Which movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock are a must watch?

Ellen Vrana

 · 

Follow

Writer

Which movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock are a must watch?

I love Hitchcock. He studies humans and meditates on their fears and weaknesses.

The following are films I think best exemplify Hitchcock style (not necessarily the best movies) but ones you have to watch to understand him and what he contributed to cinema.

But before that, a couple things everyone should know about Hitch.

1. Hitchcock made psychological thrillers – He was brought up in a strict Catholic household and developed an acute understanding of psychology. His movies are about guilt, repression, torment, voyeurism, obsession and phobias. He started and defined the genre, his touch is evident in any psych thriller.
   
2. Place is a character in his films – Bates Motel in Psycho, upper east –side apartment in Rope, French Riviera in To Catch a Thief and above all Manderley in Rebecca and the apartment yard in Rear Window. There are a few exceptions but he chose locations that emitted a strong atmosphere, even personas. The place adds further torment to the main characters.
   
3. He has a thing for beautiful blonds. Many people call him a misogynist. I don’t think he was (at least not in his films). While he didn’t give much personality to the women (many got around that by exceptional acting) he used them as a foil to the male leads, a trigger by which the male’s psychological issues became disrupted and thus unhinged. Vertigo is entirely based on this concept.
   
4. There are many specific “Hitchcock” shots – faces where only the eyes are in the light, corridor shots, a glance at clouds to suggest presence or lack of god, small spaces to suggest claustrophobia, shadows to suggest unknown, lurking fears, colors to express emotions.
   
5. Mistaken identity - such a common theme it should be called out specifically. Vertigo, North by Northwest, The Wrong Man, The Man who Knew Too Much. Represents people not knowing themselves, or each other, also multi-dimensions of our personas. (Thanks to User-10422661843842383882 for reminding me of this).

Ok, so the Hitchcock movies I think best exemplify these aspects are:

REBECCA (1940) Lawrence Olivier, Joan Fontaine

The most amazing thing about this movie is that the strongest characters are not even characters. “Rebecca” is the dead ex-wife of Olivier’s character, a British aristocrat, and Mandeley is his sprawling, creepy house on the Cornish coast. They are the center of the story.

Rebecca was made before Hitchcock came to the U.S. so it’s more subtle (and less ambitious) than most of his films. And yet it completely succeeds in making the viewer feel as trapped and fearful as the main character (Fontaine) is. It also demonstrates the power of black and white film.

Be warned, the ending is a little meh though.

I, CONFESS (1953) Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden

Classic Hitchcock corridor and shadow still showing the killer dressed up as a priest.

This is not a perfect movie, but I think it’s the most personal film Hitchcock made. It’s about a priest who hears a confession from a murderer but, bound by his principles, cannot tell anyone. Even when it comes out that the murderer had dressed up as a priest when he committed the murder and now the real priest is wanted, he still cannot tell. (A good/evil dichotomy).

This was personal because of Hitchcock's true belief in what the priest chose to do and the complications that come with it. The film also contains some of the best Hitchcock symbolism and imagery through fantastic cinematography.

Monty Clift delivers a brilliant performance as the priest; a sad serendipity that this role echoes the silence he kept in his own life hiding his homosexuality. Hitchcock originally wanted Cary Grant, it would have ruined the movie.

Excellent shot of Clift in the courtroom, his god above him at all times.

VERTIGO (1958) James Stewart, Kim Novak

For my money, Vertigo is most Hitchcock of all Hitchcock films (Rear Window is second). Hitchcock goes all out with psychological terror; in the acting, the story, the scenes, the symbolism. Everything he put in previous movies culminates here (plus a dash of 1960’s psychedelic).

Stewart plays a former cop who quit due to his fault in the death of his partner, he become obsessed with a woman. But the film is really about his fears and guilt and how he develops this obsession rather than deal with them. Novak is fantastic, she tricks you into thinking she’s just a mark, but then surprises as a multi-dimensional character.

Excellent, bold use of color as symbolism.

In this shot, green from a Hotel sign floods the room and lights up Novak, contextualizing the obsession and jealousy Stewart feels.

Movies to skip

The Lady Vanishes (1938) – One of his early films before he started working in America. Great story but it felt weakly strung together, very camp. Featured Michael Redgrave, patriarch of the Redgrave acting dynasty.

The Paradine Case (1947)– I love Gregory Peck but the whole movie depends on him convincing us that he was obsessed with a women who was not his wife and I think he fell short.

Rope (1948) – Horrible acting. First movie in color, which actually really took away from the film.

*I’ve never seen The Birds, Topaz or some of Hitchcock's more obscure films.