Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Come and join us - all you have to do is pick three films that fit the week's theme and tell us about them!
Welcome to October! That means it's Halloween month, and Thursday Movie Picks is celebrating with different scary-movie-themed picks every week. For this week, we turn to the "Master of Suspense", Alfred Hitchcock himself. The man has directed so damn many great films that it's practically obscene. I haven't seen all of them, but I have seen many of them (I had four full VHS tapes of them recorded from a TCM marathon when I was younger), and plenty of episodes of his great TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, too. Yeah, I guess you could say I'm a fan.
But... to pick just three? JUST. THREE?!?!?! Okay, fine. These are not my three favorites. Nor are they what I consider to be his three best (and yes, those are two very different things). They aren't even the three that I would tell people to start with if they had never seen even a single Hitchcock film before. These three are the ones that I think are his most underrated.
Sabotage (1936) - The most famous description of Hitchcock's style was given by the man himself, in his long-ranging interview with Francois Truffaut. It's the famous discourse on the difference between surprise and suspense - if you show a conversation between two people at a dinner table, and after a while a bomb explodes, that's surprise. However, if you show the audience the bomb under the table first, and then play the exact same scene, that's suspense.
Sabotage, one of the last films he made in England before going to Hollywood, contains perhaps the most obvious - and cruelest - demonstration of that. It's only a five or six-minute sequence, but it feels twice that long for all the stress the film puts you through. Sylvia Sidney plays a woman whose husband owns a cinema. He's always been nice to her and her (much younger) brother Stevie, but she gradually begins to suspect that he's part of a terrorist gang planning a series of attacks in London. And then one afternoon, Stevie has to deliver a film canister to Piccadilly Circus...
Stage Fright (1950) - You know how everyone talks about
Psycho and how shocking it was when Hitchcock killed off the film's biggest star by the halfway point? Well, he had been toying with audience's expectations and cinematic narrative conventions for years before that.
Stage Fright is a bit of a lark, a trifle in a filmography as great of Hitch's, but its big twist is one of the greatest cinematic acts of pulling the rug right out from under the audience. Jane Wyman is Eve Gill, a young acting student who hides her crush, acting fellow student, from the cops, who suspect him of murdering his lover's husband. In order to prove his innocence, she becomes the temporary maid to his lover: the great actress Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich).
To Catch a Thief (1955) - I keep seeing people refer to this one as "lesser" or "minor" Hitchcock, and I just don't get it. No, it's not
Vertigo or
Psycho or
Rear Window or even
North By Northwest, but it's possibly the most purely entertaining film he ever directed, with one great scene after another. It's also boosted immeasurably by its stars, Grace Kelly and Cary Grant, neither of whom were ever more alluring than they are here. Retired jewel thief John "The Cat" Robie is forced out of retirement when a copycat criminal leads the police to interrupt his quiet, comfortable life on the French Riviera. He manages to convince an insurance agent to let him keep an eye on their wealthiest clients and their jewels in the hopes of catching the impostor in the act. Only it seems one of them, Frances Stevens, knows exactly who he is... and also has a bit of a taste for danger. This is apparently legendary costume designer Edith Head's favorite film she ever worked on.
BONUS: The Ten Best Hitchcock Films (according to me... my favorites will get their own post)
1. Vertigo
2. Psycho
3. Notorious
4. Rear Window
5. Shadow of a Doubt
6. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
7. The 39 Steps
8. I Confess
9. Strangers on a Train
10. Rebecca
I haven't seen any of your picks! I should really tackle more of Hitchcock, though I'm not really good on the horror front of some of his films.
ReplyDeleteHe really only made three horror films: Psycho, The Birds, and Frenzy. All the rest are thrillers of varying stripes. These three are a great place to start, though!
DeleteI've seen more of Hitchcock's noirs than horror movies, so this week was tough for me. I haven't seen any of these. I need to step up. lol
ReplyDeleteOther than Psycho, Frenzy, and The Birds I struggle to call any of his films "horror" films. Psychological horror, I guess, but even that mostly only applies to Vertigo. It's an element of others (Rebecca, Suspicion) but never the entire modus operandi. But you should definitely watch more! Pick one, any one, and add it to your Blind Spot list next year!
DeleteSabotage! Great pick there. I've also seen To Catch a Thief, which is pretty and well acted but not entirely memorable to me. I haven't seen Stage Fright yet...but I will soon!!!
ReplyDeleteOh I find To Catch a Thief SO memorable, it's so freaking gorgeous, and that fireworks scene... and the masquerade ball.... and the car chase.... I could go on and on lol. Definitely catch Stage Fright. It's maybe not one of his best, but it's really, REALLY good.
DeleteLOVE your choices!! Sabotage really is an under known gem. Sylvia Sidney is riveting, from what I've read she and Hitch did not hit it off but it doesn't show on the screen. To Catch a Thief is a lovely bauble, I don't think Hitchcock planned for it to be more and I love Jessie Royce Landis. Yeah to Stage Fright, I think because Hitchcock professed little affection for it that it has damaged its reputation but I think it's a highly entertaining picture. Jane Wyman is fine in the lead but Marlene Dietrich walks right off with the picture any time she shows up.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree about the best vs. the favorites of his films. The three I've chosen are among my favorites although coincidentally one is in your list of best, where it would land on mine as well. My bonus is to show that even geniuses aren't infallible.
Saboteur (1942)-During WWII an airplane factory is sabotaged. Barry Kane, falsely accused of the crime, goes on the run in pursuit of the real culprit and encounters various memorable characters along the way including the expected Hitchcock blonde in the appealing form of Priscilla Lane. Enjoyable chase drama is highlighted by its famous Statue of Liberty finale. My favorite of his films.
Lifeboat (1944)-A small group of passengers from a torpedoed ship struggle for survival in Hitchcock's fascinating microcosm of society in the contained space of a lifeboat. Excellent performances across the board but most of all a great showcase role for Tallulah Bankhead.
Notorious (1946)-Alicia Huberman, played by Ingrid Bergman, has become embittered upon finding out that her father is a traitor. After his conviction she is recruited by Devlin (Cary Grant) to infiltrate a suspected spy ring in South America lead by an acquaintance of hers Alex Sebastian, played by Claude Rains. Once she manages that a deadly game of cat and mouse commences as the tension mounts. One of Hitchcock’s best with amazing work by the entire cast.
Nobody’s perfect pick-Topaz (1969)-An intriguing premise: An intelligence agent becomes involved in Cold War politics while trying to expose espionage that lead up to the Cuban Missile Crisis and attempting to dismantle a Russian spy ring. Add in a solid if not extraordinary cast and Hitchcock in the director’s chair and this should have been an engrossing entertainment. What it is however may be Hitch’s worst film, certainly his dullest, it just plods along. If they insist on remaking one of the Master’s films this would be the place to start. A good idea somehow gone terribly wrong.
Marlene Dietrich is PERFECTION in Stage Fright. PER. FEC. TION. And you're right, Sylvia Sidney is really great in Sabotage - I was kinda surprised to find out she and Hitch didn't get along.
DeleteSaboteur is the only one of your picks I haven't seen. It will be showing at Lincoln Center this fall, though, so I really want to grab tickets for that. The Statue of Liberty scene should look tremendous on the big screen!
Lifeboat and Notorious are two of my favorites... although not many things that Hitch did are NOT favorites since they're all so good! Topaz.... yeah. Barring Torn Curtain it's easily the worst thing he ever did.
Sad, I still need to see all of these. I'm especially interested in Sabotage since that's getting a good bit of love today.
ReplyDeleteOooooooooooooooooooooooh you are in for such a treat when you watch them!
DeleteI could write tons on Hitchcock alone. I picked the same film-Sabotage-love that film and that scene shocked me. I have not seen Stage Fright-I shake my head at some films I have yet to see from this man. I love To Catch a Thief-it is playful and fun but still has that edge. He shows Grace Kelly to great effect and I wanted her clothes! I love your list as well but I couldn't stop there as I would have to add The Lady Vanishes and Lifeboat
ReplyDeleteI so agree. I could easily do an entire Hitchcock month here. I love him so!
DeleteI will go straight down to your top 10 list 'cause I'm sucker at Hitchcock!
ReplyDeleteActually with that list, start at the bottom and work your way up. Do NOT start with Vertigo. It's his most complex film, not a good place to start.
DeleteUgh. I have to see more Hitchcock. I am not even close to making any sort of authoritative lists concerning the man. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI have seen nearly all of his sound-era films. I'm working through the silents, but it's slow going. Not that they aren't good, but I just have so much else to watch lol.
DeleteOf the one's I've watched I To Catch a Thief is one of my least liked. For me it just lacks suspense and tension. It was also too Hollywoody and glamoury (yeah those are all not real words but anyway) those are not the kind of stuff that garners my attention for long.
ReplyDelete