During preparations for a dinner party yesterday I was able to catch bits and pieces of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (the beginning and ending, mainly) and the same few scenes from Rebel Without a Cause I always see: the knife fight at the planetarium, the chickie run, and Jimmy's papa in an apron. I should really sit down and watch the whole thing one of these days, even though I've heard every character has a daddy complex and it's almost too much to handle. But Sal Mineo sure does look amazing. Later, I caught Strangers on a Train and was thrilled to find that the carousel could be deadly. Every time I watch a Hitchcock film I'm reminded of the inspired Fordist nightmare he was never able to shoot: the camera slowly follows the construction of a car on a Detroit assembly line, from the very first bolt to the last touch of paint. We see robot arms and mechanized tools constuct the car from scratch. Finally, when the car is finished, the door is opened for the first time. A dead body falls out.