Any discussion regarding Alfred Hitchcock's greatest films is going to include Vertigo. Is that 1958 film Hitch's masterpiece? Some would say yes -- others would say Psycho, or Rear Window, or North By Northwest, or ... well, you get the idea. Rereleased last year on DVD as part of Universal's Legacy Series, the 2-disc Special Edition of Vertigo is a shining upgrade for one of the most important films ever committed to celluloid.Neurosis (not to mention psychosis) have long been part of The Ma...
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Yes, Mattel Inc. has really gone and created a toy guaranteed to give your child nightmares ... that is, if they have any clue what it's about, which they probably won't. Then again, educating children on the genius of Alfred Hitchcock can't start soon enough as far as I'm concerned.According to the official site:"In 1963, Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, gave us a tale of terror not soon forgotten in his film “The Birds.” Dressed in a re-creation of the stylish green skir...
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Because Halloween is almost upon us, I thought I'd post some fare more apropos of the season. While perusing Hulu's Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hithcock Hour channels (same show, 1955-1965, different running times), I stumbled upon an episode I'd never seen, which many consider the series' best, entitled An Unlocked Window.The story is as simple as it is classic: two nurses watch after a bedridden man in a spooky old house, while a murderer with a penchant for candy stripers is on ...
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Shot in 1973, film historian Richard Schickel's multi-part documentary The Men Who Made The Movies is a fascinating look at cinema and its more distinctive auteurs. Never more so than when he interviewed Alfred Hitchcock and got the Master of Suspense to talk at length regarding some of his most infamous films.If you read an earlier post called HITCHCOCKED! -- regarding a brief-but-fascinating documentary about the filmmaker -- this doc is much more in-depth, featuring Hitch himself explaining ...
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I've written at length on this site about my passion for the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Most recently about Psycho and Notorious. To those young readers who are unfamiliar with the movies of this undisputed Master of Suspense, I offer the following primer: HITCHCOCKED!Produced in 2006 by Starz, this documentary packs a bevy of fascinating info into its all-too-brief 25-minute running time. Fillmmakers as diverse as Larry Cohen, Keith Gordon, Joe Dante, Carl Franklin, Ernest Dickerson and Sean...
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WORDSLINGER'S NOTE: Having thinned out my Categories recently, I'm not sure where to file this post. DVD Reviews? Pop Culture? The Auteurs? Screw it, let's just put this under The Best Damn Movies Ever. That would make this ... Part Five. Or is it Six?What's the scariest movie of all time? Jaws? Alien? The Exorcist? The Shining? The Thing? Night of the Living Dead? No matter your taste, any top ten list of the most blood-chilling films ever made, would have to include (near the top) ...
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WORDSLINGER'S NOTE: Part Four in a series highlighting films that may have escaped the notice of younger film lovers.If you frequent this site, you've no doubt seen the plethora of PSYCHO movie banners in page rotation. I'm a longtime Hitchcock aficionado, so I'm surprised I've waited this long to post anything regarding his work. I intend to remedy that right now.While I've long considered Hitchcock's top 5 films to be Rear Window, Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho and The Birds, over recen...
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When it comes to filmmaking, I've said for years there is a fine line between homage and rip-off. With that in mind, I think no other filmmaker has straddled this line quite so successfully as Brian De Palma. His early films, especially those from the 70s and 80s, were by and large "Hitchcockian" thrillers. What was so shocking about them -- other than the obvious subject matter -- was the extent they actually succeeded in spite of their obvious nods to the British Master of Suspense. But he...
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