MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE (1948)

I love both Cary Grant and Myrna Loy, so you would think the pairing of them together would be a sure sign of a hilarious movie. Well it's not. MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE has numerous funny moments, but the thing that turned me off overall to the movie was the fact that Blandings has a job where he apparently does nothing but can still afford to not only support a wife and two kids but also afford a maid and build a gigantic house at a grossly overinflated price! It bothered the shit out of me. I don't know jack about the advertising business (except that the majority of commercials I see make me want to kill the entire human race), but Blandings has a job where he's given the assignment of coming up with a new slogan for a ham company and he's given six fucking months to do it!!!!!!! You're telling me this guy is getting paid enough money to live like a fucking king because he can come up with a slogan every six months!?!! What the fuck? It's all I could think about the entire movie.

OK, OK, let's forget about the whole money grows on tree aspect of the story and just focus on the comedy...ehh, it's alright. Unfortunately, most of the jokes focus on the different ways that Blandings is getting ripped off. Example: the guy he's paying to discover water for his well is paid by the foot, so the joke is the well digger guy has to dig over 200 feet down to discover water while the house construction guys only have to dig down 6 feet to discover a spring that ends up flooding the basement. Hardy-har-har. If that kind of stuff gets you to knee-slapping then MBBHDH is the movie for you. I kinda found it more depressing than funny.

Not a bad movie, but I think you'd better off watching GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE which has a very similar story, but actually funny.

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951)

Up-and-coming tennis player, Guy, has been courting the daughter of a senator. His future looks to be very promising...except for the fact that he's still married to the town slut from his hometown. While on a train trip back home to discuss his divorce with his estranged wife, Guy bumps into a man, Bruno, and they strike up an uneasy conversation. Eventually the subject turns to "the perfect murder" and while Guy thinks Bruno is just joking, Bruno is actually deadly serious...not to mention highly disturbed. Bruno claims the perfect murder would be for Bruno to murder Guy's wife and for Guy to murder Bruno's father, explaining that since neither of them know their victim the police would never be able to solve the murders.

The train arrives and Guy forgets the whole silly conversation when his wife, sensing a cash cow, backs out on the promised divorce. They get in a heated argument in front of her co-workers. Later on she's at a carnival when Bruno shows up and strangles her to death. Bruno then contacts a horrified Guy and tells him that now it's Guy's turn kill his father.

If I had to rank Hitchcock movies I would place SOAT somewhere in the Top 20. It's an entertaining viewing with some interesting shots and a nice amount of dark humor. On the other hand it's not re-watchable (like PSYCHO or VERTIGO) and the character of Guy is a total idiot. All of his problems would have disappeared if he had just manned up from the beginning, but instead he spent the majority of the movie whimpering like spineless pussy. Worth a rent and that's it.

Hitch cameo.