Everyone knows Hitchcock. If you stopped any random person on the street and had them name a Hitchcock film I would bet you a small amount of money that they would say either Psycho or The Birds. Stop the really clever douchebag who works at Blockbuster and he might name Vertigo just to show you how much he knows about movies. But I guarantee you no one would name Shadow of a Doubt, which is quite arguably the master auteur's best work.

Even Hitchcock himself claimed it to be his own personal favorite. In it you’ve got this guy, Charles Oakley (that made me laugh cause it’s the same as that guy who played for the Knicks) and what Charles loves most in the world is to kill widows and steal their inheritance. He is the infamous “Merry Widow Murderer”. When the heat gets turned up a little too high for good old Charles, he decides to lie low at his older sister’s house in the very small, peaceful town of Santa Rosa, North Carolina. Also living in the house is Charles’ second favorite thing aside from killing widows, his young niece Charley. Charley is a young, beautiful recent high school grad who is totally bored out of her mind, stuck in a town the rest of the world seems to fly by without noticing.

While the whole family and everyone in town is charmed beyond their wits by Charles, young Charley knows better. She begins to realize her uncle’s true colors. Once big Charles realizes his niece knows everything thus ensues a great game of cat and mouse that includes doofus cops, attempted murder and even some not so subtle ideas of incest. (Big Charley gives niece Charley a ring as a gift) Hitchcock isn’t even trying to keep those themes subtle but it doesn’t matter, the film is the closest thing to being perfectly executed you will ever see. And Teresa Wright may be my biggest movie crush since Jessica Rabbit. She’s the ultimate, adorable girl next door, but also a next generation independent woman. (When one of the dweeby cops asks for her hand in marriage she asks if they can just be friends) Yeah, you may call that cliché, but it sure as fuck wasn’t cliché in the 50s. A girl saying that in the 50’s is way ahead of its time, which makes me love Miss Wright and this movie even more.

FYI: After falling for her I looked her up on IMDB and quickly realized that she made this movie over fifty years ago, and now she’s past being old, she’s completely dead. And that really put a damper on the whole crush thing.

Check out SHADOW OF A DOUBT on NETFLIX here!

BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF
Dir: Christophe Gans

OK, so this film is about a giant monstrous wolf thing that terrorizes the French countryside in the 18th century. Two world-traveling hunters are summoned to lead the investigation for this beast. One of the hunters is an award winning French stage actor. The other is Mark Dacascos… Seriously.

The film is packed with great creature violence and horror and some very interesting plays on French politics and the influence of the upper class. Also, everyone knows karate. Why? Who knows. And I don’t even care. Plus this is based on a true story. How true? Well, I’m guessing the filmmakers took some creative liberties. For instance, it probably wasn’t some huge wolf monster beast killing beautiful young French maidens. It was probably a kind of big regular wolf that killed some livestock and maybe a little kid or two. Also, I don’t think all these French nobleman actually knew karate. But so what because for some reason all these crazy little eccentricities come together perfectly. There’s tons of action, suspense and prostitutes. Plus Mark Decascos. You remember Mark. He played that Green Beret who taught all the inner city kids capoeria while single-handedly kicking ass and taking down Miami’s drug cartels. Well he kicks even more ass in this because he uses his martial arts to fight a fucking wolf monster. If you still need more convincing you need your geek club membership revoked.

Well, here’s another little tidbit. It’s also got Monica Bellucci. (IMDB her) Monica kicks ass in everything. She even sort of kicked ass in Shoot ‘Em Up. Also, she likes to get naked. You know that game couples play where they each pick one person who they could sleep with and pretend to not get mad at each other because you probably will never meet that person. Well for me it’s always Ms. Bellucci. Why? She looks like she knows things.

Check out BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF on NETFLIX here!

I will be back with more write-ups of shit you’ve never heard of but should probably check out. These four should keep you busy till then.