairly short career.

Oh, like a lot of novice directors, the FIRST time, he did, with "Targets" (1968) the tale of a psycho sniper , based on Charles Whitman; Bogdo borrowed shots from Psycho and North by Northwest for that one.

But once he hit his stride with the trifecta of The Last Picture Show, What's Up Doc, and Paper Moon...Bogdo was more interested in aping Ford and Hawks than Hitch.

Still, in "The Last Picture Show," Bogdo went for aping Hitchcock a bit: he has some "travelling POV shots" as a character walks up to another character, and, when Jeff Bridges hits Timothy Bottoms in the eye with a beer bottle, there is some of that quick-cut Psycho jaggedness to the montage.

But generally, Hitch wasn't Bodgo's muse. Until Saint Jack, where we get a "little" Hitchcock and then a "lot" Hitchcock:

A little: Gazzara walks into a hotel and a "travelling POV" gives his view of some bad guys hovering near the entrance as he walks past.

A lot: Gazzara is hired to follow a visiting politician and to get a "blackmail photo" of the man with one of Gazzara's hooker ladies. A VERY Hitchocckian sequence of about ten minutes follows -- no dialogue, all silence, no music -- as Gazzara follows his prey down the street, into a hotel, up to his room and then into a "voyeur peeping position" behind a slightly open door.

Its as Hitchcockian as Bogdanovich ever did...and it has a twist at the end.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Interesting.

[–] rudeboymurray (3241) 4 years ago

Interesting... the Hitchcock influence is obvious in Targets and almost as obvious in the latter parts of Saint Jack, but has never crossed my mind while watching The Last Picture Show. Next time I watch the film I shall watch out for the shots you mention.

I wonder what Hitchcock thought of The Last Picture Show. I’m pretty sure he would have appreciated it.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

I wonder what Hitchcock thought of The Last Picture Show. I’m pretty sure he would have appreciated it.

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The Last Picture Show came out in the fall of 1971, and demonstrated Bogdanovich's "love of classic film" in one way(serious), even as , a few months later, "What's Up Doc?" in 1972 demonstrated Bogdanovich's love of classic film in a comedic way.

I think Hitchocck benefitted from Bogdanovich because by the time his new movie "Frenzy" opened just AFTER What's Up Doc?...Hitchcock's "classic style" was now back in form(after the late 60's with all the zoom shots.)

Indeed, wrote critic Richard Schickel of "Frenzy:" "If Hitchcock is perfectly capable of imitating himself, why leave the job to a man like Peter Bogdanovich?"

I expect Hitchcock saw Bogdanovich and William Friedkin(The French Connection the same 1971 fall) as "the new order" but they helped lay the groundwork for Seventies Hitch.