The Hitchcock Poll

I liked The Lady Vanishes a lot when I saw it three or four years ago for the first time. Struck me as superior to a few of his more acclaimed American films.

i think there was a cliche about his 30s Brit flicks being his best work but i think it's a reasonable case to make

Rope = dope.

I didn't know about the 15-movie Blu Ray set!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91tuY8UKEnL._AA1500_.jpg

a vote for the lodger! saw it today, pretty funny. killer had an oedipus map, then it turns out he's misunderstood and crucified on a fence. shots of murdered women, only their faces.... amazing to watch silent film do all of this. the father (arthur chesney) is amazing.

The Trouble With Harry is so good. Edmund Gwenn is so beautiful he makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time.

I saw it a few years back and it just didn't work for me. The sweet, idyllic setting and the dark comedy were such a jarring match that I don't think that the film ever found a proper tone. I dunno. One to revisit when I have the time, perhaps.

Showed Rear Window to a class last week, which was a lot of fun. I heard a bit of condescending laughter during the early parts of the film (at Wendell Corey's misogyny, for the most part) but a good number of the students had gotten pretty jumpy by the time Burr showed up to Stewart's apartment.

I just watched The Lady Vanishes and despite its many silly aspects, it somehow adds up to an entertaining movie. It's a script that is neither fish nor fowl, trying at once to be a political drama, slapstick comedy, romcom and thriller. How Hitchcock managed to make that heap of ill-assorted oddments into a watchable movie is a small miracle.

political drama? that's just Macguffin hooey.

most of Hitch's pre-WWII movies basically take place in Ruritania

quite a few of the post-WWII come to think of it

I'm not a huge Vertigo fan either. I admire it, in a detached way, but would much rather watch at least four or five others from the list above--not to mention Citizen Kane, which Vertigo may finally overtake in 2012's Sight and Sound poll.

― clemenza, Friday, July 16, 2010 9:19 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

This may have been discussed in some other thread. But yeah, this did happen!

"Admire it in a detached way" is totally how I've always felt about Vertigo too, despite watching it once every 10 or so years since first seeing it as a Hitchcock-loving teen just to check and see if I've grown into it yet. Kane is way better, as are a ridiculous number of other Hitchcock films.

Okay, who was the joker who voted for The Mountain Eagle?

when did you guys have your hearts detached?

I only saw Citizen Kane and Vertigo for the first time within the past 6 weeks. I prefer Vertigo by a decent margin, enough that it whet my need for 5 or 6 more Hitchcock movies. Besides Vertigo, I probably enjoyed Frenzy and North By Northwest the most. I may give Notorious another shot, but I found it kinda boring.

xps

The old lady as a spy was Macguffin hooey, but portraying the philandering barrister as a coward who is killed by the nefarious central Europeans, even as he waves his white flag of surrender, was trying to put across a serious political message. And the character of the 'enemy' neurologist who is a smooth, calm, reassuring, sophisticated intellectual, a two-faced liar, and cold-blooded murderer, was also designedly nuanced propaganda.

why did i wait 3 decades plus to see Notorious?? amazing bit of work; such an insane balance of different moods, sorta feels like 3 different films are going on at once. incredible camera work. the Mum might give me nightmares.

Watched Rear Window with the kids, and it was neat to see a thriller operate the way it was designed to operate, as a nail-biter for a more innocent, less cynical audience, one that hides their eyes during the suspense scenes. Started NXNW with them, too, but I think it was just a little too fast and manic. They kept asking what was going on, and I was split between explaining it and telling them that none of it really matters.

It won't mean anything to anyone who hasn't seen the film, but one of my fave Criterion covers:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/release_boxshots/773-36fcbdf38c655b58c01d3f19ac34b16d/137_box_348x490_original.jpg

no better thriller scene than that one imo. few bigger oh shits than when you see she sees they see she sees.

No room, Sebastian.

also: Sebastian, the Hitch fink most deserving of pity?

and a nazi no less!

the way he often remarks on Devlin's looks makes me wonder if HE's got the hots for Dev and is worried Alicia will catch on.

IMO, subject to change at a moment's notice:

best of the best of the best
Notorious
Psycho
Rear Window
Shadow of a Doubt

next best of the best
North by Northwest
Rope
Vertigo

by anyone else, a masterpiece
The 39 Steps
Blackmail
Dial "M" for Murder
Family Plot
The Lady Vanishes
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Sabotage
Suspicion

flawed but great
The Birds
Frenzy
I Confess
Lifeboat
The Lodger
Rebecca
The Ring
Stage Fright
Strangers on a Train
The Trouble with Harry
To Catch a Thief
The Wrong Man
Young and Innocent

good
Foreign Correspondent
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Marnie (sorry, auteurists!)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Murder!
Rich and Strange
Secret Agent
Spellboard
Under Capricorn

hmmm...
Jamaica Inn
The Manxman
Saboteur
Torn Curtain

not good
Topaz (oof)

haven't seen… all the others

Rear Window really is the best of the best of the best. On that, everyone can agree.

Family Plot is a better film than Frenzy?

I have a creeping affection for the creepy Under Capricorn.

And I am about to rewatch The Secret Agent with Gielgud and Lorre. Ta!

now rank his directed TV episodes. "Lamb to the Slaughter" and "The Crystal Trench" come to mind.

those are good

i can't quite figure out why "breakdown" seems the hip hitchcock TV episode to cite these days. it's effectively disturbing but kind of crude.

speaking of crude, "bang! you're dead" is a fun one

"Lamb to the Slaughter" I read in high school sophomore English.

I forgot how garrulous and moldy Dial M For Murder is. It would have taken a stronger actor than Ray Milland and his terrible accent to redeem this stagebound material. Talk, talk, talk.

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Talk_Talk

spatially it's quite nice

(dont think ive ever watched in 2D)

yes the negotiations of space among Milland, the police inspector and Cummings in that apartment is shrewd in its way.

also like the conceit that it's a sequel to Strangers on a Train

I kept thinking what would Preminger have done with this material and remembered Bunny Lake is Missing.

Just rewatced Dial M for Murder for the first time since high school. Not a great Hitch, but maybe a pretty good episode of Columbo. Why this was his foray into 3D is puzzling, though, given how this may be one of his least visually dazzling films.

the use of the 3D is kinda the point and i can't really name a 3D film i prefer.

I wonder if the final title card for The Wrong Man was forced upon Hitchcock (or if it was even possible to force something on Hitchcock in 1957). It's jarringly false, although the film is allegedly based on a true story, so maybe that's what actually happened. Anyway, take that title card away, and wow, what a depressing ending (admirably so). Reminded me in an odd way of Carrie's ending. Fascinating as a '50s film: one anonymous man in a gray flannel suit has his life turned upside down by another man in a gray flannel suit, wife understands the pointless of it all and sinks into clinical melancholy.

I recognized Werner Klemperer, but had no idea that was Tuesday Weld and Bonnie Franklin as the girls, and Harry Dean Stanton I completely missed.

Notorious really is his best.

I love any Hitchcock poll that doesn't put Vertigo on top.

who gives a fuck what's best? Vertigo is great, so is Notorious, Rear Window etc. Enjoy.

Ingrid is put through some p kinky stuff in the overly maligned Under Capricorn.

I have it in queue at the public library (it's been checked out for two weeks, funnily enough).

xp Counterpoint: Topaz is not great. But Frenzy is.

who gives a fuck what's best? Vertigo is great, so is Notorious, Rear Window etc. Enjoy.

This. Dude has at least six or seven hard-red masterpieces. I don't care if you prefer one over the other. Just prefer a few of them and we're good.

I wanted to like Stage Fright a lot (Jane Wyman is great) but man, what a mess. Or just confusing? I do have the urge to watch it again - at some point - unlike the bottom 5 or 6 of the 32 Hitchcock movies I've seen.