by Henry Daniels

Created on: July 16, 2009   Last Updated: September 30, 2009

Alfred Hitchcock has been dubbed the "master of suspense" for good reason. Each of his movies - among them "Psycho", "Vertigo", "Rear Window", "The Man Who Knew Too Much", "Notorious", and "North By Northwest" - is a masterwork of nail biting cinema, and still his other wonderful movies, less revered than the ones mentioned above but most of them remarkably innovative - "Spellbound", "Rope", "Frenzy", and "Rebecca", to name a few - offer both intellectual and primal thrills.

Almost all of Hitch's films revolve around some sort of mistaken identity. The template for his suspense yarns was the quintessentially 'innocent man' being confused for some spy, murderer, or important socio-political figure and consequently dragged into a world of espionage and mayhem. His protagonists are typically sweet, mild mannered people who, through no fault of their own, are roped into situations where they must plumb the depths of their cunning and intelligence in order to survive. (This automatically makes his films appeal to a universal audience.) In some of his other more psychologically challenging movies, like "Vertigo", "Spellbound" and especially "Psycho", his characters possess dual identities that they hide from themselves; they're forced to come to grips with themselves amidst havoc and intrigue.

Hitchcock's grasp on the human psyche - his understanding of basic human needs and desires - was so acute that his movies, despite being made over sixty years ago, now, still captivate. Considering that most his movies were made in the 1950's and early 1960's when psychology and sexuality was rarely seriously addressed in cinema, "Vertigo", "Psycho" and "Rear Window" seem almost revolutionary.

In "Vertigo", Jimmy Stewart plays a detective, Scottie, who is tricked into following a mentally unstable woman, for whom he becomes sexually and pathologically obsessed. After her supposed suicide, the film follows Scottie as he mercilessly tries to recreate her, fashioning a 'new' woman he meets into her ideal image. The story is chilling and horrifying - a tale of mad obsession and the limits to which a man will go to achieve a sexual, emotional ideal.

"Psycho", with Anthony Perkins, explores sexual perversity and parental idolization. It begins as a yarn about grand-larceny but evolves into a tale of dreadful, personal psychosis.

"Rear Window" starred Stewart as a temporarily wheelchair bound man who vents his boredom by spying on the neighbors, only to discover that a possible murder

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