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Patrick McCart
- Patrick J. McCart
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- Joined: May 2001
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Re: Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain" 2006 Universal release
from the IMDB:
"
Bernard Herrmann wrote the original score, but Universal Pictures executives convinced Hitchcock that they needed a more upbeat score. Hitchcock and Herrmann had a major disagreement, the score was dropped and they never worked together again."
Hitchcock also parted ways with Robert Burks (cinematographer), George Tomasini (editor), Robert Boyle (production designer), and Hilton A. Green (unit manager).
Tell The Weinstein Company to release Richard Williams' animated masterpiece
The Thief and the Cobbler on DVD in Panavision widescreen and uncut! See and hear what you're missing from their
Bitsy Award winner of Worst Standard Edition DVD of 2006 on
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- Joined: June 2005
- Post Count: 820
Re: Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain" 2006 Universal release
Torn Curtain is a flawed film, let's put it that way. There's some good stuff, including one of the best murder scenes Hitch ever did, but it suffers because
Warning Spoiler! Click to showthe most interesting character in the film, the villainous Stasi agent Gromek, dies halfway through and none of the other bad guys are half as compelling as he was.
My BlogLes Miserables Volume 1 with my reading of "Four and Four"
Librivox Short Story Collection 34 with my reading of Jack London's "War"
- Joined: February 2001
- Location: Livonia, MI USA
- Post Count: 5,476
Re: Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain" 2006 Universal release
Wasn't one of the key points of disagreement between Hitchcock and Herrmann the score for the famous protracted murder scene at the center of the movie? I think it plays very effectively with no underscore, although I am only lukewarm on Addison's score for the rest of the film. I think this film is a wee bit underrated. Some of the stuff that made it seem dated when it was new, such as the overreliance on process shots, plays no worse than his vintage films that did the same thing when it was di rigueur in Hollywood a few years previously. It's certainly a lot better than "Topaz", which is his one late-period picture that I just can't get into.
Regards,
Ken McAlinden
Livonia, MI USA
- Joined: August 2003
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Re: Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain" 2006 Universal release
As I continue my process of slowly savoring the Alfred Hitchcock film canon, the other day I sat down to watch TORN CURTAIN for the very first time. I've had it as part of the Masterpiece Collection for a couple of years and thought I'd give it a go. I knew very little about the movie, other than the usual descriptions of "a cold-war thriller" and "not one of Hitchcock's best."
I was actually quite impressed with the film. It's got so many fine Hitchcock touches, yet I can see where many don't rank it as high as say VERTIGO or NORTH BY NORTHWEST.
For me, aiding in the enjoyment, was the use of story locations that I've been to: Copenhagen, Berlin, Leipzig, Stockholm, even though much of the actual film wasn't shot in those locations. It still helps when you have a geographical idea of where something is supposedly taking place.
I wasn't sure how I'd like the Addison score - I'd gotten quite used to Herrmann's work on prior pictures, but it wasn't actually so bad. The DVD I watched is the one in the Masterpiece Collection from a few years ago. As one of the extras on the disc, there's a section where they added Herrmann's unused score with the dialog and effects tracks to give a sense of how the film would be with the Herrmann score. It too was quite good, and gave more of a sense that this was a Hitchcock film - but it also seemed a bit derivative at times, sounding like snippets of PSYCHO or MARNIE to me.
Another interesting feature for me was the use of authentic language in the foreign countries. Hearing others speaking in German of which I know a little bit made the film seem all the more real.
As a "cold war thriller" it's obviously a product of its time, but having lived through that era, I can appreciate it for what it was.
The DVD picture had a bit of a "star-filter" quality to it. I don't know if that was intentional or a flaw in the disc.
Harry
My DVD CollectionA fugitive moves on, through anguished tunnels of time, down dim streets, into dark corners. And each new day offers fear and frustration, tastes of honey and hemlock. But if there is a hazard, there is also hope. - Closing narration to THE FUGITIVE, "Death Is The Door Prize".
