Suspicion

An unassuming woman (Joan Fontaine) seeming destined for spinsterhood, and heir to a modest fortune, is swept off her feet by a charming layabout (Cary Grant) who soon arouses her paranoia that she is his target for murder. Light, even unplotted and silly, Hitchcock's Suspicion is made worthwhile by great direction, its stars, and Nigel Bruce in an amusing supporting role.

*** out of ****

Shadow of a Doubt

With the police closing in on him, the Merry Widow Murderer (Joseph Cotten) travels cross country to his family home in Santa Rosa, California and the company of his adoring niece (Teresa Wright) who slowly begins to unravel the unsavory truth about her cagey and mysterious uncle. Alfred Hitchcock’s self-proclaimed favorite film is an ingeniously crafted, creatively detailed, and slyly subversive work with Wright assuredly carrying the film, Cotton making a sinister villain, and Hume Cronyn hysterically funny in his film debut as the next door neighbor with a predilection for the macabre.

**** out of ****

Lifeboat

Eight passengers man a lifeboat after their ship is torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, which is also simultaneously struck. When the sub's captain is pulled aboard, he is greeted with hostility and paranoia although his knowledge of the sea may be the only thing guiding the vessel to safety or peril. Confined entirely to the small craft, Lifeboat may be Alfred Hitchcock's most atypical work though it is creaky and plays almost like social theater of the era. An excellent cast buoys the production with standouts including Tellulah Bankhead as a spoiled and worldly journalist, William Bendix as a wounded traveler, Hume Cronyn as a novice sailor, and Walter Slezak as the shifty German.

*** out of ****

The 39 Steps

Shots ring out in a London Vaudevillian theater, an attempt to create a distraction by a female agent who finds herself in the flat of one the show’s attendees (Robert Donat). Now, he is thrust into the serpentine plot that takes him to the Scottish Mores where he is both pursuing and pursued by the deadly, clandestine eponymous spy ring. Slyly conceived and brilliantly realized, The 39 Steps is a supreme entertainment that anticipated not just some of Alfred Hitchcock's future work but also inspired many successful, subsequent thrillers.

**** out of ****

The Lady Vanishes

After being snowed in at a remote Eastern European inn, almost all the members of a passenger train have a motive for concealing their awareness of the existence of a sweet little old lady who seemingly vanished into thin air while a recent acquaintance (Margaret Lockwood) and a cynical musician (Michael Redgrave) suspect a conspiracy and attempt to rally a search party. Sharp and witty, early pre-Hollywood Hitchcock success is a crisply made mystery and veritable entertainment. Lockwood and Redgrave shine in the leads and Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne stand out as nitwit, cricket obsessed travelling companions.

**** out of ****

Family Plot

A psychic (Barbara Harris) employs her out of work actor boyfriend and part time cab driver/private investigator (Bruce Dern) to locate the long lost son of a client given up years ago for adoption as their schemes intersect those of a pair of highly skilled high profile kidnappers (William Devane and Karen Black). Alfred Hitchcock kept his touch right until this final film, on which he reunited with North by Northwest screenwriter Ernest Lehman. Family Plot is excitingly edited, with a thrilling finale (plus another amusing out of control car sequence) with dialogue that is a little too tongue in cheek and welcomed performances from Harris, Dern, and Devane.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Marnie

A young woman (Tippi Hedren) routinely procures secretarial work and proceeds to rip off her employers before making off into the night. When one of her victim's clients (Sean Connery) discovers her treachery, he arranges to acquaint and marry the thief, largely in part to understand her pathology and have her confront its source. With Marnie, Alfred Hitchcock explores similar obsessive, psychological territory as he did with Vertigo and handles a bizarre story with style and flair. Hedren's character journeys to unexpected places and she offers a thorough and multifaceted performance, though Connery's character is somewhat underdone and comparatively let off the hook.
*** 1/2 out of ****

Frenzy

A serial rapist/strangler has been terrorizing the women of London and the manhunt focuses on a cagey, alcoholic, unemployed ex-airman (Jon Finch), a perfect candidate for the crime which he so inconveniently happens to be perfectly innocent of committing. For his penultimate film, Alfred Hitchcock returned to his mother country and his favorite plot line, that of the wrong man innocently accused, for a film that leaves little to the imagination but is no less masterful than any of his finest, widely known outings. Manipulating the audience with great facility, Frenzy is a compulsively watchable, darkly funny film featuring several memorable scenes (including an early one where you gradually realize along with a principle character that she will not be able to talk her way out of a jam and a later one where her corpse presents an original and maddening problem for the killer), an enjoyably gruff performance from Finch, and a virtuoso at the top of his game at the end of an unprecedented run.

Vertigo

A detective suffering from the title condition, and recently retired from the force, is hired by an old college chum to shadow his wife, who seems to be experiencing some sort of spiritual possession. As he follows her through her journeys through San Francisco, he quickly falls in love with her, a love that will turn into obsession when a sudden tragedy strikes. Alfred Hitchock's "Vertigo" is a dark, complex, and hypnotic film and one of The Master's finest works. Shot with a brilliant use of color, plotted with carefully constructed pacing, and underscored by Bernard Hermann's ominous score, "Vertigo" works like a charm whether its your first time viewing or your tenth. Jimmy Stewart delivers one of his best and certainly his darkest performances and Kim Novak is effectively cold as the mysterious blonde he is hired to follow. "Vertigo" is a twisted and sumptuous journey and an intricate construction the likes of which have seldom been found in a Hollywood movie.

North by Northwest

Tonight at the Cleveland Cinemateque, Turner Classic Movies presented Robert Osbourne and Eva Marie Saint as they participated in a question and answer session before screening North by Northwest. It proved to be a truly wonderful evening indeed. Osbourne proved to be as fine of a host as he is when introducing classic films on television and by the time Mrs. Saint took the stage still carrying herself with a movie star swagger, the crowd roared and from the second last row she still appeared to look the same as that beautiful young woman who seduces Cary Grant aboard the Chicago bound train. During her address to the crowd and the Q&A session, she appeared vibrant, witty, funny, and altogether lovely. A perfect introduction to a magnificent from a classic actress.

North by Northwest is one of those few films that I have held dear since childhood that I always make a point of seeing when I have a chance. It is mentioned in the shortlist as one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films, but never mentioned as the best, which is usually reserved for Vertigo, Psycho, or Rear Window. Still, it is no less than the most entertaining and crackling of his films. It has a wrong man's plot, one of Hitch's favorites, and involves a Madison Avenue ad man (a droll and wonderful Cary Grant) getting mistaken for a government agent by dangerous espionage types, a mistake which will put him in harm's way several times, lead him into the arms of a mysterious woman (the wonderful Mrs. Saint), and lead him across the country by way of plain, train and automobile. The plot is so silly it would surely spell disaster in any other hands, but thanks to a smart script from Ernest Lehman (West Side Story, Sweet Smell of Success), brilliant direction by the master, a bristling score by Bernard Herrmann, and wonderful acting from Grant, Saint, and James Mason as the wry and debonair bad guy. Filled with sly humor and many memorable scenes including the unforgettable crop dusting scene and the finale atop Mt. Rushmore, North by Northwest is a trip always worth the ride