re: Hitchcock advice (his best films)

I wish I hadn't seen Hitchcock movies before! I've seen some of them over 10 times. Wait for a rainy dreary day and night and have a marathon. That's what I did when I first started watching them. I'd only seen The Birds and probaby Rebecca. I spent a rainy cold weekend watching one Hitchcock after another and it was heaven.

I'd definitely add Marnie, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Notorious, The Trouble with Harry and Rebecca. Rebecca-I've seen that one so many times I can't count them.

I might have to order those collections, too.

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Notorious is sorely underrated, as in, it migh be his most complete film front to back.

Strangers on a Train is creepy and fun. Saboteurs, if you can get a copy, is quite awesome.

Also, THe 39 Steps and The Trouble With Harry are both worth a watch.

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Unsurprisingly, I agree with Freaux. Notorious and Suspicion are probably the two most underrated Hitchcocks, and have Cary Grant at his ever lovin' best. Both rarely get mentioned as his best movie, which is a shame. I think you could make a case for either.

And you need to see A Trouble With Harry because it gets at something a lot of people now miss about Hitchcock: the dude was funny. Morbidly so, but still funny. North by Northwest is probably the perfect cross of thriller and comedy, but Hitch could make a straight comedy.

The other funny thing is that while he's now thought of as a "serious" director, Hitchcock was kind of derided in his day as a purveyor of schlock. He mad big budget, crowd pleasing films. Artistic credibility didn't come until much later. His closest modern comp is a guy like John Carpenter.

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Unsurprisingly, I agree with Freaux. Notorious and Suspicion are probably the two most underrated Hitchcocks, and have Cary Grant at his ever lovin' best. Both rarely get mentioned as his best movie, which is a shame. I think you could make a case for either.

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Good call on Suspicion, I lose sight of it because I feel like I prop up Notorious often.

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Artistic credibility didn't come until much later. His closest modern comp is a guy like John Carpenter.

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Good comparison.

oops, double post.

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Also haven't seen many of his films either.

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I can picture iwy listing about 40

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You picked two good ones to start with. Psycho showed the most controversial death ever (obviously), and cleavage than any other mainstream movie ever had. Also was the first movie to show a toilet the way it did... Odd but it shows how he was groundbreaking even in little ways. The Birds was the first animal(s) attack movie like that, other than solo villians like Godzilla and King Kong.

Like my top 40 movie ballot showed, Dial M for Murder is my favorite movie of all time. It's his most underrated film IMO. It's also on Netflix Instant. So if you didn't want to buy it you could at least check it out. Also, it has Grace Kelly, who is super hot. There's only three of his movies on Instant I think.

Rear Window has Grade Kelly as the lead too so that makes me like it even more. Jimmy Stewart too. You can get a better quality DVD with it too.

Like mentioned, North by Northwest and Vertigo great too. Though I don't like Vertigo as much as most do.

Of the ones not on your list I'd say add The 39 Steps, Shadow of a Doubt and The Lady Vanishes. The 39 Steps is early 30's so it's a little cheesy, but it's a cool story and actually kind of funny. The main dude is pretty funny. Shadow of a Doubt is about a young girl who really looks up to her uncle and all excited about him coming to visit, but the papers are reporting about a killer on the loose, so it's about her trying to figure out if her uncle is the killer or not. The Lady Vanishes is just another one I highly recccommend.

I bought a DVD at Walmart that had ten of his older movies on it for like $8. It had The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes. Is say try something like that for his older stuff because they aren't for everybody. Edit: I should really start reading threads first.

Mad I'm late to the party

Vertigo
Rear Window

Great films

Okay, so based on this thread and some reading of plot synopses, I have this list:

Rope
Dial M for Murder
Rear Window
Vertigo
The Birds (seen)
Psycho (seen)
North by Northwest
Notorious
Strangers on a Train
Shadow of a Doubt
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Trouble With Harry
Marnie

So I'm getting this collection, which has the bolded ones from above. I bought the other 4 (M, NxNW, Notorious, Strangers) individually. Also, that Hitchcock Collection comes with these films: Saboteur, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy, Family Plot. Now, I really have no interest in those (outside of maybe Saboteur based on a couple in this thread), but they come with it so whatever. Bottom line is that I am getting this list of Hitchcock films:

Rope
Dial M for Murder
Rear Window
Vertigo
The Birds (seen)
Psycho (seen)
North by Northwest
Notorious
Strangers on a Train
Shadow of a Doubt
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Trouble With Harry
Marnie
Saboteur
Torn Curtain
Topaz
Frenzy
Family Plot

So 18 movies for a total (shipping included) of $80.34, which is $4.46 a pop. Even if I just focus on the 13 movies I actually want, it's still only $6.18 apiece. Not bad. Especially considering I still have Amazon gift certificates from Christmas to spend (so it cost me nothing out of pocket).

Thanks for the help/advice to those who participated. Hopefully I'll enjoy these movies as much as I'm hoping to.

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Notorious and Suspicion are probably the two most underrated Hitchcocks, and have Cary Grant at his ever lovin' best.

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Actually Notorious pretty much wastes Cary Grant, in a mostly passive observer role, the standard hero with no comedy at all. Ingrid Bergman has the star part, and Claude Rains is the scene-stealing heavy (his role may even be close to Grant's in screen time).

Even To Catch A Thief, while not much of a film, uses Grant better than Notorious.

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Rope and The Trouble With Harry, Topaz and Frenzy, might be the only two that might be a letdown.

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