What's your favourite Alfred Hitchcock movie?

[Heineken Skywalker]

Weird. Well, at least you didn't have all those school kids singing that annoying song just before the birds attacked. ;D

[LeoMcGarry]

A tough choice definitely, but I'm going to go with "Psycho". Hitch went from the multi-million dollar "North By Northwest" to the black-and-white, $800,000 "Psycho", and amazing the latter film was (IMO at least) better.

[clifford43]

Hitchcock movies I love:

The Birds
Psycho
North by Northwest
To Catch a Thief
Strangers on a Train
Vertigo
Notorious
Lady Vanishes

Hitchcock movies I don't love:

Rope
The Trouble with Harry
Shadow of a Doubt
Number 17
Secret Agent
Suspicion

Still to see:

Spellbound
Saboteur
The five movies after The Birds.
I Confess
Stage Fright
Lifeboat
Paradine Case
Foreign Correspondent
Mr and Mrs Smith
Rebecca
Jamaica Inn

[clifford43]

But which is my favourite?

Strangers on a Train is my favourite for suspense; The Birds is my favourite for horror and uniqueness; Lady Vanishes is my favourite for comedy; To Catch a Thief is my favourite for sex appeal; Vertigo and Rear Window are my favourites for a combination of all of the above.

[jol]

cyber256702000 said:

It was all kinds of birds. I was a kid delivering papers and there was this bird on the porch of one the house I deliver to. I got on the porch and it started making a weird noise and all of a sudden all the birds flew out of the trees and attacked me. I had to block my eyes and run. They chased me two blocks before giving up, but I was still pretty cut up from peck marks. I have hated birds ever since.

It reminds me my fear of flocks of birds after seeing the movie when I was a child. Was hiding and thought that they would attack me.

I went with Rear Window because I saw it several times and each time it worked for me - but it is quite hard to decide which of Hitchcock's films should be in the first place. A matter of a while.
Each of his films, I saw, I consider as very enjoyable and engaging. So I like The Shadow of the Doubt, 39 Steps or Spellbound as well as Psycho or The Birds.

[Pulpmariachi]

North by Northwest for me.

Jimmy Stewart was portrayed as a total asshole at the beginning, so it made it harder for people to believe him, and I thought that was a great. Then you had the famous plane/corn field scene, Mt. Rushmore, Kim Novak, the UN headquarters...

Actually I also love the 50s version of The Man Who Knew Too Much. I thought it was brilliant how "Que Sera Sera" was so important.

[Phoenix]

Another great thread revival!

I went with Rear Window as well. A perfect film IMO. Plus, I love Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly in it...great casting.

[Bartwald]

Phoenix said:

Another great thread revival!

True! I hope some of these threads will never die!

[DrLenera]

Have seen most of his films, and only the odd clunker [Topaz, Family Plot]. They'll almost all pretty interesting, I would go for Vertigo as my favourite. It's one of those flms that many people find difficult [it IS extremely slow, to be sure] but a few people absolutely adore. I love it's dreamlike feel, I find it very romantic in a DEEP way [not in a superficial 'rom-com' way].

Second I would have to put Rear Window, simply great filmmaking, maybe it's a better demonstration of Hitckcocks's genius really. Also love

Marnie
North By Northwest
The Birds
The Lady Vanishes
Strangers On a Train

Like Psycho but it lacks something for me, maybe it's been imitated so much thatsome of it's effect is lost now, I don't know.

[Quorthon]

I went with Psycho, but then again, I am a horror fan.

Also, I'm afraid that I simply haven't seen enough of his work.

I... I'm so ... so very sorry...

[bonzo]

Definitely NOTORIOUS - I mean, come on guys, if you manage to see that one and nOt fall in love with Ingrid Bergman, you're heartless! It has one of the most famous movie kisses in it - one of the first where it was illustrated that it didn't just have to be 'press the lips together', but that it should at least have the promise of a smothering french kiss involving ample exchange of bodily fluids.

[danielk]

I don't know how I missed this... well, Hitch is my fav and I wrote about him elsewhere on the board.

EDIT BY HEINEKEN SKYWALKER - And this is what danielk had to say from the now deleted thread:

"The man was a genius, ahead of his time, sly, wicked and merciless. I recommend Strangers on a Train (which has a hideous logic to it) or North By Northwest (which is great, though it has almost no logic at all) for beginners.
Brian DiPalma based his whole early career on gratuitous, blatant Hitchcock ripoffs. Eventually he branched out; now he blatantly rips off Kubrick."

[orangevertigo]

I like "Vertigo."

[Quorthon]

I recently watched Frenzy. I didn't get into it as I do Psycho.

That restuarant/bar scene in The Birds where all these random people are easily having a conversation together, all of a sudden, always bugged me for some reason. People don't act like that!!

[Heineken Skywalker]

I would say that's true under normal circumstances, but those random people/strangers are discussing the birds and their situation, aren't they? I'd say that's a scenario where people are more likely to be open and any hesitation or shyness goes out the window.