Starring: Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin and Martin Balsam.
In Seven (or more) Words: Les Diaboliques influences Hitchcock to fashion murder with cross-dressing.
6: The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Starring: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas and Dame May Whitty.
In Seven (or more) Words: Does for trains what Lifeboat did for.. lifeboats; Hollywood finally chanced upon our greatest directorial export.
5: North by Northwest (1959)
Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau and Jessie Royce Landis.
In Seven (or more) Words: Hitchcock turns the volume up to eleven with his wrong man phase reaching a denouement. Of course he revisited it with Torn Curtain, Topaz and Frenzy, but they exist on the cutting room floor of his career highlights.
4: Vertigo (1958)
Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes.
In Seven (or more) Words: The greatest film ever made according to Sight and Sound, dispatching Citizen Kane's selfish forty year stint at the top. The psychological aspects of Vertigo, particularly the opening titles, do not agree with all cinephiles. I think Hitchcock did better, but not by much.
3: The 39 Steps (1935)
Starring: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Peggy Ashcroft and John Laurie.
In Seven (or more) Words: Ever remade, never surpassed; Hitchcock's greatest British film facilitates the country trotting flair that he would later revisit in North by Northwest. A triumph of British cinema.
2: Rear Window (1954)
Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr.
In Seven (or more) Words: This is not number one through my own preferences, but is regularly positioned as many film lovers favourite Hitchcock film. The likeness of the antagonist Lars Thorwald to Hitchcock's passport to America, David O. Selznick, hasn't gone unnoticed.
1: Suspicion (1941)
Starring: Joan Fontaine, Cary Grant, Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce and Dame May Whitty.
In Seven (or more) Words: Johnnie Aysgarth is the coolest character ever committed to celluloid. That's why. Then acetate films took over in the 50's and many slick movie characters were introduced to cinema. Of course Suspicion never shows up on a Hitchcock Best List, but it is my second favourite film of all time, due to its paradox of warm and cold constantly entwining Cary Grant's suspicious Johnnie. And Joan Fontaine. Many say she was better in Rebecca, but I feel the Oscar for her performance in this film was justly correct. That's a little over seven words right?
The Next Article is... The Seven Best Foreign Films of the 21st Century
The Next Article is... The Seven Best Foreign Films of the 21st Century
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