Hitchcock's best film? (Pick three) - Page 2

It's not a cable channel, it's a web-based download-and-watch movie service. I'm not thrilled with it, but for ten dollars a month, it's not bad. I mainly use it for older movies, where the picture and sound quality aren't as much of an issue.

Psycho is brilliant, obviously, that's my number one. The themes, the mise en scene, it's all so amazing, and I've found that scene in the bird room to be a way to determine how deeply people look at movies. People who can't read subtext find the scene to be boring, but people who understand subtext all find it to be the most terrifying in the movie.

Rear Window is my personal favorite, mostly because of my combined fascination with voyuerism and Jimmy Stewart.

Rope is another favorite, though I'd be hard pressed to actually say it's one of his BEST films. But the seemingly edit free camerawork is a really interesting and novel idea and it's used to great effect.

My realization that I haven't seen nearly enough Hitchcock films has increased tenfold after reading this thread.

You should, you're missing out.

For me, it would be, Strangers on a Train, Vertigo and Shadow of a Doubt.

Shadow of a Doubt contains some of Hitch's vivid imagery, the black cloud passing over the child as the train pulls in (and that was sheer luck they got that shot) Joseph Cotten's performance is chilling, just listen to his conversation with his niece when she finds out about his activities. The ending is pitch black.

Strangers on a Train is another classic Hitchcock film which contains themes of evil hiding behind friendly faces and also innocent men. Patricia Highsmith and Hitchcock must've been a match made in heaven and the fact that Raymond Chandler co-wrote the film just makes it that much better.

Vertigo. I haven't seen in awhile but I remember what Hitch did was brilliant, the shots were so ahead of their time, he really was an inventive bastard, he practically created a genre and it's been almost impossible for anyone to match his body of work, Depalma tried but with mixed results.

I'm not enough of a student of film to confidently pick Hitch's 3 best films, but I'd hesitantly say Rear Window, Vertigo, & North by Northwest, essentially for the reasons given above.

My favorite films are somewhat different; Rear Window stays on the list, but add Rope and Psycho.

ROPE is my favorite, for me the most watchable of his films. John Dall as Brandon owns this movie, his smugness is palpable. As a viewer you're eager for him to be caught, yet you have a strange sense that a heinous act that audacious should be successful. Stewart is great as always, and Joan Chandler is a tasty little dish. As with Rear Window, the limited set forces you to focus on the characters and the flow of events, and the few key elements of the set (the chest where David's body is kept, the hallway leading to the kitchen, the slowly darkening skyline) are used to great effect. The transitions are handled well, and the story unfolding in real time works perfectly for me. Hitch's trademark playful ghoulishness, and the reaction from more staid guests, is fun, and takes a serious turn when David's worried father protests the whimsical discussion of murder. Just a treat from start to finish.

REAR WINDOW is the ultimate voyeur film, especially since it treats the voyeurism as a very human sense of curiosity rather than a pathology. Stewart is awesome yet again, and Grace Kelly is one of the most perfect female creatures to walk the Earth, aristocratically sexy, yet eager to take on risky work digging up murder implements or entering other's apartments. The microcosm outside the window is fully realized and interesting, and it's very easy to see why the laid-up photographer turns his eye towards the inhabitants. Detective Doyle and Stella are excellent secondary characters, and the denouement always makes me tense, even though I know how it's going to end. I think I like this film primarily because I also have voyeuristic tendencies, and the movie tells me that if I indulge them a) I'll uncover a murder, and b) I'll get a regal hottie like Grace Kelly.

PSYCHO appeals to my love of horror films. Along with the brilliant Peeping Tom (also released in 1960) this was the seminal psycho-killer movie, with psychological depth, genuine nastiness, prurient thrills, and terrific performances. The shock of the (till then) lead character's murder, the bird's-eye camera angles (Martin Balsam's murder still raises the hair on the back of my neck), mother's reveal & the swinging lamp, Norman's creepy final scene... one of the most perfect horror films ever made. Fuck you, Gus van Sant.

If you ever go to LA, take the Universal Studios backlot tour. It's a 3 hour tour of the various movie sets that still exist on the backlot, including Marion's cabin and the Bates house. We weren't allowed in the house, but we got to enter the cabin. I used to have a picture of me sitting on the edge of the tub where Marion got snuffed, but it was lost.

Honorable mention: TORN CURTAIN. A decent film with 2 great leads (Paul Newman and Julie Andrews), this film contains one of the finest murder scenes in film history. The murder of Gromek is drawn out and brutal, very realistic and rough, and the lack of music makes it all the more authentic.

SHADOW OF A DOUBT, a movie I saw for the first time only 4 months ago. Weak ending spoils a good film with some fine performances.

North by Northwest
Vertigo
Lifeboat

Thank god you just listed titles and left. We wouldn't want a discussion to break out.

I'm not entirely familiar with Hitchcock history, so at what point did the man stop making amazing movies? I haven't seen any of the ones from the end of his career, but I never hear them mentioned either. Are movies like Family Plot, Topaz and Frenzy worth seeing?

The quality of Hitchcock's late films can be frustratingly inconsistent, but there's moments of greatness in just about every one. Frenzy, in particular, has two absolutely essential Hitchcock moments. One scene concerns the morbidly comic struggle a killer faces in retrieving a piece of incriminating evidence from a dead woman's clutched hand. The other scene is downright chilling, a murder occuring totally off-screen, in which the camera just pans back from the scene of the crime into the bustle of a busy street outside.

None of Hitchcock's later films scale the heights of Vertigo, but each has their own rewards.

The later films just have a sense of '70s grottiness to them which doesn't sit so well, especially compared to the oldier/classier stuff. That said, there's this one fantastic part in Frenzy that I've seen...

The villain/serial killer has just finished off his latest victim and dumps the body, but realises later that he left evidence on her. So he spends the next 20 minutes or so of the movie trying to track down the corpse, which is in a sack in the back of a truck, and he just has such a hard time avoiding being caught that you start to feel sympathy for the guy, despite the fact he's a villain. It's funny, too.

I cast a vote for The Lady Vanishes as the best I've seen. When the two comic-relief cricket fan characters suddenly start actually kicking ass towards the end, it's awesome.

Edited to congratulate Richason for beating me to the punch on the Frenzy recommendation. Thanks for ruining my totally cool rep!

I actually wrote something, but it didn't come up. Weird. My internet connection's been shit lately, so I don't know what's up.

Okay, I chose North by Northwest because it's probably his most entertaining film. There's really no "wrong man" movies better than this, though I am quite partial to Fincher's The Game.

Vertigo was picked because, in my opinion, it's probably Hitchcock's best all-round film. It has near flawless direction, editing, acting, and pacing. It has probably my favorite Jimmy Stewart role and features one of Bernard Hermann's best scores (which says a lot). It might also have the best final shot in all of cinema, though The Conversation is up there too.

And then Lifeboat, the film that comes out of nowhere on my list. It might not be one of Hitchcock's best, but I'll be damned if it isn't one of the most entertaining. It doesn't have the sharpest acting or direction, but it's filled with palpable tension and does Steinbeck's story great justice.

Frenzy: I think it's a really good combination of suspense, drama, and - not least - some dark humour. Definitely underrated.

North by Northwest: The ultimate innocent-man-in-a-jam film, entertaining and without any major flaws.

Rebecca: A good film that didn't score points for being made by Hitchcock, but rather by being a good film.

His most overrated is Vertigo, which I can sort of see why it's considered great, but it still fails to spark any interest in me.

Rebecca

North by Northwest

Psycho

i couldnt pick three, but four:

NxNW

Rear Window

Strangers on a Train

Vertigo


--And while I appreciate aspects of Rope greatly, I never was too impressed by the long takes. The cuts were obvious to me (slow zooms in and out of people's backs), and in some places, the orientation of the camera and the characters within the room, would change between cuts, and I found it jarring.

And further, I always felt like it was really just like putting on a play, but blocking for a camera man, too.

Don't get me wrong though, I really liked the story -- I even wrote a version of the leopold and lobe story when I was in high school, I liked it so much.

The Lady Vanishes, Strangers On a Train, The Birds

The only one I've seen in a theater is Psycho. I had seen it a couple of times on tv prior to seeing it on the big screen. Watching it on the big screen was incredibly powerful. I love the nighttime scenes - eerie. The car sinking is amazing. The shot from above, mom kills the detective, is so fucking scary.

North by Northwest is the second one that I love. The muderer coming into James Stewart's room is true nightmare, the way everything is lit.

For a long time I was a more ignorant film-watcher and didn't think about Hitchcock. When I got interested in his films, one of the first films I went to which I didn't know about was Notorious. I really loved it. Ingrid Bergman is gorgeous, and she's such a bad girl. I think I remember the music being pretty cool in that one too.

Hitchcock -- My Top Three -- and Another.

Sir Alfred the Great -- A True Master

Hitchcock --
Inspired and intricate craftsmanship, inventive and absorbing storytelling,
and a thoroughly original and incisive dissection and display of fear and anxiety.
And even often with a wry sense of humor.

I haven't yet seen a Hitchcock film that didn't engage and intrigue me.
(And I've seen many, especially the most well-known, but I surely have some more yet to experience.)




My Top Three --

1.






2.




3.



And another that is often overlooked and underrated --
Rope is the last Hitchcock film I recently saw for the first time, several months ago.
This film is quite eerie in a polished, urbane sort of way that is almost unique.

Incredibly literate and clever dialogue, and a neatly-woven accumulation of clues,
which are often revealed via just the perfect camera angle or shot.

This is Hitchcock's fascinating version of what happens when people perversely play, like dandy or dreary dilettantes,
with powerful philosophical concepts they only partly comprehend, and thus essentially and mostly misunderstand.

Eminently interesting, and fairly haunting.
I don't believe I will soon forget it.

[QUOTE=I'm a little stunned by the inclusion of Frenzy on this list. I F-ing hated it.[/QUOTE]

Frenzy was his very best film in my opinion. It looks rougher, and the British accents are thicker, but I loved it.

North by Northwest was his worst film in my opinion. I never felt emotionally involved with the main character. I have yet to see The 39 Steps but it is now in my Netflix Queue...

1. Rear Window
2. Psycho
3. The Birds