LAST EDITED ON 05-15-01 AT 07:56 PM (EST)

>I was always a Hitchcock fan as a kid.

*** Aya, about ten years ago, I had a little tradition going - each week, I'd rent a different Hitchcock film and then try to spot him in his cameo! Lots of fun!

>"Rebecca" (Hitchcock's first US movie), giving Selznick back-to-back Best Picture Oscars.

***Ooooh!!! I'm about to read the novel of "Rebecca" very soon! It's my next pick after the book version of "Planet of the Apes"! A quick story on why I'm reading that one - I was a Planet of the Apes freak from age eight through 12. I had everything - the dolls, the models, the pjs, t-shirts, game, bubble-gum cards etc. I saw all the movies and watched every episode of the short-lived TV show. Around age 10, at my request, mind you, Mom got me the book - not exactly the greatest thing to reel a 10 year old in, but I DID ask her, after all! Not realizing that it was a CLASSIC piece of science fiction writing, I was just too young to appreciate it. Anyhow, 27 years later, I found a copy in a used bookstore and have decided to give it another shot! I'm sure I'll have a much more enthusiastic response this time! (Of course, big kid that I am, I can't wait to see the Tim Burton remake this summer! Nothing will ever replace the original, but I gotta see it anyhow!) Anyhow, long story short, after "Planet of the Apes", "Rebecca" is next on my summer reading list! What a beautifully written novel!

>And he made many more great movies after splitting with Selznick (including "Strangers on a Train," "I Confess," "Rear Window," "To Catch a Thief," "Vertigo," "North by Northwest," "The Wrong Man," "The Man Who Knew Too Much" remake, etc.)

*** I always loved that his (obvious) favorite leading man was Jimmy Stewart (whom I worship!)! The "Ordinary Every-Man Caught In Dangerous and Extreme Circumstances" always worked, no matter how many times they worked together! And God knows, I certainly DO NOT advocate violence against women (or anyone else for that matter!), but only Hitchcock could get away with having Jimmy Stewart, of all people, roughing up, slapping around, dragging UP a flight of stairs, and basically forcing Kim Novak off a roof to fall to her death in "Vertigo"! He's the last actor you'd expect to do that, and as horrifying of a scene as it was, it's pretty much why it works! It's particularly disturbing because it's him!

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W.L.S.F.C. - NY chapter