Hitchcock (American period): best to worst
by Teyss | created - 13 Apr 2020 | updated - 08 Jun 2022 | PublicExcludes British period (pre-1940), shorts and TV films. Listed roughly by artistic and historical importance (1 = most important).
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1. Vertigo (1958)
PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Votes: 427,294 | Gross: $3.20M
2. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Passed | 108 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
A teenage girl, overjoyed when her favorite uncle comes to visit the family in their quiet California town, slowly begins to suspect that he is in fact the "Merry Widow" killer sought by the authorities.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey, Henry Travers
Votes: 70,542
Masterpiece about good/evil, truth/lies, appearance/reality. Magnificently ambiguous Cotten.
3. North by Northwest (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis
Votes: 346,382 | Gross: $13.28M
A genre on its own.
4. Notorious (1946)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
The daughter of a convicted German spy is asked by American agents to gather information on a ring of German scientists in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern
Votes: 107,336 | Gross: $10.46M
Essentially a romance: the thriller is a pretext.
5. Rear Window (1954)
PG | 112 min | Mystery, Thriller
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his Greenwich Village courtyard apartment window and, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter
Votes: 522,505 | Gross: $36.76M
6. Suspicion (1941)
Approved | 99 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
A shy young heiress marries a charming gentleman, and soon begins to suspect he is planning to murder her.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce
Votes: 42,470 | Gross: $4.50M
Persistent ambiguity until the very end.
7. Rebecca (1940)
Approved | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson
Votes: 146,860 | Gross: $4.36M
Romantic, nostalgic, haunting.
8. The Wrong Man (1956)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, Film-Noir
In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone
Votes: 31,387
Arguably Hitch's most subdued feature. Includes criticism about flawed justice: potentially we're all guilty.
9. The Trouble with Harry (1955)
PG | 99 min | Comedy, Mystery
Harry's dead and, while no one really minds, everyone feels responsible. After Harry's body is found in the woods, several locals must determine not only how and why he was killed but what to do with the body.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine, Edmund Gwenn, Mildred Natwick
Votes: 41,294
Macabre farce.
10. To Catch a Thief (1955)
PG | 106 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A retired jewel thief sets out to prove his innocence after being suspected of returning to his former occupation.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams
Votes: 79,822 | Gross: $8.75M
More than simply amusing.
11. I Confess (1953)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A priest, who comes under suspicion for murder, cannot clear his name without breaking the seal of the confessional.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne
Votes: 23,289
So simple and forceful it almost becomes abstract. Includes criticism about police methods.
12. Lifeboat (1944)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, War
Several survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship in World War II find themselves in the same lifeboat with one of the crew members of the U-boat that sank their ship.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, William Bendix
Votes: 31,195
Unjustly unknown.
13. Under Capricorn (1949)
Approved | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A young gentleman goes to Australia where he reunites with his now married childhood sweetheart, only to find out she has become an alcoholic and harbors dark secrets.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Michael Wilding, Margaret Leighton
Votes: 8,118
Unique film in Hitch's American period.
14. Psycho (1960)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Votes: 718,875 | Gross: $32.00M
Technically impeccable.
15. Stage Fright (1950)
Approved | 110 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
A struggling actress tries to help a friend prove his innocence after he's accused of murdering the husband of a high-society entertainer.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Marlene Dietrich, Jane Wyman, Richard Todd, Michael Wilding
Votes: 16,170
If only for the "fake flashback" at the beginning.
16. The Paradine Case (1947)
Approved | 125 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A happily married London barrister falls in love with the accused poisoner he is defending.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn
Votes: 12,396
If only for the fabulous cast and the circular shot on Jourdan walking behind Valli.
17. Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Passed | 120 min | Action, Romance, Thriller
On the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders
Votes: 23,737 | Gross: $3.48M
Historically interesting.
18. Saboteur (1942)
Passed | 109 min | Thriller, War
A young man accused of sabotage goes on the run to prove his innocence.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, Otto Kruger, Alan Baxter
Votes: 28,000
Historically interesting.
19. Strangers on a Train (1951)
PG | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A psychopathic man tries to forcibly persuade a tennis star to agree to his theory that two strangers can get away with murder by submitting to his plan to kill the other's most-hated person.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Leo G. Carroll
Votes: 141,092 | Gross: $7.63M
Splendid lighting and shadows.
20. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
PG | 120 min | Drama, Thriller
An American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young son is kidnapped.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda de Banzie, Bernard Miles
Votes: 69,642 | Gross: $10.25M
Slightly inferior to the 1934 version.
21. Spellbound (1945)
Approved | 111 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Romance
A psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll
Votes: 52,271 | Gross: $7.00M
Flawed but intriguing.
22. Dial M for Murder (1954)
PG | 105 min | Crime, Thriller
A former tennis star arranges the murder of his adulterous wife.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams
Votes: 188,967 | Gross: $0.01M
Entertaining.
23. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
A couple who have been married for three years are shocked to learn that their marriage is not legally valid.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery, Gene Raymond, Jack Carson
Votes: 11,323
Hitch was better at including comedy in thrillers than at full-length comedies.
24. Marnie (1964)
PG | 130 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Mark marries Marnie although she is a habitual thief and has serious psychological problems, and tries to help her confront and resolve them.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Martin Gabel, Louise Latham
Votes: 53,905 | Gross: $7.00M
Mix of impressive elements and inflated ones.
25. Rope (1948)
Approved | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two men attempt to prove they committed the perfect crime by hosting a dinner party after strangling their former classmate to death.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Dick Hogan
Votes: 153,809
(Seemingly) single-shot, real-time movie... and then?
26. The Birds (1963)
PG-13 | 119 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette
Votes: 204,683 | Gross: $11.40M
Mildly frightening.
27. Family Plot (1976)
PG | 120 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A phony psychic/con artist and her taxi driver/actor boyfriend encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while trailing a missing heir in California.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Karen Black, Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris, William Devane
Votes: 24,848
Decent second-degree style.
28. Torn Curtain (1966)
PG | 128 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
An American scientist publicly defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the solution for a formula resin before planning an escape back to the West.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova, Hansjörg Felmy
Votes: 29,274
Mildly entertaining.
29. Topaz (1969)
M/PG | 143 min | Drama, Thriller
A French Intelligence Agent becomes embroiled in the Cold War politics first with uncovering the events leading up to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and then back to France to break up an international Russian spy ring.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, John Vernon, Karin Dor
Votes: 19,565 | Gross: $8.37M
Slightly less bad than its reputation.
30. Frenzy (1972)
R | 116 min | Thriller
A serial murderer is strangling women with a necktie. The London police have a suspect, but he is the wrong man.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Anna Massey
Votes: 49,441 | Gross: $12.60M
Hitch's typical ingredients... oddly assembled.
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