Films of the 50's, Part 1: Vertigo & House of Wax

I, and many of the other writers at Treble, am in the midst of taking a year or more to review some of the best films ever made. We’re trying to tackle the project decade by decade. Last month we raced through the 1940’s, and I intend to make a return trip at some point, because I never got to see about 20 of the films I intended to. But, we have since moved on to the 1950’s, and I find myself compelled to write about my experiences. I am not a film expert, have never claimed to be, but enjoy film immensely. I’ve taken a few film studies classes (Hitchcock and French Film), and I’ve seen quite a few movies, but that’s about the extent of my expertise. Like many blogs, this writing is for me, mostly, but if someone else enjoys what they read, all the better.

When we began our look at the 1950’s in film, I first made a list of my favorite films from the decade I had already seen. Then, I went about scouring lists, websites and suggestions for other films I could add to my viewing queue. My original list consisted of 16 films I considered essential. I then added 47 films to my Netflix Queue, a balance of disc mailings and instant streams. Over the next few weeks I hope to highlight this experience, and maybe even get more recommendations of essential films to see. As I go on, I will write about two films per essay, one I had already seen and one I experienced for the first time during this exercise. Of course, this can only last for 16 essays until I have to double up on ‘new’ films, but all the better for writing from memory.

I decided to start with what I consider my favorite film of the period, and juxtapose it with another kind of suspense film, albeit less subtle. So without, further ado, here’s Vertigo and House of Wax:


Vertigo

When I, along with my other Treble brethren, first embarked upon this journey through films of the 1950’s, I knew that the films of Alfred Hitchcock would dominate my list. Having already been making films for decades, I’m not sure that many people would have guessed that he still had decades left. The fifties were arguably his most fertile period. Though some of my favorites were made in the 40’s (Rebecca, Rope, Notorious, Spellbound) and 60’s (Psycho, The Birds), there is no denying the strength of his films in the 50’s, most of which will be appearing in my ‘best of’ list, and thus in this blog. Vertigo has to be first. I don’t remember when I first saw it, but I had the distinct privilege of studying a good number of Hitchcock’s films in college. Vertigo impressed me more than any of his films.

First of all, we have Jimmy Stewart, a Hitch regular, playing the requisite everyman, in this case, a retired police officer with acrophobia, Scottie. As happens with most retired cops in film, he becomes a private investigator, hired by an old college friend. I won’t recount the plot, but I do have to mention two other featured players, Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes. Novak ranks up there with Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly as Hitchcock’s most compelling, beautiful and complex ingénues. What’s more, Novak plays two distinct roles. Bel Geddes nearly steals every scene she’s in as Scottie’s confidant. She displays humor under a masked pain and longing like no other actress I’ve seen.

But there are other elements of Vertigo that rival the acting and characters in terms of prominence, those being the color palette and the locations. San Francisco has been the center of many films, but never quite like this. The Mission San Francisco de Asís, Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of Fine Arts, and Coit Tower all play parts, large and small. The colors in Vertigo, two in particular, follow the rules of traffic lights. Green is everywhere, a trigger for Scottie’s obsessive love. Green surrounds Judy, the object of Scottie’s obsession, and he is compelled to ‘go’ whenever she is near. Red, contrarily, is a warning to Scottie, one he usually recklessly ignores. Scottie’s front door is red, a vivid stop signs to women (like Bel Geddes’ ‘Midge’) from getting involved with him. The walls of Ernie’s, the restaurant where Scottie first sees Judy, are a deep red, floor to ceiling, in stark contrast to Judy’s black and green outfit. While he is seeing the green of her wrap, he is completely ignoring the fact that everything around him is warning him of impending danger.

And, of course, as with all Hitchcock films, there are the elements of plot, intrigue, mystery, fear and compulsion. Vertigo shines in all respects. I can watch this movie again and again, getting some small new detail out of every successive viewing. I own two copies of this film, a rare distinction, one on DVD, and one on LaserDisc. In fact, I think this latter copy of Vertigo is one of the few reasons I am still holding onto the discs and the player. It is a noisy bastard of a machine, humming and wheezing like a robot with emphysema, but the picture is impressive. Vertigo could easily end up to be my favorite film of the 1950’s, but I don’t have to make that decision quite yet.

House of Wax

I figured the best ‘recently viewed’ film to go along with Hitchcock had to be House of Wax. I had reservations about seeing it for a number of reasons. For one, there are very few (other than Hitchcock) horror films I would consider among the best, regardless of genre. I’m not a horror movie junkie. In fact, I still haven’t seen some of the 70’s and 80’s horror classics that redefined the genre. But, I trusted a few websites that ranked it among the best films of the decade. I was also worried because, yes, I do scare easily. I have particular phobias. I am starting to get over my ghost fear, but china dolls, spiders and wax figures still rank fairly high. The last piece of information that nearly steered me away from the film was the fact that it was the very first studio film in 3-D. Gimmicks rarely lead to good art.

I was, however, surprised. The 3-D element of the film had been removed on DVD (though now that the technology is back in force, expect a re-release), yet certain scenes remain that give away the trick, the best of which is a barker outside the newly opened wax museum, attracting the passersby with two paddleballs, the tethered white spheres shooting quickly toward the camera. The truth is, the movie isn’t all that scary. The scariest parts simply involve shots of motionless wax figures, scary enough in themselves. After seeing the Twilight Zone episode, “The New Exhibit,” I always expect wax figures to come to life and mindlessly kill. But, that is not the horror of the House of Wax. The mystery isn’t intended to be that hard to figure out, that’s not the point. It is a well-crafted tale, moving quickly, and full of suspense. One can see why this was the first movie in a long line of Vincent Price’s return to the horror genre. He is a master.

There is one hilarious moment, however. I was just remarking to my brother that I loved when home video versions of epic films include the original intermission title cards, music, etc. The films of David Lean, Akira Kurosawa and more generally retain the intermissions depending on the films’ lengths. House of Wax never hits the 90-minute mark, and yet, it comes with an intermission. I actually started laughing to myself. Who can’t sit for forty minutes? I thought this country became more distracted as time went on. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. It may not crack the top 20-25, but I’d recommend it.