The Hitchcock Poll

... which isn't in this poll, unsurprisingly

I feel like waiting until Redacted comes out to to my inevitable Brian De Palma poll.

Strangers On A Train, which has his least ridiculous plot

That's not true. All his plots are "ridiculous."

But "crackling" is a good word for the dialogue, for sure.

'Strangers...'

god it rocks so hard.

All plots are ridiculous.

The thing about Strangers is that it might be his MOST ridiculous movie... the end scene of the merry go round? Come on, that's just silliness. But it's great.

But Strangers... does the wrong-man anxiety with greater ease than North By Northwest and, er, The Wrong Man (or earlier films like Foreign Correspondent and The 39 Steps). By tapping into the horror of the most banal circumstance -- how talking to a creepy stranger who buys you an expensive lunch and won't leave you alone -- he comes closest to defining what life must be like in a police-state.

like douglas sirk, he worked in hollywood most of the the time, so he had to fit to the genres rules, but he liked it probably, and it made his films as great and popular as they are.

*talking to a creepy stranger who buys you an expensive lunch and won't leave you alone can lead to the most absurd mix-up.

*and is gay

i voted for notorious (=most perfect hollywood movie ever), but vertigo is the best.

too many defensible candidates to make a rational choice, so i went with most fun. (i.e. north by northwest)

(strangers on a train and vertigo are probably the MOST defensible, but really there's an embarrassment of options.)

i voted for notorious (=most perfect hollywood movie ever), but vertigo is the best.

this is correct!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The Birds is actually ABOUT THE HUMAN CHARACTERS, shhhhhh

Too hard. My brain is exploding.

nbnw

I wonder if anyone alive has seen The Pleasure Garden.

It's great, dour and with surprising gravitas.

Hm. The Wrong Man I found pretty good, certainly dour, and with a disappointing ending title card. Not that I wish harm on the woman, but that card took the air out of the scene before it. But it was very pretty and had Henry Fonda.

The end card is the most obvious Studio Imposition ever, and so I just pretend it isn't there.

(oh - maybe 2d most-obv to the framing scenes of Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers)

Strangers On A Train for me. The first Hitchcock film I ever saw and still my favourite.

I saw Torn Curtain one afternoon years ago, I think I was home from school "ill". I remember being surprised at how violent it was. For a film on at 2 in the afternoon, anyway.

Dr Morbius - what are your favorites?

birds foreva

rope and vertigo are my favorites

Too many to name, but I make a habit of Vertigo, Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, Frenzy, Psycho, North by Northwest, the second Man Who Knew Too Much, Birds, Marnie, 39 Steps, Lady Vanishes, Sabotage, Foreign Correspondent. (Few duds aside from Topaz and Torn Curtain.)

and let's not forget "Lamb to the Slaughter."

Wow. I totally managed to block that card. Doesn't really change my view on Hitch's filmmaking control, but ... yeah.

and let's not forget "Lamb to the Slaughter."

Or "One More Mile To Go" (aka "Test Run For First Reel Of Psycho")

"39 Steps". I think. Far too difficult to choose tho.

(Few duds aside from Topaz and Torn Curtain.)

mr. and mrs. smith also

I liked Torn Curtain. The bus! Topaz was a bit of a flop. I don't think I've seen anything before 39 Steps.

Oooh watch Blackmail and the original The Man Who Knew Too Much. Both are quite qorthwhile.

Yeah, those seem to be the two that everyone mentions. I will when I can! What about all the others, though?

Oh, and The Lodger I hear talk about. The others, never.

the late sixties films are pretty grim.

Most underrated Hitch: Foreign Correspondent (I'll give you one guess as to why I love it).

the late sixties films are one film

Topaz (... and Torn Curtain)

Frenzy is great though. Pity Family Plot is such junk.

suspicion is the most underrated one.

ok that's very strange. I left out Topaz from the list. Totally my bad, sorry poll. If someone was actually going to vote for it, we can void the poll. :(

Because otherwise, you know, this poll would be official and go on our permanent record.

Family Plot is fun! if you like Barbara Harris.

I like Barbara Harris

I voted for Rope.

Family Plot is fun! if you like Barbara Harris.

Don't forget Bruce Dern!

For my money, it's Family Plot, not Frenzy, that is the best of his pretty awkward final stretch.

Perhaps this is the time to once again ask this question.

Years ago, I read/heard someone relate the following (paraphrased) anecdote:

"I was in the street with Hitchcock one day when a beautiful, well-dressed young woman walked by. After she passed, he turned to me and whispered: 'Wouldn't you just love to smear shit in her face?'"

I think it was told to illustrate something of Hitchcock's approach to his film's leading ladies.

I have never been able to find any subsequent confirmation of this story, though I have just remembered that it prompted a thread of mine on ILM.

"Actors should be treated like cattle. Women should be treated like toilets."

enough with the scurrilous hearsay, off to Cabin #1 with you

queer overtones and the awful acting

one and the same! the stagey, melodramatic closet panic* is a delight. Hitch never did realism anyway, so why not lean into the artificiality of this gimmicky stage adap.

the confident / nervy dynamic reads great, depending on the audience, as wasp-passing / ethnic, butch / soft, or - yeah, for kids (my first Hitchcock) - the common imbalance in immature friendships (esp if $ / class involved)

* and extra fun that for 1948 their entire circle seems to be entirely accepting of them as a pair, but Granger is terrified of being outed

Yeah, there’s nothing *to* the film really, but like actually great Hitches, it plays differently each time if you rewatch it once a decade.

I agree the artificiality works, almost anticipating Sirk's Universal work by a few years. And my first Hitchcock too.

I finished my first watch of The Birds a few nights back. About 2/3 of the way through when the chaos ensues I was onboard but I was surprised to see it just limp along after that.

i'm watching Rope for the first time and it's a great high school play so far. john dall is fantastic.

update?

greatest gay single shot movie? stewart just seems adrift for this one. those opening 10 minutes should be taught in acting schools.

Maybe it's because I'm trying to quit smoking and have a short fuse, maybe it's because I was utterly exhausted, maybe it was because I was watching a noisy old print that sounded like an industrial grain mill was running at all times even during quiet moments, but I tried with Family Plot last night but just found it to be utter crap.

There were long stretches of meandering, pointless shots, more than one scene where the boom mic is hanging down into the top of the frame, abysmal performances (only redeemable in a "so bad it's hilarious" sort of way), it all amounted to a general impression of somebody who couldn't be bothered to put together a presentable film, as if he had been too tired or otherwise incapable, and had approached each seen with an attitude of "That will have to be good enough." First Hitchcock I've not liked.

Like, a movie with this kind of zany plot should move along at a brisk pace, but there was this palpable sense of just kind of standing around kicking rocks and waiting for the next thing to happen which really enervated me and caused something which should have been a fun and sardonic jaunt into a fuuuuuucking slog

Not sure I really love anything past Psycho. I guess I like Birds a lot less than most - along with Marnie I think it's good but not great. And then beyond that it's rapidly diminishing returns.

I tried to give Spellbound another shot this morning, but nope--still sucks. A few nice touches--I like the incriminating letter being shuffled between the unsuspecting doctor's feet, and I guess the Dali stuff is cool--but Hitch is up against a truly awful psychobabble script. I see this somehow got one vote in the poll; who actually likes this thing?

interesting that Lifeboat got not a single vote... I think that's a pretty strong, eh, 'chamber piece.' I read somewhere that 'The Breakfast Club' was at least partially inspired by this film

when Gregory Peck tries to project malaise, he looks like his colon's processing a tuna salad sandwich.

that's not fair

To the tuna salad sandwich?

what about 'On the Beach'? He looked very concerned for the fate of humanity

Peck had a hell of voice and knew how to use it. He also had a face, but facial expressiveness wasn't his long suit.

He's my least favorite of the post-1945 male stars.

There are days where Sabotage could be my fave Hitch. At the very least, it's the North by Northwest of his British films--exhilaratingly funny and suspenseful, a distillation of the director's talents and obsessions. According to Kael's review, Hitch was dissatisfied with it, perhaps due to its chilly public reception. Did killing the kid (and a puppy!) turn audiences off that much?

The best onscreen Conrad if you discount Apocalypse Now.

How many others are there? There was movie called Victory I seem to recall, but it turned out to be a false friend.

I like Apocalypse Now, sure, but Sabotage is better. Haven't read The Secret Agent, though.

Quite a few. Carol Reed's An Outcast of Islands, Lord Jim with Peter O'Toole. And Chantal Akerman's Almayer's Folly

Alfred otm about Peck upthread.

Yeah

He's well-cast in Twelve O'Clock High. And he has a chiseled cigar-store-Indian formal beauty in The Valley of Decision, which TCM has inexplicably broadcast a lot this year.

I like Peck in The Gunfighter.

yeah, that one too