Rob’s Finds
And now another tour through the mental meanderings of GITS contributor Rob Fuller as exhibited in what wild things he found this week on the Web.
We start with this juicy nugget: “13 Hitchcock Films That Were Never Made”:
Even legendary directors like Alfred Hitchcock don’t always get their way. Over the course of his illustrious career, Hitchcock had to abandon quite a few projects due to budgetary concerns, issues with stars, the whims of studio heads, or in some cases simply his own instincts that the film wasn’t going to turn out very well. Let’s take a look at a few of the master of suspense’s unproduced projects, including the one that studio execs hated so much they made him sign a contract promising he wouldn’t make it.
1. Number 13
This silent 1922 feature for Gainsborough Pictures was set to be Hitchcock’s directorial debut. The film was set to star Clare Greet and Ernest Thesiger in a script written by “a woman working at the studio who had worked with (Charlie) Chaplin.” Hitchcock only filmed a few scenes before the budget fell through, and the script is now lost. The film of the few completed scenes is also lost, possibly because the studio melted it down to recycle the film’s silver nitrate. Don’t worry too much about missing out on this one, though; Hitchcock later admitted, “It wasn’t very good, really.”
2. No Bail for the Judge
Hitchcock spent the early part of 1959 preparing to adapt Henry Cecil’s novel of the same name into a film starring Audrey Hepburn. On May 19th of that year, though, Hepburn dropped out of the project, with some sources saying she was reluctant to do a film so soon after delivering a child, and others claiming she refused the part when she found out her character was involved in a rape scene. The project died when Hepburn backed out, and although Hitchcock was privately livid, he regrouped nicely by making Psycho instead.
There are 11 other scuttled Hitch projects waiting for your perusal here. And I would think this could be a fruitful trek through time for some intrepid screenwriter — perhaps to find some ‘similar but different’ inspiration.
You know, when I think of Alfred Hitchcock, I think of James Cameron. Not because they have anything in common as directors, but because that’s the next thing on Rob’s list of finds. Cameron recently appeared on “The Charlie Rose Show” and here is a clip:
For the full 30 minutes with Messers Cameron and Rose, go here.
I used to think I was pretty good at bumping around the Web and discovering obscure stuff. Like here where I posted links to several free online movie sites that specialized in public domain flicks. But here comes Rob, one-upping me with a site he found called, of course, Public Domain Flicks. Curses! Foiled again!
But there are certain topics I just know I can’t even begin to compete with Mr. Fuller. Subjects like “Thai horror movies posters that will melt your face”. Or “Canadian exploitation movies”. Or “Bleeding Skull: A Continuing Exploration of the Curious and the Obscure in Vintage Cinema.”
Nope, that obscure stuff, I’m just out of Rob’s league.
But when he starts wading into the mainstream, that’s when I get really worried — because now dude’s on my turf. Like this:
Just as Lost’s Island ping-pongs through spacetime, its characters have undergone wheeling personality shifts. Unfortunately, some of these character developments became eclipsed by the show’s sprawling tapestry of weirdness. Here are 7 character plots the Smoke Monster apparently ate.
7.) Charlie The Creeper
After Charlie’s noble sacrifice at the end of Season 3, most references to him have been nothing but hagiographical — Desmond named his son after the former Drive Shaft bassist, for Pete’s sake — but remember in Season 2 when the jocular junkie was up to the somewhat unforgivable shit? Kidnapping and baptizing Aaron in the middle of the night? Pretending to kidnap Sun to make Locke look incompetent? Sure, the guy was recovering smack addict, but for while there it looked as if the Survivors would have a deranged wild card among their ranks. That would’ve made for great TV.
6.) Malibu Sayid
Sayid Jarrah’s big shtick Season 1 was that he was a member of the Iraqi Republican Guard (remember, this was 2004, it was topical). Given the fact that Sayid was a Saddam-administration hard-ass, it was pretty hilarious to see him shack up with all-American ice queen Shannon. Even when Ana-Lucia shot her, he still remained an interesting character, as he was chock full of righteous rage. Since then, Sayid hasn’t whispered a peep about Shannon. It’s wild. He never mentions this earth-shattering moment in his life again. Then again, when you’re on the Island, an earth-shattering moment happens every 10 minutes.
5.) Miles’ Daddy Issues
I like Miles Straume. He’s got the acerbicness of early Sawyer and we both had the same awful haircut when we were teenagers. In Season 5, he finally got to know his dad, Dharma grump Pierre Chang, whose death/continuation of his own timeline without his son/whatever the heck his fate was when Jughead went off was the real heartbreaker of last year’s finale. Sure we’ll miss Juliet, but her death seemed a smidge shoehorned in to give the Jack-Sawyer-Kate-Juliet love trapezoid more poignancy. Miles’ loss was like some horrible version of the Back to The Future in which Marty watches the Hill Valley High School prom burn down with everyone inside. I hope Season 6 will address his grief, particularly since Pierre Chang was secretly [SPOILERS] Master Shredder.
Four more of “Lost’s Greatest Character Arcs That Went Nowhere” here.
And then to top it off, after I get done posting over 2 weeks’ worth of wisdom from Rod Serling, Rob trumps me with this:
http://www.hulu.com/embed/oj7Aogdj1RznzutnneQhDg
Accompanied by this brief comment from Rob himself:
John Frankenheimer directs Micky Rooney and Mel Torme in a vintage live tv play from the 1950 written by Rod Serling.
Young Micky Rooney in this role reminded me of Giovanni Ribisi for some odd reason.
Okay, Mr. Fuller! You have thrown down the gauntlet! And I say game on! I’ll be redoubling my efforts to find as weird, wild, and wonderful stuff as you, see if I can keep you on your toes.
Or perhaps my threat will be nothing more than a GITS Character Arc That Goes Nowhere.
Stay tuned…