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By Theresa Rossetti, Resident I love a good mystery. Suspense movies or books, the "you're on the edge of your chair" kind, wondering "what will happen next" kind, are among my favorites. I'm not talking about gory stuff, so if that's what you're looking for, you're reading the wrong article. While looking over the DVDs in the Lodge library, I saw a few movies by my favorite director, Alfred Hitchcock. According to a film made about him a few years ago, he could be a rather creepy person in real life. There is no denying that in reel life his films are considered suspense masterpieces. We have copies of Secret Agent, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Murder, all made in England before he came to America, on our shelves. A survey on Rotten Tomatoes, listing it's pick of the top 100 Mystery and Suspense films, has 11 of his films in the group. I've see 10.95 of them. We won't discuss the fact that I've never seen the last five minutes or so of Psycho. I was hiding behind the movie theatre seat in front of me for them. Nor will we discuss how Rotten Tomatoes classifies 101 Dalmatians and Who Killed Jessica Rabbit as suspense films. Really, people? Hitchcock used the impression of fear and slowing down or speeding up of time, instead of blood and guts, to keep his audience in a state of suspense. The only scene I remember with blood in it, and it was in black and white, was in Psycho — you know the one, the shower scene with Janet Leigh. The "blood" was actually Bosco's Chocolate Syrup. Since I've seen many of his films, I'll bore you with my favorites, in no particular order. North by Northwest (the Mount Rushmore one), Rear Window (the broken leg one), Rebecca (the creepy housekeeper one), Strangers on a Train (the precursor to Throw Mama from the Train one) and To Catch a Thief (the don't ever let Grace Kelly drive one) are all on the above mentioned top 100 list. I'll add Notorious (the Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman and a bunch of Nazis one), Marnie (the Sean Connery (sigh), one), Suspicion (is Cary a good guy or a bad guy? one) and Shadow of a Doubt (the scary uncle one). Here are some other films that have given me a good fright. Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman and Richard Crenna (better know from TV's The Real McCoys) as one of the bad guys. The Manchurian Candidate, Frank Sinatra as a brainwashed GI and Jessica Fletcher, I mean Angela Lansbury, as one nasty mother. The Sixth Sense, Silence of the Lambs, Laura, Mystic River, Air Force One, The Great Escape, Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls all kept me on the edge of my seat as well. I'm sure you can think of more. So if you're in the mood for a good thriller, why not search out one of these, pop some popcorn and enjoy a good suspense this month? Scary Movie Anyone? SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | OCTOBER 2016 11