The Notoriously Dizzy Steps-The Annotations
Well,
if no one guessed, the filmmaker to whom the Notoriously Dizzy Steps is a homage
is Alfred Hitchcock, and the fic is part homage and part travelogue of England.
The title is a combination of a few of my favorite Hitchcock films,
�Notorious,�
�Vertigo,� and �The 39 Steps,� all of which I highly recommend.
These annotations are done for fun and from my rather poor memory, so if
anyone would like further more reliable information there are several excellent
books on both Alfred Hitchcock and his films and travel in England.
Somerwhere,
way back when, on the Manny Board II, I think, Meliss(a) and JenL made requests
that I write a fic involving the black leather jacket (as opposed to the Versace
suit which was featured in my first fic).
So this was for them (even if it turned out to be A LOT longer than I
expected).
Parts
One, Two and Three
The
John Radcliffe Hospital is a real hospital; it�s the teaching hospital in
Oxford. The
real John Radcliffe was royal physician under the Tudors (I think).
How great a physician he was is somewhat up to debate but he certainly
managed to get some impressive things named after him including the John
Radcliffe Hospital (or JR as it�s often called by students) and the Radcliffe
Camera (the funny looking round building which you often see in pictures of
Oxford) which was designed by Christopher Wren (I think) and is part of the
Bodleian library system, the main library for Oxford University and one of the
copyright libraries of Great Britain.
I
have no idea how hard it is to get a turkey in Oxford.
I don�t like turkey, and I personally spent my Thanksgiving in England
eating Indian food.
Pembroke
College is actually one of the Oxford colleges.
Kenworthy
Cottage is mostly made up with the name of a friend of mine.
The idea of the cottage is based somewhat on the C:S. Lewis Cottage.
C.S. Lewis was an Oxford University graduate and a don of Magdalen
College, Oxford.
Going to the back of the cottage, you get a very good idea of what it
must have been like for Lucy to push through the wardrobe into Narnia.
The
idea for the return of Michael/Danny is straight out of �Vertigo.�
Although Michelle does not try to recreate Danny in Michael (too many
other films to pay homage to) the random meeting, the jewelry, the meeting again
later against better instincts, etc. are all part of �Vertigo.�
It�s one of the great post-war American films, done in a kind of French
New Wave style.
I don�t think it was a success when it was first released in the late
1950�s, but it�s come to be known as one of Hitchcock�s great classics.
Part
Four
Christ
Church College is also one of the Oxford colleges.
One of the older ones, quite gorgeous actually, often called the
aristocrats� college.
It was also the college where �Lewis Carroll� was a math don.
Christ Church Meadow does have a tendency to be underwater from overflow
of the Isis (Thames) River, but when it�s not, it looks an awful lot like
Wonderland.
Kebab
vans are a notorious way for Oxford students to feed themselves.
They�re cheap and one of the few ways of getting food in the middle of
the night in Oxford.
Part
Five
As
everyone knows, English police officer�s don�t carry guns, and I didn�t
feel the need to change this for the future.
The
handcuffs and the handcuffed couple are straight out of �The 39 Steps,� one
of Hitchock�s great pre-WWII and pre-Hollywood films.
It�s the prototypical Hitchcock man on the run films combined with the
prototypical blonde Hitchcock heroine, in this case Madeleine Carroll.
Hitchcok was very fond of blondes; he felt that they manifested a cool
beauty with smoldering sensuality.
His later Hitchcock blondes included Grace Kelly (�Rear Window,�
�Dial M for Murder,� and �To Catch a Thief�), Tippi Hedren (�Marnie�
and �The Birds�), and of course Kim Novak (�Vertigo�).
Part
Six
I
don�t have any notes for Part Six, other than this caveat: if you�re driving
in England and the shiny new map and ye olde country road sign seem not to
agree, FOLLOW YE OLDE COUNTRY ROAD SIGN!
Part
Seven
There
are probably hundreds of pubs in England named the Black Swan.
The famous Black Swan is a pub in Stratford upon Avon, birthplace of
you-know-who, and a well-known theatrical hangout for generations of
Shakespearean actors.
John
Robbie and Frances, whose names Danny so bemusedly has signed in the guestbook,
are the lead characters played by Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in �To Catch a
Thief.�
Parts
Eight and Nine
No
notes.
Part
Ten
Mr.
MacGuffin�. well,
as a few of you have commented and I well know, �The Notoriously Dizzy
Steps� really doesn�t make much sense as a narrative plot.
What IS keeping Danny from Michelle?
WHO is one their tail?
And the answer is� I don�t know.
It doesn�t matter much to me.
What
does this have to do with Mr. MacGuffin?
The MacGuffin (besides being a website devoted to Alfred Hitchcok) was
what Hitchcock called what was keeping the plot of his films going, and he
didn�t really care what it was.
If you watch his films, there�s often a secret at the center of the
plot which is never really revealed: the �code� in �The 39 Steps,� the
government secrets in �North by Northwest,� the uranium in the wine bottles
in �Notorious,� or the encoded messages in �The Lady Vanishes.�
The �process� in �The Spanish Prisoner� by David Mamet is a
classic MacGuffin.
So my MacGuffin is called Mr. MacGuffin.
Part
Eleven
The
Road to York. It
sounds like something out of the Canterbury Tales, but on a number of occasions,
even though the shiny new, British map may give the highways all real names,
most people call the highways things like, �the road to York,� �the road
to Bristol,� �the road to Birmingham,� etc.
Just
a note on chocolates.
French chocolates, especially the very good ones tend to have less sugar
than other ones, and so they tend to pack a greater chocolate punch (I love
French chocolate).
Part
Twelve
Harmsworth
Cottage is completely fictitious, another combination of a friend�s name and
my imagination.
Part
Thirteen
Boscott
Pond is another complete fabrication.
Scotty
is the name of the main character played by Jimmy Stewart in �Vertigo.�
Asprey
is a famous jeweler�s in London (and many other parts of the world).
Awarded the royal warrant, I think it�s also the official jeweler to
the Queen.
Part
14 and 14B
I
guess, this sort of belongs in Parts 1-3 also; the farmhouse which supposedly
was the model for Thrushcross Grange in �Wuthering Heights,� still exists in
Haworth, Yorkshire.
At least up until a few years ago it was also operating as both a working
farmhouse and Bed and Breakfast (I haven�t seen it listed as a B&B
recently). The
hilltop where the conversation which Danny and Michelle takes place, I�ve
based on Top Withens, the legendary site of �Wuthering Heights,� which it
hikeable from �Thrushcross Grange.�
Incidental trivia: the Bronte Parsonage is the second-most visited
literary shrine in England, after Stratford on Avon.
Miss
Froy, of course, is the title character of �The Lady Vanishes.�
Roger
Thornhill is the lead of �North by Northwest,� yet another character played
by Cary Grant.
I thought it was appropriate since the title is based on yet another line
from �Hamlet.�
Eve is the spy he meets up with in the course of the film.
At
least for me, the sun does set really early in England in the winter, especially
in the North. I
think I remember it setting as early as three or three-thirty.
Part
15
The
part about the million Mexicans drinking the tea is one of the clues in �The
Lady Vanishes.�
Iris
and Gilbert are the leads in �The Lady Vanishes.�
(Sorry, it�s one of my favorites).
Part
16 (Just
the notes I wrote at the time)
The
song, of course, is �A Kiss to Build a Dream On� by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby,
and Oscar Hammerstein II.
Kalmar and Ruby wrote many, many wonderful songs, including �Thinking
of You,� �Three Little Words,� �I Wanna be Loved by You,� to name just
a few. Oscar
Hammerstein II was one of the giants of American musical theatre, writing book
and/or lyrics to far too many shows to name here, but of course, was most famous
for his collaborations with Richard Rodgers.
But I digress (as everyone here knows I am far too wont to do)�
�A Kiss to Build a Dream On� has been recorded by many, many great
artists, the most famous one probably being the one by Louis Armstrong, but the
one to which I was listening when I wrote this piece of the fanfic was by
cabaret and jazz singer Paula West on her album �Temptation� which I highly
recommend.
Part
17
The
knock on the head, and the question of whether it was a dream or not is all from
�The Lady Vanishes.�
Part
18
The
London black cabs are famous.
The cabbies are excellent drivers, quick, efficient, polite, and honest,
in a city known for its safety (minus an IRA bomb or two).
A bit like stepping into a Sherlock Holmes story.
The
Lear where Michelle�s staying is a Bed and Breakfast in London.
It was also the home of Edward Lear, the 19th Century painter and author
of light verse, including his most famous �The Owl and the Pussycat.�
Part
19
Hamley�s
is the famous toy store in London, one of the largest in the world.
I
have no idea whether Patek Philippe makes pocket watches or not.
Part
20
No
notes.
Part
21
The
twist Michelle�s putting her hair into is based on Madeleine�s hair in
�Vertigo.�
It�s kind of hard to see in the old prints, but if you see the restored
prints which were out a few years ago, you can see the vertigo-dizziness motif
is continued in Madeleine�s hairstyle.
Part
22 to Conclusion
No
notes.