"Hitch" is quite possibly one of the most famous directors of all time. Most people have probably seen one of his films at some time. He was "Sir Alfred" for a brief four months before his death in 1980. He also produced and hosted the television anthology series
Alfred Hitchcock Presents from 1955 to 1965, although he only actually directed a handful of the show's episodes.
Made frequent use of the '
MacGuffin' and popularized the term.
Some films directed by Hitchcock include:
- The Lodger - a silent movie, and the first Hitchcock thriller.
- Blackmail - the first talkie he directed. A young woman kills an attempted rapist in self defense, and a petty thief discovers evidence that suggests it was murder. He tries to blackmail her, but unwittingly winds up implicating himself.
- The Man Who Knew Too Much - A British couple learn about an assassination plot, and the assassins kidnap their daughter to keep them quiet.
- The 39 Steps - source of the quote for Anonymous Ringer.
- Sabotage - An American woman in London suspects her husband is part of a bombing plot. Roiled audiences with its aversion of Infant Immortality.
- The Lady Vanishes - A young playgirl befriends an old woman on a train who disappears without a trace, and discovers a spy ring conspiracy while searching for her.
- Rebecca - a naive young woman marries an independently wealthy widower, but is haunted by the legacy of his deceased first wife Rebecca.
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith - Screwball Comedy about a couple learning their marriage wasn't valid. Not to be confused with the 2005 Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie film.
- Suspicion - A woman suspects that her husband is planning to murder her.
- Saboteur - A Nazi starts a fire at a plane factory and an innocent man gets framed.
- Shadow Of A Doubt - A suburban teenager discovers that her uncle is a serial killer, but nobody believes her.
- Lifeboat - Survivors of a torpedoed ship during WW 2 bicker while confined to a lifeboat.
- Spellbound - A mental hospital gets a new director, but it turns out he has secrets of his own. Has dream sequences designed by Salvador Dali.
- Notorious - A convicted Nazi's American daughter is recruited by government agents to spy on his old friends who are hiding in Argentina.
- Rope - Two young men murder a friend as an intellectual exercise, then put his body in a trunk. Then proceed to host a dinner party off of it.
- Strangers On A Train ...strike up a conversation about the people in their lives they want dead. One suggests they trade murders so they won't get caught. The other one laughs it off. The first guy was serious.
- I Confess - A priest hears a confession of murder from one of his church workers- then is accused of the crime himself.
- Dial M For Murder - A man hires a hitman to bump off his cheating wife (Grace Kelly). However, the hitman ends up being killed by the wife in self-defence, so the man decides to kill her through the judicial system and frames her for murders... Based on a play, it's one of Hitch's best known and an example of a movie Bottle Episode.
- Rear Window - James Stewart plays a photographer with a broken leg and nothing better to do but spy on his neighbors... and do some amateur sleuthing (with the help of Grace Kelly) when he suspects one of them of murder.
- To Catch A Thief - A reformed Gentleman Thief has to clear his name when he's framed for a new spate of burglaries.
- The Trouble With Harry - After Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Hitchcock's only real attempt at comedy. A man dies in a Vermont forest. We discover just how many times you can bury and dig up the same corpse.
- He's in a deep, deep, wonderful sleep.
- The Man Who Knew Too Much - remake of original in which Doris Day and James Stewart get their son kidnapped and "Que Sera, Sera" (the song was written for this film) plays a big part.
- The Wrong Man - Henry Fonda gets falsely accused of robbery. Based on a true story.
- Vertigo - a San Francisco policeman who is afraid of heights revisits a suicide years later when he finds out it was staged.
- North By Northwest - Involving a man, a crop duster and a murder in the UN.
- Psycho - Janet Leigh tries to steal some money and winds up having a fatal encounter in a shower.
- This was a massive shock at the time- films simply did not off their lead a third of the way in. (Still don't, but now we have spoilers on the Internet if they ever do.)
- The Birds - Impossible to describe without it sounding like a B horror film, especially since its premise is one of the classic B horror plots, but it's okay, because everyone already knows what it is about.
- Frenzy - one of the most graphic of Hitch's films, this involves a man being framed for a bunch of sex murders.
- Family Plot - A dark comedy featuring William Devane (Secretary Heller from 24).
- Marnie - A psychological thriller starring Sean Connery married to the titular kleptomaniac.
It should be noted that Hitchcock did
not direct
The Third Man, as is widely believed.
Known for:
