The Alfred Hitchcock appreciation thread

That's great that you got to see all of those. I love Joseph Cotton in just about everything. The man is insanely cool is Gaslight as well.

Spellbound's Dali sequence is simply stunning. I remember those eyes, the clock, and the rooftop. Wasn't there a wheelchair as well? or is my memory failing me at an early age?

Notorious is one of my favorite Hitchcock films ever. This is probably due to the fact that I have an adversion to anything featuring Claude Rains. My dad actually helped to bury him, oddly enough. Anyways, Grant exudes sex appeal and with Bergman, this film could melt away anything. I love, love, love the scene with Bergman being drunk in the car, Grant being very serious, the police officer, and the Rear Projection craziness.

Additionally, I finally got around to watching Dial M For Murder last night and it is yet another amazing film for the man's filmography. I especially loved how cold and calculating Milland's character was to everything, how smug he thought he was. John Williams as the police inspector is another icing on the cake for me, because I really have always enjoyed his snooty mustachioed authoritarians, as they're always very fun to watch and "interact" with. I thoroughly enjoyed Dial M and can't wait to now move on towards something else, like Lifeboat, Saboteur, or maybe Foreign Correspondant.

Maybe we could also start a discussion on the merits of Hitchcock's second incarnation of The Man Who Knew Too Much. I think it's one of his better films and has an amazing suspense ratio and scare factor. The scene in the church is pure exciting entertainment.

Hitchcock is definitely my favorite director. He was so revolutionary. Where would action films be without North By Northwest? Where would horror films be without The Birds and Psycho? Would psychological thrillers even be popular if it wasn't for Hitchcock? There are not too many directors who I would put up there with him.

From my findings, directors stretching back as far as the mid-'20's were able to draw tension as well as anyone working today and better.


What, no conversation about Vertigo? That's mad! The next Hitch I'll be renting will be Dial M for Murder and I wish I had the money to buy the 3-sheet from it--great poster!

Lifeboat is worth seeing only if you're a Hitch completist or have a liking for Tallulah Bankhead, otherwise it's a very silly movie from a great auteur.

I'd also like to recommend anyone who is a fan of Hitch to buy the book "Hitchcock and Truffaut." It's a compilation of interviews between Truffaut and Hitchcock over the course of four or five years; he speaks about each of his films, in great detail. A must-have for anyone interested in film as art.

Here's a question: do you all believe Saul Bass directed the shower scene in Psycho?

I hope to see this thread make it to two pages.

Rear Window is cool.

For me, one of the coolest merits of Rear Window is the opening. With just photographs, a broken camera, the outside apartments, and then the move over to Stewart, Hitchcock is able to establish a hell of a lot of exposition in such a deft way. It's amazing.

I also find it interesting that Hitchcock was able to "sneak" in all those germanic angles into these films that, according to the times they were made, shouldn't really have them at all. They're revolutionary, adding that much depth to the narrative. Yet another reason why the man was so insanely talented and inventive.

You need to watch that film again.

Yes, he had a fetish for blondes, just look at the suspects: Grace Kelly, Janet Leigh, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Novak, Tippi Hedron and this is just a few of them.

Hitchcock is one of my favorite filmmakers, though I prefer his earlier films like The 49 Steps, Rebecca, and Notorious (probally my favorite--I read a really interesting article in film class about how the film is incredibly sexist, namely, that the woman is punished for being confident with her sexuality), than his later films like Psycho and Vertigo. That's not to say I don't like those other films, Vertigo in particular creeped me out and left me on edge for days, but I just have a preference for the other films more.

His English films are much lighter and typically judged differently than his American films; they rarely reflect one another. Rebecca was his first American picture that David O. Selznick asked him to do; Hitch would've made it earlier, but the rights for the book were out of his reach, until Selznick bought them a couple years later.

Through out Hitch's work, it could be argued that he had a distaste for women--there is evidence--but many times it could be viewed as impowerment. Has there been a director since his time that was so freely able to recognize both men and woman as potential victims or perpetrators? Luis Bunuel is the only name I came come up with, and he's miles ahead of Hitch.

One thing about Hitchcock that surprised was when I was leafing through different sections of the book he made with Francois Truffaut, and how intense he was about special effects, and the entire technical side to filmmaking. There are passages where I believe Truffaut is surprised as well (Hitch was Truffaut's fav. director) that his motivations weren't human, but...well, technical.

i have nothing but love for "north by northwest". i don't know who got the idea to put the famous airplane chase in it, hitchcock or the screenwriter, but even if it's kinda hokey and looks a tad fake, it's still a classic scene, a testament to hitch's mastery. and cary grant... need i say more?

of all the other hitch movies that i've seen, i'd like to mention "vertigo", but unfortunately only because it's actually a movie that i don't like. i know, i know.... i probably deserve to be flamed, but i can't help it. i just think the whole premise is rather weak, especially since i cannot understand why scottie would fall so desperately in love with madeleine, and vice versa. i see no true spark between the two characters and since the plot is based on this intense relationship, i just can't accept it. also, did madeleine really have to die in the end? that was also pretty weak.

Yeah Im a North by Northwest man and always will be - it was my first Hitchcock and I guess I have the best memories of it as a consequence.

I actually have quite a bit of love for Hitch's film he did with Sean Connery and Tippi Hedron, Marnie.

RD

I was just recently reading an interview in which Hitch said something along the lines of, "I'm absolutely frightened of women, especially when their pregnant." Not quite "distaste" but perhaps that explains how occasionally a few things may came off that way. However, I've tended to view many of the female characters as the latter, "empowerment" side of the coin when watching his flicks.

When it comes to his British stuff, I think "The Lady Vanishes" is one of the most entertaining films he ever made. For early Hollywood years I'd say "Rebecca" or "Notorious." Maybe "Suspicion" or "Shadow of a Doubt." After that, favorites include the standards: "The Trouble With Henry," "Strangers on a Train," "N by NW," "Vertigo," "Psycho," etc. Too bad everything after "The Birds" isn't nearly as good as most of his other stuff.

Edited to note: Speaking of North by Northwest, my sig is my favorite line from it. Cary Grant=definition of cool. I kind of wish he had been the first Bond.

Speaking along the lines of Hitchcock's distaste for women, I wouldn't go so far as to call it just that. A fear, maybe, but not a distaste. Let's look at his backstory, as in the son of a green grocer and his quasi religious upbringing. I've heard stories and have been reading stories (not even remotely finished yet with Patrick McGillian's Hitchcock: A Life In Darkness and Light, but it's good!) about his abilities with the opposite sex, and it appears to me that he's almost afraid of women in general as he would rather not speak to them at first and then, months later speak a little phrase here or there. This is not to say he grew comfortable with women later on with his tricks and double entendres he'd throw out there on sets, but I have a feeling that this was instilled after he had married Alma.

It appears to me that this fear (from before) regulates itself to the "empowerment" of the female in his motion pictures (especially Marnie, or even Vertigo for that matter). Not everyone is good or bad, there can be a little in between, to be entirely cliched about it.

Since we're now talking about North By Northwest, I should say that I really enjoy the movie for one main reason. JAMES MASON. I love that man so much, and his delivery of lines from Lehman's script time and again makes me smile with so much evil glee.

Additionally, I'd still like to know what made Hitchcock afraid to touch "widescreen" (i.e. cinerama, cinemascope, etc. etc.) because he only worked in VistaVision. The 1.85:1 frame is definitely not as vast as the previous. Makes you wonder, right?

In another interview, he was asked which technical aspect/trend in Hollywood he didn't particularly care for. Hitch said something along the lines of, "Letterboxing, it makes the audience wonder what's been cut off on the top and bottom of the image..." Not sure how that would apply in a theater setting, though. Let alone how most audiences when the wide scope came out would really know that the image was more horizontal and less vertical (perhaps they thought it retained as much on the top and bottom only it had more on the sides, if you get my drift). Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if there were theatres which still had mostly (or only) 1.33:1 ratio resulting in a letterboxed picture for those particularly wide ratios.

Everyone needs to check out Foreign Correspondent. It's a very cool film.

I also recently watched many movies of him. My favorites probably being Psycho and Rebecca. I was a bit underwhelmed by Rear Window, though.

Underwhelmed by Rear Window? Why's that?

Meanwhile I still haven't seen Rebecca, but will be watching it soon. Foreign Correspondant is also high on the list as well (after The Crowd, They Drive By Night, and Creature From The Black Lagoon).

I don't know. Maybe I expected some uber-cool twist or something like that. Of course it was pretty suspensefull and a very good movie, but I somehow expected it to be Hitch's best movie.

I'm not sure which is my favorite Hitchcock...Perhaps Rear Window or North by Northwest. Honestly it depends upon which of his films I have seen most recently.

Grace Kelly has to be my favorite Hitchcock blonde. She was incredibly beautiful and always seemed to give the best performances.

The thing I love about Hitchcock is how he loved to screw with the audience's expectations. Psycho is the perfect example. Out of nowhere, he horribly kills off the leading lady, completely discards the stolen-money plot he had carefully built up, and then forces us to sympathize with Norman Bates. I bet it knocked everyone's socks off; how disorienting it must have been for audiences back then. He liked to blur the line between the audience, the hero and the villian; also look at the comedic "potato" sequence in Frenzy, or the fact that the Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window is a voyeur, and therefore so are we.

He was also brilliant with the camera (I'm not really telling anything new to a Hitchcock fan). Look at the opening of Psycho, or the opening of Rear Window, how the camera pans from one object to another, and you've got all the exposition you need.

And although he didn't do every episode, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" is an amazing TV series. The episode he directed called "Poison" is probably the single most suspenseful thing I've ever seen.

I can.

Wellesian
Spielbergian
Hawksian

And I'm sure there's more as well.

All of those gentlemen have secured their place in the 'coinage' factory along with Hitchcock.

Back to topic, voyeurism and Hitchcock. I personally think all of his films have some kind of this aspect. He plays around with it enough that it is one of those hidden driving forces throughout his narratives.

I especially love the sense of voyeurism one gets in Notorious! (I like to refer to it as on the poster and trailers lately) when Hitchcock's camera swoops down the staircase and straight to the key in her hand. Great, great shot.

Maybe we should talk about Hitchcock's stairway/staircase motif throughout his films? Coincidence? Or something he just liked?

You don't hear many people saying a picture is "Hawkesian" because he is no longer in favor, just as Jean Renoir is no longer as heralded as he once was. Does this mean their pictures are any less important or great? No, of course not. I think people would be surprised by how much influence Hawkes has had on Tarantino or Bunuel on David Lynch, particularly when it comes to perception and the question of "what is real? What isn't?" There is a strong argument that Howard Hawkes' films dwarf those of Hitchcock, but it is an argument you're less likely to hear because again, his films have not been seen as often as Hitch. Hitch was a superstar; only director that comes to mind who was prominently featured on the one-sheets and quads to his films. For example, the quad for Psycho features Hitchcock only--unpresidented! He's pointing at his watch and it reads, "No one...BUT NO ONE...will be admitted to the theatre after the start of each performance of ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S PSYCHO." Brilliant poster and ad campaign. Howard Hawkes never had this type of treatment and he would've shunned it if he did. The same with Bunuel (he would've have preferred to burn every copy of his films after his death) and Welles never received the accolades he deserved. Spielberg is the closet we've had to a Hitchcock, and by that I mean his status as a director and personality; he, too, isn't the greatest of his generation or one of the all-time greats (to me), but he is a superstar, so his name and fixture are what people will equate to great film work, even if his films are very mechanical and passionless.

Essential reading:

The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures
by Donald Spoto

I watched Hitch's Saboteur recently, and I was floored by how fast it moved, how quickly everything was set-up, and how amazing the devices to get our hero moving were used to maximum effect.

Some of the shots in this movie are simply amazing, especially the climatic Statue of Liberty scene, ruined for me by those damn 1999 Universal Hitchcock centennial trailers before the movie. Thanks Universal.

There was again, also a stairway motif in this film as well, in the form of the suspenseful aspects of the soiree scene being centered around the staircase in the sequence. It is interesting to me that he uses this particular piece of imagery to bring out suspense, danger, and intensity to the audience. I was drawn to the evil old bad guy here (as he kind of reminded me of Van Dyke's The Thin Man in that tall, creepy kind of way) and the ways that our hero was able to succumb the advances of the saboteurs and create something wholly original and spectacularily thrilling.

I loved this movie and can't wait to watch Foreign Correspondant soon.

Meanwhile, since this thread has kind of puttered out recently...

I'll add that I have just been introduced to Foreign Correspondant and it has slowly racked its way up to being one of my favorite Hitchcock films, simply because of its epic scope, amazing set pieces, and wacky plot devices. What is clause 26? "when the enemy lands...", a great McGuffin, if you ask me.

And again, Hitchcock and his staircases, this time with Van Dam (?)'s alleged assassination on the steps of the piece conference, the wind-mill sequence, and the hotel sequence. The man really loves his staircase motifs and judging by this second American outing, he's carrying on the greatness into future years.

I love this film and hope that others watch it soon.

but I somehow expected [Rear Window] to be Hitch's best movie.

It is.

I'm also a huge fan of North by Northwest and The 39 Steps. All three in my mind are perfect films, as is Vertigo, Psycho, and a number of others. He's the only one I know to make SO many excellent films and so few average ones (not a single bad one, amazingly).

Rear Window can be argued ad naseum whether or not it is his best film. It's a masterpiece, but not quite Hitchcock's best film.

If we're going to be throwing that distinction around, it goes to Vertigo instead.

Uhm, no, that may be your opinion but mine is quite different. All I meant was that Rear Window is his best...in my opinion. Or more accurately, it's my favorite of his films.

When you get his best movies and you line them all up, they're really all perfect. One isn't better than the other. So it's just a matter of your taste, at that point. My taste says Rear Window. Yours says Vertigo. That's great.

In my opinion.

Message board rule #19: The addition of "in my opinion" can reduce flame wars!

Sorry, I didn't mean to make your post nonsensical. I edited that immediately after I posted it without knowing you had posted. Give me a second and I'll make it right...

Hey, that's fine, we're all friendly here. Everything is everyone's opinion. I was just being a little forceful about mine.

Anyways, Rear Window is great, but to me, it doesn't have the staying power or the lingering beauty that Vertigo ultimately has. Also, technically, I find it to be amazingly made, much like Rear Window. I'm not denying its staying power, as it is tremendous, but Vertigo's is just a little bit more.

Anyone here seen Hitchcock's The Lodger? Number 13? Murder!? Rich and Strange? All of his early silent films I have to cop out and say I've never seen but wondering if anyone else had.

I've seen 15+ of his films but there are still plenty I haven't seen.

Some of my opinions will not be too popular in this thread, particularly these:

Don't Like: Vertigo, Psycho, Marnie, The Birds

Moreover, anyone who thinks Psycho is all that should see Michael Powell's Peeping Tom and re-evaluate. A psycho like framework with the voyeurism theme built-in in a really sinister way, and then even more sinister on top of that. From what I heard it came out in the UK prior to Psycho, but afterwards in the US so it made very little splash at the time stateside.

Merely OK: Torn Curtain, Man Who Knew Too Much (remake), Spellbound, Trouble with Harry, Shadow of a Doubt, Foreign Correpsondent, 39 Steps, Dial M, To Catch a Thief

Like: Rebecca, Rear Window, N by NW, Lifeboat, Jamaica Inn, Rope

Love: Notorious



Additional comments -

The ending (staircase descent) of Notorious is what makes it for me, otherwise it'd be in the Like category.

Grace Kelly makes Rear Window.

The Charles Laughton perf in Jamaica Inn is hilariously over the top.

Shadow of a Doubt has one of my favorite intro scenes, even though it never really delivers on it..

Lifeboat is remarkably solid for a one location film.

Kim Novak ruins Vertigo by looking like Miss Piggy.

Under Capricorn, is a film, I truly believe, doesn't get alot of attention from people when I've chatted to them about Hitchcock.

I think possibly because his experiments with the "long take" in Rope, done previously, overshadow the achievements in this movie, but I feel that Under Capricorn is on the same level with the previously mentioned film.

Jack Cadiff's amazingly painterly photography combined with these very long, sweeping, moving, gliding camera takes amazed the hell out of me. I enjoyed the one shot where the camera follows Bergman shoeless into the dinner party sequence, past the table, around the Austrailian guests, and then settles in on Bergman and Alistar (???) as they speak. It's an amazing combination of some very talented people, but the dinner party shot sequences are breathtaking and amazingly well accomplished.

I'd go so far as to comment that Cadiff actually makes one of the most stunningly looking Hitchcock color films (carrying on with the Powell & Pressburger tradition) and for that, Under Capricorn is a great Hitchcock period "thriller" (in the very small sense of the word thriller, as it doesn't have epic or tremendous appeal to what the word has come to mean recently).

Peeping Tom is a great, great film. Scorsese even goes so far to say something to the effect of Peeping Tom being one of the best films about filmmaking, the voyeurism, watching, in the history of film. I agree with him partially, because there are other greats out there as well.

Since this thread has died, maybe injecting some Jamaica Inn discussion could be useful. Or maybe not. Laughton really hams it up here, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I think he's the films most interesting point, because he really overshadows the entire cast. The film moves briskly until its surprise (can it even be called that if you saw it coming?) suspenseful ending, and I must comment on the opening "ship wreck" sequence as being one of the most interestingly composed, edited, shot, and sound mixed of Hitchcock's entire career. However, in the end, Jamaica Inn merely is a great movie overshadowed by a larger-then-life presence (both Laughton and possibly Hitchcock?) that doesn't quite transcend for me what it means to be a Hitchcock masterpiece.

Anyone else been keeping up on their Hitchcock? How is I, Confess? -- if anyone has seen it.

Glad you're continuing to find quality in my recommendations Yando.

I put a few more hitch titles in my netflix queue in honor of this thread -

Lady Vanishes, Under Capricorn, Paradine Case

And I will report back if I have anything worth saying about them.

But yeah, Laughton is fucking hilarious in Jamaica Inn.

Quint did The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) in his A Movie A Day thing at AICN, and it and the 1934 original were on TCM a week or so later. I watched them both and they're both just all over the place in terms of tone and structure.

1934 has Peter Lorre with highlights in his hair, bored British socialite main characters who insult their child, hypnotism as plot device, and the hero's main method of attack is throwing chairs at people. 1956 has Doris Day working really well and looking awesome in a gray suit, a lot more money and time given to the set pieces, and really out-of-place taxidermy humor. Also, there's a wonderfully morally gray, dated scene where Stewart, upon learning that his son has been kidnapped, fears his wife will get hysterical and forces her to take sedatives.

They share characters, dialogue, music cues, and a dislike of organized religion. Though only the second one has Que Sera, Sera. The first one is at archive.org. I think I prefer it even though the second one is probably a better movie.

Hitchcock disowned Rebecca almost from the get-go. It wasn't that he particularly disliked the movie, but he said the final product had more to do with Selznick's vision than his own.

How could this thread go so far with no mention of Strangers on a Train?

Robert Walker as Bruno Anthony has to be one of the all time great movie villians. I always loved the shot that Hitchcock picked of Walker sitting at the tennis match and, while the rest of the crowd is following the tennis ball go back and forth, he is spying on Farley Granger's character. Great little moment in a film full of great moments.

And, if this movie was never made, we would have never got Throw Momma From the Train.

I even like his last movie 'family plot', it was a fun little movie.

My father saw it in theaters with his mother, aunt and cousin. Dad and his cousin Jack were both 15 at the time, and though it was the most boring movie they ever got dragged to. Then the show seen started, at which point dad and Jack were like okay this more like it, them Norman's mother shows up. My father said he had never even imagined anything like it, before he saw it. It scared the shit out of them.

That shot of Walker...haven't seen SOT in a couple years, but of Walker on what I seem to remember as being some kind of Government building, and just the dread that came with seeing him, is incredible for a film made in 1951. One of my favorite of Hitch's films.

I agree with Sodium, FRENZY is worth checking out. It has a bit of a rough look, and the British accents are very thick, but after 10 minutes you get accustomed to it. There is a great scene (not really a spoiler) where a murder is committed inside a shop or flat and the camera pulls out and we see the dark doorway of death and then a busy street with people walking by oblivious to the horror that just happened inside the doorway. Also this film has many scenes (like Psycho) where we empathize with the villain when things go wrong for him. I love that! I feel like such a freak when I realize I am routing for the bad guy!