Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980) has been on quite a roll
lately. In 2012, two biopics about him were released: Hitchcock, in
which the master was portrayed (by Anthony Hopkins) in the process of
conceiving and directing Psycho (1960); and The Girl, an HBO
movie about Hitch’s infatuation with Tippi Hedren, during the making of The
Birds (1963). Also in 2012, Sight and
Sound, the international film magazine, released its list of the 50 best
movies of all time, and Vertigo supplanted Citizen Kane in first
place. (To be fair, Citizen Kane was still number one on the AFI list of the
100 best American films and Vertigo came in 9th, but that was six years ago, in
2007.)
Hitchcock directed more than 50 feature films during his
long career, spanning from 1925 to 1976. Many are now regarded as classics,
including The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Shadow Of A Doubt,
Notorious, Dial M For Murder, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North
by Northwest, and the aforementioned. I've seen maybe a dozen of these over
the years, but this seemed a good time to take a new look. So, I watched three
of Hitchcock’s best recently. I was not disappointed.
Most of Hitchcock's movies feature a strong element of
suspense. Likewise, most are character studies, generally of flawed or twisted
characters, in guys who initially or superficially seem relatively normal.
Hitchcock knew how to draw his audience into the suspense through careful
framing, frequent close-ups, and innovative devices, such as tracking shots in
which the viewer sees only what the protagonist sees. One of his hallmark techniques
is to let the viewer in on what is about to happen, while withholding that
information from his characters, thereby building our anticipation and fear,
while James Stewart or Ingrid Bergman or Janet Leigh are left clueless.
Hitchcock also believed in a strong narrative structure, and as a result, all
of his films move along briskly and most are highly entertaining.
Here are capsule reviews of the three classics that I’ve
watched recently:
Vertigo (1958) stars James Stewart and Kim Novak. The
movie plays out in two distinct acts. Superficially, Vertigo starts out as a suspenseful
mystery, but about halfway through, the mystery is revealed (to us but not to
James Stewart). This does not alleviate the suspense, it adds to it. Set in San
Francisco and Northern California, the picture also offers those of us from the
Bay Area the bonus of a time capsule travelogue around the city and region circa
1957 (albeit with a dreamlike, almost surreal, quality).
Stewart plays Scottie, a recently retired police detective.
In the first ‘act,’ Scottie is hired by Gavin, an old college friend (Tom Helmore),
for a surveillance job on Gavin’s wife, Madeleine (Novak), whom Gavin describes
as acting strangely, obsessed by (and
possibly possessed by) the spirit of a doomed ancestor, and potentially
suicidal. Although Scottie is initially skeptical, Madeleine’s beauty attracts
him, and her mysterious actions intrigue him. Scotty had left the Police
Department because he suffered from vertigo, and this proves his undoing in a
dramatic scene when he is unable to prevent Madeleine’s fatal leap/fall from
the bell tower at Mission San Juan Bautista.
In the second ‘act,’ an emotionally devastated Scottie
becomes obsessed with the image of Madeleine. He sees her facsimile everywhere.
He can’t get her out of his head. Then one day he meets a girl, Judy (Novak
again) who looks kind of like her. Judy, a shop girl, is less refined than Madeleine
in manner and appearance – a different persona. Nevertheless, Scotty’s
obsession becomes a compulsion – to be with her, to control her, to possess her,
to remake her in Madeleine’s image. 
On one level a film about a particular guy’s anxieties and
psychology, Vertigo is actually a commentary on the male compulsion to
manipulate and control women, to mold them in accordance with their own myths
and fantasies; it’s also about (some) women’s need to subvert their own desires
and individuality to such fantasies in order to gain acceptance, to feel
desirable and/or protected. The 1950’s milieu makes this particularly
persuasive, but things may not be so different today. As is well known,
Hitchcock himself was a total control freak, particularly in the fifties and
sixties and particularly with respect to his female leads - the beautiful
blonde stars Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, and Tippi Hedron; so there may be some
introspective reveal here. Everything and everyone is being manipulated, of
course. Scottie is being manipulated by Gavin and by Madeleine, Judy by Scottie
(and by Gavin), and we, the viewers, are
being manipulated throughout by Hitchcock (and enjoying it, I should add).
Cinematically, Vertigo is a real treat. To visually
dramatize and allow us to share the disorientation and vertiginous anxiety
experienced by poor Scottie, looking down from a great height, Hitchcock and
cinematographer Robert Burke developed the “dolly zoom” (now known as Vertigo
Effect), which is effectively dizzying. In a 1996 restoration, the movie was
visually and aurally enhanced - fabulously. It’s just beautiful to watch. The coordinated
color scheme is extremely important to the mood at various moments, and the
images and saturated tones really pop off the screen. The sound is so sharp,
you feel like you’re in every scene. The
music by Bernard Hermann nicely underscores the mood and the drama. Watching
the “new” print, I felt like I was seeing Vertigo for the first time.
Unsurprisingly, the acting also is superb. This has got to
be one of Stewart’s best roles, and Kim Novak was never better. Barbara del
Geddes as Scottie’s buddy, Midge, is also swell.
Whether Vertigo is the best motion picture ever made is
debatable. My own view is that there’s no such thing as a singular “best”
movie. But there’s no doubt that this one is in the pantheon of must-see
movies. And if it’s been a decade or more since your last viewing, it’s worth
revisiting.
Rear Window (1954) is another Hitchcock collaboration
with James Stewart (they made four movies together, all told). Stewart plays
Jeff Jeffries, a globe-trotting magazine photographer, immobilized and stuck in
his New York apartment with a broken leg. Jeff passes the time looking out his
window at his neighbors’ apartments, and voyeuristically imagining little
plotlines for each of them. There’s the spinster Miss Lonelyhearts, the
hot-bodied dancer Miss Torso, the Newlyweds, the Songwriter, etc. As Jeff spies on his neighbors, we get to
know them a little, too, and so we have multiple little developing stories and
characters, with none of whom Jeff actually interacts. 
But there’s also, across the way, the Salesman (Raymond
Burr), who does not 
Stewart is not totally alone all day. Stella (Thelma
Ritter), his nurse, comes every day to clean him up, take his temperature and
dispense pearls of priceless wisdom. And Jeff’s girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly,
in a surprisingly suggestive - for her – performance) comes every afternoon to
cheer him up, cuddle a bit, perhaps bring him dinner and take his mind off
things. For most men, the stunningly beautiful Kelly would be distracting, to
say the least. But Jeff is so consumed with the mystery across the courtyard
that he barely notices her. Another visitor is the wonderful character actor,
Wendell Corey, as Detective Tom Doyle, an old friend, who Jeff calls in order
to share his suspicions, in the vain expectation that Doyle will agree that a
crime has been
Nevertheless, Jeff eventually draws Lisa and Stella into his
obsession. If you haven’t seen Rear
Window, I won’t spoil it for you; but, needless to say, there are twist,
turns, surprises and plenty of suspense, before the lights come on. Also, wit
and humor to keep the tone on the light side. And if you have seen Rear Window,
it’s worth another visit.
Strangers On A Train (1951) is the one picture in
this group that I hadn’t seen previously, but it’s definitely an A-list
Hitchcock classic. In fact, in some
ways, Strangers is the quintessential Hitchcock movie: intense,
obsessive, suspenseful, and yet entertaining. Years earlier, I tried to read
the book by Patricia Highsmith (The
Talented Mr. Ripley, etc.), but it was so creepy, I couldn’t finish it. The
movie is creepy, too, but it didn’t get inside my head the same way. 
The movie stars
handsome Farley Granger (Rope [1948], Senso [1954]), as Guy
Haines, a famous tennis player. Guy is a decent fellow, who is in love with and
engaged to marry the lovely Anne (Ruth Roman), daughter of Senator Morton (Leo
G. Carroll); except there’s a hitch: Guy is still married to Miriam, a nasty
low-life woman, who may not “give” him a divorce. On a train one day, Guy is
approached by a smarmy, overly friendly young man named Bruno (Robert Walker),
who professes to be a big fan of his, and who engages Guy in unwanted
conversation. During the course of their conversation, Bruno proudly volunteers
his theory of the perfect crime: two strangers each agree to kill off someone
on the other’s behalf. As there’d be no known connection between killer and
victim, the anonymous murderers would never be caught. For example, says Bruno,
I hate my father. You could easily kill him, and I’ll knock off your wife.
We’ll both get what we want, and there’ll be no repercussions. 
Guy finds this weird and disturbing, and wants nothing to do
with Bruno or his plan. He takes his leave
Two things hold this somewhat contrived plot together.
First, there’s the brilliant and disturbing performance by Robert Walker in a
signature role as Bruno, not unlike Anthony Perkins’ in the first half of Psycho.
Bruno starts out as a bright, narcissistic, kind-of obnoxious guy and morphs
into a sinister and creepy, psychopathic villain. Walker himself was rather unstable and
whether his private demons informed his acting or Hitchcock’s direction is hard
to say, but he is damned effective as a nut-job here. There’s nothing like a
good villain!
Second, there’s the pacing, tone, cinematography, and
overall production and direction by Hitchcock, that keeps us pulling for and
fearing for Granger’s character. This
was the first film in which Hitchcock worked with Robert Burks as his director
of photography. It was a good match, and the two went on to work together on
eleven additional movies, over the next thirteen years.
Granger is fine as the good guy protagonist, torn between
his desire to do the right thing and to cover his ass. Kasey Rogers is a
standout as the bitch wife. Even Hitchcock’s daughter, Patricia, has a small
part – as the bratty little sister of
Guy’s fiancée.
All these films are
available on DVD or BluRay., including from Netflix. All are also available to stream on Amazon
Instant Video.
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