Don’t miss the ending, when a girl gets turned into a spinning top:
Comments
Open thread 5/9/2025 — 21 Comments
At 3:04 there is a tight shot of the ballerina’s head and eye focus repeatedly snapping into the forward position. She’s traveling across the stage then, but at 3:12 we see it again when she’s not traveling.
Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain has a scene where the prima ballerina is doing this and as she spots her gaze, she sees the fugitive Paul Newman.
Overall, it’s one of his worst films. I suffered through the 2+ hours a couple years ago. I haven’t seen the interview, but Julie Andrews gave one in which she said that she and Paul Newman strong armed Hitch on changing a number of scenes. And then said that in retrospect, “We didn’t do Hitch any favors.”
I was unable to quickly find a video clip of the Torn Curtain scene, but did see that the older film, The Red Shoes, features this same thing in one of it’s famous scenes.
Instead of celebrating accomplished young women, like those in the video, the Marxists are celebrating sloppily dressed, fat black women. The one in New York got much publicity, but apparently there are others.
While it is not allowed to have statues of Thomas Jefferson or Teddy Roosevelt, among others, in New York City, a 12 ft bronze statue of a random fat black woman just standing there is certainly permitted.
The new statue in Times Square is named Grounded in the Stars. The puropse of it, according to it’s creator Thomas J Price, is to be a “stark contrast” to two statues in Duffy Square of Father Francis Duffy and George M. Cohan, and a way of “disrupting traditional ideas” of what a “triumphant figure” is.
@TommyJay: Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain … Overall, it’s one of his worst films.
Ain’t that the truth. Paul Newman and Julie Andrews as leads with Hitchcock? Sounded like a natural.
Still even bad Hitchcock is Hitchcock and I do appreciate that earnest 60s Technicolor aesthetic.
he apparently didn’t do a great job adapting leon uris’s topaz, which was largely a true story, about an unnamed agency, clearly the cia, where John Forsyth, was the liason to a french intel figure, who helped uncover the missiles in Cuba,
because golitsyn was the source of the Soviet spy ring around de Gaulle, well one had to dismiss the whole thing, the whole black legend about Angleton, which is who is who forsyths character is based on,
apparently not just the ivies are involved is it the qatari pipeline, probably,
Miguel: have to disagree about Hitchcock’s “Topaz”. Very underrated movie with a great cast. Frederick Stafford would have made a pretty good Bond if he had been able to shed his continental accent (he was born Friedrich Strobel von Stein in Czechoslovakia in 1928). Stafford had a Ph.D. in chemistry and worked in the pharmaceutical industry before getting into acting, mostly in Eurospy movies of the 1960s-1970s.
Good ole’ Jen…Putasockinit….
Pathetic.
(Truth is she used to lie a whole lot better…)
yes he played deveraux he would have made a good agent mathis, if not bond, deveraux was supposed to be phillippe vosjoli, a French intelligence operative,
whenever communism is even tangentially involved a certain cohort of film critics, they seem to disdain the subject, like any time the Black list is brought up, the notion that one communism wasn’t present, and it’s not bad anyways,
thats the TCM contingent, that has that attitude,
re Hitchcock by huxley and TommyJay: “Torn Curtain” a failure?
It is ironic that the same director who did the first unofficial Bond film, “North by Northwest” also does this implausible dud. Yet both concerning Cold War espionage.
I believe “Torn Curtain’s” failure is best attributed to the breakup of his master’s support team, namely no familiar cinematographer or composer from his family.
And later in life, this becomes a daunting chore because the famous become like Hitch are ill served by their “yes” men, and also loses touch with recognizing new young talent.
We hope Hitchcock’s greatest successor director Christopher Nolan, who owes him so much, does not repeat the same mistake in the two coming decades, when Nolan enters his own “Torn Curtain” years of filmmaking labor.
I believe “Torn Curtain’s” failure is best attributed to the breakup of his master’s support team, namely no familiar cinematographer or composer from his family.
TJ:
I’ve also heard it argued that later Hitchcock had lost his stable of tried-and-true Hollywood stars, such as Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, and Ingrid Bergman in their prime.
I HOPE you see this Neo, I found this article about new jersey congressman plus the mayor of newark storming an ice facility.
His father, born leroy everett, was a marxist who jumped on the bandwagon of changing his name to something vaguely islamic. Amiri Baraka. He seemed to have been an ‘assata shakur’ lite, only in the sense that he didn’t act on most of his violent impulses. He was a mediocre poet who vented his racist spleen constantly, against whites and jews. He also glorified tape of white women as ‘a legitimate revolutionary act’, and as an experience ‘that a white man could never give her’, and if she didn’t like being raped, she was racist. He also abandoned his white wife and two biracial daughters, using the death of malcom x as an excuse to justify this.
With regards to antisemitism, he seemed to have claimed 9/11 was plotted and carried out by jews and the jews were only involved in the civil rights movement as a means of ‘influencing’ blacks.
He remarried and decades later we are stuck with his son ras baraka, gifted an equally faux islamic name, who is running to be GOVERNOR of new jersey. And who was as of today arrested for tresspass at the Delaney Hall ICE facility. I will pray for the people of new jersey that this man remains confined to Newark. Who knows what repugnant philosophy he inherited from his deceased father.
Incredibly his father was the poet laureate of new jersey in 2002.
Also, these names marxists adopt speak to a type of intellectual laziness. As someone who is billingual and who has studied languages, their is a decided fauxness to these types of names that the ear can pick up. I don’t think it is any accident either they are attracted to what they think are islamic names. Violent people emulating a culture that takes its precepts from a religion founded from conflict (khaybar).
ArtDeco at 2:24, thanks for “Car Wash.” (The movie is worth watching/rewatching—surprisingly touching.)
In re the video: no wonder the adult dancers are so fantastic!
Re: Ras Baraka
Liam:
Good catch. I actually wondered if there were a connection to the poet Amiri Baraka, whom I knew (by reading) as Leroi Jones, his sixties Beat name.
One of his other children, Dominique di Prima (by poet Diane di Prima), is known as a radio personality and more in LA.
Both Baraka and di Prima were radical political activists in their time.
Liam; huxley:
I wrote a post about Baraka back in 2014, when he became mayor. In it, I discussed LeRoi Jones at length. I was planning to revisit that in a post tomorrow – which I still may do. But here’s a link to my 2014 discussion of Baraka & Son.
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At 3:04 there is a tight shot of the ballerina’s head and eye focus repeatedly snapping into the forward position. She’s traveling across the stage then, but at 3:12 we see it again when she’s not traveling.
Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain has a scene where the prima ballerina is doing this and as she spots her gaze, she sees the fugitive Paul Newman.
Overall, it’s one of his worst films. I suffered through the 2+ hours a couple years ago. I haven’t seen the interview, but Julie Andrews gave one in which she said that she and Paul Newman strong armed Hitch on changing a number of scenes. And then said that in retrospect, “We didn’t do Hitch any favors.”
I was unable to quickly find a video clip of the Torn Curtain scene, but did see that the older film, The Red Shoes, features this same thing in one of it’s famous scenes.
Instead of celebrating accomplished young women, like those in the video, the Marxists are celebrating sloppily dressed, fat black women. The one in New York got much publicity, but apparently there are others.
Statues Of Random Fat Black Women Popping Up Worldwide
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/statues-random-fat-black-women-popping-worldwide
While it is not allowed to have statues of Thomas Jefferson or Teddy Roosevelt, among others, in New York City, a 12 ft bronze statue of a random fat black woman just standing there is certainly permitted.
The new statue in Times Square is named Grounded in the Stars. The puropse of it, according to it’s creator Thomas J Price, is to be a “stark contrast” to two statues in Duffy Square of Father Francis Duffy and George M. Cohan, and a way of “disrupting traditional ideas” of what a “triumphant figure” is.
Adulterous Global Warming strikes again!
“Ice Surprises”—
https://www.aei.org/articles/ice-surprises/
…as the “Biden” administration redefines “expertise”…
“To Rebut Reports of His Senility, Biden Hires Press Flack Who Helped Hide Lloyd Austin’s Hospital Stay”—
https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/worried-by-reports-of-his-senility-biden-hires-press-flack-who-helped-hide-lloyd-austins-hospital-stay-from-white-house/
…and Victor D. Hanson, waxing Socratic, tries to do the impossible: ask ALL the right questions in a single column:
“Would the left finally explain the inexplicable?”—
http://jewishworldreview.com/0525/hanson050925.php
H/T Powerline blog (for all).
you shall not speak heresy against the sky dragon, barry
if only blofeld had started in the lucrative field of philanthropy in publishing,
https://www.malone.news/p/who-is-casey-means-md
@TommyJay: Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain … Overall, it’s one of his worst films.
Ain’t that the truth. Paul Newman and Julie Andrews as leads with Hitchcock? Sounded like a natural.
Still even bad Hitchcock is Hitchcock and I do appreciate that earnest 60s Technicolor aesthetic.
he apparently didn’t do a great job adapting leon uris’s topaz, which was largely a true story, about an unnamed agency, clearly the cia, where John Forsyth, was the liason to a french intel figure, who helped uncover the missiles in Cuba,
because golitsyn was the source of the Soviet spy ring around de Gaulle, well one had to dismiss the whole thing, the whole black legend about Angleton, which is who is who forsyths character is based on,
too easy a target
https://twitchy.com/dougp/2025/05/09/rep-eric-swalwell-trips-all-over-dem-lawfare-while-getting-triggered-about-doj-probe-of-letitia-james-n2412574
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2025/05/09/psaki-bombjens-new-show-hits-the-skids-as-she-continues-to-lie-to-america-n2188882 smallest audience evarr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb6ucBdI8w4
no the news is not reasuring on one front,
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pakistani-drones-sighted-in-jammu-samba-pathankot-
sector-what-we-know-sofar/articleshow/121035961.cms
https://www.dawn.com/live/pakistan-india-tensions
the times of course says otherwise,
https://nypost.com/2025/05/05/us-news/corrupt-venezuelan-officials-facilitated-tren-de-aragua-gangs-reign-of-terror-in-us/
more defunding please,
https://x.com/EYakoby/status/1920856774044680487
apparently not just the ivies are involved is it the qatari pipeline, probably,
Miguel: have to disagree about Hitchcock’s “Topaz”. Very underrated movie with a great cast. Frederick Stafford would have made a pretty good Bond if he had been able to shed his continental accent (he was born Friedrich Strobel von Stein in Czechoslovakia in 1928). Stafford had a Ph.D. in chemistry and worked in the pharmaceutical industry before getting into acting, mostly in Eurospy movies of the 1960s-1970s.
Good ole’ Jen…Putasockinit….
Pathetic.
(Truth is she used to lie a whole lot better…)
yes he played deveraux he would have made a good agent mathis, if not bond, deveraux was supposed to be phillippe vosjoli, a French intelligence operative,
whenever communism is even tangentially involved a certain cohort of film critics, they seem to disdain the subject, like any time the Black list is brought up, the notion that one communism wasn’t present, and it’s not bad anyways,
thats the TCM contingent, that has that attitude,
re Hitchcock by huxley and TommyJay: “Torn Curtain” a failure?
It is ironic that the same director who did the first unofficial Bond film, “North by Northwest” also does this implausible dud. Yet both concerning Cold War espionage.
I believe “Torn Curtain’s” failure is best attributed to the breakup of his master’s support team, namely no familiar cinematographer or composer from his family.
And later in life, this becomes a daunting chore because the famous become like Hitch are ill served by their “yes” men, and also loses touch with recognizing new young talent.
We hope Hitchcock’s greatest successor director Christopher Nolan, who owes him so much, does not repeat the same mistake in the two coming decades, when Nolan enters his own “Torn Curtain” years of filmmaking labor.
I believe “Torn Curtain’s” failure is best attributed to the breakup of his master’s support team, namely no familiar cinematographer or composer from his family.
TJ:
I’ve also heard it argued that later Hitchcock had lost his stable of tried-and-true Hollywood stars, such as Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, and Ingrid Bergman in their prime.
I HOPE you see this Neo, I found this article about new jersey congressman plus the mayor of newark storming an ice facility.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy904elvxj3o.amp
The mayor Ras Baraka, was arrested for ignoring warnings not to trespass. I looked at his name and decided it had a fictional/parodical quality to it,
I was more right than I knew.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiri_Baraka
His father, born leroy everett, was a marxist who jumped on the bandwagon of changing his name to something vaguely islamic. Amiri Baraka. He seemed to have been an ‘assata shakur’ lite, only in the sense that he didn’t act on most of his violent impulses. He was a mediocre poet who vented his racist spleen constantly, against whites and jews. He also glorified tape of white women as ‘a legitimate revolutionary act’, and as an experience ‘that a white man could never give her’, and if she didn’t like being raped, she was racist. He also abandoned his white wife and two biracial daughters, using the death of malcom x as an excuse to justify this.
With regards to antisemitism, he seemed to have claimed 9/11 was plotted and carried out by jews and the jews were only involved in the civil rights movement as a means of ‘influencing’ blacks.
He remarried and decades later we are stuck with his son ras baraka, gifted an equally faux islamic name, who is running to be GOVERNOR of new jersey. And who was as of today arrested for tresspass at the Delaney Hall ICE facility. I will pray for the people of new jersey that this man remains confined to Newark. Who knows what repugnant philosophy he inherited from his deceased father.
Incredibly his father was the poet laureate of new jersey in 2002.
Also, these names marxists adopt speak to a type of intellectual laziness. As someone who is billingual and who has studied languages, their is a decided fauxness to these types of names that the ear can pick up. I don’t think it is any accident either they are attracted to what they think are islamic names. Violent people emulating a culture that takes its precepts from a religion founded from conflict (khaybar).
ArtDeco at 2:24, thanks for “Car Wash.” (The movie is worth watching/rewatching—surprisingly touching.)
In re the video: no wonder the adult dancers are so fantastic!
Re: Ras Baraka
Liam:
Good catch. I actually wondered if there were a connection to the poet Amiri Baraka, whom I knew (by reading) as Leroi Jones, his sixties Beat name.
One of his other children, Dominique di Prima (by poet Diane di Prima), is known as a radio personality and more in LA.
Both Baraka and di Prima were radical political activists in their time.
Liam; huxley:
I wrote a post about Baraka back in 2014, when he became mayor. In it, I discussed LeRoi Jones at length. I was planning to revisit that in a post tomorrow – which I still may do. But here’s a link to my 2014 discussion of Baraka & Son.