Saturday, February 03, 2007
Blunder Capricorn
Last night I watched Image Entertainment's DVD of UNDER CAPRICORN.
UNDER CAPRICORN is a movie released in 1949 by a production company called Transatlantic. This company was founded by Alfred Hitchcock and UNDER CAPRICORN was Transatlantic's first project. The movie was directed by Hitchcock. It bombed. Transatlantic ceased operations.
I've seen UNDER CAPRICORN twice before, but on a worn VHS tape from the nineties or earlier. Image Entertainment released a DVD in 2003 and the restoration job is great. The lines can be heard clearly. The music can be heard clearly. The colors are fine.
The script remains too long.
The music still has no relation to the dialogue. It's marvelous music. It's good dialogue. But they do not work together.
This movie would have had a slightly larger audience if the music had been shut off during the talking.
UNDER CAPRICORN has two big-name stars who turn in great performances. These two stars are Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman. The actress who plays their housekeeper acts her role perfectly.
There are shots rivalling the crane shot in THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. Another Welles film, TOUCH OF EVIL, goes to a place Hitchcock's PSYCHO goes to. PSYCO came after TOUCH OF EVIL and UNDER CAPRICORN came after THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. AMBERSONS had Joseph Cotton. TOUCH OF EVIL had Janet Leigh. So did PSYCHO.
Hitchcock makes serious tribute to Welles in UNDER CAPRICORN. It's got a big house, as do so many Welles movies. It's got incredible crane shots. (It has that thing ROPE has: The camera closes in on someone's back and then backs up, simply so the camera can be shut off when the back fills the screen and Hitchcock can put new film in the camera. It was sort of cute in ROPE, a stunt of a movie which calls attention to its lack of cuts. It's not very noticeable in UNDER CAPRICORN, but if you do notice it you'll be thinking of the fact that HITCHCOCK went to town with the continuous take in ROPE. You'll stop paying attention to the plot of UNDER CAPRICORN while you're thinking about ROPE.
Someone on Internet Movie Database says ROPE came before UNDER CAPRICORN. I think it came right afterward.
Very few Hitchcock fans have seen UNDER CAPRICORN. I was completely unaware it was on an Image DVD before I stumbled on it last week at a local CD shop. I don't sympathize with Image's decision not to provide a commentary track. Image charges a lot for their DVDs. People who buy Image's restorations are film buffs. It is film buffs who select the Commentary Track option. UNDER CAPRICORN has value as an heroic miscalculation. PSYCHO, a movie many people revere, has less need of a commentary track than this extremely obscure Hitchcock effort. But PSYCHO, because it's a Universal DVD, is about two-thirds the price of Image's UNDER CAPRICORN, and PSYCHO includes a Commentary Track, a storyboard, a PSYCHO trailer featuring Hitchcock, and a study of the music of PSYCHO which features the shower scene with the music removed to reveal the gruesome sound effects created by a knife plunging into a cantaloupe. UNDER CAPRICORN has nothing but UNDER CAPRICORN itself.
The print is superb, though.
UNDER CAPRICORN is a movie released in 1949 by a production company called Transatlantic. This company was founded by Alfred Hitchcock and UNDER CAPRICORN was Transatlantic's first project. The movie was directed by Hitchcock. It bombed. Transatlantic ceased operations.
I've seen UNDER CAPRICORN twice before, but on a worn VHS tape from the nineties or earlier. Image Entertainment released a DVD in 2003 and the restoration job is great. The lines can be heard clearly. The music can be heard clearly. The colors are fine.
The script remains too long.
The music still has no relation to the dialogue. It's marvelous music. It's good dialogue. But they do not work together.
This movie would have had a slightly larger audience if the music had been shut off during the talking.
UNDER CAPRICORN has two big-name stars who turn in great performances. These two stars are Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman. The actress who plays their housekeeper acts her role perfectly.
There are shots rivalling the crane shot in THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. Another Welles film, TOUCH OF EVIL, goes to a place Hitchcock's PSYCHO goes to. PSYCO came after TOUCH OF EVIL and UNDER CAPRICORN came after THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. AMBERSONS had Joseph Cotton. TOUCH OF EVIL had Janet Leigh. So did PSYCHO.
Hitchcock makes serious tribute to Welles in UNDER CAPRICORN. It's got a big house, as do so many Welles movies. It's got incredible crane shots. (It has that thing ROPE has: The camera closes in on someone's back and then backs up, simply so the camera can be shut off when the back fills the screen and Hitchcock can put new film in the camera. It was sort of cute in ROPE, a stunt of a movie which calls attention to its lack of cuts. It's not very noticeable in UNDER CAPRICORN, but if you do notice it you'll be thinking of the fact that HITCHCOCK went to town with the continuous take in ROPE. You'll stop paying attention to the plot of UNDER CAPRICORN while you're thinking about ROPE.
Someone on Internet Movie Database says ROPE came before UNDER CAPRICORN. I think it came right afterward.
Very few Hitchcock fans have seen UNDER CAPRICORN. I was completely unaware it was on an Image DVD before I stumbled on it last week at a local CD shop. I don't sympathize with Image's decision not to provide a commentary track. Image charges a lot for their DVDs. People who buy Image's restorations are film buffs. It is film buffs who select the Commentary Track option. UNDER CAPRICORN has value as an heroic miscalculation. PSYCHO, a movie many people revere, has less need of a commentary track than this extremely obscure Hitchcock effort. But PSYCHO, because it's a Universal DVD, is about two-thirds the price of Image's UNDER CAPRICORN, and PSYCHO includes a Commentary Track, a storyboard, a PSYCHO trailer featuring Hitchcock, and a study of the music of PSYCHO which features the shower scene with the music removed to reveal the gruesome sound effects created by a knife plunging into a cantaloupe. UNDER CAPRICORN has nothing but UNDER CAPRICORN itself.
The print is superb, though.
# posted by Fredwemyss @ 1:45 AM 
