Reviews of movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Tuesday, August 12th 2008
Grade: A-
Synopsis: In London, a man (Jon Finch) finds himself suspected of being a serial killer who strangles his victims with a necktie.
Frenzy was famed director Alfred Hitchcock’s penultimate film, and it’s one of his best.
The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, who would go on to write Sleuth (1972) and The Wicker Man (1973) is a taunt mix of thrills and black humor, and the perfect material for Hitchcock who, in keeping with the script’s darker tone eschews the gloss and polish that permeated his earlier thrillers such as Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959), and instead turns in a gritty, urban shocker. MORE »
Posted at 4:11 PM in Movie Reviews and Alfred Hitchcock.
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Thursday, July 31st 2008
Grade: B+
Synopsis: A group of rural Vermonters (Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Mildred Natwick, and Shirley MacLaine) finds their lives complicated by a corpse.
The Trouble with Harry is a wonderful black comedy from director Alfred Hitchcock.
Eschewing the star-driven approach, Hitchcock instead works with an ensemble cast that absolutely shines. The humor here derives from the juxtaposition of the prim and proper 1950’s rural New Englanders and their matter-of-fact approach to disposing of a corpse. It’s a problem to be dealt with, a large inconvenience, not a horrifying dead body. None of them gives more than a passing thought to the ethics of burying someone they think they, or a friend of theirs, might have killed. It’s sharp, well played, and serves as a great satire of 1950’s culture. MORE »
Posted at 2:57 PM in Movie Reviews and Alfred Hitchcock.
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Wednesday, July 30th 2008
Grade: C
Synopsis: After unwittingly learning of an assassination plot, an American couple (James Stewart and Doris Day) discover their son has been kidnapped.
The Man Who Knew Too Much is director Alfred Hitchcock’s remake of his 1934 film of the same name. Unfortunately, while this update addresses the original’s biggest shortcoming, it also lacks its greatest strength.
The most glaring problem with the first film was the lack of characterization and screen presence for the two leads. This time around, the script does a great job establishing the characters before thrusting them into the action, and James Stewart and Doris Day both pack considerable star power. Thus, we really feel for them when their world is turned upside down, much more so than in the original, which barely gave us time to register the emotional impact of the film’s events. MORE »
Posted at 11:28 AM in Movie Reviews, Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart.
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Tuesday, July 29th 2008
Grade: B
Synopsis: Residents of a northern California coastal town find themselves the targets of increasingly vicious attacks by an ever-growing number of birds.
The Birds really shouldn’t work. The premise—small town attacked by birds—is laughable, and the lead actress had little more than a diet-cola commercial to her credit, yet director Alfred Hitchcock pulls it off, delivering what’s essentially a zombie movie with birds instead of undead.
Granted, The Birds isn’t perfect. Despite receiving only fourth billing, Tippi Hedren is the real lead and while she’s good during the film’s early goings, which call for a rather limited range, she’s frustrating and inadvertently laughable during her big dramatic moment toward the film’s finale. Some of this is due to the script, which has her suddenly acting like a helpless idiot, but a large part of the problem is that Hedren simply doesn’t have the range. MORE »
Posted at 1:49 PM in Movie Reviews and Alfred Hitchcock.
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Monday, July 28th 2008
Grade: B+
Synopsis: A young woman (Janet Leigh), on the run after stealing a large sum of money from her employer, makes a fateful stop at the Bates Motel.
Psycho, for better or worse, ushered in the modern horror film. The monster wasn’t easily dismissed as supernatural, easily recognized as Karloff in make-up or Lugosi in a cape; no, in Psycho the monster was the quiet boy next door, who never harmed a fly.
Anthony Perkins is terrific, managing to be both boyishly charming and sinister at the same time. His performance ranks as one of the screen’s best villains, and set the standard for many knock-off’s to come. MORE »
Posted at 5:33 PM in Movie Reviews and Alfred Hitchcock.
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