Alfred Hitchcock Favorite Films

[Smokey]

Psycho is probably Hitchcock’s most well known movie, with the most memorable scenes (shower and dead mother scene). Truly a masterpiece where his other movies are measured against.

Not in any particular order:


Rear Window (1954): When professional photographer (James Stewart) is confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg, he becomes obsessed with watching the private dramas of his neighbors (with all blinds open) play out across the courtyard.


North by Northwest (1959): A case of mistaken identity, Cary Grant is forced into a game of cat and mouse chase. The scene where he play a drunk driver and brought to police station is hilarious. He not only have to prove to police that he wasn’t drunk driving, but also to his mother.


Dial M for Murder (1954): Not one of Hitchcok’s best movie, but lead actor Ray Milland is simply superb. It is a joy to watch him wiggle his way out of tight spots with his wife (Grace Kelly) and police when thing go awry. And things go awry from the start.

[atomicAdam]

did you forget?

Vertigo (1958)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
To Catch a Thief (1955)

a few i've seen and like

[3LB]

Strangers On A Train, which was remade in the late '80s as a dark comedy, Throw Momma From The Train, is one of the great, original movie premises ever. Hitchcock liked exploring the id of our human nature, finding devilishness in ordinary people and ordinary situations. The only guy that could match Hitchcock's knack for conveying menace on screen in even the most banal senarios was Stanley Kubric, but Kubric never was this clever.

[Troy]

Not sure any list of top Hitch movies is complete without "Psycho" on it. I've seen every film he ever made, there's not a duff title in the bunch, and many are all-time classics.

But yeah, my favorite is "North By Northwest." I've seen it a dozen times or more and never tire of it. Next time you watch it look for the kid covering his ears before the gunshot in the restaurant at Mount Rushmore!

[s dog]

The Birds 1963, Scared the hell out of me when i was a kid.

[3LB]

Yeah, Psycho and The Birds have to be on the list, and their first rate examples of Hitchy's craft.

The Birds is a surprising thriller in a age were movie makers were obsessed by creatures from other worlds or from some exotic, remote earth local. We knew back then that these weird creatures, both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial, were up to no good and we could see them coming a mile away, but The Birds blindsided us as Hitchcock made monsters outta everyday pests like ravens and seagulls. With no explaination, it starts and stops suddenly and we're left with nothing more than the realization that mother nature still owns us.

Psycho was a movie about people with secrets. People sometimes forget that Janet Leigh's character had fled from a crime she'd committed. Perkins' slightly askew portrayal of brow-beaten momma's boy didn't foreshadow any ability to turn psyhopathic murderer. He was just a guy who was so used to having his life controlled and afraid of being alone that he pretended his over-bearing mom was alive years after she passed away. It remains the darkest characterization of the disfunctional, mom/son co-dependancy in movies and a cautionary tale to smother-mothers in general.

[JohnMichael]

The Birds is a surprising thriller in a age were movie makers were obsessed by creatures from other worlds or from some exotic, remote earth local. We knew back then that these weird creatures, both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial, were up to no good and we could see them coming a mile away, but The Birds blindsided us as Hitchcock made monsters outta everyday pests like ravens and seagulls. With no explaination, it starts and stops suddenly and we're left with nothing more than the realization that mother nature still owns us.

I agree completely. I still get a little nervous when I see many birds gathered together. That movie has always stayed with me. I can almost hear them chirp "hey lets get the fat one walking by, he looks slow".

[Smokey]

did you forget?

Vertigo (1958)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
To Catch a Thief (1955)

Since you mentioned it, no!

Of three, To Catch a Thief is my favorite since Cary Grant is in it. Him along with Steward and Grace Kelly seem to be Hitchcock's favorites in playing lead charactors in his movies.

Strangers On A Train, which was remade in the late '80s as a dark comedy, Throw Momma From The Train, is one of the great, original movie premises ever.

Mel Brooks also made couple of comedies using Hitchcock's movie plots. High Anxiety mock Vertigo and Silent Movie mocked The Birds.

Not sure any list of top Hitch movies is complete without "Psycho" on it. I've seen every film he ever made, there's not a duff title in the bunch, and many are all-time classics.

Here is a duff title, "The Wrong Man" that came out in 1956. That movie felt so boring. The tension and suspence was lacking so much from this movie.

Perkins' slightly askew portrayal of brow-beaten momma's boy didn't foreshadow any ability to turn psyhopathic murderer. He was just a guy who was so used to having his life controlled and afraid of being alone that he pretended his over-bearing mom was alive years after she passed away.

Psycho seem to be inspired by true story where this guy digged up his over bearing mother corpse so he woun't be alone You can read about him here:

http://www.chasingthefrog.com/reelfa...aschainsaw.php

[3LB]

Psycho seem to be inspired by true story where this guy digged up his over bearing mother corps

this dude Ed Gein of which you speak, inspired several screen serial killers, such as Buffalo Bill from Silence Of The Lambs, as well as the killer in a lesser-known, but equally gruesome Deranged (1974), which follows the reports of Ed Gein almost to a tee. Initially released around the same time, its a better movie than Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but because of distribution problems, it trailed TCM by about a year and when it finally did hit the drive-in circuit, it was believed to be a knock-off of TCM, when actually it was conceptually better (though it too, was a low-budget film). I saw a boot of this a long time ago, and it was rather gory and maybe even more disturbing because it was a 'normal' looking guy doing hellish things and not some chainsaw wielding freak wearing a mask.

[Smokey]

this dude Ed Gein of which you speak, inspired several screen serial killers, such as Buffalo Bill from Silence Of The Lambs, as well as the killer in a lesser-known, but equally gruesome Deranged (1974), which follows the reports of Ed Gein almost to a tee.

I haven't seen Deranged movie, but if it followed Ed Gein to a tee, it must be creepy. Just think of him all alone and what he was doing in that big ranch house in cold long Wisconsin nights, with all dead bodies lying around give a shiver.