B&W, the camera follows the murderer and an unwitting young woman into the apartment, and then slowly pulls back, down the hallway and out into the street, still facing the direction of the murderer. Chilling
The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes advance — and honestly, no surprises there. The British period produced two of cinema's most purely enjoyable thrillers and the sub has spoken.
Now we move to Hollywood.
Same rules — top 2 advance to the next round. Poll closes in 3 days.
You may campaign in the comments—reviews, analysis, memes, and shameless propaganda are encouraged.
Upvote this post so every Hitchcock fan in the sub sees it.
Share your dark horse predictions in the comments. Which film will surprise us all?
Invite fellow cinephiles or share the post with anyone who would like to participate.
To keep us pumped, let me repeat what Hitchcock said :
“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.”
The R-rating didn't actually exist when the movie came out. It was re-rated to R in 1984 or something. This means it technically was the highest-grossing R-rated movie in the world retroactively until it was surpassed by Midnight Cowboy in 1969 (which was originally X-rated but later it was re-rated to R too)
I love this movie! I think it’s one of Hitchcock’s most underrated works. It’s set in one room for 90% of the film, but you never feel stuck. Also found it interesting that some of the ads feature Jimmy Stewart who is really only in about half the movie and primarily the third act. Highly recommend this film if you haven’t seen it.
So I was rewatching psycho and I was confused about how the highway patrol officer was able to find Marion at the car dealership when earlier he stopped following her on the highway and turned off on the exit to Gorman. If he stopped following her, how was he able to find her at the car dealership? Usually plot holes don’t bug me, but for some reason it sticks out to me every time I watch it.
The time has come to settle the ultimate question—with your votes. Over the coming weeks, we’re going to put (almost) every single Alfred Hitchcock feature film to the test in a chronological, elimination-style tournament right here.
Going from The Lodger to Family Plot, we'll cover all the best Hitchcock films, to discover the favourite Hitchcock film on this subred.
From each preliminary poll, the 2 films with the most votes advance to the next poll. In the final, winner-takes-all poll we’ll crown the sub’s undisputed #1 Hitchcock film.
Rules-
A new poll will be pinned (or posted) every 3 days to give everyone time to watch, rewatch, and passionately defend their choices.
Ties for 2nd place will be broken by a 24-hour sudden-death run-off.
You may campaign in the comments—reviews, analysis, memes, and shameless propaganda are encouraged.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Upvote this post so every Hitchcock fan in the sub sees it.
Share your dark horse predictions in the comments. Which film will surprise us all?
Invite fellow cinephiles from r/classicfilms, r/criterion, r/movies—anyone who appreciates a well-constructed suspense sequence.
Let the games begin. And as Hitch himself would say:
“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.”
I thought this was interesting. Basically, Marion fights back during the attempted shower murder, kills Norman, and it sets her off on what sounds like an anti-hero murder spree. Since Psycho is my favorite movie of any genre, I pre-ordered this one on Amazon as soon as I found out about it.
If, at the end of Vertigo, everything was a setup by Gavin Elster, like the elderly manager of the McKittrick Hotel He didn't see Madeleine Elster/Judie Barton enter his establishment If in the end it was a plan devised by Gavin using Barton, without any supernatural assistance as far as we know?
10: the birds-no birdshit Sherlock
9: suspicion-it’s Cary grant.
8: Rebecca-a character who is never shown in the movie
7: spellbound-it’s spellbinding.
6: vertigo-no, i refuse to put it at number one. I don’t care how nightmarish surreal or disturbing it is i won’t change my mind. It’s still a masterpiece though.
5: notorious-well it’s Cary grant.
4: strangers on a train-a classic of it’s tone, style and genre. The only thing that could make this film better would be Danny DeVito. Oh wait that already happened.
3: shadow of a doubt-do i even have to say anymore?
2: north by northwest-his eyes are sensitive to questions.
1: rear window-no explanation necessary
and no i still haven’t seen psycho.
Not sure how this ever started but Truffaut asked him about it during their interviews for his book:
F.T. I take it that of all your pictures you’ve made, Shadow of a Doubt is the one you prefer. And yet it gives a rather distorted idea of the Hitchcock touch. I feel that the film which provides the most accurate image of the ensemble of your work, as well as of your style, is Notorious.
A.H. I wouldn’t say that Shadow of a Doubt is my favorite picture; if I’ve given that impression, it’s probably because I feel that here is something our friends the plausibles and logicians cannot complain about.
I guess it bothers me that this keeps getting repeated because Shadow isn’t my favorite of his either. It isn’t in my top ten. His late masterpieces like Psycho and Vertigo are so much bigger and richer. They’re fully realized works of a mature artist extending the form of cinema. Take, for example, the long sequences of Stewart following Novak around San Francisco, or Norman cleaning up after Marion’s murder. This is the “pure cinema” that AH mastered in his later years. It’s magnificent.
Okay, thanks for listening. Just had to get that off my chest.
Was he the victim of an aggrieved biographer?
I know this is borderline sacrilegious, but after rewatching Rear Window, I genuinely think Jimmy Stewart is miscast in it.
Not because he’s a bad actor — he’s good in plenty of things — but because the film keeps treating him like a youthful, dangerously attractive bachelor when he already feels visibly middle-aged, physically feeble, and romantically “settled” in spirit.
Everyone around him talks as though he’s this adventurous rogue who still needs to grow up and get married. But realistically, a man pushing 50 in the 1950s who still hadn’t settled down wouldn’t be treated like an eligible bachelor anymore. People would’ve simply accepted: “that’s just who he is.”
And then there’s Grace Kelly...
The movie presents her as utterly enchanted by Stewart, willing to throw herself into this glamorous life of danger and travel with him, but Stewart doesn’t project that energy at all in the film. He looks tired, soft, frail.
The scenes where he’s shirtless are especially jarring and make you realize how strange the casting actually is: he looks meek and feeble...almost geriatric...the opposite of the gung-ho, swashbuckling photographer the film depicts him as. The romantic dynamic starts feeling psychologically implausible.
So out of curiosity, I replaced Stewart with young Paul Newman using AI tools, and suddenly the movie clicked: see here
The chemistry made sense. The resistance to marriage made sense. The voyeuristic curiosity became seductive rather than passive and...well, creepy, honestly. Grave Kelly's adventurous fantasy of taking off alongside him suddenly felt plausible.
Which got me thinking:
I genuinely think future generations won’t just watch “fixed” versions of films. They’ll watch personalized interpretations of them.
Alternate casts. Different performances. Different pacing. Subtle tonal recalibrations. Maybe even swapped musical scores or revised effects.
Not to replace originals; but to create parallel versions, almost like alternate stagings of a play.
Curated, personalized watch parties!
These are the ones I have watched already:
Vertigo
To catch a thief
The birds
Strangers on a train
Spellbound
Rope
Rebecca
Rear window
Psycho
Notorious
North by northwest
Dial M for murder