Movie gardens: a critic's choice
Introducing Chris Kaltenbach, who has for years reviewed movies for The Baltimore Sun. We asked him what the best looking movie gardens are, and here is what he says:
Gardens have, perhaps, been somewhat slighted by the movies.
There was the Garden of Eden in John Huston's 1967 The Bible -- which I'm sure was quite lavish and green. But to these 7-year-old eyes, unclad Ulla Bergryd as Eve was a lot more spectacular than anything rooted in the soil.
There also Vittorio de Sica's 1971 The Garden of the Finizi-Continis, but that was more about the dawn of fascism that botany.
And, of course, there's New York's Madison Square Garden, where much of the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter (1970) and Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same (1976) were shot.
But for memorable movie gardens, nothing can beat Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 Rear Window.
Who can forget those shots of that cute little puppy dog, frantically trying to dig up the remains of the unfortunate Mrs. Thorwald, who had been secretly planted in the backyard rose garden by her husband?
Similarly, TV fans might remember an episode of NBC's Night Gallery called "Green Fingers," where Elsa Lanchester played an old woman, an eccentric horticulturalist who brags she can make anything grow, who refuses to sell her house to Cameron Mitchell's sleazy developer.
Undaunted, he sends some goons over to "convince" her, which they do by chopping off a few fingers. When last seen alive, poor Mrs. Bowen is frantically planting something in her garden.
Guess who grows back?
Now there's a garden of true variety...
Comments
My favorite movie garden is in Central Park at the end of "You've Got Mail".
Wow. Cool! --Susan
Posted by: Reggie | January 11, 2010 6:50 PM