Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock’s first sound picture. A Scotland Yard constable covers for his girlfriend after realizing she’s implicated in a murder. The two then fall afoul of a blackmailer. Hitchcock shot this silent then added the sound scenes later and it shows, but his formal mastery is still amazing. Love the rack focus reflection shot in the opening sequence.

An unengaging adaptation of Seán O’Casey’s play about a poor Dublin family undone by an unexpected windfall during the Irish Civil War. Hitchcock limits his formal rigor to constructing long takes which—combined with the monologue-heavy script—give the sense of watching a filmed stage performance. The film even drops O’Casey’s final gut-punch scene. Often ignored in Hitchcock’s oeuvre for good reason.

Hitchcock’s third sound picture. Herbert Marshall plays Sir John, a noted stage actor serving on the jury weighing the case of a young actress accused of murder. The case appears open-and-shut, but Sir John has doubts. After ceding to peer pressure and voting guilty, his conscience compels him to launch his own investigation.

Gwenn plays Hornblower, the ambitious and somewhat unscrupulous head of a new-moneyed family. His expanding factory empire puts him at odds with the Hillcrists, an old-moneyed family. The Hillcrists find themselves powerless until they discover a secret about Hornblower’s daughter-in-law.

Lesser-known Hitchcock entry sees a sedate married couple gifted an unexpected windfall. They tour the world but find romance with others along the way. It’s a tired trope—give the lower class money and they’ll find misery. Hitchcock seems less interested in the story than in the formal devices he can employ to tell it. The opening plays like a silent film, and the trend continues throughout with title cards and broad performances. Much of the comedy falls flat, save a third-act gag involving the couple devouring a much-needed meal before discovering its origins. Chalk this up as a failed experiment best forgotten.

A detective and a hobo cross paths with jewel thieves over a stolen necklace in a creepy old house.

After a dying man provides them with mysterious information, a vacationing British couple (Leslie Banks and Edna Best) discovers their daughter has been kidnapped.

Wanted for a murder he didn’t commit, a man (Robert Donat) investigates a spy ring in order to clear his name.

A London woman (Sylvia Sidney) discovers that her husband (Oskar Homolka) is part of a ring of saboteurs.

A constable’s daughter (Nova Pilbeam) aids a man (Derrick De Marney) who’s on the run after being convicted of murdering an actress.

A young socialite (Margaret Lockwood) tries to prove an elderly governess was actually on a train.

In early 19th century England, a young woman (Maureen O’Hara) comes to live with her uncle, whom she soon discovers is in league with a group of criminals who raid ships they lure to wreck on the nearby coast.

After marrying a rich widower (Laurence Olivier), a timid young woman (Joan Fontaine) grapples with intrusive reminders of his dead wife.

An American reporter (Joel McCrea) stationed in Europe uncovers a conspiracy on the eve of World War II.

A bickering New York couple (Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery) learns from a lawyer that, due to a technicality, they’re not actually married.

An heiress (Joan Fontaine) suspects her new husband (Cary Grant) may be plotting to kill her.

A man (Robert Cummings) on the run and facing charges of sabotage enlists a young woman (Priscilla Lane) to help him uncover the true culprits.

A young woman (Teresa Wright) begins to suspect that her visiting uncle (Joseph Cotten) may be a serial killer.

During World War II, several American and British survivors of a torpedoed passenger ship find themselves adrift in a lifeboat with a German prisoner.

A psychiatrist (Ingrid Bergman) goes on the run with her amnesiac patient (Gregory Peck) after he’s accused of murder.

A Government agent (Cary Grant) recruits a traitor’s daughter (Ingrid Bergman) to spy on a Nazi (Claude Rains) in Rio de Janeiro.

A married barrister (Gregory Peck) defends a beautiful woman on trial for killing her rich husband.

Two well-off young men (John Dall and Farley Granger) kill an acquaintance for the thrill, then throw a party and serve drinks off the trunk containing the corpse.

In 1831 Australia, ex-convict turned wealthy and powerful businessman Sam Flusky, played by Cotten, befriends fresh-off-the-boat and looking to make his fortune Charles Adare, played by Wilding. Wilding soon falls for Cotten’s alcoholic wife, played by Bergman, and sets about rebuilding her self-esteem. But the Flusky house has secrets that, when revealed, cast a new light on everything.

Stage Fright is a middle-of-the-road thriller from director Alfred Hitchcock that lacks both energy and engagement.

A tennis star (Farley Granger) meets a man (Robert Walker) on a train who innocuously proposes that they could each murder someone the other would like to have out of the way.

A priest (Montgomery Clift) refuses to divulge information he heard in confession, leading to a police inspector (Karl Malden) charging him with a murder he didn’t commit.

Hitchcock’s utterly engrossing thriller puts us in a sweltering apartment with Stewart, a daredevil photojournalist stuck in a wheelchair nursing a broken leg. We share in his guilty pleasure as he watches his neighbors through a telephoto lens, but what starts as a pastime quickly turns to obsession as we begin to suspect one of the neighbors of murder.

A retired cat burglar (Cary Grant) finds himself the prime suspect after a rash of copycat thefts.

The Trouble with Harry is a wonderful black comedy from director Alfred Hitchcock.

James Stewart and Doris Day play a married couple who find their son kidnapped to keep them quiet after they unwittingly learn of an assassination plot.

In director Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal mystery, James Stewart plays John “Scottie” Ferguson, a former San Francisco detective who left the force feeling that his latent acrophobia played a part in the death of a fellow officer.

A New York advertising executive (Cary Grant) finds himself in a world of peril after being mistaken for a government agent and accused of murder.

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.

Residents of a northern California coastal town find themselves the targets of increasingly vicious attacks by an ever-growing number of birds.

A rich businessman (Sean Connery) becomes interested in a serial thief (Tippi Hedren) in his employ.

A US rocket scientist (Paul Newman) defects to East Germany, only to discover his fiancé/assistant (Julie Andrews) has followed him, unaware that his defection is a ploy to gain access to a top German mind.

A French intelligence agent (Frederick Stafford) helps a CIA officer (John Forsythe) uncover Soviet activity in 1962 Cuba.

In London, a man (Jon Finch) finds himself suspected of being a serial killer who strangles his victims with a necktie.

A phony psychic (Barbara Harris) and her boyfriend (Bruce Dern) cross paths with a pair of jewel thieves (William Devane and Karen Black).