This week’s big Friday night feature was going to be Joe vs. The Volcano.  Jessica had picked this movie and truth be told, while I’m not crazy about it I do think that it would go over pretty well with my daughter Alexa.  Jessica has also urged that we add Oscar to the list as well.  I’m relenting on this one, but really that is kinda pushing it for me.

The whole purpose of the Friday night movie is give Alexa some kind of a cool film education.  Okay sure, she’s nine so it’s not like we’re going to be watching Citizen Kane or The 400 Blows anytime soon, but none the less I’m trying to keep a certain quality here.  I’m sure I must sound like I have my film snob hat on but Oscar with Sylvester Stallone is a pretty lousy film.  Plus this means that my next choice, On The Town, is going to have to wait a few weeks (Alexa is only around every other Friday) and patience was never my best quality. 

Things though are going to be looking up in the Alexa time category as I have successfully negotiated taking her for an entire month this summer.  She is going to be spending July with me for once.  Normally there is an every other week kind of deal that gets hammered out but this is much better.  I’d rather have the consistency of a month than the every other week bit.  Of course there is the whole what to do with her while I’m working part.  Jessica is pushing for a day camp at the YMCA, which is most likely what we’re going to do.  There is a theater camp I’d rather send her to.  I’ve sent her there twice for Christmas break and she seems to really like it.  But that place costs an arm and a leg and half a kidney.  Kinda pricey.  Not to mention you add in the idea of a weekend trip to NYC, which is what we intend to do in July, and now Alexa time is really pushing the wallet to the limit.  But it’s all fine because problems these may be, they happen to be good problems.

On my DVR list I have a number of things I have recorded and never bothered to watch.  So every so often I break down and watch something that I at one point fully intended to see.  Tuesday night it was Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy.  Now before I write about the movie I should tell you about a pet peeve of mine.  It seems these days movie nerds (like myself) are always eager to tell you how much they know about a movie.  So the add the director’s name to the title, as though you wouldn’t know what movie they were talking about with that information.  It’s no longer Jaws, it’s Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.  Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous.  Peter Segal’s Tommy Boy.  You get the idea. So when I told you that I saw Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy you probably thought that I was doing that same thing.  Dan, you hypocrite! But no, there is a difference.  You see studios did actually add Hitchcock’s name to the title so that was the right way to refer to it.   

Anyway, sorry for that.  Back to Frenzy.  I had seen this movie when I was about 18 or 19 on Encore and hadn’t seen it since.  But it left a big impression on me.  In conversations I would always list it among my favorite Hitchcock films.  I had recorded it because I knew Jessica hadn’t seen it and that she’s probably enjoy it.

Frenzy is somewhat typical Hitchcock fare.  You have a guy mistaken for a killer while the real killer is out there causing more havoc.  Jon Finch plays Dick Blaney, a down on his luck bartender.  Blaney just lost his job and has no money.  When he visits his ex-wife at her place of business the frustrated Blaney starts an argument.  The next day when she turns up dead, a victim of the “Necktie Killer” (yes he chokes them with his necktie), all signs point to Blaney. 

The real killer is Blaney’s friend, Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), a dapper man of the times (and that time is 1972, dig those suits and hair styles!).  When Rusk kills Blaney’s ex it really is a rare time that Hitchcock actually shows the entire grisly event.  It’s a long and unpleasant scene as Rusk first rapes then chokes the woman. 

Frenzy was made in England and feels different from other Hitchcock classics.  The time is different, the look is different, and there’s no Cary Grant or James Stewart to glam it up a little.  Just some regular looking British people.  Oh sure there are the familiar Hitchcock themes and touches but the feeling is a little bit down and dirty for the old master. 

That’s not to say it shortchanges character or plot for shock value because that’s not the case.  Any scene with the Chief Inspector (Alex McCowen) who is very busy both trying to catch Blaney and avoid his wife’s experimental cooking, is a delight.   All in all I found Frenzy to be a great revisit for me and it does remain one of my favorite Hitchcock films.  And more importantly Jessica liked it too.

It’s Friday, which means tonight is movie night.  Oh sure in a way every night is movie night for me, but every other Friday has become an unintentional tradition now.

A couple of months back I really got it up my butt to see Raiders of the Lost Ark.  I’m not sure what set this off, maybe discussing the new Indiana Jones adventure coming out in a few weeks, I’m not sure.  But I knew I wanted to see Raiders again and now. 

So I went out and bought the DVD set, at the time the only way to get it was to buy all three Indiana Jones movies though now you can get Raiders in a box of Corn Flakes.  Go figure.

I did this with my nine year old daughter, Alexa.  We excited went home, and though she had no idea who or what Indiana Jones was, she was excited.  So I set some rules.  This was to be a special screening.  The lights were to be off.  No getting up and wandering around the apartment (we could call this The Jessica Rule).  No talking, unless you needed some help with the plot.  If you have to go to the bathroom the movie gets paused.  There was no screwing around here.

And so the lights went down and Raiders of the Lost Ark went up.  And you know, it went perfectly.  Alexa loved the movie even though I know the beginning exposition was confusing to her.  So the next time she came over we watched Last Crusade and it was just as big a hit.  We did skim through the best parts of Temple of Doom (the opening, the mine cart, etc.) but that movie is too dark for her and quite frankly not very good.

But a new tradition was born.  All week long when I call Alexa up she asks what we’re watching this Friday.  Two Fridays ago it was Adventures in Babysitting (Jessica’s suggestion and a good one at that) and again another home run.  Me and Jessica even made a list of movies that would fit in this night.  Movies ranging from A Night at the Opera to tonight’s movie Beetlejuice.

Part of the idea is get Alexa out of watching all the way too kid friendly movies she’s used to.  Not that there is anything wrong with those, hell I’m glad that there is a kid friendly movie to take my daughter too almost every weekend, but it seems like we’re babying our kids when it comes to entertainment.  I remember thinking that she might not be able to handle a film like Raiders.  But that’s nonsense.  When I was her age my favorite movie was Marathon Man, a film with a dense plot and famous for its TORTURE scene not mention seeing Dustin Hoffman’s bare ass and Marthe Keller’s bare boobies.  So maybe it’s time we watch some things that are just a little more mature and don’t need to have the Disney or Nickelodeon logo attached to them. 

So tonight it’s Beetlejuice.  And if I’m really feeling it we’ll even go out to see Iron Man.  I’m taking suggestions for next week if you have ‘em.

But I’ll hold off on Marathon Man.  She’s gonna have to wait until she’s at least 11 for that.