Your thoughts?
I just rewatched PSYCHO (1960) and the BIRDS (1963) again last night, and am always amazed.
Other films of his I love are NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959), VERTIGO (1958), and the 1933 version of the MAN WHO KNEW TO MUCH- with Peter Lorre.
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PSYCHO is a masterpiece.
FRENZY is solid.
call me an uncultured toe-rag but I'm actually not that fussed about anything else he's done.
Great filmmaker but not so great as a person, I believe: he almost ruined Tippi Hedren's career after The Birds as she wouldn't sleep with him.
My faves: Psycho, The Birds and Vertigo.
I enjoy his more popular movies. I'm not very familiar with his earlier works. Furthermore, I didn't care much for Family Plot (1976).
I watched quite a few of his movies and enjoyed most of them. PSYCHO is insanely good, definitely his best in my opinion. I tried VERTIGO and it bored me to tears, an awful experience and honestly it doesn't make much sense in more than one part. NORTH BY NORTHWEST and REAR WINDOW were really fun and engaging too, great stuff.
Quote from: Trevor on December 03, 2023, 01:49:40 PM
Great filmmaker but not so great as a person, I believe: he almost ruined Tippi Hedren's career after The Birds as she wouldn't sleep with him.
I'm convinced I read about a child actor (speaking as an adult) who said Hitchcock threatened to bury him alive (or something) if he messed up his lines, and the kid was traumatised... but it was worse than that. possibly Hitchcock holding a knife to them? trying to find any references to it but can't... I'm sure it was Hitchcock
David Niven told a funny story about the arrivals of celebrities at a film festival and the announcer was getting more and more excited and then, Hitchcock's car arrived.
Announcer: "Mr Alfred Hitchcar's cock has arrived!" :buggedout: :wink: :wink:
Incidentally, he came to South Africa to do a location scout for a film in 1956.
I really like everything that Hitchcock has directed that I've seen.... except Vertigo
depending on the day either I love it or find it incredibly boring and dull for some reason :question:
HITCHCOCK is so important, they've given his name to his style.
SHADOW OF A DOUBT is typically overlooked and easily my own favorite, except for REAR WINDOW which is so wonderfully contrived, that might be his overall best.
PSYCHO (however) is a landmark and changed cinema forever. Very few movies have had that kind of impact.
VERTIGO is the perplexing one, his most personal, probably loved by me because it is 1) implausible and 2) boring. BERNARD HERRMANN's score is astounding.
THE BIRDS is great; I'm bored with it, alright? :teddyr:
Of his I did not like- FRENZY (1972) and FAMILY PLOT (1976), which bored me.
I've watched and enjoyed all of Hitchcock's most popular movies multiple times. Over the past year I've been picking up blu-rays of some of his lesser-known movies like Number 17, Blackmail, Murder! and The Paradine Case. They all have at least minor flashes of brilliance.
Agreed w/ the comment(s) above: about all of his films having something good about them; about many of them either being a little boring (in spite of their quality) or maybe just being played-out and boring to jaded film nerds like myself; and about SHADOW OF A DOUBT being a stand-out. It doesn't get the laurels of so many of his more famous films, and perhaps because of that it retains a lot of charm for me. Superb performances, even from the bit players in that one.
I tend to find more interest these days in the underloved Hitchcocks. I watched TOPAZ for the first time a few years ago and, overlong and flawed though it is, I found a lot to like about it. Among the most famous ones, I'd say NORTH BY NORTHWEST is the one I can revisit most happily. REAR WINDOW is a very nice film w/ one shortcoming that always irritates me: Jimmy Stewart has way more chemistry w/ Thelma Ritter than he's got w/ mannequin-esque Grace Kelly!