Classic Movies - Alfred Hitchcock American Films Part 1

Today, let’s talk Hitchcock American Movie Classics! Spanning the years from 1940 to 1976, Alfred Hitchcock’s American masterpieces are legendary. In today’s blog, we will highlight some of his finest work of the 1940’s and tell you about several of our favorites.

After moving with his wife, Alma, and young daughter, Patricia, to America in 1940, Hitchcock began his Hollywood career with Selznick Studios and the Academy Award-winning Rebecca, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. This timeless suspense classic, written by Daphne du Maurier, tells the tale of a shy, young bride who arrives at Manderlay estate, only to find herself in dangerous competition with the ghostly memory of her husband’s beautiful and sophisticated first wife, Rebecca. You will never forget the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), as she tries to undermine the new marriage at every turn, refusing to accept anyone, other than her beloved, Rebecca, as mistress of Manderlay. What exactly is the truth behind Rebecca’s death? Was she really a paragon of virtue or the exact opposite? You will just have to watch Rebecca to find out. If you’ve seen it before, you know it is well worth watching again. It is certainly one of Hitchcock’s best and most loved films.

Many more Hitchcock classics would follow and include such hits as Foreign Correspondent (1940), with Joel McCrea and Laraine Day; Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941), a change-of-pace screwball comedy with Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard; Suspicion (1941), with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine; Saboteur (1942), with Robert Cummings and Priscilla Lane (note the memorable Statue of Liberty sequence); Spellbound (1945), with Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman; and Notorious (1946), with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. We highly recommend all of these exceptional motion pictures.

Another particular favorite of ours’, and a personal favorite of Hitchcock, is the chilling Shadow of a Doubt (1943), with Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright. This film brings evil to small town USA in the form of a beloved family member who is, in fact, a serial killer. Imagine the horror at such a discovery! Just what do we know about those people closest to us? What do we know about our neighbors and what goes on behind the walls of their houses? Are those houses, sties, and the people in them, pigs? Those are the questions probed in this thrilling story of a typical American family that is unexpectedly visited by evil personified.

Rope (1948) has never been as critically acclaimed as most of Hitchcock’s classics and many people don’t like it at all, but we find the film very interesting and intriguing, both in style and in storyline. To kill someone (and a friend at that), just to prove you can get away with it (because of intellectual superiority), is very thought provoking. To then hold a party, not only in the room where the corpse is hidden, but with his fiancé and father in attendance, is mind-boggling. With fabulous performances by James Stewart, John Dall, and Farley Granger (except for his obviously “fake” piano-playing), Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope is definitely disturbing and one of a kind. You may like it or you may not, but it really is worth watching.

**Trivia Question for Today: What innovative filming procedure did Alfred Hitchcock implement when making Rope? Check our next blog for the answer.

Trivia Answer for Previous Post: In The Lady Vanishes, Miss Froy
and “a million Mexicans” prefer to drink Harriman’s Herbal Tea.