Cinecast Mailbag (9/21)

"Where's Alfred?" And other concerns...

Greetings Gentlemen,

I've been a loyal and enthusiastic listener for many months now, and I want to thank you so much for your wonderful, and refreshingly reliable (hey, it actually gets posted on a regular basis) podcast.

Here is my concern: Where's the Hitchcock? Can it possibly be that both of you fail to see the genius?! There's been no mention at all of the great pallid, pudgy one in any of the shows I've heard while zipping home from work, and frankly I'm disappointed! Am I missing something - or are you?!

Other minor quibbles and strokes:

1) A special western a week? Allow me to express the collective Blah.

2) Where's the sex? If you've had a list of the sexiest/most romantic/most-insightful-into-human-relationships flicks I've missed it. (See "An Affair of Love," "Secretary," and most of all "Innocence.") You guys are doing a great job pandering to your straight male audience with the Yippiee Yahooo a week -- toss the rest of us a bone! Get in touch with your feminine side and slather on a little sexy.

3) Love the whole list concept in general. Bite sized and easily digestible.

4) I forget which one of you hated Star Wars, but that one is clearly starkers.

Thanks again for the great podcast! Claire Novo, Newtown, PA

Thanks for the kind and comprehensive e-mail, Claire! Let me start from the top. You're right. I'm not sure Alfred Hitchcock has come up more than once or twice in the six months that Adam and I have been recording Cinecast -- and none of his films have landed on a Top 5 list. But lots of great movies and great directors have gone unmentioned on the show. Hopefully that means that Adam and I have enough material to keep Cinecast going for a while. Off the top of my head, I know I've seen Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "Rear Window," "Vertigo," "Psycho" and "North By Northwest." A pretty small sampling, admittedly. But I have to admit, too, that the only one of those films that I really truly love is "Rear Window" -- and please don't get me started on "Vertigo" or we might have a bloodbath -- which would explain the missing Hitch films from my Top 5 lists. Then again, we haven't done a Top 5 Suspense Films. So there you go.

A "collective blah" for the Western-a-Week Marathon? "Collective" for all the westerns in our marathon, or "collective" meaning you've got a bunch of pals that are humbugging John Ford, et al, with you? I'll be honest, Westerns have never really appealed to me (the exception being "Unforgiven," a film I find compulsively re-watchable). But bluegrass music never used to appeal to me either. And now I'm a total fiend for the banjo. Don't be a cynic! Join our Magical Mystery Tour through the great American genre!

"Where's the sex?" you ask. I guess we're assuming that most Cinecast listeners don't want to hear Adam and I "slather on a little sexy" and discuss the movies that get us all hot and bothered. Let me speak for myself: I don't want to hear about the movies that make Adam all hot and bothered. Among your recommendations, I've only seen "Secretary," a movie whose charms lasted all the way through the opening credits. I thought it was pretentious and remarkably un-sexy. Your other two picks look more promising. I'll add them to "the queue." Also, not sure if it counts, but Adam and I did devote a Top 5 list to "relationship movies" back on Cinecast #7. Which isn't the same thing as sex, I realize, but it's kind of the same ballpark. Or so I've heard.

Thanks again for your kind words about our "bite-sized and easily digestible" Top 5 lists. We enjoy making them -- despite the fact that Adam mentions how "hard" it is to assemble his list every single week. [Adam responds: "Guilty as charged."]

And for the record, it was me who hated Star Wars, but I have no idea what "starkers" means. Does it mean "insightful, with an impeccable taste in film"?

I didn't think so.

Sam