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What is Alfred Hitchcock's signature movie? (1 Viewer)

Signature Movie

  • The Lady Vanishes

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Rebecca

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Lifeboat

    Votes: 1 0.9%

  • Rope

    Votes: 1 0.9%

  • Strangers on a Train

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Dial M for Murder

    Votes: 3 2.7%

  • Rear Window

    Votes: 13 11.6%

  • The Man who knew too much

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Vertigo

    Votes: 8 7.1%

  • North by Northwest

    Votes: 9 8.0%

  • Psycho

    Votes: 70 62.5%

  • The Birds

    Votes: 7 6.3%

  • Marnie

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    112
If we're identifying "signature movie" by what he's most known for it has to be "Psycho" and maybe "The Birds" or "North By Northwest" second. I do love "Rear Window" as well.

 
Voted Psycho.  Don't feel it's his best, but it's the most definitive and recognizable.  Shot-for-shot remake (by Gus Van Sant) and modern day show (Bates Motel) speak to the staying power and classic nature it holds decade after decade.

My favorite is Rear Window.  Fantastic film that's rewatachable.  Always felt Hitchcock should have had his cameo in a longer window shot vs walking in the alley, but I read he was concerned viewers were getting distracted by it so he wanted to put it early in the film.

Loved North By Northwest. Favorite 'notice' is when the gun is shot at Mt. Rushmore...the kid actor next to the shot had gone through so many takes that he clearly is flinching early in the one they kept in the film.

 
Psycho clearly but it’s not one of my favorites from him. I prefer Rear Window, NxNW, Strangers on a Train, Notorious, Shadow of a Doubt

 
Strong case that Shadow of a Doubt, The 39 Steps and Notorious are his best movies and they didn't make the list. That is how good Hitch was. 

 
Voted Psycho, it's not close. Groundbreaking film for so many reasons. For the time, it was extremely violent and risque, it killed the main character halfway through the film, the final big reveal, etc.

That said, Rear Window is my favorite, followed closely by Rebecca and Dial M.

 
I just saw North by Northwest for the first time last week and really enjoyed it. 

Psycho was, is and will always be amazing. 

I still need to see many of his others.  I have put them off for too long. 

 
Psycho is Hitchcock's best known film but it's not really representative of his work.   Psycho is a little movie shot on a low budget using Hitchcock's TV crew.  He usually worked on a much grander canvas.

Hitchcock's career stretched back to the silent era in Britain.  He always made his little cameos but his TV appearances in the late fifties gave him tremendous fame by the time he shot Psycho.  Directors in 1960 were generally anonymous but Hitch's name was the one above the title in Psycho.

 
Before seeing the list of movies I thought of Psycho, then thought of Read Window (my personal favorite), then thought of Dial M for Murder.  The list of movies is incredible and shows how great Hitchcock was. 

 
Eephus said:
Psycho is Hitchcock's best known film but it's not really representative of his work.   Psycho is a little movie shot on a low budget using Hitchcock's TV crew.  He usually worked on a much grander canvas.

Hitchcock's career stretched back to the silent era in Britain.  He always made his little cameos but his TV appearances in the late fifties gave him tremendous fame by the time he shot Psycho.  Directors in 1960 were generally anonymous but Hitch's name was the one above the title in Psycho.
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Psycho actually was an outlier but it was also a culmination and it seems a direction Hitch would have headed a lot earlier if he didn't have to fight the code. I honestly believe the great director felt horror in his nuts and wanted to play it that way all along. There's dozen Hitchcock pictures i like better but voted for the outlier

 
gianmarco said:
Nope. In fact, I realized I've never seen any Hitchcock movie. I've seen scenes from them and know about some of them but that's about it. 

Might be something I get into soon.
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Oh interesting. Haven't seen many old movies or is it a specfic blind spot with Hitch?

 
gianmarco said:
Nope. In fact, I realized I've never seen any Hitchcock movie. I've seen scenes from them and know about some of them but that's about it. 

Might be something I get into soon.
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:thumbup:

Definitely. He really hit his stride in his mid-50s / early-60s. Rear View Mirror Window, Veritgo, North by Northwest and  Pyscho were made within a six year span and are consistently ranked among the greatest films of all-time. My personal favorite is The Birds, for personal reasons - scariest film I remember from childhood.

Hitchcock’s own personal (favorite was) Shadow of a Doubt.

 
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BobbyLayne said:
:thumbup:

Definitely. He really got his stride in his mid-50s / early-60s. Rear View Mirror, Veritgo, North by Northwest and  Pyscho were made within a six year span and are consistently ranked among the greatest films of all-time. My personal favorite is The Birds, for personal reasons - scariest film I remember from childhood.

Hitchcock’s own personal (favorite was) Shadow of a Doubt.
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Hitchcock's later films are more accessible to modern audiences.  They're in color (mostly) and have high production values that generally hold up well (except for ancient rear screen projection effects).

His early Hollywood films are a bit more dated but are worth a watch.  Everything that makes late-period Hitch great is there in his early work--you just have to look a little harder for it.  Shadow of a Doubt is excellent as are Notorious, Rebecca, Saboteur, and Foreign Correspondent.

His UK films are an acquired taste for me outside of The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes.

 
Ilov80s said:
Oh interesting. Haven't seen many old movies or is it a specfic blind spot with Hitch?
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Old movies.  In fact, I think Casablanca might be the only old movie I've seen. Even some holiday classics like It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th St I've never seen.

Just never got around to seeing any.

 
gianmarco said:
Old movies.  In fact, I think Casablanca might be the only old movie I've seen. Even some holiday classics like It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th St I've never seen.

Just never got around to seeing any.
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Casablanca is a great movie with a brilliant script and perfect casting.  But I think it seems older in its style and sensibilities than Hitchcock's works from the same period.  It's essentially a filmed stage melodrama.

Hitchcock is always cinematic--his eye never stops observing even when the whole movie takes place in a lifeboat or a single, uninterrupted shot.  His post-war films also have a sensuality about them that seems modern, even when the attitudes are not.

 
gianmarco said:
Old movies.  In fact, I think Casablanca might be the only old movie I've seen. Even some holiday classics like It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th St I've never seen.

Just never got around to seeing any.
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Cool, check out the movie club thread if interested in catching up on some older movies. 

 
Eephus said:
Hitchcock's later films are more accessible to modern audiences.  They're in color (mostly) and have high production values that generally hold up well (except for ancient rear screen projection effects).

His early Hollywood films are a bit more dated but are worth a watch.  Everything that makes late-period Hitch great is there in his early work--you just have to look a little harder for it.  Shadow of a Doubt is excellent as are Notorious, Rebecca, Saboteur, and Foreign Correspondent.

His UK films are an acquired taste for me outside of The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes.
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I also think Billy Wilder movies hold up exceptionally well. He wrote with a very modern POV.

 
Shadow of a Doubt is fun to watch from the perspective thst it's a vampire movie.

Notorious is just plain great.

 
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Patrick Bateman said:
Surprised that VERTIGO isn't getting love. 
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This the 2nd best answer IMO just because it has gotten so much traction amongst established critics lately and has shot up to the top of AFI, Sight and Sound lists that it has the potential to be the film most associated with Hitchcock in 20 years. 

 
This might be the toughest one we’ve done...because my favorite is NBNW but I recognize the impact of Psycho.  It invented the genre even though I think as a movie compared to his other work...it is not his best.

 
North By Northwest . NBN is the blueprint for the modern action blockbuster. 

Surprised my 2nd favorite Hitchcock movie ,  Notorious , didn’t make the list. Good story, beautifully shot and great cast , Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman & Claude Rains

 
personal rankings:

1 NxNW

2. Rebecca

3. Rear Window

4. Suspicion

5. Vertigo (would be higher if Kim Novak's eyebrows weren't the scariest thing Hitch ever produced)

....but voted Psycho

ETA: and i fall asleep to Alfred Hitchcock Presents on ME-TV virtually every nite so am everlastingly grateful to the ol' man

 
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Certainly a tough choice.   Hitchcock was brilliant.  Psycho is the answer to the original question but it probably isn't his best work.  

 
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