Covid Classics: Cause this is Thriller! Thriller Night…
Stuck at home with a lot of free time on my hands, instead of keeping up with friends and family, I blitzed the streaming services to beef up my movie history credentials.
Below are some mini reviews of the great thrillers of the past you should consider watching that maybe have fallen out of mainstream circles but probably should not have.
A man goes to Vienna to mourn the loss of his friend, but slowly learns of the strange tale of how his death unfolded, and how those pieces don’t add up.
Analysis
The first 2/3 of this movie are filled with a sense of unease and dread, as Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) slowly peels back the layers of the death of his friend, Harry Lime. Graham Greene’s script is incredible at ramping up the tension to the incredible third act of this movie, with some all time character reveals and a terrifying chase through Vienna’s sewers.
After finding a severed ear in his suburban town, a recent college grad tracks down the ear’s owner, leading to the underbelly of his seemingly serene suburbia.
Analysis
David Lynch is wildly hit or miss for me. This screenplay isn’t as clever as it thinks it is, basically showing the depravity underneath something that looks sweet and unassuming. However, Lynch shines when plunging into depravity, using a terrifying Dennis Hopper performance and a tragic Isabella Rossellini one to show how sinister some people can be.
A former war criminal somehow ends up in Connecticut, finding a college professor betrothed to a local lady.
Analysis
Though not one of the greatest films ever made, Orson Welles still directs the hell out of this pulpy thriller. Similar to Blue Velvet, Welles makes great use of the underbelly of an innocent town, delving into the past of Professor Charles Rankin, and why some mysterious visitor would end up at his house, amping up the tension with each new piece of information. Robert Zemeckis probably saw this movie in film school and had some ideas about clocktower finales for his movie.
Marathon running brother gets sucked into a government conspiracy involving ruthless war experimenting doctors.
Analysis
William Goldman, screenplay legend, adapts his own story for the big screen here. So, that means you know the movie’s gonna pop with something amazing, like say, the worst trip to the dentist’s office that ever existed. Despite the plot holes, this movie’s fun and tense as hell, especially when Laurence Olivier saunters onto the screen.
Insurance salesman falls for restless wife of spendthrift husband, so they team up to try to get rid of him and collect his insurance at the same time.
Analysis
Billy Wilder doesn’t get mentioned with names like Hitchcock and Cluzot when it comes to crafting thrillers, but he should, cause this one is a master class in the genre. It uses all the pieces of film noir so effectively: voiceover from the mastermind or detective (the demure Fred MacMurray), the femme fatale (the sexy Barbara Stanwyck), and the crusading detective (Edward G. Robinson) who finds the flaws in their “flawless” plan.It’s tense, it’s smart, it’s Billy Wilder at his best.
