I WAKE UP STREAMING

It’s official — I’m superfluous!

With theaters shuttered (temporarily, we hope) due to the coronavirus, and no one going out to the movies, nobody needs to know my opinion of a movie they can stream from the privacy of their own couch.

It’s not like they have to pay to get in!

So my column in Good Times is suspended until further notice. If we, as a town/state/country/planet ever achieve normalcy again, I expect to be back on the job. But who knows how long that will take?

In the meantime, I encourage housebound film fans to boldly go into the archives of the product-delivery service of your choice — Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, You Tube, Viewmaster, whatever — and explore titles from over a century of vibrant cinema.

Silent films, for instance, are astonishingly creative!  Check out anything from about the turn of the last century through the 1920s, back when the pictures were first learning to move, and they were making it all up as they went along. You’ll be amazed at their ingenuity!

Then there are Errol Flynn swashbucklers, Film Noir, MGM musicals, French New Wave, Hitchcock, Fellini, the Marx Brothers; they’re all out there, just waiting to be discovered.

Be adventurous! If something doesn’t grab you in the first 20 minutes, dial up something else. There won’t be a quiz, and there isn’t anywhere else you have to be.

Me, I’ve been catching up on movies I missed the first time around. Last night it was The Greatest Showman, an utterly berserk fantasia on the imagined life if P. T. Barnum, staged like a Hollywood musical.

Famed 19th Century opera diva Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson) sings a power ballad. Keala Settle as the Bearded Lady leads a chorus of Barnum’s circus sideshow attractions in an empowering Millennial-style anthem.

But, hey, in the midst of it all, there’s Hugh Jackman in the top hat and ringmaster’s outfit, singing and dancing up a storm. I’m home alone — I have to have some fun!

Sure, I’d much rather be watching movies the way God intended, on a great big theater screen. And I fervently hope all this enforced home viewing doesn’t signal the end of the neighborhood movie house down the road, by giving viewers one more excuse not to interact with each other in public.

Still, there’s something to be said for watching a move with a cat on your lap — as long as she doesn’t mind the occasional popcorn kernel bouncing off her head.

LET'S GET HITCHED

Fasten your seatbelts, folks! Next week, Santa Cruz Shakespeare kicks off it 2017 season with a stage adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1935 chase thriller, The 39 Steps.

(Full disclosure: by all accounts, this 2005 adaptation by Patrick Barlow is more of a romp than a thriller, with its three-man, one-woman cast playing all the parts, at breakneck speed. But more about that in my review next week!)

Hitchcock's legend looms large over our cultural landscape. Okay, he loomed large everywhere, but he cast a particularly long shadow around here, as a longtime resident of Scotts Valley (he owned the Heart O' the Mountain vineyard for 34 years).

The Bay Area also provided inspiration, as well as locations, for several of his most memorable films, including Vertigo, Psycho, and The Birds.

Dali's set for the Spellbound dream sequence: the eyes have it

In celebration of their upcoming production, and our local connection to the maestro, SCS is hosting Hitchcock Week, a series of film screenings and related events to be held at various venues around town.

First up, this Friday, July 7, is this year's first Noon at the Nick, the annual collaboration between SCS and the Nickelodeon, where SCS creatives meet the public to talk about their upcoming productions. A Q&A with SCS Artistic Director Mike Ryan about The 39 Steps begins at 12 noon. Admission is free.

Saturday, July 8, is opening night for The 39 Steps at the SCS Grove in DeLaveaga Park. Curtain time is 8 pm, but savvy patrons are encouraged to get there early for the pre-game wine tasting, beginning at 6pm, to sample Heart O' the Mountain Estate wines. Hitchcock's granddaughter, Tere Carruba, will be on hand to introduce the show.

Still thirsty? Fall by 515 Kitchen & Cocktails, downtown, on Sunday, July 9, for an evening of "Hitchcocktails." Drinks will be accompanied by a screening of Spellbound (1945) — although even teetotalers will feel woozy during the surreal dream sequence designed by Salvador Dali. Bar opens at 5 pm.

On Monday, July 10, strap on some protective headwear for an outdoor screening of The Birds (1963) at Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery .

Although it was based on a Daphne DuMaurier novel, Hitchcock relocated the action to a small Calfornia coastal town after a news report two years earlier that hundreds of seabirds (later discovered to be poisoned by toxic algae bloom) had flung themselves into buildings and structures all along the Monterey Bay — particularly in Pleasure Point and Capitola. Showtime is 8pm. You buy the beer, but the movie is free.

Tuesday, July 11, is a twofer: first, check out the exhibition, Hitchcock: A Look Back on display at the downtown branch of the Santa Cruz Public Library. Then stick around for a discussion of The 39 Steps — the book, the film, and the play — hosted by Maria Frangos, SCS Dramaturg, and Theatre/English professor at DeAnza College and UCSC, and co-hosted by moi, your humble movie critic.

The old McCrory Hotel: Santa Cruz Gothic

We'll be there to answer your burning questions about the SCS production, and the Hitchcock version. Questions like, what are the 39 Steps? And what the heck is a MacGuffin, anyway? So get ready to fire away! Discussion begins at 6:30 pm, and is free to the public.

On Wednesday, July 12, the Nickelodeon presents the one and only Psycho (1960), with special guest Tere Carruba, the maestro's granddaughter, to introduce the film.

Rumor has it that Hitchcock's inspiration for the seedy, Gothic Bates Motel was the old McCrory Hotel on Beach Hill, which has since been renovated into the Sunshine Villa. (Look here and here for background info and more images.) Showtime is 7pm. Visit the Nick, in person or online, for tickets.

The festivities wrap up on Thursday, July 13, with a screening of Vertigo (1958) at the Crepe Place. Showtime is 8:30 pm. Admission to the film is free, and Hitchcock's favorite cocktail, The White Lady, will be available.

Looks like it's going to be a thrilling week!

THE TAO OF HITCH

Here's some sage advice from the great Alfred Hitchcock, which crossed my desk last week:

"You use one idea after another and eliminate anything that interferes with the swift pace."

Hitch was talking about constructing a movie, but his words are also very useful for writing the first draft of a novel — as I am now.

And a writer slogging away in isolation seizes on any good advice she can get!

With Beast (finally!) loping off to the copyeditors, I'm ready to dive back into my next book. I submitted a proposal to my editor, and last Monday, I got greenlighted to go for it.

So now it's back to the keyboard for me!

Oh, and the reason I found myself consulting the Tao of Hitch? Santa Cruz Shakespeare is launching its 2017 season this summer with a new stage adaptation of The 39 Steps — described as "a madcap adaptation of Hitchcock's 1935 thriller."

I was invited to participate in a panel discussion of the story — stage and film versions — that SCS will present in conjunction with their production. (Venue and details tba.)

Scurrying to my dog-eared copy of that classic movie resource book, Hitchcock/Truffaut, to read up on the film, I found that priceless quote above on how Hitch kept the action moving!

Meanwhile, over at the Republic of Goodreads, they're doing a promotion on the "Joys of Re-reading." Big thanks to all intrepid Goodreaders who have been listing Alias Hook as a book they are reading for the second (or even third) time!

You readers rock!

HITCH-CRAFT

Hopkins' entertaining performance fuels larky 'Hitchcock'

It takes a certain amount of gutsiness for an actor to try to transform himself onscreen into one of the most famous and recognizable icons in the history of film. But Anthony Hopkins has guts to spare—as it were—in Hitchcock, stepping into the familiar persona and famed portly silhouette of the movies' grand master of the macabre, Alfred Hitchcock.

Well, it's not exactly a transformation; from the lugubrious voice and eccentric diction to the baleful bloodhound gaze, there's not a second when we're not watching Hopkins play Hitch.

But the entertaining spectacle of Hopkins' performance is its own reward in a film that never takes itself too seriously. Although the film is inspired by Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book, "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho," don't expect a doc-like piece of investigative research, or even a typical showbiz bio.

The real Hitch on the "Psycho" set

Instead, director Sacha Gervasi adopts a larky approach in this pastiche of backstage Hollywood maneuvering built around the peculiar personal dynamic between the mercurial Hitch and his long-suffering, but briskly loyal wife and longtime creative partner, Alma Reville, played with sense and sensibility by the ever-wonderful Helen Mirren.

Scripted by John J. McLaughlin, Hitchcock begins and ends like an episode of the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series, with the maestro appearing onscreen to deliver a wry introduction and epilogue directly to the audience. (A reference that might be lost on viewers unfamiliar with the show.)

Then the story kicks in. In 1960, searching for a new property to fulfill his contract with Paramount, Hitch discovers the novel, "Psycho," by Robert Bloch. Inspired by the crime spree of notorious real-life Wisconsin serial killer, Ed Gein, the book has everything Hitch's prurient soul delights in—deviant and/or illicit sexuality, voyeurism, unhealthy obsessions, a blonde in jeopardy, and, of course, murder. (Read more)