Towse: views from the hill

April 12, 2010

Strangers on a Train – Highsmith/Hitchcock

Filed under: books,movies — Tags: — Towse @ 11:38 pm

Last month book club read THE TALENTED MISS HIGHSMITH by Joan Schenkar because we planned to read a (an?) Highsmith this month.

This month we read STRANGERS ON A TRAIN and tonight we discussed the book =and= watched the Hitchcock adaptation.

Farley Granger as Haines — a tennis star in the film, an architect in the book. Ruth Roman — his love interest (her family connections way different from the book). Robert Walker as Bruno (looking nothing like the Bruno I imagined). Leo G. Carroll (as Roman’s dad and looking very LGC-like). Kasey Rogers (credited as Laura Elliott — as Miriam, the soon-to-be-in-any-way-possible ex-wife). Patricia Hitchcock — as the younger sister of the love interest, a role that did not exist in the book.

Patricia Hitchcock was great. The story was way different from the book. We spent the evening doing a line by line (that didn’t happen! they were eating a hamburger! wait! what about the. …)

Chandler got screen credit but admitted that the final screenplay included almost none of what he wrote.

Highsmith was not happy with the film.

The book is cherce. The movie too. Watch/read both. Or either.

For those with gaydar going WHOOP!WHOOP!WHOOP! who were speculating about Farley Granger. … Read Wiki. You’re vindicated in a way. Granger was bisexual. He had affairs with Ava Gardner, Shelley Winters, & al. but his long-time love was Robert Calhoun.

Wikipedia entry for STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

July 2, 2009

The subject was hotdogs and the Fourth of July

Filed under: food,movies,video — Towse @ 4:16 pm

The link was to a classic hotdog-eating scene from a classic movie.

April 15, 2009

The 18 most memorable movie library scenes in honor of National Library Week

Filed under: books,libraries,movies — Towse @ 10:45 pm

The 18 most memorable movie library scenes in honor of National Library Week

Library of Congress proudly twitters that they nab two of the spots!

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