I love most of them, but A Lady Vanishes is a particular favorite. My mom, who loves “old” movies, doesn’t see why I love this movie so much; she thinks it’s kind of “slow.” But I love the sense of humor and think it’s pretty much perfect. Damn. I need to see it again.
Psycho and Rebecca are also favorites, but there will always be a soft spot in my heart for Marnie. Sean Connery. sigh
I need to see some of these other films cited by the rest of you some more. I believe that they’re good–I just haven’t seen them in a while so they’re not fresh in my memory.
I’d just like to say that I’ve only seen about a third of the movies on this list, but now I have plenty of ideas for my next trip to the video store. Thanks all!
I recently bought the DVD of Psycho…great movie. I haven’t watched that much Hitchcock, but that one if definitely one of my favourite movies in general.
Rear Window is my favorite, but I love North by Northwest, Psycho, Rope, etc. I also think that the fireworks scene in To Catch A Thief is about the hottest thing ever filmed – but that’s another story.
The Trouble with Harry is pretty good…and I can ride my bicycle from my house to the village where it was filmed, which still looks pretty much the same way as it did in the movie.
Rope was freakin creepy. Way to talky for me but it lays under my subconscious and jumps out at me at the oddest times.
North by Northwest, Psycho, Rear Window, Spellbound, Dial “M” For Murder… Cary Grant, James Mason, Jimmy Stewart mmmmmm
oKay all you movie buffs is To Catch a Thief the one with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn? I loved that one specially as I couldn’t decide if Grant had put one over on Audrey or not.
Strangers on a Train took some getting into, but once I was in I was CAUGHT! I literally held my breath for over an hour!
:smack:
Yes you are right! I knew it was Hitchcockian but was thinking it was actually made by him. Oh well… it had Audrey in it… that was worth seeing;)
Just a heads up to Hitchcock lovers: the DVD prices on the Psycho, Rear Window, Birds, Vertigo, and Psycho have been reduced recently, so they’re available pretty cheap. And those discs have neat little documentaries about the movies on them as well (the Psycho and Birds ones are especially good.)
I spent a lot of time in film school watching Hitch. His nonsensical approach to absolute terror is educational to say the least. However much I adore ** Vertigo, Rear Window** and of course Strangers On A Train, I wanna go out on a limb here.
Starting from his earliest works, there is a violent edge to Hitchcock’s work. I’m reminded of that amazing line that David Warner gets to deliver in Time After Time :
( A near quote, I may be slightly off on the exact wording).
The point of the quote is this: My favorite film is Frenzy. It has all of the brilliant Hitchcock elements and the times did indeed catch up with Hitch and his violently perverse view of intimacy and power. It is a sickening tale, craftily and brutally told. The last shot of the film is a technical tour de force, but that’s not why I am drawn to it. I’m drawn to it because despite it’s awful theme and sickening accuracy of image and word, it seems to be his most honest work.
If you watch it, then watch The Birds, then watch Strangers On A Train, it seems that the smouldering sexuality and suppressed sexual violence is there. Always there, always motivating and causing. Rear Window is chock full of this suppressed and not so subtle sexual violence.
IMHO, Frenzy is pure Hitchcock. Social mores caught up with his inner demons, and he made the kind of film that I (sadly) sense he always wanted and needed to make.
If you are ever in Paris, you might consider staying at the Hotel St. Jacques where Charade was filmed.
Hitchcock was fantastic at choosing music for his movies. But in my opinion, he really messed up with Frenzy. Henry Mancini had written a beautiful introductory theme that was intriguing and a little haunting. Hitchcock didn’t like it and dumped it for something else which was really awful. It changed the whole mood of the piece. I was amazed to see the opening scenes played with the Mancini intro.