Poll

Which Alfred Hitchcock Films would you like to catch up with?

The Pleasure Garden
The Mountain Eagle
The Lodger
Downhill
Easy Virtue
The Ring
The Farmer's Wife
Champagne
The Manxman
Blackmail
June and the Paycock
Murder!
The Skin Game
Rich and Strange
Number Seventeen
Waltzes from Vienna
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
The 39 Steps
Secret Agent
Sabotage
Young and Innocent
The Lady Vanishes
Jamaica Inn
Rebecca
Foreign Correspondant
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Suspicion
Saboteur
Shadow of a Doubt
Lifeboat
Spellbound
Notorious
The Prandine Case
Rope
Under Capricorn
Stage Fright
Strangers on a Train
I Confess
Dial M for Murder
Rear Window
To Catch a Thief
The Trouble with Harry
The Man who Knew Too Much (1956)
The Wrong Man
Vertigo
North by Northwest
Psycho
The Birds
Marnie
Torn Curtain
Topaz
Frenzy
Family Plot
I'm content with the number of Hitchcock I've seen
I don't want to see new ones, but I'd like to rewatch some

Author Topic: Summer of Hitchcock  (Read 4200 times)

oldkid

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Summer of Hitchcock
« on: June 08, 2017, 02:32:24 AM »
Hitchcock is one of the great directors of all time and arguably is the greatest director of thrillers ever.  At the beginning of this year, OAD taught a class on Hitchcock, which stirred in some of us the desire to expand our knowledge of the master and to revisit some. 

I am going to try to watch some Hitchcock this summer, especially focusing on the films I haven't yet seen.  And I invite others to join in the fun.

If nothing else, list out the films by Hitchcock that you'd like to watch for the first time, as well as list out the ones you'd like to see again for a new perspective, or simple enjoyment.

If you were wondering, OAD's class watched the following films:

The Lodger
Blackmail
39 Steps
Rebecca
Shadow of a Doubt
Notorious
Rope
Strangers on a Train
Rear Window
Vertigo
North by Northwest
Psycho
The Birds

Reviews:

oldkid
Lifeboat

1SO
Secret Agent
« Last Edit: June 10, 2017, 11:11:29 PM by oldkid »
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Summer of Hitchcock
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2017, 04:20:42 AM »
If I participate at all in this it likely will not be for more than one movie. I voted for two I had seen ages ago and remember very little about and the one that is perhaps is most famous one that I haven't watched.

North by Northwest
Rebecca
The Birds
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Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: Summer of Hitchcock
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2017, 06:03:41 AM »
Hitchcock doesn't do much for me. I have watched 8 of his movies. All are on oad's list except Spellbound. For some reason I'd pick Marnie as the next one to watch, then Dial M For Murder.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Summer of Hitchcock
« Reply #3 on: June 08, 2017, 06:25:56 AM »
Dial M is great, you should at least get to that one.
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Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: Summer of Hitchcock
« Reply #4 on: June 08, 2017, 06:31:13 AM »
Let's hope for a rainy summer! :D
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Corndog

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Re: Summer of Hitchcock
« Reply #5 on: June 08, 2017, 08:17:46 AM »
So wouldn't you know, I own the Hitchcock: Masterpiece collection, which includes the following films which I have NOT seen:

Rope
The Trouble with Harry
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Marnie
Torn Curtain
Topaz
Frenzy
Family Plot

Wouldn't you also know that my wife and I have been preparing to list our place and move this summer, so this collection, along with most of my other DVDs and Blu-Rays are in storage  :'(

Maybe we'll be moved and I'll be ready to participate in time, but otherwise, I may just catchup later.
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1SO

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Re: Summer of Hitchcock
« Reply #6 on: June 08, 2017, 08:20:38 AM »
As fate would have it, the next massive Marathon after my Horror Marathon is a Directors Marathon and it starts with Hitchcock. Much as I don't like to start one project before completing another, I might do it for this and space out me selections, which are...
Secret Agent
Topaz
Family Plot
The Trouble With Harry

Harry is the only one of those I've seen, but it's my 2nd least favorite Hitchcock and that may be due to expectations I had 25+ years ago.

For some reason I'd pick Marnie as the next one to watch, then Dial M For Murder.
DH is right, Dial M For Murder is Great and should easily get priority over Marnie.


Also, don't forget to look through Hitchcock's Director's Thread

oldkid

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Re: Summer of Hitchcock
« Reply #7 on: June 08, 2017, 04:06:38 PM »
For main films, the one I'm most missing is Lifeboat, which I'm catching up with right now.

I'd like to especially catch up with his later films: Frenzy, Family Plot and Torn Curtain.   There are two on OAD's list I hadn't seen yet: Blackmail and The Lodger.  If I can, I'd like to see Marnie, Secret Agent, Stage Fright and Saboteur.

We'll see how many I do. 
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Teproc

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Re: Summer of Hitchcock
« Reply #8 on: June 08, 2017, 04:34:41 PM »
Voted for all the ones I'm generally interested in seeing (though I don't know that I'd actually want to marathon them all this summer) which are:

The Lodger
Blackmail
Waltzes from Vienna*
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)*
The Lady Vanishes
Lifeboat
Dial M for Murder
The Trouble with Harry*
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)*
Marnie
Torn Curtain*
Topaz*

*mainly because they're part of my Hitchcock boxset.

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oldkid

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Re: Summer of Hitchcock
« Reply #9 on: June 09, 2017, 05:19:29 PM »
Lifeboat

This movie shouldn't have worked.   A group of victims, attacked by a Nazi sub in WWII, are surviving on a lifeboat, and the whole film takes place in the middle of the ocean, on that boat.  It should have been dull, or at least had lulls.  But Hitchcock wouldn't leave us high and dry like that.

Hitchcockian trick I learned in this film: Allow the audio focus on an intense dialogue, but point the camera at another event, hidden from those speaking.  Sometimes I get so bored by a film that I'll wander off and let my eyes look at the internet while I listen to the dialogue or whatever.  Can't do that with this master.  He demands your full attention, every moment.  And so much is happening on this lifeboat.  Not just conflict and love... in fact the romance is pretty reserved.  Hidden agendas, character revelations and inner struggles abound.

There is one thing that ruined this movie, and that's the main spoiler of the film: The Nazi is the bad guy.  Oh, what a shock.  A film in 1944 and the bad guy is the German?  I rolled my eyes.  Another German at the end is on the boat and they have to teach him morality, because, of course, Americans and British are more life-respecting than Nazis?  Ethnic propaganda isn't worthy of Hitchcock.  Sure, there's some hypocrisy there, because they brutally killed the first Nazi, but it could easily be seen as heated emotion, and so dismissed.  I'm disappointed.

Apart from that, this film was perfect, everything I want from a Hitchcock, including a bit more than I expect.

4/5
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