Psycho

With the infamous shower scene, “Psycho” has to be the best movie of all time. Considered as Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest film, “Psycho” stars Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, and John Gavin. It was released in 1960 and was adapted from Robert Bloch’s 1959 novel, Psycho, which was based a Wisconsin serial killer, Ed Gein.

Marion Crane (Leigh) is a secretary who is running away with $40,000 that she stole from her employer. On her way to California to see her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (Gavin), Crane stops at a Motel that seems to be hiding from the world. There she meets Norman Bates (Perkins). Bates is a lonely man who supposedly lives with his controlling mother.

The highlight of this mysterious thriller is the shower scene. In this scene, Crane decides to go back and return the money. She gets in the shower to clean herself when Bates’s mother comes in and continually stabs Crane.

To hide his mother’s crime, Bates cleans up the mess and hides Crane’s body in her car and dumps the car in a swap. Worried about her missing sister, Lila Crane visits and persuades Sam Loomis into helping her find Marion.
The film ends with a twist that leaves a person asking, “What just happened?”

In 1998, there was a remake starring Anne Hache as Marion Crane, Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates, and Julianne Moore as Lila Crane. It is a horrible remake. The movie is trying to hard to resemble the original. Know one can remake a Hitchcock film, they can try but they will most likely fail.

The film is available at Netflix.

Dial M for Murder

In 1954, Alfred Hitchcock released Dial M for Murder, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and Robert Cummings. The movie is a suspense thriller centered on a love triangle between Tony (Milland) and his wife, Margot Wendice (Kelly) and Mark Halliday (Cummings). Tony finds out about Margot and Marks affair when he discovers a letter written by Mark in Margot’s handbag. Tony steals the letter out of curiosity and then blackmails his wife as a first step into plotting to kill her.

Motivated by jealousy and greed, Tony develops a plan to have someone murder Margot for him. He blackmails Swan, an old classmate, into agreeing to murder his wife. The night Margot is to be killed Tony establishes his alibi. He goes to a steak party with Mark while Swan enters into their house and hides behind the curtains waiting for Margot to pick up the phone. Tony phones home at a specific time. When Margot picks up the phone she is attacked from behind. Swan attempts to strangle her with a scarf. But earlier Margot had left a pair of scissors on the desk. She stabs Swan with them and he dies.

Although Tony's plan was ruined he quickly improvised and covered up Swan's mistakes. Chief Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) enters the investigation. Margot is then charged and convicted of murdering Swan. Hubbard is a clever inspector that has an intuition that Margot is innnocent. Hubbard then comes up with a plan to catch Tony red handed.

Netflix has the movie available for rent.

Casablanca

Casablanca was directed by Michael Curtiz (1943). The film starred Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine, Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund, and Paul Henreid as Victor Laszlo.

The film is set at the start of WWII. Refugees travel to Casablanca and desperately wait for a Visa to travel to America. Rick (Bogart) owns a very popular nightclub, Rick’s Café Americain, where people go to drink and gamble. Rick is selfish and bitter. He lost the love of his life, Ilsa (Bergman). Ilsa left him at the train station in Paris with a note.

Ilsa travels to Casablanca with her husband, Victor Laszlo (Henreid). Victor is a Resistance leader, who escaped from a concentration camp. The Germans want to keep him in Casablanca. Victor is asking around if anyone has a Visa for him and Ilsa. But the only person that can help them out is Rick. Rick was left with “letters of transit.” Both Ilsa and Victor try and ask Rick for the letters but Rick refuses. Rick tells Victor to, “Ask your wife,” why he won’t give them the letters.

Victor then figures out that something happened between them but all he cares about is getting Ilsa out of Casablanca. Rick is torn between being with the woman he loves and helping the women he loves escape with her husband.

Rick and Ilsa were in love with each other. But once Ilsa found out that Victor was alive she left Rick. In the end, you are sort of hoping that Rick and Ilsa end up together. But Rick knows that Ilsa is meant to be with Victor which is why he tells her to get on the plane.

Casablanca is constintly rank near the top of every greatest movie list.

Netflix has the movie available for rent. Amazon also has it on sale. The prices range from $5.27 to $18.10, brand new.

Sabrina

In 1954 Director Billy Wilder wrote the screenplay for Sabrina with the help from Ernest Lehman and Samuel Taylor (who wrote the original play). Audrey Hepburn stars as Sabrina Fairchild, Humphrey Bogart as Linus Larrabee, and William Holden as David Larrabee.

The movie is like a fairy tale. Overworked Linus Larrabee comes from a wealthy family, falls in love with his chauffer’s young daughter, Sabrina Fairchild. At first, Sabrina is in love with Linus’s brother David, who does not give her any attention. It’s not until Sabrina returns from cooking school in Paris that David notices her. But David is engaged to Elizabeth Tyson, whose father is involved in a business deal with Linus.

Both families disapprove of David and Sabrina being together. Sabrina’s father, Thomas Fairchild (John Williams), tells his daughter, “Don’t reach for the moon child,” meaning don’t have high expectations about life and marrying David. Although he wants the best for his daughter he wants her to be realistic about her life.

Linus comes up with a plan to get Sabrina to fall in love with someone else and eventually forget about David.

In a way Linus deceives Sabrina. He starts taking her out to the best restaurants and to watch plays in the city. But after spending time with Sabrina and getting to know her Linus ends up falling in love with her.

It’s amazing how at first he just wants to send her back to Paris so that he could continue on with his business deal but in the end all he wants to do is go away with her to Paris.

If you are ever having problems with your relationships, this movie will helps you forget about your problems.

In 1995, Director Sydney Pollack did a remake of Sabrina with Harrison Ford as Linus and Julia Ormond as Sabrina. If you are going to watch Sabrina, do not see the remake. The original is a lot better.

The movie is available at Netflix and Blockbuster.