Ranking: Alfred Hitchcock's Films

Have decided only to look at the top 10 closely. Any questions about those I've left off, feel free to ask for my thoughts on those. Also there's a great deal of Hitchcock I'm missing on; if you've any suggestions, feel free also to let me know.

Hon. Mention: The 39 Steps (4.5/5)

Underrated? Well I'd say so since it seems all but forgotten as a film, despite having a very succesful stage adaptation, and despite being a hit back in the day. The criminally underrated Robert Donat is our lead in this simple but entertaining thriller comedy. It moves along briskly through its quickfire runtime, and never loses a single beat throughout, from the darker scenes to Donat's romantic chemsitry with Madeline Carroll, to the excellent finale. I need a re-watch for this one which could easily push it into the top 10.

10. The Lady Vanishes (4.5/5)

A delightful little gem out of Hitchcock's filmmography. The beautiful, talented and sadly forgotten/underrated Margaret Lockwood, plays the most delightful of Hitchcock's female protagonists, an Englishwoman abroad Iris Henderson who meets a delightful older lady (Dame Mae Whitty) in an inn and on a train through Europe. When the lady, surprise, surprise, VANISHES, with only Iris and another passenger, the boisterous Gilbert Redman willing to help (played by exceptional British stage virtuoso and as The Browning Version showed, one of the greatest actors of all-time when given the chance, Michael Redgrave). The Lady Vanishes might take a while to get going but is enjoyable in doing so. Every character is a delight, from our leads to the side characters of Charters and Caldicott played by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, two very stuffy and very funny cricket enthusiasts who soon became a staple of British cinema. The final act might feel a bit rushed to some, but I like it personally, and it ends up moving quite seamlessly from a humorous thriller to a rather affectionate portrait of people bonding together against a common enemy. 

9. Psycho (5/5)

Blasphemy to place this so low perhaps, I find Psycho to be a mixed bag, but uniquely so. The first half is pure perfection. Janet Leigh is marvelous within the confines of her role to make Marion Crane such a compelling heroine to root for, despite basically being a thieving secretary. Anthony Perkins is AMAZING as Norman Bates, and his scenes with Leigh are some of the best tension-building scenes in film history. It's also fascinatingly filmed, Hitchcock was someone who could make a driving in a car montage so engaging in itself, or used minimalist lighting to achieve ultimate suspenseful effect...and of course in THAT scene, corn syrup the stuff of nightmares. Having said that the second half is a SLIGHT letdown, in some regards. The acting is unfortunately much more shoddy from that point onwards, Vera Miles and John Gavin are in all honesty quite terrible, Perkins remains great but constrained to the background, and frankly the final twist, while excellently handled in a technical sense, is undermined by that psychiatrist monologue at the end. Nevertheless, the strengths of Hitchcock's direction remain evident throughout the second half (particularly in the scene below), and I nitpick too much, it is a great film I have certain reservations about.

8. North by Northwest (5/5)

I really hate to put this film eighth on the list, as I absolutely love it. Cary Grant has never been more well-cast (despite being considerably older than the character probably is in the film's universe) as Roger Thornhill, effectively Bond before Bond, in a film that did 007 before Sean Connery was even a household name, and I'd argue reaches heights none of those films have ever come close to reaching. The film is largely a lighthearted caper and take on the 'Wrong Man' trope, and plays this particularly well in the auction scene where you have the coolest cats in cinema Grant and JAMES MASON delivering thinly veiled barbs.

The lighthearted tone throughout is very consistent and gives it a uniquely relaxing vibe, while never compromising the tension in great scenes like the cropdusting scene, Add in one of the sexiest romances of censorship Hollywood involving Eve Marie Saint, who's surprisingly great at playing the sorta femme fatale type, enjoyable little subplots like Martin Landau's henchman and his attraction to his boss Mason, and the FBI department. 

7. Foreign Correspondent (5/5)

One could accuse this film of being schmalzty, or overly patriotic in its message. Well it was a wartime film centered on a worldwide conspiracy before WWII, and the investigation of it by American reporter Johnny Jones/Huntley Haverstock (an endearing, as always Joel McCrae). I'll admit that despite all the unabashed American patriotism on display here, the film is one I rather love. Its pacing is utterly flawless as there's never a slow moment, never a scene that doesn't feel cohesive to the overall mystery, never a scene that doesn't add a little bit of tension (that scene of unseen torture), humour (mostly courtesy of George Sander's lovable British reporter Scott ffolliott), and even emotion (the villain played by Herbert Marshall is one of the more sympathetic in Hitchcock's filmmography). The script is particularly well-written with some absolutely delightful interplays between McCrae and Sanders' characters, it's one where I have to say I can't find any real plot holes, and though it's overall a simple film in concept, it does this simplicity beautifully. 

6. Strangers on a Train (5/5)

 

Another brilliant film from Hitchcock, this time round a more overt sort of thriller, though no less effective. Farley Granger and Robert Walker make for a particularly intriguing two-man dynamic, with Granger's meek and modest approach as a tennis player in an unhappy marriage contrasting beautifully with Walker's amazing performance as the cold-blooded, oddly charismatic and coolly psychopathic Bruno Anthony. I keep going between Walker's performance and the cinematography of the film as its MVPs, as both do so much in creating this overwhelming sense of dread throughout. The scene where we get to see Anthony track down his first victim of the film is simply a masterclass in escalation upon escalation of unbearable tension, till that horrifying act. If I had to nitpick, the second half is not as great as the first half, but it's still really great, and that first half is indeed extremely difficult to live up to.

5. Shadow of a Doubt (5/5)

This film first and foremost features two particularly great performances, firstly by a cast-against-type Joseph Cotten, who's utterly convincing and chilling as Uncle Charlie, a 'loving uncle' who may, or may not be the Merry Widow Murderer...actually, no. That's the brilliance of the film, it's not a whodunnit, it's established pretty clearly from the outset that Charlie is a murderer. What makes it such a compelling watch is how the audience's omniscience enhances the viewing experience, as we watch Charlie's loving niece, young Charlie, played by Theresa Wright in one of the greatest female lead performances of all-time, period. The scene where Uncle Charlie confronts Young Charlie in a bar and both reveals and masks his true nature is almost as great as the scene where Uncle Charlie reveals the ugliest pits of his nature in a dinner table monologue about 'faded, fat, greedy women'. The film may not be for everyone, it's one of Hitchcock's most brooding and slow-burn films, but the payoff is fantastic. The cinematography and soundtrack, in particular, manages to blend the idyllic nature of suburbia and its growing disillusionment perfectly in line with Wright's great performance.

4. Rear Window (5/5)

Hitchcock's most daringly stylistic venture, his employment of the 'one room, multiple viewpoints' concept of photographer L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) spying on his neighbours and suspecting one of them (Raymond Burr) of murdering his wife, and runs along with it beautifully, He never cheats, using the limitations of this technique to bring out the voyeuristic edge of his film and create some absolutely spellbinding moments, like the opening scenes, some of the rather heartbreaking looks into Miss Lonelyhearts' life, and of course THAT scene where someone comes home earlier than expected, and the culprit finds out he's been spied upon. In terms of dramatic intensity, it's a departure from some of the other films high up on here, but that does not lessen its overall excellence as a film whatsoever. Plus, there's Grace Kelly looking her absolute finest here, as if there wasn't enough to entice you into watching this film. 

3. Saboteur (5/5)

Extended thoughts here (http://actorvsactor.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/alfred-hitchcocks-saboteur-wrong-man.html), but Hitchcock's work on this fantastically underrated thriller of madcap action setpieces, excellent villains and even some surprisingly poignant moments thrown into the mix, of a man on the run from accusations of sabotage (Robert Cummings) and uncovering a secret plot by German spies, is probably Hitchcock's most downright entertaining film.

2. Rebecca (5/5)

Minor issue with the slight changing of Maxmillian de Winter's character's actions from the source material novel to fit in with the Hayes Code aside, this is pretty much the perfect adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's masterpiece which deservedly won Best Picture, though Hichcock didn't win Best Director, what a flipping travesty! And even that minor quibble doesn't matter all that much because Laurence Olivier's fantastic performance, in my opinion his personal best as an actor, kind of helps suggest that underlying darkness of the source material by subtly bringing it into his performance through implication. If I seem to be a bit vague in talking about this performance, it's probably because one of the delights of it is in how unexpected its various twists and turns are throughout, how certain elements of subversion in it, most notably through Mrs Danvers (Judith Anderson), work. For a film with a heroine that's a nameless entity (Joan Fontaine, like Olivier, giving a career-best performance), it makes its mark extremely well as an example of strong writing for female characters. Add to that all manner of great supporting characters like Danvers and of course George Sanders at his most utterly British, utterly sleazy and utterly villainous peak, and some beautiful little touches throughout in the beach scenes and Maxmillian's confession scene, and it's natural that this, of course, cemented Hitchcok's ascension into becoming Master of Suspense.

1. Vertigo (5/5)

Easily his greatest film in my books, and I need to do a full article on it. Vertigo is a masterclass in how to set up a twist flawlessly and so subtly while not compromising the power of the 'facade' that surrounds it. The colour scheme of its visuals is one thing I always pick out when commenting on its brilliance, and I absolutely love the script, which incorporates such heavily thought-provoking themes in such an effortless manner. It features a great performance from James Stewart as a most atypical sort of role for him, a driven private investigator who turns twisted and obsessed with the ideal of a woman, portrayed flawlessly by Kim Novak, and the second melancholic, heartbreaking half of the film melds flawlessly with the terse, introspective first half to produce the finest display of Hitchcock's talents on film.

12. The Birds (4.5/5)
13. Dial M for Murder (4.5/5)
14. Rope (4.5/5)
15. Marine (4/5)
16. Lifeboat (4/5)
17. Frenzy (4/5)
18. The Trouble With Harry (4/5)
19. Notorious (4/5)
20. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) (3.5/5)
21. Spellbound (3/5)
22. Suspicion (2.5/5)
23. To Catch a Thief (2.5/5)