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What's your favorite Hitchcock film and why?....

47.147.221.68
Posted on July 30, 2020 at 14:22:19
TWB
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 I guess if pressed, I'd have to say Rear Window...because no matter how many times I've seen that film, it STILL makes me uneasy to watch it... A close second and third would be Vertigo and The Man Who Knew Too Much mostly because I LOVE Stewart, Novak and Day in just about ANYTHING they've ever been in....

 

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Psycho, humor and language and fade-out of Perkins' face to skull at the end. Nt, posted on August 9, 2020 at 08:16:30
geoffkait
 Nt

 

The 39 Steps, posted on August 2, 2020 at 13:03:33
manerac
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 Why? It's perfect, and maybe the best screwball comedy.

Rear Window - Self-conscious and predictable.
Rope - Yuck

 

Actually, I liked the non-Hitchcock 39 Steps remake from 1978 MUCH better, posted on August 3, 2020 at 00:26:03
Chris from Lafayette
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 But I never thought of trying to experience Hitchcock's 1935 version as a screwball comedy - maybe you're on to something!

 

RE: What's your favorite Hitchcock film and why?...., posted on August 1, 2020 at 13:48:55
halfnote
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 Wow! No mention so far of PSYCHO!

The original thriller ... mind-bender ... and shocker.

The direction editing and cinematograhy exquisite.

The shower scene, famously constructed of something like 62 pieces of film ... 62 shots.

The score ... the strident, shrieking rhythmic violins ... the deep bass monotonal trombones, terrible in their finality, underlining and magnifying the shower scene death, as the camera withdraws in a dizzying corkscrew from the eye of the victim (a still shot!)

The cast!

It's hard to imagine today the incredible impact this film had ... how it demolished the notion that viewing film was sanitized and safe and civilized ... how it obliterated our conventional notions of normality and humanity and ushered in the modern era.

I recall there were lines around the block at its screenings, and exhortations by Hitchcock, in advertisements, not to give away the plot ... an exploration of unknown psychological territory.

No one who entered the theater left it as the same person.

 

Of course, Psycho was a great movie too, posted on August 2, 2020 at 00:54:19
Chris from Lafayette
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 Not least because of its genius-level musical score by Bernard Herrmann. But the instrumentation throughout was strings only - no trombones. I believe I read an interview with Herrmann where he mentioned that he consciously restricted himself to string sonorities (no wind or brass colorings) - it was meant as a sonic parallel to the use of black-and-white in the film itself.

Anyway, yes, a truly great film!

 

RE: Of course, Psycho was a great movie too, posted on August 2, 2020 at 05:30:21
halfnote
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 You GOT me!

It was, if I am correct now, deep bass violins, one short stroke, one long .. repeated, right?

Thanks for the correction!

"a great movie too"?

I still like some of the earlier ones, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT and SABATEUR probably don't get too many votes for best ever, but I admire them both greatly.

Then, of course, there's LIFEBOAT with its unique camera work.

But I would still put PSYCHO at the top, then perhaps NORTH BY NORTHWEST, VERTIGO and REAR WINDOW.

But let me think about it, so I can change my mind.

 

Lifeboat, posted on August 1, 2020 at 03:32:45
dwill123
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I really like movies where the acting is mostly all you have to make the movie. An oversized rowboat and nowhere to go. A great, diverse cast (including one of my favorites Ms. Bankhead).

 

I just saw Lifeboat for the first time last year... , posted on August 1, 2020 at 08:47:21
TWB
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 Some great performances in that film as well... Other Hitchcock films that I have yet to see are Notorious and Strangers On A Train...

 

The Birds, posted on July 31, 2020 at 16:07:36
mbnx01
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 Rod Taylor. Tippi Hedren. Suzanne Pleshette. The closet Hitchcock ever came to science fiction.




'A lie is halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on'. -Mark Twain

 

RE: The Birds, same , posted on July 31, 2020 at 23:05:26
grantv
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 But likely 1 of 2 reasons
-IIRC it's the only Hitchcock movie I've seen
-Suzanne Pleshette

 

Vertigo, posted on July 31, 2020 at 11:26:55
Chris from Lafayette
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 I was in high school when I first saw it - maybe it produced its overwhelming effect on me because I was at that impressionable age.

I even ended up marrying a girl named Madeline. Coincidence? I think not! ;-)

 

Yep, one of my favorites too, if not my very favorite. -NT, posted on August 19, 2020 at 16:38:39
Raiderman
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My gripe about "Vertigo?" Jimmy Stewart's , posted on August 6, 2020 at 06:35:30
tinear
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 hairpiece. I just couldn't fathom a guy who looked that old with Kim Novak. Looks like her grandfather, for goodness's sake.

 

Yeah, but the guy she was "married" to at the start of the movie (the Gavin Elster character). . . , posted on August 6, 2020 at 11:23:46
Chris from Lafayette
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 . . . looked just as old. Maybe she just liked older men! ;-)

In any case, I think that the "May-December" romance was more common back then.

 

RE: Yeah, but the guy she was "married" to at the start of the movie (the Gavin Elster character). . . , posted on August 8, 2020 at 23:59:47
Bill the K
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 The heroes of those days were mostly old! The French man Maurice Chevalier in Gigi was the ultimate. And Gregory Peck with Audrey Hepburn. Rock Hudson with Kim Novak, Spencer Tracy, old Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart. And some of them even spoke like very old men.

Bill

 

Nah, it's still going strong. Look at the WH! That's actually more like, posted on August 8, 2020 at 16:40:34
tinear
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 March-Dec 31st, midnight...

 

Hey Chris.... You might find this interview..., posted on August 3, 2020 at 20:35:52
TWB
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 with Kim Novak and Robert Osborne interesting... just about 5 years ago...

 

TWB - Thanks so much!, posted on August 4, 2020 at 10:23:39
Chris from Lafayette
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 I just sampled the first five minutes. I hadn't seen it before and I can tell already that this is something that Ms. CfL will be interested in too - I'll watch it with her tonight! Thanks again!

 

No problem! (nt), posted on August 4, 2020 at 11:42:03
TWB
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 NT

 

Interesting trivia about Vertigo...the critics at the time didn't..., posted on July 31, 2020 at 13:12:36
TWB
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 like it much and even panned it.. Hitchcock apparently blamed Stewart and Novak for it saying Novak was too "wooden" and Stewart too old to play the part...LOL.. HE cast them for God sakes! Vera Miles had been slated to play Madeline / Judy but got pregnant before shooting began. Hitchcock was so disgusted with the reviews that he never worked with Stewart again in spite of their past few films together. Through the years though and in retrospect Vertigo has gained alot of respect and even sometimes has replaced Citizen Kane (I've NEVER though much of it) on film lists as the greatest film of all time! When I was a teenager in the late 60's, I saw Picnic for the very first time and fell in love with the beautiful Ms. Novak... Picnic, Vertigo and Pal Joey are 3 of my absolute favorite films! Unfortunately, she didn't age well and had some bad plastic surgery done through the years...That's funny about your wife... does she have blonde hair and look like Madeline / Novak?

 

Same here, posted on August 1, 2020 at 05:20:57
Bill the K
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 Same thing happened to me too. I saw Picnic and fell in love with Kim Novac the moment I watched her dance. I liked Vertigo because of her the first time but the next two times the mystery was solved more clearly. I still love that movie. Saw Picnic again recently to watch the dance scene! It is a great scene not just for a teenager but to a guy who has seem many a dance.

Bill

 

So many great actors / performances in Picnic....., posted on August 1, 2020 at 07:27:25
TWB
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 Especially Rosalind Russell... I was a Theater Arts major in college and was lucky enough to play the part of Alan on stage. That movie made such an impression on me, that I used Moonglow at my wedding for our first dance....

 

RE: So many great actors / performances in Picnic....., posted on August 1, 2020 at 22:09:12
Bill the K
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 Thank You TWB for that great nostalgic trip.

Bill

 

Nope, she's a redhead, posted on August 1, 2020 at 00:52:10
Chris from Lafayette
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 But she's a big fan of Vertigo too! ;-) And, actually, I think the spelling of the name in the movie is Madeleine. I tried to get her to change the spelling of her name to match that in the movie, but she wouldn't go for it. And I tried to get her to change her hair color too, but she wouldn't go for that either. (Just kidding!)

(Her favorite Hitchcock film is N x NW!)

BTW, I didn't realize that Hitch had turned on Novak and Stewart. Geez, if he was turning on Novak like that, where does that leave Tippi Hedren? ;-)

 

"Nope, she's a redhead"... My wife too!...., posted on August 1, 2020 at 07:08:16
TWB
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 LOL... Though not natural... Funny thing though my son has red hair and both my Mother and late Mother-in-law have/had red hair... Poor Tippi Hedren! Hitch most definitely had a fixation on blondes... I have NEVER understood the appeal though of Tippi Hedren and Grace Kelly, neither of them were very good actresses IMO... Talk about wooden!

 

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