Hitchcock Watch: Rope (1948)

Watched:  04/02/2026

Format:  BluRay

Viewing:  First

Director:  Hitchcock

This was my first time watching Rope (1948).  For some reason I have massive gaps in my Hitchcock viewing, and I do a poor job of just getting over myself and putting the movies on.  

From even back when I was in film school, I came to believe that this movie was mostly just one big technical trick, but that the movie itself wasn't very good - which is why I never bothered watching the film.  The description was always that it was a lesser movie.  But I literally don't know what the @#$% those people are talking about.  Rope slapped.

Yes, it is several long takes stitched together - and a technical trick trying to do something novel where the technology just wasn't there.  Film reels were only so long in 1948, and camera equipment was hefty.  And I'm kind of left to wonder if Hitchcock watched Lady in the Lake and thought "that's not the trick.  The trick is to let the camera be the camera but keep it running - let the audience feel they're in the room."

And, especially in the third act, I found all of that incredibly effective.  

It doesn't hurt that the movie has a few things I like in general:

90's Superhero Watch: The Rocketeer (1991)

Watched:  04/01/2026

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Joe Johnston

I can't put my finger on why, but I just felt like watching a movie where someone blew up a bunch of Nazis trying to operate on American soil.  

So, I saw The Rocketeer in the theater back in 1991.  Even 16-year-old me was thrilled it was going to have airplanes and a guy from a comic book and pre-1960's styling.  And it was going to have that girl from Labyrinth!  

Watching it now is a completely different experience but no less joyful.  Back then I didn't get all the references and nods which the movie crams in left and right, using the movie almost as an excuse to reward Hollywood nostalgia nuts.

However, I recall being very *aware* of The Rocketeer as a comic property before the movie came out because comic fan mags and catalogs featured Dave Stevens' Bettie Page inspired art that was used to promote the property.  However, I couldn't find the actual comics.  And, a bit like some pics of P'Gell from The Spirit, it gave me some very wrong ideas about what the comic book was when I finally read it.  

Supergirl (2026) Trailer is Up

Heyyyy!!!  The second Supergirl trailer is up.

You can watch the trailer from YouTube here:

Here's that Teaser Trailer from earlier:

I mean, so far, so good.  It's a very particular take, and very far from her first appearance in 1959.  Which, you know, is fun...  but would never work in a million years as a movie now.  The closest we'll get to that is Helen Slater, and then some of what Melissa Benoist brought to the screen.

I don't mind the traumatized refugee take - it absolutely makes sense.   And, frankly, the comic they're using as the bones for this movie is a gorgeous, memorable story (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow).  

So far, I like Milly Alcock.  The look and feel all feels spot on.  So, sure!  Looks like a blast.

Do I have qualms?  No, man.  I don't.  I am not here to outsmart a trailer that looks perfectly nifty.  At this point in my life I just say "is this for me?"  And I think this is.  Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong.

Totter Noir Watch: Under the Gun (1951)

Watched:  03/29/2026

Format:  Sketchy Russian Site/ Archive.org

Viewing:  First

Director:  Ted Tetzlaff

So, because the studios are dumb and don't make their older movies easily available, I watched this on a sketchy Russian site (link above).  And I wanted to watch this movie. In fact, I would have paid real American dollars to watch this movie.  

"Why watch this one?" you ask.  It has (in order of interest) Audrey Totter, Richard Conte, Sam Jaffe and John McIntire.  And was a crime flick I'd not seen discussed anywhere except for one still I saw go by on social media a couple of months back.

Conte plays a mobster who has gone to Miami from NYC, and while there found singer Audrey Totter,* who he plans to bring back to New York and make a star.  Totter is wary, but knows this could be her big break, and so jumps in a car with Conte and his two heavies.