This little Smurfie went went right into the fridge

Today was a threefer. First, I walked through slushy New York streets (yes, THE New York), getting my feet soaked and cold. But sitting through “Syriana,” which is set mostly in the Middle East (Lebanon and Saudi Arabia), warmed me up enough to make me forget toes that were bluer than a strangled Smurf.

The movie? Well, it left me bluer than my toes. It’s not often – check that, hardly ever do American films tackle topics as important as Big Oil in such an uncompromising manner.

Not only does the film show the corruption involved in the oil business, not only does it show how that corruption can affect the law firms that protect the business, and not only does it show how the federal officials charged with protecting the public interests can be compromised, but it shows the hypocrisy that rises when American national interests conflict with the ideals involving freedom and liberty that have been put forth by every president since that guy with wooden teeth.

Then, to escape politics, we went to Film Forum to watch the opening night of a Hitchcock retrospective. The film we saw was “Rear Window,” the Hitchcock suspenser that featured the most beautiful woman in the history of American film: Grace Kelly.

Two scenes that are unforgettable: Kelly laying tender liplocks on James Stewart (twice), and Stewart coming near to panic as he watches Kelly get nearly murdered by Raymond Burr (the future Perry Mason).

And now we sit here in my daughter’s Brooklyn apartment, she, her fiancé and I watching the new Warren Miller film, “Higher Ground.” The verdict so far: C-plus. It has all the skiing and snowboarding that you would want, but what’s missing is Miller himself. The old guy is clearly trying to bow out, which is understandable, but having the athletes themselves narrate is no good substitute. They lack enough self-effacing senses of humor.

Then again, my reaction may have something to do with my toes not having yet thawed.

Below : The face that sank a thousand casinos (in Monaco), Grace Kelly is the woman that James Stewart holds at arm’s length in Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Rear Window.”