Simon's Movie Reviews

You know a director has done something right when a scene in his movie is parodied and referenced 50 years later. Even more impressive is the fact said scene is a murder scene in which the audience doesn't see any blood except the one it imagines is flowing from the victim. Psycho (1960) is indeed quite an oddity given it is based on a novel that itself was based loosely on the horrid crimes of Ed Gaines. Yet Alfred Hitchcock, who apparently never backed away from a challenge, thought this was just the right material for his next movie. Good thing, because cinema history was never the same again. This is one of those movies that you have seen even if you have never seen it before, mainly because of that shower scene and the titular psycho doing the stabbing. It has been parodied countless times by everyone from Wes Craven to Mel Brooks, and even Bugs Bunny. Bernard Herrman's iconic music, which practically screams in unison with Janet Leigh as the blade strikes, has ...

Some movies start off with a bang but with his 1958 film noir Touch of Evil cinema legend Orson Welles decided to start with three minutes and 20 seconds leading to the bang. During a tracking shot set in a U.S – Mexico border town we follow a car right after an unseen person has installed a crude bomb in the trunk. It’s a lovely evening with people having a good time and border agents diligently doing their jobs as they let the car cross over onto the American side. Then the bomb goes off, two people die violently, and suddenly it’s not such a good evening. That’s one way to hook in your audience. Some people resolve to eat better, quit smoking or do more exercise for the New Year. As we start off 2019 one of my resolutions is to try to watch more classics films, and even though I got a lot of great films as Christmas gifts I thought I would use my day off to check one classic film I had never seen off my list. Of course I am familiar with Orson Welles, a filmmaker so prolific...