Classic Movies - Alfred Hitchcock American Films Part 2

Today, let’s talk More Hitchcock American Movie Classics! In this blog, we will shine the spotlight on the great director’s blockbuster hits of the 1950’s. Even with all the success of the previous decade, Alfred Hitchcock really hit his stride in the “fifties”. With the use of elaborate sets, glamorous locales, color, and bigger budgets, many of the best and most creative films of Hitchcock’s genius were born in the 1950’s.

Who will ever forget the classic thrillers so many of us enjoyed, either at the theater or while watching “Saturday Night at the Movies” on TV? Those wonderfully suspenseful films set in such fabulous locations as Morocco, London’s “Albert Hall” Opera House, the French Riviera, San Francisco and Golden Gate Park, The United Nations Building, or high atop Mount Rushmore will always be part of our memories. Other, more mundane, settings of isolated cornfields, rushing trains, amusement parks, and apartment complexes, also come to mind when remembering Hitchcock’s finest films of the “fifties”.

We warmly recommend any of the Hitchcock classics made during that time period. All are legendary and include such tremendous hits as Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), and To Catch a Thief (1955), all starring


Hitchcock’s favorite blonde, Grace Kelly, as well as Ray Milland, James Stewart, and Cary Grant, respectively. James Stewart also starred in the 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much with Doris Day (in which she sang her signature song, “Que Sera, Sera”), and with Kim Novak in 1958’s Vertigo (a film which has reached “dizzying heights” of new-found popularity in the last few years).

Today, we want to focus on two of our favorite “fifties” films of Alfred Hitchcock. One was at the beginning of the decade, the other at the end. Strangers on a Train (1951), starring Farley Granger and Robert Walker, is a childhood favorite that we’ve never forgotten. From the “hypothetical” discussion of crisscross murders between two train-riding strangers, to the murder of Guy's (Granger) unfaithful wife, to the wonderful cat-and-mouse game played by “crazy” Bruno (Walker), to the tension-filled tennis match, to the thrilling finale on a carousel gone wild, Strangers on a Train is marvelous entertainment from the “Master of Suspense”. We will forever associate the old tune, “And the Band Played On” with this movie. Watch it and you will understand why. This film is classic Hitchcock! (Take note of the supporting actress who plays Barbara, the younger sister. That’s Pat Hitchcock, Alfred’s daughter.)

North by Northwest (1959) is the other film we want to focus on today. Starring Cary Grant as a victim of mistaken identity, this action-packed thriller takes him across the U.S. in pursuit of foreign agents, mysterious microfilm, and a beautiful blonde (Eva Marie Saint). From New York City to Chicago and from a Midwestern cornfield to South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore, Hitchcock weaves a complex web of murder, intrigue, romance, and adventure. You will never forget Cary Grant as he runs through the remote cornfield while being shot at from a low-flying airplane, or the climactic chase scene as Grant and Eva Marie Saint climb down the faces of the presidents on Mount Rushmore. North by Northwest is definitely a film to see and see again. Another Hitchcock masterpiece!

**Trivia Question for Today: What did Hitchcock mean by the term, The MacGuffin?

Trivia Answer for Previous Post: According to an AMC biographical presentation called, "Dial H for Hitchcock", the film, Rope, “was a cinematic experiment of twelve extended, unbroken, and unedited takes, with the camera following in real time”. In our own words, there are no fade-ins or fade-outs to other settings or times. The action steadily takes place as it would in the normal course of an evening. Perhaps, that is why Rope is also Hitchcock’s first color film-to add to the realistic quality.