Intertitle of the Week: A Show Called Fred

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I think that says everything.

Oh, it’s from RICH AND STRANGE, the film where Hitchcock rediscovered the joys of intertitling (which had been his first job in movies, after all). “It should have done better,” was his melancholy reaction to the film’s box office failure. On Wednesday I’ll attempt to ascertain if he was right.

Between starting this post and finishing it, I’ve broken with a long line of critical tradition and watched the film. Hitch was right, and this is one of his masterpieces. Maybe the only one that’s not in any sense a thriller? At any rate, those of you who own copies should dig them out and delight NOW.

This entry was posted on March 29, 2009 at 12:12 pm and is filed under FILM with tags Hitchcock, Hitchcock Year, Rich and Strange. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Intertitle of the Week: A Show Called Fred”

chris schneider Says:
March 29, 2009 at 6:18 pm

Brings to mind the Cukor-directed “Rich and Famous.” Wonder what the results would’ve been had Cukor directed “Strange” and Hitchcock “Famous.”
dcairns Says:
March 29, 2009 at 8:02 pm

I think that would have worked out OK — Hitch would have enjoyed the smut and Cukor would have enjoyed the marital comedy.

Maybe they could collaborate on Strange and Famous, starring Michael Jackson.
David Ehrenstein Says:
March 29, 2009 at 8:47 pm

Though not a blonde, Jackie Bisset would have worked well with Hitch. She has that perfect combination of outwardly cool demeanor and red-hot sexiness just beneath the surface that he loved so much.