The Best Hitchcock Movies (That Hitchcock Never Made)

[teckgecko]

"The best Hitchcock movies (that Hitchcock never made)" is the subject of a blog post I stumbled across and I thought it seemed a fine idea for a collection. I've seeded the collection with the ~40 movies mentioned on the blog, but I've made it public so you're free to add your own as well.

[ShogunRua]

There are certainly many excellent and even all-time great films in that list.

However, I have no clue what makes them "Hitchcock movies". To me, it's just a list of well-regarded pictures with suspense/mystery elements.

Unless "Hitchcock" has suddenly become a replacement word for "suspense/mystery films people liked", the connection is tenuous, if not non-existent.

[TheDenizen]

Unless "Hitchcock" has suddenly become a replacement word for "suspense/mystery films people liked"

I think that's probably the perception of vast swathes of the movie-going public.

[ShogunRua]

Unless "Hitchcock" has suddenly become a replacement word for "suspense/mystery films people liked"

I think that's probably the perception of vast swathes of the movie-going public.

Is it? Most of the movie-going public today has never seen a single film by Hitchcock, and could give a shit less about him. In this particular instance, I don't think that's entirely a bad thing, either.

[TheDenizen]

Is it? Most of the movie-going public today has never seen a single film by Hitchcock, and could give a shit less about him. In this particular instance, I don't think that's entirely a bad thing, either.

you're probably right....I just meant that it's easy to call any mystery/suspense film "Hitchcockian" without really putting any thought into what that means. It's used as a convenient shorthand but doesn't really say very much.

[90sCoffee]

I don't notice any pattern from watching some Hitchcock films tbh. They were across different eras and yes they all involve suspense but to different extents. And tbh, a movie like The Great Escape or Day of The Jackal (also older films) involve more suspense anyways.

Though I would have been very curious to see how he would have handled a detective like Poirot or better yet Sherlock Holmes. Imagine him doing a Hardy Boys film (those books are basically action non-stop and try to keep making suspense). Coincidentally, there was a series of books in the 60s or 70s I think called Alfred Hitchcock's: The Three Investigators. They're well-reviewed, similar to other youth mystery literature but Hitchcock had nothing to do with them outside of a license to use his name to market the books. They then later changed the titles once he was no longer involved and apparently they still make the books in Germany. But Hitchcock's stuff didn't really use child/teen actors from what I've seen.

[Whyte Nite]

Surprised to see no Wages of Fear. Added.

[Ag0stoMesmer]

I watched The Ipcress File (1965) last night. The first few minutes had some some angles and framing that started me thinking of this collection then the hops from third to first person with his glasses being cleaned were very 'bulbs scene in Rear Window'.

Looking at the criteria from that blog post;

Spine-tingling suspense -there was suspense but it's slow pace meant -my spine at least- was untingled
Sly, puckish humor -definitely, not just from Palmer (Cain) but the officers
Memorable characters you couldn’t resist -no important females but the hero (Palmer) was mysterious and cool despite his misogyny
Equally memorable locations -museum district Kensington was a cool backdrop for some of it
Characters who had, shall we say, parental issues (and we don’t just mean Norman Bates!)
[spoiler]Palmers past is deliberately mysterious, rootless (Bond-like?). In the hands of Hitchcock the IPCRESS process itself may have been more Freudian though[/spoiler]

It probably doesn't quite make the collection but there were at least some visual traces of Hitchcock.

[ShogunRua]

Looking at the criteria from that blog post;

It probably doesn't quite make the collection but there were at least some visual traces of Hitchcock.

To be fair, an awful lot of the films mentioned in the blog don't fit their own creator's criteria, either.

[Ag0stoMesmer]

To be fair, an awful lot of the films mentioned in the blog don't fit their own creator's criteria, either.

Only seen 8/49 in the collection so I'll take your word for it, from what I've seen I would question Jaws though.