Happy 113th, Hitch!

Hitchcock and Friend

I'm pretty sure I posted about Hitch's birthday last year, but I'm too lazy (and too sick with a very nasty Summer cold) to look it up. Director Alfred Hitchcock made the 20th Century's most iconic thrillers and in 1960, changed the movie-going habits of America. Audiences used to show up for movies whenever they felt like it, often entering a movie that was already in-progress and sticking around for the next show to see what they missed. By insisting that no-one be allowed to enter the theatre after the first ten minutes of Psycho (the grandfather of all 'slasher' movies), Hitchcock forced audiences to arrive before the movie started.Psycho also upended audience's expectations by killing it's star in the movie's first act, something unheard of previously.

Of course, Hitch is famous for more than just that. He created the term MacGuffin and knew that the suspense of climbing a rollercoaster's first hill was far worse than the drop. He famously said about building suspense (you should excuse the paraphrasing here): "Place a bomb under a table at a meeting which only the audience knows is there," or something to affect. He also said (directly quoting here):

"The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder."And rather infamously, he is known for saying that "Actors should be treated like cattle." As much as I admire his films, I have to disagree with that particular sentiment.

Among my personal favorite Hitchcock films are:

Psycho:

Strangers on a Train: 

North by Northwest:

Rope:

Rear Window:

The Birds:

And of course, his masterpiece (widely derided by critics upon its initial release), Vertigo: 

Hitch was also famous for making cameo appearances in his own films. Here (via) is a video compilation of all of his cameos: 

Modern filmmakers owe an incredible debt to Hitchcock. He may have been (from many accounts) a bastard, but he created some of the most indelible images and films of all of all time. Personally, I don't know a single member of my generation who doesn't know and love at least one of his films. 

More, anon.

Prospero

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Happy Birthday, Hitch

Today is the 112th Birthday of probably the greatest movie director of all time, Alfred Hitchcock. By all accounts a bully on the set, Hitchcock's methods probably wouldn't be tolerated today. Still, say what you will about the man, he got the results he wanted and they usually paid off.

Ask me to name 10 of the greatest horror movies of all time, and 2 of them will be his. Ask me to name 10 of the greatest thrillers of all time, and 5 will be his.

I won't go on and on about his style and his camera work or even his obsession with beautiful blondes. There are enough books written about him and his films to fill an entire library. What I will go on about is the enduring quality of his movies. 31 years after his death, we still revere and talk about his movies (not to mention watch them over and over again). And while we may say a movie is "Speilbergian" or "Lynchian" or even "Felliniesque," he is probably the first director to have an adjective named for him. You know when a film is described as "Hitchcockian," you are in for a treat.

And there was also his TV series, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." At a time when the major studios feared television would kill the industry, Hitchcock embraced it. His weekly forays into the macabre are just as good as his films and his corny appearances at the beginning and end of each episode are iconic, if only for the fabulous silhouette into which he walked each week. So, to honor his memory (and my love of his works), here are a few of my favorite Hitchcock moments:

Who else would kill his star in the first 20 minutes of the picture?



Damn, Rod Taylor was hot!



Perhaps Bernard Herrman's best score of all time...



So creepy...



Jimmy Stewart... No!



Farley Granger... No!



Perry Mason... No!

If you younger readers are unfamiliar with the master's works, line up his films in your Netflix queue ASAP. You're missing out on true geniius.

Happy Birthday, Hitch. And thanks for so many great movie and TV memories.

More, anon.
Prospero

You have read this article Alfred Hitchcock / Directors / Genius / Horror / Movies / Suspense / Thrillers / TV with the title Suspense. You can bookmark this page URL http://tammycross.blogspot.com/2011/08/happy-birthday-hitch.html. Thanks!