As I Grow Old, Part 2

Rating: 10/10 (27 June 2009)

For reasons pretty much spelled out in my review of The Bridge on the River Kwai, this is another film that I appreciate more with age.
I can be succinct about this. James Stewart's performance is his best. His character's obsession, whether or not you think it the result of unconscious seduction, is made all the more gripping because we are so much more accustomed to his portraying characters who are direct, purposive, honest and forthright. In a sense Scottie is...until he isn't.
Kim Novak is, simply put, beautiful to the point of unearthliness. But this triangle has four sides, and Barbara Bel Geddes is also very much the player. She too is beautiful...or at least given her profession you get the idea she full well knows how to judge beauty...yet she cannot possibly compete with Scottie's fixation, which makes her recognizing that all the more painful and the instant focus of our sympathy.
Where does age come in? How readily each of us can place ourselves in each character's shoes. The smug would doubtless think, "You can't always get what you want," but how long did it actually take each of us to learn that? Not only the players but Hitchcock himself had to have known and understood that, and in his peerless directorial fashion he enhanced the portrait, adapting even the surroundings to suit. To me the plot is at times but a contrivance...until the very end.
A postscript concerning Bernard Herrmann's musical score: Get a good recording and play the opening theme at theater volume without any visuals or even an attempt to recall the Saul Bass title sequence. In fact, darken the room you're in or listen at night. The music throbs and pulsates. Brilliant.