re: Best Alfred Hitchcock movie

Hitchcock made a movie about birds scary with 1960's technology. That's impressive.

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Rope

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This.

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Judging from this thread so far his most underrated film has to be Strangers On A Train.

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oh yeah, the Danny Devito movie.

Fortunately, too many great films to choose from.

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Judging from this thread so far his most underrated film has to be Strangers On A Train.

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Strangers on a Train is excellent.

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stiff, setbound chatfest about two homos -- what am I missing?

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It's a technical marvel, as it is all "one take" with cuts only when the cameras ran out of film. The blocking alone is impressive. But also, what they chat about is quite interesting, as its essentially an argument against fascism. It's interesting to see a philosophy professor see his ideas in action. And the man in the box provides real tension, all move long.


That said, it's second tier Hitchcock. I'd go Vertigo, North by Northwest, then Rear Window. If it makes you feel better, the gay man is the villain in NxNW.

Rope's single-take is a technical marvel the world didn't need or want, as illustrated by its dearth of imitators.

Jimmy Stewart is totally miscast in the mentor role that needed the decadence of a Charles Laughton or Clifton Webb (in the play the character is a flamboyant Noel Coward type -- I've never read this anywhere, but the stage role may in fact have been intended for Coward, then the golden boy of the London theatre). Even Orson Welles would have been acceptable.

Cedric Hardwicke and Constance Collier are wasted as the older couple, and Farley Granger is his usual clumsy self as the submissive "Leopold". Only John Dall, as the over-the-top dom "Loeb", comes out of the film with acting honors.

FWIW even screenwriter Arthur Laurents thought Hitch fricked up by showing the murder, instead of letting the audience be in suspense.

IMHO Sleuth (the first one!) is a much more entertaining variation on the cat and mouse theme, with far wittier dialogue and direction that at least doesn't take you out of the story. Hell even the straight docudrama Compulsion is a more interesting version of the Leopold and Loeb case, with a much better Leopold in Dean Stockwell. There Welles does play the authority figure.

Psycho is the most culturally significant by far, accompanied by volumes of film lore and the disturbing real story on which it's based (far more disturbing, IMO), but Rear Window is a sublime comment on basic human frailty and Vertigo is a brilliant mechanism for having a character experience the exact same trauma, twice. Those two are my favorites.

I'm surprised so many like Strangers on a Train.

Thought it was quite meh.

And Rebecca was completely carried by the Joan Fontaine. Who was really really great.

Olivier mailed it in. (I swear, it felt like he was reading his lines from a teleprompter.)

If it wasn't for Fointaine's performance, I would have turned it off...she was the plot and passion and interest.

Nothing special about the directing.

Can't add much that hasn't already been said.

Vertigo may be the best, but Rear Window is probably my favorite.