Film Friday: Psycho 1960

Film Friday: a little meander through my DVD collection.

Today I am featuring the classic that is 1960's Psycho.
Also home to my favourite screen house, The Bates Mansion.

Psycho is a 1960 American psychological thriller-horror film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and written by Joseph Stefano, starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Vera Miles and Martin Balsam. It was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch.

The film centres on the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Leigh), who ends up at a secluded motel after stealing money from her employer, and the motel's disturbed owner-manager, Norman Bates (Perkins), and its aftermath.

When originally made, the film was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous film North by Northwest, having been filmed on a low budget, with a television crew and in black and white.

The film initially received mixed reviews, but outstanding box office returns prompted reconsideration which led to overwhelming critical acclaim and four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock.

Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films and praised as a work of cinematic art by international film critics and film scholars. Ranked among the greatest films of all time, it set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behaviour and sexuality in American films, and is widely considered to be the earliest example of the slasher film genre.

Director Alfred Hitchcock was so pleased with the score written by Bernard Herrmann that he doubled the composer's salary to $34,501. Hitchcock later said, "33% of the effect of Psycho was due to the music."

Did you know ... Walt Disney refused to allow Alfred Hitchcock to film at Disneyland in the early 1960s because Hitchcock had made "that disgusting movie, 'Psycho.'"

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Do you like this film?

Our Welsh Wonder!

Happy St Davids Day From Meirionwen, our Welsh beauty!

  

  

Architecture Tart Tuesday: Portsmouth and Chichester

Portsmouth anyone?

All photos taken by me.

When I was a child, I really loved this building.

It used to be a British Telecoms building, but I have no idea what it is now.

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Catholic Church

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Hayling Island

This building I believe is modern.

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Sweet art deco house.

I took this years ago but may have recently bumped into the owners!

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How about we move on to Chichester?

I am convinced this now demolished building used to be a cinema.

Don't these doors just scream cinema to you?

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Chichester law Courts.

Well alright! The scene of the famous Rolling Stones trial in the 1960's.

Which is your favourite?

Film Friday: GI Blues 1960

Today on film Friday I bring you 1960's GI Blues.

Elvis Presley stars as Tulsa McLean, a soldier stationed in Germany, who pulls strings to stage a big show for his fellow GI's. He also bets his buddies that he can date "ice princess" entertainer Lili.

U.S. Army Specialist 5 (SP5) Tulsa McLean (Elvis Presley) is a tank crewman with a singing career. Serving with the 3rd Armored "Spearhead" Division in West Germany, McLean dreams of running his own nightclub when he leaves the army, but such dreams don't come cheap.

 Tulsa and his buddies have formed a band and perform in various German "Gasthauses", night clubs, and on an Armed Forces stage. In one bar, he even discovers the record "Blue Suede Shoes" sung by someone named Elvis Presley on a jukebox.

To raise money, Tulsa places a bet with his friend Dynamite (Edson Stroll) that he can spend the night with a club dancer named Lili (Juliet Prowse), who is rumored to be hard to get since she turned down one other G.I. operator, Turk (Jeremy Slate). Dynamite and Turk have vied for women before when the two were stationed in Hawaii.

Tulsa uses his Southern charm and calls Lili "ma'am." She at first sees Tulsa as another Occupation Duty GI ...

The songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote two song for the movie, "Dog Face" and "Tulsa's Blues", but later withdrew the songs when they didn't like the royalty payments contract that Elvis' manager Col. Tom Parker insisted that they sign.

While Tulsa is singing "Doin' the Best I Can", one soldier puts a coin in the jukebox and choose from the list "Blue Suede Shoes - Elvis Presley".

Princess of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, King of Thailand and other royalties visited on the studio and met  Elvis.

The boat Elvis boards ("Bonn"), is now in Karlshamn, southern Sweden, and is used as a discotheque.

Did you know ... The 3rd Armored Division was Elvis's regiment when he was in the army and in this movie.

B-Movie Madness: The Day of the Triffids 1962

"And I really got hot
When I saw Janette Scott
Fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills ..."

As a child I watched The Day of the Triffids on the telly and it scared the living daylights out of me. I did not like the clicking sound that accompanied their imminent arrival and hadn't been near a Triffid adaptation since then. I have though, been near John Wyndham's house as he used to live around here.

However, over Christmas, I saw the 1962 version was on an obscure telly channel so decided to record it. I watched it alone, as Andy isn't keen on b-movies.

After an unusual meteor shower leaves most of the human

population blind,

a merchant navy officer must find a way to conquer tall,

aggressive plants

which are feeding on people and animals.

It was the version that stars Howard Keel, Janette Scott, Nicole Maury and Kieron Moore and was always on my radar because of the song lyric which starts this post, which comes from the opening song of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I was obsessed with as a teen.

I actually really enjoyed it, terrible as the picture was, but that's what you get for watching films on cheapy satellite channels. Mind you, I wouldn't say Janette Scott fought the Triffids, so much as she screamed her head off upon spotting them. My, that woman can scream! I was impressed.

As ever in contemporary films, it was great seeing the outside locations and the cars. The scene where the convicts force the women to dance for them featured some very snazzy jazz music! I had nipped out of the room for a second and returned to see women dancing on tables. Susan then exited the room shrieking about what had happened, mentioning the word whiskey as she did so. Quite a raucous affair I must say.

Something I found interesting was that on 24 May 2015 an alley in Hampstead that appears in The Day of the Triffids was formally named Triffid Alley as a memorial to John Wyndham!

Have you seen this version of Day of the Triffids?

The Pretty Precious Things

As promised, my pretty, pretty glass!

Remember these over sized brandy glasses with the cat and mouse? This was my nans.

The plaster cat over the years has developed a chipped foot which is sad but at least you can't see it here.

My nan's carnival glass dish.

And as a bonus, our telephone. NOT our telephone number by the way, it was there when we charity shopped it.

And our Sylvac heron vase, once belonging to Andy's aunt, whose family treated it like a precious artifact, it now lives with us on a side table which is the exact same design you see in 1930's set telly dramas or Jeeves and Wooster. It was also Andy's aunts but we don't know if it's original 30's or 50's.

Oh yes and Yarn Tree has been transformed!

Yarn Tree is our all year round, sits upon the dining tale, occasions tree.

I have long wanted an occasions tree and finally got one last year.

Red and blue 1930's beads looking resplendent.

All that adorned it until recently was a glass Dalek and multi coloured faery lights as all the Halloween decorations had been removed. I then added a metal reindeer I spotted in Waitrose while we grocery shopped, the body is a bell, it's so cute!

I had been showing Andy the box clasp on a vintage faux pearl necklace and afterwards hung it from the tree to keep it from being knocked about. It then without meaning to, stayed there for some time. I then added a string of vintage crystal beads and when the Great Glass Migration was underway, the  glass bauble with ship inside which Gisella kindly sent me when I mentioned here that mine had smashed in the move, was hung upon the tree for safe keeping.

Vintage faux pearls and vintage jet beads.

I then started getting ideas as it was starting to look a bit piratey with the necklaces and the glass bauble.

Off I went to the bedroom and raided my necklace boards, came back and started decorating.

All of my handmade necklaces are made from real semi-precious gemstones.

Ooooh!

Pretty!

I am ridiculously pleased with myself.

The glass of this beautiful bauble is as delicate as the surface of a bubble, it's so, so fragile.

Here you can see a garnet and quartz necklace and one made from citrine.

Then last night I added three new decorations I also spotted in Waitrose. These silver glitter letters were £1 each, but on offer for three for two, so we got a B for bunnies, Bob and Belle, M for Melanie and A for Andy. They weren't going to stay on this tree but I think they look lovely so they will.

This is not, I hasten to add, our Christmas tree.

Christmas trees, go up this weekend.

Yes, yes I did say trees.

This is, I have decided, my birthday tree, as December 19th is my birthday and Yarn Tree is after all an occasions tree!

I am so excited! Christmas and birthday all in one week!