Ouchie! Ouchie!

Sunday was movie night, for a couple of Alfred Hitchcock's biggest films, both starring Jimmy Stewart.

First was The Man Who Knew Too Much, with Stewart and Dr. Ben McKenna and Doris Day as his wife Jo. While vacationing in Morocco, McKenna learns of an assassination plot to be executed in Britain a few weeks hence, and the plotters kidnap his son to ensure his silence. So he and Jo head to London to rescue their son and foil the plot.

Hitchcock remade his own, earlier film by the same name, and 30 years of filmographics advances show: The story flows more smoothly and the people feel more real, as we see the little nuances of their day. There isn't a ridiculous firefight at the end, and the plot hinges on things the characters (and the viewer) know, rather than on the fact that the wife is an expert marksman (which she isn't, here). The essential three or four elements of the plot are retained, and everything else is thrown away to make a better film. It's quite good, and worth seeing both versions for the contrast.

Then was the newly-restored version of Rear Window, probably Hitchcock's second-most-famous film. Stewart plays L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries, a photographer laid up with a broken leg. He spends his days and nights in his wheelchair watching his neighbors through his window, and agonizing over his relationship with the lovely, high-society Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly). Things heat up when he notices that the invalid wife of the salesman (Raymond Burr) opposite him has disappeared, and he theorizes that the salesman has killed her and snuck her body out - in pieces - during the night.

To my surprise (I'd never seen the film before), the film is not a "How does Jeff nail this guy?" film so much as a "Was a crime actually committed, and can it be proven or disproven?" film, which is fairly rewarding, especially since plenty of attention is paid to characterization and the amusing goings-on of all the neighbors. The set of the space between the buildings (at least, I assume it's a set!) is very impressive, covering a couple of city blocks, and the various characters are vividly drawn despite having few-if-any speaking lines. And, of course, Kelly is beautiful!

A quite good film. Not as good as North by Northwest, I think, but still very good.

The really exhausting part of the week came yesterday, though, when I went in to get my permanent crowns on my teeth. It was exhausting because the temporary crown on my molar did not want to come out. The dentist said I was the third person that day to have a temporary crown on that one tooth which didn't want to come out, and he said he wants to write a book about "dentistry voodoo" someday.

Anyway, after much tapping and poking and pulling and pain, it finally came out. Putting on the two crowns was not so bad, but boy was I wiped out afterwards.

I've noticed a few weird things about the crown already. (Yes, I'm one of those people who runs his tongue over his teeth all the time, checking up on them, I guess. I'm a weirdo.) The molar crown is still set a little too high which makes biting down a bit strange. And the incisor crown is set a little farther forward than the other incisor, and the crown comes to a point rather than to a flat surface like the actual tooth. It also presses a little against the teeth on either side of it.

I'm going back next month to get a couple of smaller fillings, and I'll probably ask to have the two crowns filed down a little bit to make them more comfortable, but otherwise I think they'll be okay.

So I was completely wiped out by the end of the day, but I came home and collapsed on the couch and got sucked into The Audrey Hepburn Story, starring Jennifer Love Hewett as the vivacious 50s and 60s film star. The biopic has a framing sequence involving shooting some scenes for Breakfast at Tiffany's, probably her most famous film. Unfortunately, that's also the latest sequence in the film; it doesn't really cover her life afterwards, which was disappointing as I've been curious about it for a while.

On the other hand, her childhood is handled fairly well, and the girl playing her as a teenager is excellent. Hewett, though, doesn't really look like Hepburn, which mostly spoils the illusion. Although I must admit that there were moments when she got the mannerisms and voice down enough to fool me. Overall, though, Hepburn's story was not perhaps the most compelling one, and this wasn't a great film.

I collapsed entirely when it was over. A good night's sleep was just what I needed.

Tonight I got a call from my friend and former cow-orker Gene, from Madison. Gene and I worked together at Epic for about three years before he jumped ship for greener pastures. We had a good time catching up on what's been happening with each of us, and what's happened to some of our mutual friends whom I'm not still in touch with. Gene ended by saying, "Let me know when you decide to move back to Madison!" Bastard!

A couple of new subjects in the forum:

1. Discussion about hunting for an apartment, and feedback on my proposed new strategy for finding one.
2. Why do you read the kinds of books that you read?