Don’t let the dates mislead you. Alfred Hitchcock lived much longer than the
36 years indicated in the title. 1940
was the year of Alfred Hitchcock’s first movie made in the United States. Before he came to this country at the behest
of producer David O. Selznick, he made forty-six movies for British cinema
[only two of which I have seen – [39
Steps (1935) and Sabotage (1936)]. After his arrival in the United States in
1939, he made twenty-nine feature length movies [only three of which I haven’t
seen – Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), The Paradine Case (1947), and Under Capricorn (1949)]. I have these films broken out into three categories
– 1. Must See; 2. Good, but not essential; 3. See Once, then Never Again.
1.
Must
See
Rebecca [1940] – “Plain” and socially unexperienced Joan Fontaine meets
and falls in love with rich, suave and debonair Laurence Olivier. They marry, but Fontaine finds that she’s
competing for Olivier’s affections [so she thinks] not only with the ghost of
Olivier’s first wife [Rebecca, whom you never see], but also Olivier’s
formidable housekeeper, Judith Anderson.
Anderson was close to Rebecca and was determined to keep her memory
alive. She was truly scary. This was the only movie Hitchcock made that
won the Academy Award©
for Best Picture.
Foreign Correspondent [1940] – The year is 1939. Hitler has annexed Austria
and Czechoslovakia. The war drums are beating.
Joel McCrea is an American reporter who is sent overseas by his editor
to cover the crisis in Europe. McCrea’s
first assignment is to cover Herbert Marshall, who is the leader of a
fictitious Universal Peace Party that is trying to prevent World War II. He meets a Dutch diplomat named Van Meer, who
is the guest of honor at an event hosted by Marshall’s character. Van Meer doesn’t show for the event – he went
to Amsterdam for a conference. But
McCrea does meet the daughter of Marshall’s character, played by Laraine Day. Things get in a twist when “Van Meer” is
assassinated right in front of McCrea after he tracked him down in Amsterdam.
Suspicion [1941] – Unlike her character in Rebecca, Joan Fontaine is the daughter of a wealthy father. She’s part of a family used to having
money. She meets playboy Cary Grant on a
train. He charms her into eloping. She isn’t a ravishing beauty, she feared
she’d spend her life as a spinster, so getting married to Cary Grant was an
easy sell. It isn’t until after the
honeymoon that Fontaine finds out her husband is allergic to work, gambles a
lot, and lives on other peoples’ money.
After Grant’s character is fired from a job for embezzlement, Fontaine’s
character suspects her husband is trying to kill her for insurance money. Until this movie, Cary Grant was renowned for
being in comedies, but here he gets the opportunity to play a fairly dark
character.
Shadow of a Doubt [1943] – Charlie
Newton [Teresa Wright] is a bored teenager living in Santa Rosa,
California. Nothing exciting happens in
her life except whenever her namesake uncle Charlie [Joseph Cotten] visits. Suddenly, Charlie’s wish to alleviate her
boredom is granted when Uncle Charles shows up [unannounced] to pay a
visit. What Charlie doesn’t know is that
her uncle Charles is on the run. Charlie
finds out that her uncle is suspected of murder. Not to give away everything between here and
the end of the movie, there are two attempted murders and a death on a train.
Spellbound [1945] – Ingrid Bergman is a psychiatrist who works at an insane
asylum. Gregory Peck is the new director
of the asylum as the old director is forced into retirement. Only Peck isn’t really a doctor, plus he
doesn’t know who he really is. Of
course, a murder is involved. Once Peck
is exposed as an imposter, he goes to Rochester with Dr. Ingrid to see her old
mentor in order to try to recover Peck’s memory. Of special note, there’s a surreal Gregory
Peck dream sequence conceived by Salvador Dali.
The movie is very good, and Dali’s dream sequence pushes it over the
cliff [pun intended once you see the movie].
Notorious [1946] – Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains. What could go wrong? Nothing does in this movie. Ingrid Bergman is a German émigré whose father
was convicted for being a Nazi spy. Cary
Grant is a US spy trying to recruit Ingrid Bergman to get information about her
father’s associates who fled to Brazil after World War II. Claude Rains is one of the associates who
always had a crush on Ingrid Bergman.
Rains and Bergman get married, despite Rains’ mother’s protestations. Claude Rains’ suspicious mother looks a lot like
Anthony Hopkins.
Strangers on a Train [1951] – Farley
Granger is a tennis pro who wants a divorce from his promiscuous wife so he can
marry someone else. She doesn’t want a
divorce. Robert Walker is a spoiled
psychopath who wants to murder his father.
They meet on a train and as they get to know each other, Walker suggests
they “swap murders” – that he kill Granger’s wife and that Granger kill
Walker’s father. Walker does his bit,
but when Granger doesn’t return the favor, Walker tries to frame Granger for
his wife’s murder. The story climaxes on
an out-of-control carousel ride.
Dial M for Murder [1954] – Ray
Milland suspects his wife Grace Kelly is cheating on him [he’s right]. He had a plan to kill her – he even had an
alibi. He didn’t count on Grace
surviving the attack. This is one of
several movies where Grace Kelly had a very annoying fake British accent. I think because she said “oh, Tony…” with
that bad accent so many times that I was rooting for Ray Milland to
succeed. Oh well…
Rear Window [1954] – Jeff Jeffries
[James Stewart] is a professional photographer laid up with a broken leg. He gives voyeurism new meaning because the
only way he can pass the time is to watch his neighbors across the courtyard from
his own apartment through his rear window [hence the name]. Lisa Fremont [Grace Kelly] is his girlfriend,
who luckily doesn’t have a bad British accent.
As Jeffries people-watches, he notices the bedridden wife of a traveling
salesman [Raymond Burr] goes missing. He
also sees the salesman cleaning off a knife and a hacksaw…
The Man Who Knew Too Much [1956] – Dr.
Ben McKenna [James Stewart] is on vacation in Morocco with his wife, popular
singer Jo Conway [Doris Day], and their son Hank. They meet a Frenchman named
Louis Bernard. Bernard invited the
McKennas to dinner, only to be blown off by Bernard at the restaurant when
Bernard meets some stranger. The
McKennas went to a Moroccan market in Marrakesh, only to find a man with a
knife in his back being chased by the police.
The guy who was stabbed in the back turns out to be Bernard [a French
intelligence agent] in disguise. Before
he dies, he tells Dr. McKenna about a foreign dignitary who is to be
assassinated in London. Young Hank is
kidnapped by the group of assassins. The
McKennas go to Scotland Yard. All roads
lead to a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, where the dignitary in question is
the target. Doris Day sings Que Sera, Sera, for about three minutes
too long.
Vertigo [1958] – The movie gets its
name from James Stewart’s character, a San Francisco cop named Scottie Ferguson
who developed a severe fear of heights [and the resulting case of vertigo
thereof]. This movie is quite creepy in that James Stewart’s character finds a
woman [Kim Novak] who is a dead-ringer for another woman whom Stewart’s
character desired while he was shadowing her for a client. To prove her “love” for Ferguson, she changes
her wardrobe and her hair to look exactly like the woman over whom he
obsessed. It’s almost as if Ferguson not
only has a fear of heights and vertigo, he also has necrophilia.
North by Northwest [1959] – My
favorite Hitchcock movie. Cary
Grant is Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive bachelor who lives with his
mother. Thornhill is mistaken for a
secret agent named George Kaplan. He’s
kidnapped by henchmen employed by a convincingly-menacing James Mason. He breaks free from his kidnappers, gets
drunk, and gets arrested for drunk driving on purpose. Then he’s framed for murdering a UN diplomat,
escapes on a train where he meets Eva Marie Saint. Then he gets buzzed by a crop duster, nearly
run over by a gas tanker, supposedly shot to death at the Mount Rushmore
visitor center, and has a climactic encounter with another Mason henchman [Martin
Landau] on Mount Rushmore itself. But
there is a happy ending… I can’t make up my mind who is a hotter Hitchcock
blonde – Kim Novak or Eva Marie Saint? [My friend Tom would say Janet Leigh]
Psycho [1960] – What can be said about this movie that many people don’t
already know? Janet Leigh, the shower
scene, the murder weapon that is never seen to touch Janet Leigh, Martin Balsam
falling down a stair case after he gets sliced and diced, and an insane Norman
Bates [Anthony Perkins] who keeps his dead mother upstairs. Then there’s the music…
The Birds [1963] – This movie was my
introduction to Alfred Hitchcock, thanks to my mom. Mom was kinda weird. She let me see this and The Godfather when I was little, but wouldn’t take me to see The Exorcist. To this day I still get a
little suspicious whenever I see a large group of birds in one place. This is the last great Hitchcock movie. Two more words – Tippi Hedren. ‘Nuff said…
2.
Good,
But not Essential;
Saboteur [1942] – Factory worker
Barry Kane [Robert Cummings] is suspected of committing sabotage at a Southern
California aircraft manufacturing plant.
The fire at the plant kills a co-worker, so Kane is also suspected of
murder. Like OJ Simpson, Kane’s efforts
to find the “real killer” take him to a ranch in California’s High Desert. Kane finds the ranch owner supports the real
saboteur(s), and after his niece tries to take Kane to the police, Kane kidnaps
her instead. After he convinces her of his innocence, they somehow foil plots
to blow up Boulder Dam and the launching of a new US Navy ship in New
York. By the way, they did find the real
killer, unlike OJ.
Stage Fright [1950] – Jane Wyman is
an aspiring actress and student at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts
[RADA]. A fellow student [Richard Todd]
comes to Wyman for help. He tells Wyman
of a flashback that his lover [Marlene Dietrich] confessed to killing her
husband. Not everything is as it seems
while various and sundry people try to clear their names. This one is worth the time because of Marlene
Dietrich, but the story is really good.
I Confess [1953] – This one was made
before Montgomery Clift started mumbling his lines in movies. Clift is a priest accused of murder. He can’t reveal the real murderer because
that person made a confession to Clift’s character. Clift is tried and acquitted, but still remains
under suspicion from the locals. Clift
is attacked by a crowd, but he escapes being killed by them when the killer’s
wife reveals the true murderer.
To Catch a Thief [1955] – Cary Grant
is a retired jewel thief. He’s living in
comfortable retirement on the French Riviera.
Lots of jewels belonging to Riviera vacationers turn up missing. Many think Cary Grant did it [he didn’t]. Grace Kelly is a nouveau rich bitch with that
lousy, cringe worthy British accent again.
The Trouble with Harry [1955] – Of
all the Hitchcock movies I’ve seen, this one is by far the most bizarre. It’s a black comedy. The “Harry” in question
is a corpse. The story takes place in a
small New England village. “Harry” keeps
popping up in scene after scene, even though he’s dead. He’s buried four times. Nobody seems to think it’s odd there’s a dead
body out in public. Even stranger, nobody
thinks to call the police to report a dead body. Very strange…
Torn Curtain [1966] – Paul Newman is
a rocket scientist and physicist. Julie
Andrews is his assistant [and fiancée]. They’re
traveling to a conference in Copenhagen, where he gets a note to pick up a
certain book. Abruptly, Newman tells
Andrews he has to fly to Stockholm immediately, but he really flies to East
Berlin. Unbeknownst to Newman, Andrews
follows him to East Berlin, where she discovers he’s “defecting” to East
Germany. What is really happening is
that Newman is freelancing his own spy thriller in order for the East Germans
to give up their secrets concerning missile defense. Strange casting, but the movie is “ok”.
Topaz [1969] – Another Cold War
drama, this time it takes place during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The American CIA is trying to find out about
Soviet missiles in Cuba, while simultaneously trying to uncover a Soviet mole
within NATO [who happens to be French].
Once you get past seeing ‘Dean Wormer’ [John Vernon] playing a Cuban who
is close to Fidel Castro, it’s still a pretty good movie. For me, this was Hitchcock’s last really good
movie.
3.
See
Once, then Never Again
Marnie [1964] – Tippi Hedren is a
kleptomaniac with mommy issues. Sean
Connery is slumming between James Bond movies.
That’s all you really need to know.
Tippi is nice to look at, but her looks can’t save this movie.
Lifeboat [1944] – A U-Boat sinks a
passenger vessel. The movie is set
entirely in the lifeboat. By the way,
the U-Boat captain is also in the lifeboat.
A lot of professional critics love it.
I’m not a professional critic and I don’t love this one.
Rope [1948] – As with Lifeboat, this movie is set in one
location – the apartment of two guys who think they are intellectually superior
to the rest of their fellow humans. The
plot is about how these two clowns commit what they think is the “perfect
murder”. The movie begins with the two
strangling a former Harvard classmate, then hiding his corpse in a large chest
that serves as a MacGuffin for the movie. There’s a party at the apartment
later that day, and the chest with the corpse served as a serving table for the
party. James Stewart’s character, the
murderers’ prep-school housemaster, is the one who put the ideas of Nietzsche’s
Übermensch in their heads in the first place.
He finds redemption at the end of the movie [somewhat] by solving the
“perfect murder” and renouncing his previous thoughts of one group of people
having “superiority” over another.
The Wrong Man [1956] – This one is
painful to watch. It’s filmed as a
docudrama. Henry Fonda is a jazz musician
who is arrested, tried but later exonerated for a crime [armed robbery] he
didn’t commit. We the audience know that
he didn’t do it. Henry Fonda’s character
seems like he’s more inconvenienced than pissed off that he’s wrongly accused. Vera Miles plays his wife. Her character’s slow descent into clinical depression
is what makes this movie hard to watch.
This film showed that police procedurals really weren’t part of
Hitchcock’s skill set.
Frenzy [1972] – A serial killer in
London who sometimes passes himself off as an RAF officer. Pretty dull.
Family Plot [1976] – Hitchcock’s
last movie. Two plotlines weave together. One plotline involves a fake psychic and her
taxicab boyfriend who is trying to find the missing heir to a fortune of a rich
old woman. The other plotline involves a
couple of jewel thieves, one of whom turns out to be the missing heir the old
woman hired the fake psychic to find. This
movie is kinda goofy and entertaining, but you aren’t missing anything.
Haven’t seen because
they’re Nearly Impossible to Find:
Mr. & Mrs.
Smith (1941) – Ok, I lied. This one
is On Demand…
The Paradine Case
(1947) – But this one isn’t…
Under Capricorn
(1949) – And neither is this one…
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