HITCHCOCK - FLYING HIGH!

Rating: 10/10 (3 May 2019)

The first half hour feels like the opening of one of those Doris Day romantic comedies so popualar in the early sixties. The cute meeting of the stars in the pet store, and Melanie's flirtatious attempt to play an elaborate practical joke on the attractive guy almost make us forget we are watching a movie directed by the man who terrified us a couple of years before with PSYCHO. Then, first with one peck from a gull on Melanie's forehead, then with the discovery of a neighbor's multi-pecked corpse, we begin to realize what we're in for. Even if he had not made PSYCHO, this movie would have made his reputation. Has any director ever delivered such a "one-two punch" of great films in succession? It seems time to applaud the performance Tippi Heston gives here in what was her first movie role. She makes her character's slow transition from shallow socialite to traumatized heroine completely believable. And speaking of "one/two punches," she jabbed two of her own with her follow-up movie, MARNIE, in which she totally carries the entire film without any help from exciting bird attacks - again for Hitchcock. We now know the director's deep obsession with this actress caused her to endure some frightening real life ordeals while working for him. It is interesting to wonder to what degree her personal anxiety contributed to her powerful performances in these two films. She is truly a woman who endured much for her art, and perhaps reluctantly helped her "master" achieve new heights.