154 thoughts on “Alfred Hitchcock Movies”

1. The worldwide stats have foreign included? If so, how come you have all foreign stats but his biggest hit, rear window?

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2. Actress Barbara Harris has died at age 83. Among her film and stage career, she appeared in Family Plot – the final Hitchcock movie.

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   1. Hey Flora. Well that is sad news. I was surprised she had not made a movie in a longtime. Her last appearance was in Gross Point Blank and before that it was thirty years ago in Dirty Rotten Scroundels. She had a supporting role in both movies. I of course have been aware of her since the original Freaky Friday. RIP Barbara Harris.

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3. Added Steve’s Hitchcock Video To The Page.

   “Epic Epic Epic. So I have seen 31 of these movies. 28 of the 31 American movies and 3 of the 21 British movies. Lots and lots of favorites on this video. #3 North By Northwest #2 Psycho #6 Strangers on a Train #9 Notorious and #21 To Catch A Thief….possibly his most beautiful movie….love how that one looks.

   Ones that I really did not like include #16 Spellbound….wasted a great cast, #41 Under Capricorn…..a rare boring Hitch movie. and #35 Torn Curtain…amazing that a movie directed by Hitch and starring in their prime…Newman and Andrews is rarely talked about. My all-time least favorite Hitch movie is #38 Topaz….I have watched that one a few times…..never again.

   Almost all the other movies fall into really good movies in my thinking….granted I have not even heard of many of the British ones. And finally…..Vertigo is good….but I think 4th place in the rankings is pretty fitting…I have never believed for a single second that it is the best movie ever made. Voted up and included on our Hitch UMR page.”

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   1. Good post Bruce, I think we have near enough the same taste in Hitchcock films. I’m glad Psycho is number one, everyone was telling Hitch not to make that film and it turned out to be his most famous and most successful film. Everyone has heard of Psycho, Norman Bates and the shower murder. Thanks again for the vote, share and comment.

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4. Although Hitch remains a darling of the historians and critics professionally, his private personality and actions have come in for some savage criticism in recent years with for example Tippi Hendren who starred in his productions of The Birds and Marnie claiming that he wilfully savaged her career because she did not respond positively to his amorous advances. In a TV interview that I saw she indeed spoke quite bitterly about him.

   POSTERS 52-26. It was good to see you opening and then continuing sporadically with a run of Alfred’s very early and lesser known films which were I think made in his pre-Hollywood days and which despite and indeed maybe because of their antiquity contain some startling and indeed risque images. My favourites among them are Skin Game, Waltzes from Vienna, Easy Virtue, East of Shanghai, The Ring, Murder, and The Girl was Young.

   Other classy POSTERS for me are 2 excellent ones for Jamaica Inn, Under Capricorn, Mr and Mrs Smith, Torn Curtain and all 3 for I Confess, which is probably one of Hitch’s lesser-known and relatively weaker Hollywood films but is still compulsive viewing for any Hitch fan, and it gives one a chance to watch Monty in one of the relatively few films he made in his acting prime [and indeed for Clift fans it was a good companion piece for From Here to Eternity also released that year.]

   A reasonable run of STILLS in Part One and I definitely must highlight (1)the vintage opening “collector’s piece” of the young Hitch directing. I became acquainted with Hitchcock only when he was in his fifties when Rear Window was released and it has often been startling to see photos of the very young Alfred (2) the two solos of Alfred apparently counting first what looks like videos and then reels of his own movies (3) Hitch being “strangled” and (4) the hilarious but riveting one of Lorre looking for all the world like an over-the–top gigolo or an early Hercule Poirot To be continued……

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   1. Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing the first half of my bigger and better Alfred Hitchcock video, it is much appreciated. Glad the visuals were pleasing.

      I don’t think Tippi had much of a career to look forward to, she was hardly the greatest or most emotive new actress on the scene going by those two movies. I don’t know why she suddenly felt the need to savage her director who had been dead for decades. Maybe she just wanted attention.

      I did get carried away with the stills on this one. I had so many in reserve I could easily produce a second video, in chronological order this time, with different posters and stills. 🙂

      As I was telling Flora this was originally a Top 50 video and than I thought why not include all 53 films? The Mountain Eagle was his 2nd film and is one of the legendary lost films of the silent era. “The most wanted film in the world” according to Wikipedia. But not by Hitchcock who said that he was glad it was lost. Only six stills survive from that film.

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      1. Hey Steve…..I will be checking out your newest video later today…..looks like it is epic….and once again your total movies tops mine…seems that has been happening a lot lately.

         Hey Bob….Good breakdown on the first half of Steve’s video. Looking forward to the second half breakdown.

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         1. Hey Bruce, this time there are a lot of silent films, British films and even a lost film included. so it makes sense that you won’t find all the necessary data for all of Hitchcock’s films.

            Thanks for the share, always appreciated.

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      2. HI STEVE

         According to Tippi Hitch had her under contract and when she spurned his advances he would neither put her in any of the next few movies that he made nor would he allow her to work for other studios until she ultimately ended up with a supporting part in Countess from Hong Kong

         Her filmography does not contradict that contention and certainly IF her version of events is correct it would be understandable if she retained some bitterness towards him regardless of our conjectures about how her career might otherwise have turned out. She is human.

         Also Paul Newman was by all reports a very amicable guy to get along with but it has been alleged that Hitch was extremely nasty with him on the set of Torn Curtain. For example Paul was preparing for a scene in that movie when Hitch interrupted him by lifting the megaphone and barking at him in front of cast and crew to “get on with some acting.”

         As you know I don’t let a movie personality’s off-screen behaviour prejudice me against his/her on-screen work but directors like Hitchcock and John Ford for example seem to me to have been unnecessarily unpleasant to people who maybe don’t deserve such treatment, and while we all have our faults and no doubt they had many good qualities away from the screen they perhaps are prime examples of how wealth and power give free rein to a bullying and vindictive disposition. Bottom line – if Tippi is telling the truth what happened to hershould not have happened and there’s no excuse for it.

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         1. Bob, why even bring all this up? Wasn’t there anything positive you could have said about Hitch? I’m assuming that you’re not a fan. So many stories to tell about this director and his films and this is what you started your review with?

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            1. HI STEVE
               [Certainly after your severe ticking off I feel like hiding away in the Bates Motel to wait for my just deserts!]

               I’m sorry if that item about Hendren upset you but as you know I always try to provide background trivia rather than simply recite a list of movies, the posters for which I enjoy examining as a separate exercise.

               I don’t like being sycophantic and just writing the good things about movie personnel because I feel that if one doesn’t give a balanced picture where there is such to give that in a way dilutes the value of any praise as objectivity can be called into question and/or one can be regarded as simply a “people pleaser”.

               In relation to my own idols I have for example enthused endlessly over Wayne but have provided as well trivia about for example his avoiding the draft which can hardly be called flattering to him yet nobody could say that I am not a Wayne fan.

               I have just finished my Part 2 Hitchcock reply and I will post it to you shortly and you can then judge for yourself whether or not I am a Hitch fan. On top of that as it is not my intention to upset or offend anyone, if you still feel strongly about my Tippi stuff I have no objection to Bruce deleting everything I have said about her and Hitch today so feel free to ask him to do that and I am sure he will respect our wishes in the matter.

            2. STEVE In the late 1950s I clearly remember Alfred Hitchcock saying that in his opinion Hollywood’s most ideal leading men at that time were Stewart, Grant and Brando. Hitch did of course develop a great professional affinity with the first two of those and they were in fact the stars of Vertigo, North by Northwest and Rear Window which along with the notorious Psycho are generally regarded as Hitch’s top 4 classics. However surprisingly I can never recall even a hint of speculation of a collaboration between Alfred and your favourite mumbler.

               I took it as given that the 4 movies that I have just mentioned would be in the Top 5 of both you and Bruce for critical review so my primary interest was in the respective order in which each of you placed them-

               YOU
               1/Psycho
               2/Rear Window
               3/N by NW
               4/Vertigo
               5/Rebecca
               6/Strangers on a Train
               WORK HORSE
               1/Rear Window
               2/Psycho
               3/N by NW
               4/Vertigo
               5/Strangers on a Train
               6/Notorious

               Best POSTERS for me in your Hitch 1-25 entries are Saboteur, 2 highly original ones for Marnie, The Wrong Man, foreign language one for To Catch a Thief, The Lodger, The set of posters for 1956 Man Who Knew Too Much [my personal least-liked Hitch film despite the presence of two of my top idols Jimmy and Doris] Lifeboat, foreign language one for Dial M for Murder, Strangers on a Train and a cracker for The Birds which significantly showcases Tippi [can I even mention her name now?]

               Excellent STILLS were (1) Fonda and Vera Miles (2) ensemble with the young MacLaine (3)The Princess on the beach (4) Cary bussing it with Hitch (5)Cary with Joan Fontaine (6) Hiitch on the phone presumably dialing “M” (7) something for The Birds (8) a stunning behind the scenes shot of the making of 39 Steps. The 1959 remake with Kenneth More is entertaining but does not have nearly the suspense of the Hitch masterpiece and (9) Hitch smiling [unsurprisingly!] at Kim in bed. I wonder what they were laughing about

               I don’t have the necessary skills to be definitive about who technically is the best director of all time but on the law of averages Hitch MUST be in contention and in my view his films are certainly the most EXCITING COLLECTIVELY that anyone has ever directed and if you were to insist I must watch a season of the films of just 2 directors of my own choosing I would select Alfred and Douglas Sirk [even though Ford was Wayne’s director]. Anyway a great director deserves a great tribute which you have given and which is worth 99% rating to me.

            3. Hi Bob, Norman Bates here… no wait it’s Steve this time, thanks for the review, generous rating (ooh), trivia, comparison and explanation, it is appreciated. Glad you liked the abundance of stills and posters.

               Sorry for getting all defensive on Hitch but I just felt there was no need to dredge all that up. A lot of people enjoyed working with Hitch, Tippi seems to be the exception.

               There was a guy who popped in here a couple of times and the only thing he wanted to tell us was that Errol Flynn was a Nazi spy, than he disappeared. That’s all he was interested in.

               Anyway good to know you’re a bit of a Hitchcock fan, though probably not on Flora’s level, no one is.

               I am surprised you like Douglas Sirk so much, isn’t he the director of choice for weepies and melodramas, usually starring Rock Hudson? Can you watch those films over and over? Tearjerkers brighten your day? 🙂

               12 Hitchcock films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources, they are –

               Psycho (1960)
               North By Northwest
               Rear Window
               Vertigo
               Rebecca
               Strangers on a Train
               Thirty Nine Steps ,The
               Lady Vanishes ,The
               Notorious
               Shadow of a Doubt
               Birds ,The
               Foreign Correspondent

               5 more scored 9 including Suspicion, Lifeboat and Spellbound.

               Tops at IMDB is a tie between Psycho and Rear Window, no.1 at Rotten Tomatoes is Psycho. Bruce and I have the same top 4. And Rebecca tops the UMR chart.

               “There is a dreadful story that I hate actors. Imagine anyone hating James Stewart… I can’t imagine how such a rumor began. Of course it may possibly be because I was once quoted as saying that actors are cattle. My actor friends know I would never be capable of such a thoughtless, rude and unfeeling remark, that I would never call them cattle… What I probably said was that actors should be treated like cattle.”

         2. My Dear NORM Excellent feedback from you to proposed Victim No 98’s post to you about the second part of your Hitchcock video. As the Victim implies your Hitchcock video is par excellence and my own main complaint is that you delayed it until now and did not release it on Mother’s Day.

            Also whilst you provide an interesting anecdote involving Errol Flynn you may have heard of Godwin’s Law of Hitler Analogies. This is a law that has been introduced to govern debates on the Internet and it holds that the longer a debate goes on the sooner we will reach the stage where someone tries to make their point by mentioning a comparison with Hitler and/or the Nazis and the person who mentions the Hitler/Nazi comparison is deemed to have immediately forfeited the debate.

            Mr Hitchcock is among a handful of directors whose name is big box office as much as those of any of the stars of his movies and indeed he usually shares and at times even exceeds the top billing of those stars.

            For example in Mr Cogerson’s table above Mr Hitchcock’s films have a magnificent adjusted domestic average of $155 million. That compares very favourably with for example Mr John Ford’s average of around $118 million.

            On top of his box office clout Mr Hitchcock has of course a reputation for consistently making artistically brilliant films – “box office with brains” as Variety calls it.

            Finally my son the quotes and stories that you and No 98 have been exchanging in your discussions about Mr Hitchcock’s video at times reflect poorly on some of those concerned but equally negative is Mr W C Field’s notorious “A man who likes children can’t be all bad.”

            MA

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            1. Mother goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Why I wouldn’t even harm a fly…

               Mommie dearest there may be something wrong with that last quote from W.C. Fields in your post, would you look at it again?

               No no mom… not the wire hangers…. please mommie! aaaaahhhhhh

            2. HI SON OF MA BATES

               It should of course be “A man who HATES children can’t be all bad.”The old cynic actually said that . He lived next door to Miss Deanna Durbin and complained about the noise disturbing him when she practised her singing. .

               .

5. When it comes to common knowledge, I am sure the name Hitchcock is better known than any other director’s- maybe except Charlie Chaplin’s, who, I am sure, is better known for his recurring “Little Tramp” alter ego than for directing movies.
   Needless to say, I have seen all of the movies listed plus all of his british thrillers and even a few others, like the silent Juno and the Peacock or the Jessie Matthews musical Waltzes from Vienna.
   There is not a single movie off the list that I didn’t enjoy for one reason or another, but of course I do have favorites:
   The 20’s: The Lodger
   The 30’s: Sabotage (yes, Sylvia got to work with Alfie!), The Lady vanishes (My introduction to Margaret Lockwood, and the start of an ongoing, albeit one sided Love Affair)
   The 40’s: Rebecca, Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious- plus a “special mention” to Saboteur, starring lovely Priscilla Lane
   The 50’s: Anything but The Wrong Man and The Trouble with Harry, but most of all VERTIGO, one of my alltime Top 3 movies
   The 60’s: Psycho, The Birds (wasn’t allowed to watch this on telly as a kid, next day at school, I really felt I had missed out on something great…made up for that by watching it on what seems a yearly basis ever since), Marnie (sloppy painted backgrounds and rear projections, but strangely fascinating nevertheless…plus virile Sean Connery vs Iceberg Tippi Hedren)
   The 70’s: Frenzy…though Family Plot isn’t half bad, either 🙂

   Tried to keep this post on one of my alltime favorite movie people short and on topic…though there would be so much more to tell about Mr. Alfred Hitchcock! Just one little tidbit about my least favorite Hitch, Topaz: Asked by a reporter why he had chosen raven haired german actress Karin Dor instead of one of his “trademark Blondes”,as one of the female leads, Mr. Hitchcock replied “Miss Dor is inside blonde!” Karin Dor, to my knowledge, never openly reacted to this, but I think she was ok with the remark 😉

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   1. Hi Lupino, Interesting post and fun quote by Hitchcock on Karin Dor and blondes.
      I recently saw the movie, Hitchcock, with a barely recognizable Anthony Hopkins, and I was somewhat disappointed that such a great director (as you say, probably the most famous of all) was not provided with a better biographical film. I suppose it’s not easy to make a movie about a director and I can see what they tried to do, but it only partially worked for me.
      For my part, there are 5 movies on the list I have not seen: Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Under Capricorn, Stage Fright, Jamaica Inn and Saboteur. I like or love all the other movies on the list. Even Hitchcock’s weaker films, like The Paradine Case, are always interesting to see. My favorite Hitchcock films are Rope, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds…and possibly Frenzy.

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      1. Hey PhilHOF17
         1. Good comment on Lupino’s comment.
         2. As for the Hitch movies…..I think you are right….it is hard to make a movie about a director…..though I love Peter O’Toole as David Lean in The Stunt Man.
         3. Of the 5 you have not seen…..Under Capricorn is one of his weaker movies.
         4. Glad to see you mention Frenzy among your favorites.
         🙂

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      2. Hi there PhilHOF17,
         I’ve seen the Hitchcock movie, too, but I must admit that my memory of it is quite blurred…I do remember, though, that I thought Alma Reville’s (Helen Mirren) part in creating Psycho was all wrong, and I didn’t find the movie satisfying. I have also seen “The Girl”, where Sienna Miller portrayed Tippi Hedren to Toby Jones’ Hitch, and Imelda Staunton’s “version” of Alma Reville Hitchcock came much closer to what I imagined her to be in real life.
         About your missing Hitchcocks, I agree with Bruce that Under Capricorn is one of his lesser efforts, though not as bad as it’s reputation. As I said, there’s something to enjoy in every Hitchcock movie. I’m a fan of Stage Fright, I love the cast and the english atmosphere, and those little “vignettes” by british actors Alastair Sim, Dame Sybil Thorndike, Joyce Grenfell etc. To me, the movie belongs to Dietrich, at almost 50 years old, she is looking gorgeous in her close-ups, and she is totally believable in a part worthy of any noir icon. No wonder Wyman reportetly became more and more insecure about her own looks in the movie 😉 About Saboteur: not Hitch at his best, but the famous finale foreshadows the Mount Rushmore scene in North by Northwest! Thanks for replying to my comment on Mr. Hitchcock!

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         1. Good stuff Lupino.

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         2. Hey PhilHOF17, Hey LupinoHOF17,
            HITCHCOCK is one of the greatest Director in movie history,no question about that, and Lupino is right for all his remarks and the facts that there is always something interresting in his films, and sure at least, like the very fast moment where he plaid a very fast cameo, is it him??
            I saw all the films in the list except Topaze or maybe i don’t remember it and Under Capricorn.
            My fav are the Lady Vanishes, the 39 steps, Mr and Mrs Smith for Lombard and Montgomery, in fact i love them all except To catch a Thief.
            Stage fright was not a big success in all the world, and the press comments where not good. There is a book which is a conversation between Hitchcock and a French Director who was Francois Truffaut and he was speaking about all his films and for Stage fright, his remarks, that Dietrich was so beautiful that Miss Wyman try to change her look which was supposed to be « sans intérêt « 
            And that was not good at all for the film.
            In French because i dont remenber the english word.Sorry
            One things is sure and no questions about that;
            Dietrich Stole the picture and it is one of her best part.
            I have very much love the TV series presented by Hitchcock with always a great sens of black humour.
            For to night, just one comment..LOL ..because i am too lazy….in Paris..the last days too much snow….;very terrible to go to work….
            Je vous souhaite une excellente soirée
            PierreHOF17

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            1. Merci PierreHOF17, Looks like you like in particular Hitchcock’s older films. In the end, I couldn’t figure out whether you liked Stage Fright or not, but interesting anecdote 🙂

            2. Sorry, Phil,
               I saw Stage Fright 10 times , i think, so i like it very much,
               Another thing about Hitchcock and Francois Truffaut in conversations
               Hé said he was wrong to start that film with a lie
               Thank you for your comments return
               Tres bonne journée
               Pierre

   2. Hey Lupino…..excellent thoughts on Mr. Hitchcock. I am generally right there with you in regards to enjoying all of his movies….and yes Topaz is my least favorite Hitch movie too. Great minds thinking alike. Sylvia Sidney made a movie with Hitch….I did not know that…..are you sure?….lol. I wish I had been able to include all of his movies.

      So Vertigo is one of your all-time favorite movies…..good to know. I like the breakdown by decade….I would say….Notorious, North By Northwest, Psycho and Frenzy would represent my “by the decade” favorites. Thanks for sharing the tidbit on Karin Dor. 🙂

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      1. 🙂

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