Cinema Sunday: My Cousin Rachel

 

Today's Cinema Sunday involves a bit of an experiment and it's about the way I see a lot of movies.

Over my life, I've seen a lot of movies, hence this weekly feature on my blog wherein I talk about them.

I would like to say that I approach movie watching with a planned reverence as I retire to the drawing room of my Fortress of Ineptitude, comfortable in my dressing gown and my favorite pair of slippers with a hot cup of tea and some buttered scones to enjoy a movie uninterrupted from beginning to end.

I would like to say that... but I can't.  

Most movies I watch as I can and frequently not in the right order.  

For example, while I have seen Apollo 13 a half dozen times, I have never seen Apollo 13 at one time from beginning to end in order. In bits and pieces, here and there over the years, I have managed to see the whole movie. 

Unlike the movie for today's post.  

Today I am going to write about a movie that I've seen only the last 8 minutes of.  

It was during my lunch break and I was flipping around the channels and landed on TCM or FXM which was showing a movie called My Cousin Rachel, a black and white film set in the Victorian era. The channel guide timer said there was 8 minutes to go so why the hell not? 

Here is the cast:

• Some Dude
• Some Woman 
• Some Other Woman 

Everyone is all properly dressed for the era in a backyard garden patio for tea. Some Woman is really working hard to get Some Dude to drink a cup of tea she just poured and Some Dude is not having it. He's genre savvy enough to realize that no one ever pushes you that hard to drink a cup of tea unless it's poisoned. 

Some Woman decides now would be a good time to promenade about the grounds. After she leaves, Some Dude tells Some Other Woman to go inside the house to look for shit that will prove Some Woman is a stone cold killer bitch. 

While Some Woman wonders about her garden on a path that takes her by a cliff side overlooking a rocky gorge, Some Dude and Some Other Woman are tossing the house when they find something that shows Some Woman is NOT a stone cold killer bitch but may be in trouble. 

Some Dude rushes out of the house calling "Darling!" 

What the hell? Just 2 damn minutes ago, Some Dude thought Some Woman was a stone cold killer bitch poisoning his tea and now... "Darling"?   

Some Dude finds Some Woman at the bottom of the cliff, all banged up on the rocks. He rushes down only for her to say "How... could you" and dies.

"How could you"? How could he what? 

Next we see Some Dude sitting on a rock by the ocean, bundled up in a cape like he's frigging Batman brooding on a rooftop and we reach.... "THE END". 

Which is what I get for watching only the last 8 damn minutes of a movie. 

To the Wikipedia?

TO THE WIKIPEDIA!!!!

My Cousin Rachel is a 1952 American mystery romance film directed by Henry Koster and starring Olivia de Havilland, Richard Burton and Audrey Dalton.. The film is based on the 1951 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier.

A Daphne du Maurier novel? Well, that explains all the angst and drama going on.  

After the death of some rich dude named Ambrose, Philip (Some Dude) suspects Rachel (Some Woman) of murder and vows revenge. Per the plot synopsis, Phillip and Rachel spend the bulk of the movie fucking each other over through various mind screws, just being selfish loathsome people and general fuckery. 

Which brings us to the last 8 minutes of the movie where I came in.  Philip is convinced Rachel is attempting to poison him and that she murdered Ambrose.  He is so pissed at  Rachel that he neglects to warn her about a foot bridge in need of repair at the edge of the estate. Which is how she fell into the rocky gorge and her dying "How could you" was condemnation of Philip's poor foot bridge maintenance? 

OK, so do I care enough about this movie enough to actually find it again somewhere and watch the other parts? 

Probably out of morbid curiosity I suppose. It would be frustrating to watch it from the beginning knowing there is an unrepaired foot bridge in Rachel's future. 

Andrea likes Daphne du Maurier novels so that might be an excuse.  

Watching movies in bits and pieces and not in the right order is a very odd way of watching movies. 

Watching only the last 8 minutes of My Cousin Rachel made for a odd experience but based on my research, I think I may have caught the best part of the movie.