To learn about Alfred Hitchcock's best films you should first know a little about the man himself, and how dedicated he was to his craft. Born on August 13, 1899, Alfred Joseph Hitchcock became a genius director and auteur of suspense and thriller movies; he was both smart and prolific in his work. Hitchcock started in the film industry at the bottom when he found full-time employment in 1920 at Islington Studios making titles for silent films. After using his job to learn anything he could about set design, production, and direction, Islington Studios and its production partner Gainsborough Pictures offered to let Hitchcock direct his first real film "The Pleasure Garden" in 1925. "The Pleasure Garden" was a successful film for Hitchcock and Islington Studios, Hitchcock worked almost 15 years in the British film industry, with many other successful movies to his credit, such as Blackmail (1929), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), and The 39 Steps (1935), but in 1940 Hitchcock took his visions to Hollywood and the Hitchcock era began.
Some of the most notable and best films from Hitchcock's early British Film career are as follows:
#1. The Lodger (1927, United Kingdom, Silent) Starring: Ivor Novello (Jonathan Drew)
Who could be murdering young girls on foggy London nights? When an enigmatic young man, Jonathan Drew (Ivor Novello) checks into a London boarding house, evidence starts to mount that point to him as the killer. Starring the brilliant and beautiful composer-actor-playwright, Ivor Novello, of silent screen fame, this is a beautifully captured piece that strikes you from the first cord as a Hitchcock thriller. In an interview with Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock stated that he considered this to be his first real film; he had directed (or helped direct) two films prior.
#2. The 39 Steps (1935, United Kingdom) Starring: Robert Donat & Madeline Carroll (Richard & Pamela Hannay).
This is the story of an ordinary man caught up amongst extraordinary events. While fleeing a theater after a gun shot, Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) meets a distressed woman that he takes back to his room, but when she tells him she is a British Spy and needs help, he does not believe her. She comes to his door the next morning with a knife in her back, a map in her hand, and mumbling about "39 steps". Now not only does he believe her, but he has been set up to look like he killed her. Wanted for murder, and followed by thugs, Hannay must now find a way to expose the truth and prove his innocence. This is one of Hitchcock's best early films because it showcases the shots and lighting effects that he would later be called the master of and that so many people would copy.
In collaboration with Hollywood producer, David O. Selznick Hitchcock's first film in America was Rebecca (1940). Starting with this first film, Selznick tried to maintain a certain amount of creative control over Hitchcock's direction, Hitchcock did not like to have artistic boundaries, and in turn this created a strained relationship that led Selznick to often put Hitchcock on "loan" to other studios rather than produce his movies. When Hitchcock came to the United States to work for Selznick, he was already a master director, Rebecca won Best Picture for the year 1940, it was the only one of Hitchcock's films to ever win such an award (which Selznick actually won, Hitchcock received nothing), but it was also one of very few films where Hitchcock was not in on the scripting process. Rebecca was his first American film and a testament to how American Audiences and Hitchcock's moviemaking genius would form a lasting relationship that would catapult him to be the richest and most recognized director in the world.
Of the films that he directed over the next 35 years in the United States some of the films considered his most notable masterworks are as follows:
#1. Notorious (1946, USA) Starring: Cary Grant (T.R. Devlin), Ingrid Bergman (Alicia Huberman), and Claude Rains (Alexander Sebastian)
After Alicia's (Ingrid Bergman) father, a convicted World War II criminal commits suicide, she is recruited by T.R. Devlin (Carey Grant) to turn spy against the head of a Brazilian neo-Nazi group Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains). The path of espionage leads Alicia down the isle, where she marries Sebastian, and the plot continues to thicken. This film from the beginning has the brilliance of Hitchcock written all over it. Not only are some of the best shots in any of his films are here (including the long tracking shot from the ceiling to the key in Bergman's hand), but the two actors playing the roles give incredible performances. Both Grant and Bergman play against the roles they are usually cast in, Grant plays a callous and uncaring playboy government agent, and Bergman plays an experienced and reckless woman willing to turn spy for Grant in a turn of events that keeps you racing towards the final dramatic conclusion.
#2. Strangers on a Train (1951, USA) Starring: Farley Granger (Guy Haines) and Robert Walker (Bruno Anthony)
Two strangers meet on a train and the idea of switching murders becomes the center of the plot that moves the two characters down a path of suspense and intrigue. Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is a normal guy who wants to get married, but he is already married, Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) hates his father and is willing to do anything to get rid of him, including killing Guy's wife. Thinking nothing of the conversation about murder with the stranger, Guy goes about his life, until his wife is found strangled to death. Guy then becomes the chief suspect in the murder and his life is turn upside down. Complications arise from there, but I wouldn't want to spoil it for you, this is one worth seeing. This is one of Hitchcock's underrated masterpieces, a movie that begs the question, is there such a thing as the perfect murder?
#3. Dial M for Murder (1954, USA) Starring: Ray Milland (Tony Wendice) and Grace Kelly (Margot Mary Wendice)
A man plots to have his wife killed, but he never thinks that his wife might defend herself and end up killing the murderer. Tony Wendice (Ray Miland) has found out that his wife Margot (Grace Kelly) has cheated on him and now he wants her dead. Blackmailing an old schoolmate to murder his wife, he sets the wheel in motion. But when the murderer is the one who ends up dead it complicates things so that the final conclusion is worth waiting for. This film is often referred to as having a "stage" feel, the original source material is a play by English playwright Frederick Knott, some of the names were changed, but the screenplay is well done and the "stage" feel adds to its distinctiveness amongst Hitchcock's best films.
#4. Rear Window (1954, USA) Starring: James Stewart (L. B. Jefferies) and Grace Kelly (Lisa Carol Fremont)
With a broken leg and nothing better to do L.B. Jefferies (James Stewart) uses his binoculars to spy on the other people in the apartments across from his window. The fascination turns into a game like atmosphere as he names and tells the stories of his neighbors as he sees them. But when he starts to make up the story of a man murdering his wife the progression of events leads him to believe that he is not just making up the story, and there has been a murder. Grace Kelly plays the role of Jefferies girlfriend Lisa Carol Freemont and acts as the voice of reason as he lays out the version of events that he thinks led to a neighbor's murder. Stellar performances by the entire cast, but especially Stewart and Kelly, great sets and costumes, everything you would expect from a great Hitchcock movie, and certainly among his finest.
#5. Vertigo (1958, USA) Starring: James Stewart (Detective John 'Scottie' Ferguson) and Kim Novak (Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton)
Acrophobia or Vertigo is a spinning dizziness that can paralyze and incapacitate those that suffer from it, Detective John 'Scottie' Ferguson finds out just how it works when he develops a bad case of it after another police officer falls from a rooftop while chasing a suspect. After retirement from the force he is hired out as a private detective by an old colleague who wants his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) followed, she is displaying mental instabilities or may even be possessed by a spirit. When Scottie agrees to take the job he never bargains for the cascade of events that follows. When Madeleine tries to kill herself, Scottie saves her, and the events that ensue is a testament to one of the better Hitchcock films ever made. Although this film was not as commercially successful as others it was more personal for Hitchcock and is another testament of his directorial genius.
#6. North by Northwest (1959, USA) Starring: Carey Grant (Roger O. Thornhill) and Eva Marie Saint (Eve Kendall)
Accosted by espionage agents Roger Thornhill (Carey Grant) is mistaken for a spy named George Kaplan, when he will not admit through interrogation that he is Kaplan, the thugs set him up. They put whiskey down his throat and put him in a car, they try to stage an accident to take care of Thornhill as a loose end, but Thornhill escapes. When he is arrested by the police for drunk driving he tries to explain his actions, but at every turn the evidence is against him. Realizing the only way to really clear his name is to find Kaplan, Thornhill sets out to do so, through a set of twists and turns he meets up with Eve Kendall, who helps him elude his captors, for awhile. This is possibly one of the top 3 Hitchcock films ever; the screenplay is well structured with witty dialogue and the twists and turns you expect from a great Hitchcock suspense.
#7. Psycho (1960, USA) Starring: Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates) and Janet Leigh (Marion Crane)
Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is in love with her boyfriend, but he is not financially secure enough to marry her, Marion sees a golden opportunity at happiness for them when her employer asks her to take a large deposit to the bank for him. Instead of making the deposit she takes $40,000 and runs away to a road side motel. The Bates Motel is run by Norman Bates, a man who takes care of his creepy and overbearing mother in an old house next to the motel. Unfortunately Norman's mother is more than creepy and overbearing and in the films most famous 2 minutes of footage, Marion is murdered in the shower. Possibly the best of all Hitchcock's films, Psycho not only broke new ground with references to unmarried sex, and body shots that had not been seen on the big screen before, but also in that in this film the protagonist dies during what is typically the beating', and the screenplay still hits every beat right up to the last shot (If you do not believe that Marion is the protagonist, watch the last shot of the film). In a turn of events that fell in Hitchcock's favor, the studio was worried about production and distribution of the film, to ease the studio Hitchcock deferred his regular $250,000 salary for 60% of the film's net profits. His personal earnings from the film ended up exceeded $15 million dollars, with the profits from this film Hitchcock was now the richest and most widely recognize director in the world.
As you can see, there are only nine of Hitchcock's movies listed here and by research I have found that these are among the best. As a true Hitchcock fan, I can say that I recommend all of his films, each has its own style and flair, some are better than others, but all are undoubtedly Hitchcock. Hitchcock remains today one of the world greatest directors of the suspense thriller genre and will always be studied for the mastery and dedication he had to all of his films.
Bibliography Sources (for release dates and cast/character names):
"The_Lodger:_A_Story_of_the_London_Fog." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 Jan. 2007.
"The_39_Steps_(1935_film)." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 Jan. 2007.
"Notorious." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 Jan. 2007.
"Strangers_on_a_Train_(film)." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 Jan. 2007.
"Dial_M_for_Murder." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 Jan. 2007.
"Rear_Window." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 Jan. 2007.
"Vertigo_(film)." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 Jan. 2007.
"North_by_Northwest." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 Jan. 2007.
"Psycho_(1960_film)." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 Jan. 2007.