What Are Your Favorite Hitchcock Films?

I have been on an Alfred Hitchcock kick lately watching at least one flick a night. It's never hard to return to some of these films I've seen umpteen times...they amaze me more with every view. Here's my top five Hitchcock films (at least this week):

1. Rear Window - No telling how many times I've seen this and can't get enough. Must be the voyeur in me. Definitely my favorite.

2. The Lady Vanishes - What a plot...what a romance. Another "train" movie. Margaret Lockwood is absolutely beautiful.

3. The 39 Steps - 2 words...Madeleine Carroll...oh to be handcuffed... How did Mr. Memory remember all that stuff...huh?

4. Vertigo - James Stewart has to be one of my favorite actors and his appearence in Hitch films made them special...see Rope too for another cool Stewart role.

5. Notorious - Ingrid, Ingrid, Ingrid!



Margaret Lockwood

 

Not a big Hitchcock fan, but I do like "Rear Window".

 

I've seen every Hitchcock film (Yes, I'm nutz) and at the moment (which always changes of course) I have to say 'Nortorious' & 'Shadow of a Doubt.'

Kevin, have you seen Carol Reed's 'Night Train to Munich'? The bumbling British duel (Caldicott & Charters) from 'The Lady Vanishes' return in this great film....

 

Vertigo

 

I am very fond of "Rope", "Rear Window", "The Trouble With Harry" (great, dark humor) "North By Northwest", "Psycho" and several others.

I gave Psycho a viewing a while back and was wondering about some of the bird related moments. I noticed that Janet Leigh's character was named "Crane". Also, in her room, I recall a picture of a bird (blackbird?) on the wall. Any Hitchcock scholars here? Was this intentional? I was wondering if this may be a little foreshadowing for his next film, The Birds.

 

"Rebecca" and "Notorious" are my favorites

 

I believe the bird references are intentional. Hitchcock was pretty meticulous about what appeared on the screen. Donald Spoto's book on Hitchcock's films is very interesting, and well worth a read if you are at all interested in delving beneath the surfaces of the man's films.

My favorites would be:

Shadow of a Doubt
Strangers On A Train
Psycho
Vertigo
Notorious
Rear Window
North By Northwest.

Jeff

 

I most enjoy "Psycho" and "The Birds". I've TRIED to like "Vertigo" but have yet to muster much enthusiasm for it...

 

North by Northwest; Eva Marie Saint is the perfect combo of aloof/come here (not too icy like Grace Kelly), and the train scenes are a big plus for this choo-choo lover!

 

Oh yeah, Cary Grant was pretty good in NBNwest, too...

 

Kevin, as others have mentioned, pick up Shadow of a Doubt. It was Hitchcock's personal favorite. That's the best endorsement I can think of!

Off the beaten path, I always thought Family Plot is a bit underrated (then again, been a while since I've seen it). I really enjoy the innuendo fest of "To Catch A Thief."

Mike, the bird references in Psycho were all intentional. This is discussed in the best Hitchcock reference (IMO)-- Hitchcock/Truffaut. They also list where to find Hitchcock in every movie he appeared in, and make you crave to see the movies you've missed. Even his bad ones.

 

Vertigo is my all-time favorite. I've seen it dozens of times, but the plot (especially those crazy "mother" references that Barbara Bel Geddes makes to Stewart 2/3rds into the movie) just blow my mind.

Rear Window is my second favorite. Oh man does Grace Kelly look hot! I am mesmerized when she's on the screen. Oh yeah, the plot is good too

 

It has taken me awhile to get into it, but I think part of my fascination is Kim Novak's role in the movie. I get to feeling like I'm James Stewart's character in the film--she's not exactly a drop-dead knockout IMHO, but her character is a mesmerizing presence, and I'm glued to her until the outcome of it. My ex had a hard time with Stewart going nuts halfway through the movie; I think it's one of the best films he's made, showing he could play more than "Mr. Good Guy" all the time.

Vertigo, North By Northwest and Rear Window are my favorites, but there are so many good other Hitch films that many others are close behind these. I don't like "Family Plot" at all though...and the early British films never did appeal to me either. Notorious is also a great film--Ingrid Bergman just melts me , but her and Cary Grant put in good performances that are worth rewatching.

Some of his lesser-knowns interest me to. Such as, "The Wrong Man".

I think his plot device was always attractive to me: an ordinary person (or persons) suddenly thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Look at how an innocent bystander like Grant in North by Northwest is mistaken as George Kaplan and abducted. An innocent Henry Fonda is picked out of a line-up and goes through the film as the "Wrong Man". "The Man Who Knew Too Much" involves an innocent family on vacation getting involved in some grimy incident they had no intentions of getting involved in. Great viewing!

 

I've only seen one or two of his films that I didn't love.

Favorite Hitchcock films:

Rear Window
The Man Who Knew Too Much (w/ Stewart)
The 39 Steps
Young and Innocent (tough to find - I have a great laserdisc of it, though)

Least favorite:

Vertigo (I scratch my head as to why people praise this film)

Best Hitchcock book:
Hitchcock / Truffaut

Best imitation Hitchcock film:
Night Train To Munich (more Hitchcock than Hitchcock himself)

Even though I'm not nuts about Vertigo, I'd rather watch a bad Hitchcock film than just about anything on TV.

 

Put me on the Rear Window list.

This might need to become a poll after you see how many people start listing the same films...

 

"Rear Window", "North By Northwest" and "To Catch a Thief" are enjoyable over and over again - I agree with you Clavius re the innuendo in "Thief". "Vertigo" is also great, although the plot is rather strained and there are segments that annoy me a little - yet there are scenes which are so unique and perfect in their combination of image and sound. Bernard Hermann's music for that film was brilliant.

I also like Psycho, and Frenzy - the latter is Hitch's return to Britain, and is a very macabre and humorous story (the blackest sort of humour).

I also like Saboteur, with it's outrageous Statue of Liberty set piece at the end. Shadow of a Doubt is a ripper. Strangers on a train is also pretty good. The remade "Man Who Know Too Much" is worth a look. Also "The Trouble With Harry" if only for the beautiful colour and the line where John Forsythe says to a young Shirley Maclaine, whom he's just met, "I'd like to paint you naked some time".

 

Nope Todd...I haven't seen Night Train To Munich but just added it to the ol' Netflix queue. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

Check out this webpage:

Hitchcock Cameos

 

My favorite Hitchcock films are:

1) North by Northwest
2) Notorious
3) Rear Window
4) Strangers on a Train
5) Psycho
6) The 39 Steps
7) Rope
8) Rebecca
9) Lifeboat
10) The Lady Vanishes

I think Strangers on a Train and Rope are the two most under-rated films of Hitch's, Vertigo, Marnie, and the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much are the most over-rated, and the dull Topaz is the worst.

IMHO, natch!

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

I agree, 'The Paradine Case' is a real clunker....

 

I forgot to mention "Strangers On A Train" myself (as well as about 70 others....)

 

Can't say I've ever seen "Paradine"...or if I did, I don't remember it. Heh.

I haven't really gotten into "The Trouble With Harry" all that much...and I can't really figure out why. I really like a young Shirley MacLaine (especially her role in in "The Apartment" , one of my all-time favorites)...maybe I just need to see a new remastered version of it rather than the pale washed-out laserdisc I have.

"Family Plot" I had absolutely no use for. IMHO, Hitch just seemed outdated in this film...trying awkwardly to fit into a new decade. And the ending I still have never figured out. "Birds" just has seemed too freaky...more along the lines of "horror" than I usually care for. "Psycho" is interesting and I do like it to a point, but I still savor some of Hitch's earlier films a lot more than that one.

I think one of the creepiest characters ever in a Hitch films is the Bruno Anthony character in "Strangers On A Train". Whenever he appears out of nowhere in Guy Haynes' life, it just gives me the creeps!

 

I've always had a thing for Grace Kelly. I've yet to see anyone look as beautiful as in the slow motion shot where she leans over to kiss Jimmy Stewart. Class in addition to beauty is something we need more of today.

I think my favorites would be:

1. Rear Window
2. Psycho
3. Frenzy
4. Strangers on a Train
5. Dial M for Murder

Oh hell, I like them all.