Another one that I think is enjoyable is Sabotage. Although released right before WWII, I feel like it’s just as applicable in today’s terrorist scare environment.
I feel it’s a dark comedy. Hitchcock winks at a moral solution at the ending.
And it’s got a Disney cartoon in it!
Best: Psycho
Worst: Jamaica Inn - so bad I wanted to turn it off.
Best: Notorious, followed by Rear Window and The 39 Steps
Worst: Mrs. and Mrs. Smith. Has anyone else ever seen this? It’s a screwball comedy, and while it’s not terrible, you can tell that Hitchcock is out of his element. Plus, I really don’t get Robert Montgomery’s appeal.
What’s crazy, is that Bob comes upon a cabin deep in the woods, occupied by a blind man who feels the need to wear a tie 
When I first saw The Birds, it scared the crap out of me - I thought it was great! Then recently I watched it again - what was I thinking? Well, I was a kid, so thinking wasn’t a strong suit…
Another vote for Notorious. Certainly my favorite and at least strong enough to be considered as one of his best. Uniformly strong performances, excellent pacing, interesting story, lots of suspense, and plenty of chemistry to go around.
My least favorite is probably Marnie, although I really don’t like any with Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak. Both of them could be replaced by department-store mannikins with no loss of acting skill and appeal (for me - obviously others think differently).
My problems with Strangers on a Train are: No one seems to care that a detective shot into a crowd at the amusement park and killed an innocent carny. And why would a merry go round have a transmission capable of spinning the damn thing like a centrifuge? Other than those concerns- good flick
Were they supposed to execute him on the spot? As I recall, there was quite a bit of excitement and distraction at the time.
Uhm, not all of it (obviously, since he’s off the hook before the film even ends). It’s just that Scotland Yard was a bit slow in conducting the investigation they should have been doing all along. I find that more than a little hard to swallow.
What’s always nagged at me was why Blamey wasn’t arrested for attempted murder after he whacked the corpse with the crowbar. So far as he knew, he was killing Rusk with malice aforethought.
I haven’t seen very many at all so take my votes with a big pile of salt.
Favorite: Dial M For Murder. I thought it was brilliantly clever, and it really held my attention and curiosity even though the whole damn thing just took place in one fricken room. Not many movies could possibly do that, I don’t think.
Least Favorite: Vertigo. I had high hopes, and I ended up hating it.
I love Dial M for Murder (but then I tend to enjoy filmed plays; I like a lot of talk).
And North by Northwest is a favorite–it might be the winner in the “Most Implausible Plot That Nevertheless Carries The Viewer Along Like A Runaway Freight Train” category.
I love Vertigo, too–it’s so…odd. Kim Novak was never the Thespian’s Thespian by any means, but she’s effective here. I always look forward to Barbara Bel Geddes’s character, and the way Hitchcock paid tribute to his long-suffering wife with his treatment of her.
Other favorites: the 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much; Shadow of a Doubt; Rope; Strangers on a Train; Rear Window; Psycho.
My top favorite is probably Notorious, though. Perfection.
Nominations for “worst”–I haven’t seen some of his “lesser” films, but like others here, I disliked Marnie, The Trouble With Harry, Torn Curtain, and Family Plot. All have good things in them, but overall they are not movies I’d recommend.
Perhaps allowing for the date at which it was filmed, would that make a difference? I saw it in the theater at the time, and thought it a thriller.
You obviously have never seen Catch-22. :rolleyes:
Not to mention Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Or Lawrence of Arabia
Well, I’m clearly in the minority (here, at least), but I think the only way Vertigo is overrated is that it may not be the Greatest Film Ever Made (as the recent Sight & Sound survey tallied), but it’s still a towering achievement and in a league separate than his other work (my blog write-up on the film HERE)
All the rest of his films are great fun, but none I consider a particular emotional experience (I’ll make an exception for the sublime Shadow of a Doubt & Notorious), but I never get failed to be moved and haunted by Vertigo and is in my all-time Top 10.
Other favorites beyond the ones I’ve mentioned: North by Northwest (for its playfulness, logic be damned), Rear Window, Strangers on a Train, The 39 Steps, The Birds.
Least favorites? We’ve discussed Marnie before, an interesting failure. The early stuff shows promise and generally plays fine (if pale by comparison), but it’s the later films that are shadows of his former brilliance that are the saddest–the inert Torn Curtain or suspenseless Family Plot. Of the canon, the one I’ve always like least is the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, with Day too shrill and Stewart too obtuse for my taste.
I’m baffled by the high ratings for Vertigo. An obviously mentally disturbed dude follows a beautiful woman home and into her apartment with hat in hand and says “I just want to talk to you!” and she doesn’t completely freak out? It may have been the 1950s and all, but I just don’t believe people were ever that trusting (or stupid).
This transcends incredulity!
Short answer: Because she already knows him and loves him. And he isn’t mentally disturbed, though he is emotionally traumatized.
Favorites: Rear Window, The Birds, The Man who Knew Too Much and North by Northwest
Dislike: Marnie and The Trouble with Harry
Hitchcock is famous for (among other things, obviously) for his comment about treating actors like cattle, but often his films achieved greatness because of those actors. And when they failed it was (at least partially) because of those actors. Who besides Stewart could pull off Rear Window in the wheelchair? (OK, maybe Henry Fonda) And as for North by Northwest, yes, as mentioned, it was full of flaws, but most don’t notice them because of Grant. And Farley Granger’s smarminess works in Strangers. And Milland, Kelly and Cummings really blend well for Dial M.
On the flip side, Doris Day (for me at least) stops The Man Who Knew Too Much dead in its tracks. And because of the lack of chemistry between Newman and Andrews Torn Curtain just dies. The same goes for Marnie (not with Newman and Andrews of course) and Frenzy.
Of the ones I’ve seen, Notorious holds up the best. Claude Raines was a great villain, but the gal who played his mother was even creepier. Vertigo is really fun, but not the amazing movie it is made out to be. Rear Window is great. North By Northwest is the goofy precursor to James Bond with A list actors and director.
I didn’t care for There’s Something About Harry, or the 39 Steps, either version. I didn’t like the Jimmy Stewart version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, and haven’t seen the other.