Saturday Night Cinema: Downhill (1927)
Hitchcock’s fourth feature film, it introduced a theme that would recur in his future work, that of shared guilt, or the transference of guilt from one person to another.
Hitchcock’s fourth feature film, it introduced a theme that would recur in his future work, that of shared guilt, or the transference of guilt from one person to another.
The Islamic dictatorship of Saudi Arabia is lifting its 35-year ban on movie theaters. And while Western press appears to be celebrating it, the first thing that comes to my mind is that Hollywood’s pandering to Islam will become even worse than it is.
Tonight’s Saturday Night Cinema feature is Life at the Top. If you missed Room at the Top, I ran it back in June 2012 here. It is essential viewing. Life at the Top is a belated sequel to Room at the Top. John Blaine’s “angry young man” British novel was made into a film in 1959. Life at the Top is not as good as Room, but there are very good moments, and I am a big Laurence Harvey fan. And Harvey is back as Joe Lampton, the man-on-the-rise who in Room had given up true love in favor of a career-boosting (and antiseptic) marriage to his boss’ daughter.
Tonight’s feature is the classic film, “M”. This film is nothing less than a masterpiece. It is a highly structured and stylized film about a serial killer. It created the serial killer genre, which includes such entries as Psycho and Silence of the Lambs. Alfred Hitchcock (the director of Psycho) was a disciple of Lang,…