|Patrick Clifford| In the 1976 film Family Plot, the word plot refers to a piece of land where a family is seemingly buried. The family who owns the plot is the Shoebridge family. Both details say very little about the “storyline” definition of plot. But Family Plot is a film by Alfred Hitchcock… Continue reading
|Wil McMillen| Sometimes you see a thing, and then you can’t unsee it. I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, but I’m about to ruin the ending of North by Northwest for you. I blame my wife for this. Proceed with caution if you don’t want to know how the magic works. When we were dating… Continue reading
|Andrew Neill| Let’s start with a trigger warning for the film Rear Window: the dog dies. The sensitivity around this subject is prevalent, powerful, and worthy of respect. There’s a whole site where a community of people compile trigger warnings for sensitive content in media… Continue reading
|Courtney Kowalke| If I were a character in Rear Window (1954), I would be the woman who lives above Lars and Anna Thorwald with her husband and their dog. I have thought about this a lot—Rear Window is one of my all-time favorite movies. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched… Continue reading
|Clare Brownlee| Hitchcock is considered one of the enduring masters of the horror genre, and his 1960 film Psycho is no exception to that renowned filmography. It not only started a new kind of horror movie entirely, but maintains a legacy as one of the greatest in the genre. I’m not… Continue reading
|Matthew Christensen| “News Item” Men seldom make passes At girls who wear glasses. -Dorothy Parker Let me start off by saying that I never fully understood Scottie Ferguson’s obsession with Madeleine Elster in Hitchcock’s Vertigo. I mean, I get why he falls for her. Kim Novak—playing the part in perfectly coiffed white-blonde hair… Continue reading
|Allison Vincent| I do not identify as a time travel girly. Movies where the laws of time and space are bent need strong foundations for me to enjoy them, otherwise I find myself inundated with intrusive thoughts about logic, the “rules of the universe” (those generated by the… Continue reading
|Lucas Hardwick| ***No surprises here: spoilers ahead.*** In the broad scope of the human struggle, few things are as relentless as the churning juggernaut of unwashed laundry. Every day, we peel off layers of clothes only to put on more layers of clothes that we eventually peel off… Continue reading
|Joseph Tin| In the October 1966 issue of American Cinematographer, Alfred Hitchcock relates an evening at the matinee to the awful experience of having a nightmare: “When you have a nightmare, it’s awfully vivid if you’re dreaming that you’re being led to the electric chair. Continue reading
|Andrew Neill| I have never seen the 1949 film Under Capricorn, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. I freely (and quite bravely) admitted this in my pitch to the benevolent editors of this blog. On April 10th, when the film screens at the historic Heights Theater, I will be sitting… Continue reading
|Bill Nelson| HOROSCOPE FOR THOSE BORN UNDER THE SIGN OF CAPRICORN:(1) DECEMBER 3, 1831(2). As the Book says, we may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.(3) Your own past will visit you this month in unpleasant ways,(4) causing you to doubt your choices Continue reading
|Doug Carmoody| Alfred Hitchcock’s British films trade heavily in spycraft and international intrigue, but lightly in specificity. Each of The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, and Sabotage feature spy rings embedded in Britain, dedicated to extracting British secrets or… Continue reading
|Reid Lemker| If you learn one thing after watching Alfred Hitchcock’s 1941 film Suspicion, it should be this: don’t ever go out with a guy that refers to you as “Monkeyface.” I don’t care where they are from, how much money they claim they have, or even if they look like a young… Continue reading
|Chris Polley| “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you,” Joseph Heller famously wrote in his 1961 wartime satire Catch-22. Taking place during World War II and reveling in the titular paradoxes inherent in the very concepts of warfare and military service… Continue reading
|Matthew Christensen| I teach film and theatre at an international high school in Japan, and have spent the last few days in tech rehearsals for our theater club’s production of Our Town. I have pulled out what little hair I have in my head handling last-minute crises—a locked door… Continue reading
|Courtney Kowalke| I lived in my last apartment for five years and ten months. When I was allowed to work from home at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, my apartment was the center of my universe. I got out plenty, taking long walks and bike rides and drives around the city. Still… Continue reading
|Zach Staads| Before I sat down to watch Notorious, before I knew it was a Hitchcock film, before I’d seen a single frame, still, or trailer, I saw the Criterion cover. It was a very simple picture: Two people embracing, one facing away, and the other, Ingrid Bergman, facing out… Continue reading
|Dylan Hawthorn| Spoiler alert for Shadow of a Doubt. About ten minutes into Shadow of a Doubt, Charlotte “Charlie” Newton (Teresa Wright) lies in her bed, hands behind her head, staring at the ceiling. The camera had been relishing in the domestic bliss of her hometown… Continue reading
|Dylan Hawthron| Before we actually start the movie, though, we see the Warner Bros. logo, followed by a screen announcing the lead actors: Farley Granger Mr. Granger appears by arrangement with Samuel Goldwyn Ruth Roman Robert Walker The fine print sticks out in an otherwise… Continue reading
|Daniel McCabe| Strangers on a Train (1951) comes from the darkness, and not only because Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) shot the film in black and white. It draws influences from the German Expressionist films of the 1920s to create a foreboding mood while using the conventions… Continue reading
|Matthew Christensen| A lot of what’s been written about Alfred Hitchock’s Shadow of a Doubt has to do with the use of doubles. As with Strangers on a Train (1951), these dichotomies invite us to look at the muddied line between good and evil, and in doing so expose “what lurks underneath… Continue reading
| Dan Howard | The Lady Vanishes plays at the Heights Theater on Thursday, April 4th. Visit trylon.org for tickets and more information. For years, Alfred Hitchcock was simply a name and a face to me. Yes, he is one of the greatest directors of cinema, but his work had never resonated… Continue reading
|Malcolm Cooke| At the start of The Wrong Man, a darkly silhouetted Alfred Hitchcock declares this film is different from all the ones he has made before: this story is true, and he intends to tell it with clinical accuracy. Hitchcock takes this task seriously, so seriously in fact that critic… Continue reading
|Chris Polley| This was how it all began, really—music that’s performed, visuals that are projected, and never a word is uttered. Dating back to the first public presentation of the works of the Lumière brothers in Paris back in 1895, musical accompaniment to a film exhibition was performed… Continue reading
|Eli Holm| Nobody does credits like Hitchcock. His masterpiece Marnie opens with a story book-style credit sequence, flipping through pages of cast member names with the always evolving score dominating the soundscape. Studying a single frame of the credits… Continue reading
|Becky Welander| I remember my dad telling me that Grace Kelly had been his mother Grace’s favorite movie star. He also said that my grandma wasn’t a fan of Prince Rainier and felt he wasn’t good enough for Grace. She also regretted Kelly’s decision to quit acting when she got married. Continue reading
|Courtney Kowalke| Does anyone who enjoys classic Hollywood films get sick of talking about Edith Head? I’m sure those people exist, but I’m not one of them. I’m actually a bigger fan of Head’s work styling Kim Novak in Vertigo, but if you want to discuss Head and Hitchcock, To Catch a… Continue reading
|Jake Rudegeair| Float down the overgrown drive, supernatural dreamer, until you come upon the “desolate shell” of Manderley. This classic haunted house holds up the deceits and revelations of Rebecca, Hitchcock’s Best Picture winner from 1940, based on the novel by… Continue reading
|Dylan Walker| “Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again.” As the camera passes through a gate and roves through the charred Manderley estate in the opening shot of the 1940 classic Rebecca, I am suddenly taken back in time as if I were Joan Fontaine’s narrator. Continue reading
|Courtney Kowalke| The 39 Steps is a movie with an interesting cast of characters, especially compared to the book Hitchcock used for inspiration. The film is based off the similarly-named The Thirty-Nine Steps by Scotsman John Buchan (the first Baron Tweedsmuir if you’re fancy). Continue reading
|Chris Polley| “Every man that looks at you is a menace,” says runaway Nazi Alexander Sebastian (played by Claude Rains), the third wheel to and ultimate mark of the American power couple (played by Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman) at the center of Alfred Hitchcock’s… Continue reading
