Ed has a great post about the Hitchcock movie Rope and a disturbing news story that parallels the thriller’s premise.
My question for PJ Lifestyle readers: what’s Hitchcock’s best movie?
For my money my favorite period of Hitchcock films is the tail end of his British period and the beginning of his American career (1935-1946). Back in my film obsessive days in high school and the beginning of college (which preceeded my politics obsessive days which began in earnest circa the Iraq War) I acquired the Wrong Men and Notorious Women Criterion Collection box set. The collection includes fantastic editions of The 39 Steps, Rebecca, The Lady Vanishes, Notorious, and Spellbound. (Incidentally, the boxset is now out of print and retailing new for about four times what I originally paid for it. Cool. Not that I’d ever expect to get that given how much my box has been smacked around moving from here to there over the years.) Another Hitchcock from this period that I really enjoy is 1940′s The Foreign Correspondent, particularly because it has a nice supporting performance from George Sanders, the British character actor with a really cool voice that most people recognize from his role as the tiger Shere Khan in Disney’s The Jungle Book.
This whole period of Hitchcock is wonderful because by and large the films are more upbeat and positive than the work he did in the ’50s and ’60s. I can respect and appreciate films like Vertigo, Rear Window, Psycho, Rope and The Birds but they’re just not as enjoyable as the films in my boxset.
If I had to pick a favorite right now I’d say Rebecca but I really need to give Notorious another viewing before saying for certain.
Does anyone care to dissent? Am I wrong i holding this era of Hitchcock above all others? Please make your arguments in the comments section.
My personal favorite is probably North By Northwest, which is simultaneously a compendium of Hitchcock’s best leitmotifs prior to Psycho, stars Cary Grant at his peak, and these days, is a time capsule of New York just before the Lindsey administration turned the city into the set for Taxi Driver and Death Wish. (Vertigo does much the same to memorialize San Francisco from that same period.)
Shadow of a Doubt and Notorious are exceptional WWII-era films. And 1964′s Marnie is a fascinating curio, the last of Hitch’s lush-’50s style movies, even if it has some astonishingly bad special effects, ushering in the long slide of Hitchcock’s late career.
My favorite is also North by Northwest. The dialogue is clever and Carey Grant plays a hilarious drunken courtroom scene. Next to that would be Vertigo. Great musical score by George Pal (as with all of Hitchcock’s movies). My next favorite and an earlier film is Suspicion. It seems like everyone here likes North by Northwest. Hmmm, wonder why.
You mean “Great musical score by Bernard Herrmann.” Not by George Pal, who was a producer/director. Herrmann, of course, scored Vertigo and seven other Hitchcock films (although Torn Curtain’s score was incomplete when Herrmann and Hitch had their falling out and was subsequently not used for the completed film).
I have to agree with you regarding Rebecca. I’ve read the book several times and just enjoy the whole mood and feel of the story. Maybe my second favorite Hitchcock movie is The Man Who Knew Too Much and then Shadow of a Doubt.
Early: Strangers On A Train.
Late: North By Northwest.
They qualify for classic Hitchcockian with their bizarre stories, editing, cinematography and most fun of all: that guy on the run.
He’s my favorite director so it’s like choosing your favorite offspring. Love Rebecca and it’s almost number one. But North By Northwest is the one if I had to choose. It’s wonderfully sophisticated with great dialogue & obviously the action set pieces are outstanding. But I’m with you on Foreign Correspondent. It’s a little gem. I love Joel McCrea. A lot. And he’s great in this. (check out The More The Merrier with Jean Arthur & Charles Coburn for a great rom/com that’s less known that The Palm Beach Story & Sullivan’s Travels.)
1. North by Northwest
2. Rear Window
3. The Birds
“Favorite” and “Best” are terms I dislike using as they require needless distinctions, especially when addressing an artist as superb as Hitchcock. That said, I would have to say a word in favor of The Trouble With Harry.
Depends on the type of story one likes – I have a strong preference for the normal person placed in an unusual, dangerous circumstance, who then emerges successful. I don’t like the horror or espionage ones quite as much. Finally, Grace Kelly doesn’t hurt. Her first scene in Rear Window guarantees its place in the top 5. Joan Fontaine is pretty great as well.
1) North by Northwest
2) Rebecca
3) Rear Window
4) It Takes a Thief (Grace Kelly, the Riviera, Fireworks, cat burglars – wonderful)
5) Tie – Suspicion or Strangers on a Train
Honorable mention, both versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much.
Most overrated: Psycho and Vertigo
Strangest: The Birds
Should be good, but kind of unpleasant: Notorious
Worst: Topaz
Surprisingly enjoyable and campy: Family Plot
1) North By Northwest
2) Rebecca
3) The Man Who Knew Too Much (50′s version)
4) Shadow of a Doubt
5) The Lady Vanishes
6) Stage Fright
I don’t care for Strangers on A Train, The Birds, Marnie, or Topaz. The last several Hitchcock films were disgusting. But North by Northwest is among my top ten all-time favorite films. I used to love Rear Window, but I’ve seen it so many times, and the plot about the body in the suitcase is depressingly too realistic, that it’s more disturbing to me now than anything else.
North by Northwest and The Lady Vanishes are standouts because they have a lightness about them, some humor amidst the danger, that elevates them and permits us to be afraid and at the same time assured that all will be well in the end.
Most will say Vertigo, and it is fascinating on many levels.
But I’m sticking with Psycho. Greatest movie ever made.
Recommended:
“The Moment of Psycho: How Hitchock Taught America To Love Murder”
“A Long Hard Look at Psycho” by the British Film Institute
http://filmexperience.blogspot.com/2006/06/24-hour-psycho.html
But I love Rope as pure (if squirm-inducing) fun.
I can’t remember the name, but it was a 1930s film starring Nova Pilbeam that was based on the Josephine Tey novel, “A Shilling for Candles,” a lighthearted, upbeat mystery in the style of the British cozy mystery.
Young and Innocent (1937). A magnificent film.
The Lady Vanishes
Torn Curtain.
Some of my reasons are personal: (a) I’ve had a crush on Julie Andrews since I was five years old, and (b) Paul Newman plays a physicist like me. (He’s even an alumnus of the college where I teach.) So perhaps others are not as taken with the film.
But it has some great scenes, including the chalkboard “bluffing game” with the East German physicist Lindt. I played out a weirdly similar similar scene in real life — meeting alone with a brilliant Russian physicist in an empty lecture hall in Cambridge, comparing notes on a hard quantum physics problem that we had both been trying to solve. It was just like the movie — only Paul Newman is much handsomer, the Russian was a really nice guy, the fate of the world did not hang in the balance, and Julie Andrews was not waiting for me down the hall so we could escape back across the Iron Curtain. But other than that, yeah, just like the movie.
Frenzy, then Rebecca.
Seven votes so far for North by Northwest. That’s enough to inspire me to watch it again.
1. North by Northwest
2. Rear Window
3. To Catch A Thief
4. Vertigo
5. Rebecca
6. Notorious
7. Torn Curtain
8. The Man Who Knew Too Much
His best movie? Sorry, but this fan has only a selection of favorites to offer, and it’s not even a definitive one. Yes, the British and early American period was superb, but so were the Hollywood years. In his book of interviews with Hitchcock, Truffault confessed to prefer Notorious and Rear Window. Hitchcock picked The Shadow of a Doubt. Who am I to disagree?
My favorites among favorites are Vertigo, Rear Window (I find Jeff and Lisa fascinatingly shallow and careless), The Shadow of a Doubt, North by Northwest and lately The Birds (the more I watch it…)
Notorious is the best. The tension is incredible, even after seeing it several times, knowing what Cary Grant is doing to Ingrid Bergman and the way they both play it is gut-wrenching.
To me, “Vertigo” is the most haunting, sensuous movie ever made. It’s flawless, and clearly Hitchcock’s best. After that, I think his best are:
2. Rebecca
3. Psycho
4. North by Northwest
5. Rear Window
6. Notorious
7. The Birds
8. Frenzy
Not very familiar with his British movies. The earliest film that really stands out for me is Shadow of a Doubt. After that:
Lifeboat (can’t believe I’m the first to mention this one!)
Notorious
Rear Window
Vertigo
North by Northwest
Honorable mention:
Spellbound
Strangers on a Train
Dial M for Murder
Psycho