The Fifties

110 min., b/w.
Prod: Alfred Hitchcock for Warner Brothers.
Scr: Alma Reville, James Bridie and Whitfield Cook based on the novel "Man running" by Selwyn Jepson.
Ca: Wilkie Cooper.
Mu: Leighton Lucas.
Arc: Terence Verity.
Cast: Marlene Dietrich (Charlotte), Jane Wyman (Eve), Michael Wilding (Wilfrid), Alastair Sim (Eve's father), Sybil Thorndike (Eve's mother), Patricia Hitchcock (Chubby Bannister).
Remark: In this movie his daughter, Patricia, had a small part.

101 min., b/w.
Prod: Alfred Hitchcock for Warner Brothers.
Scr: Raymond Chandler, Whitfield Cook and Czenzi Ormonde based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith.
Ca: Robert Burks.
Mu: Dimitri Tiomkin.
Arc: Edward Haworth and George James Hopkins.
Cast: Farley Granger (Guy Haines), Robert Walker (Bruno Anthony), Ruth Roman (Ann Morton), Laura Elliot (Miriam Haines), Marion Lorne (Mrs. Anthony), Patricia Hitchcock (Ann's sister).
Remark: This movie is one of the most superior masterpieces of his career and one of my personal favourites. This movie gives perfect sense to Hitchcock's motto: "The better the villain, the better the picture!". The psychopath Bruno Anthony (splendid acted by Robert Walker) is a "good" villain - perhaps surpassed by just one villain, Norman Bates in "Psycho".
I would like to draw attention to the brillantly filmed murder scene in the amusement park, showing his virtuosity, when Bruno is killing Miriam; in a visual sense this is perhaps the most beautiful murder scene in Hitchcock's production, it even surpasses the classical - and frightening - shower scene in "Psycho".
This film was released in the original Hollywood version and an alternative British version; in the alternative version some of the scenes use a different dialogue and montage, in addition the ending is changed - this version is a little longer than the original. Of course I have seen both versions.

95 min., b/w.
Prod: Alfred Hitchcock for Warner Brothers.
Scr: George Tabori and William Archibald based on the stage play "Nos deux Consciences" by Paul Anthelme.
Ca: Robert Burks.
Mu: Dimitri Tiomkin.
Arc: Edward Haworth and George James Hopkins.
Cast: Montgomery Clift (Father Logan), Anne Baxter (Ruth), Karl Malden (Chief of Police), O.E. Hasse (Otto Keller), Dolly Haas (Mrs. Keller).

95 min., colour.
Prod: Alfred Hitchcock for Warner Brothers.
Scr: Frederick Knott based on his own stage play.
Ca: Robert Burks.
Mu: Dimitri Tiomkin.
Arc: Edward Carrera and George James Hopkins.
Cast: Grace Kelly (Margot), Ray Milland (Tony), Robert Cummings (Mark), Anthony Dawson (Swan), John Williams (Chief of Police).
Remark: The movie company insisted that this movie should be shot in the newly developed 3D technique, they thought would make the audience stay in the cinema, instead of giving the new Tv media attention. Hitchcock thought it was needless, technique solely the the technique itself, without a serious purpose; he refused to use effects that used 3D, exept in one scene: this is the murder scene where Grace Kelly reaches out for the scissors to defend herself against the murder and ends up stabbing him with the scissors - in 3D she grabs the scissors among the audience. The movie survived the 3D craze, the version showed the most has in fact proved to be the one not produced in 3D.

112 min., colour.
Prod: Alfred Hitchcock for Paramount.
Scr: John Michael Hayes based on a short story ny Cornell Woolrich.
Ca: Robert Burks.
Cut: George Tomasini.
Mu: Franz Waxman.
Arc: Hal Pereira.
Co: Edith Head.
Ass: Herbert Coleman.
Cast: James Stewart (Jeffries), Grace Kelly (Lina), Wendell Corey (the detective), Thelma Ritter (the nurse), Raymond Burr (Thorwald).
Remark: One of my personal favourites.

97 min., colour.
Prod: Alfred Hitchcock for Paramount.
Scr: John Michael Hayes based on a novel by David Dodge.
Ca: Robert Burks.
Cut: George Tomasini.
Mu: Lyn Murray.
Arc: Hal Pereira.
Co: Edith Head.
Cast: Cary Grant (John Robie), Grace Kelly (Frances), Jessie Royce Landis (Mrs. Stevens), Charles Vanel (Bertani), Brigitte Auber (Danielle), John Williams (the insurance agent).

99 min., colour.
Prod: Alfred Hitchcock for Paramount.
AP: Herbert Coleman.
Scr: John Michael Hayes based on a novel by John Trevor Story.
Ca: Robert Burks.
Mu: Bernard Herrman.
Arc: Hal Pereira and John Goodman.
Co: Edith Head.
Cast: Edmund Gwenn (Captain Wiles), John Forsythe (Sam), Shirley McLaine (Jennifer), Mildred Natwick (Ms. Graveley).

120 min., colour.
Prod: Alfred Hitchcock for Paramount.
AP: Herbert Coleman.
Scr: John Michael Hayes from an original story by Charles Bennett and Wyndham Lewis.
Ca: Robert Burks.
Cut: George Tomasini.
Mu: Bernard Herrman.
Arc: Hal Pereira and Henry Blumstead.
Co: Edith Head.
Cast: James Stewart (Ben McKenna), Doris Day (Jo McKenna), Daniel Gelin (Louis Bernard), Brenta de Banzie (Mrs. Drayton), Bernard Miles (Mr. Drayton), Mogens Wieth (the ambassador).
Remark: It may seem a little odd that he made a remake of one of his previous movies, from the British era. When trying to explain himself, he said the difference was that the first one was made by a talented amateur, while the second one was made by a professional. This point of view seems fair, since the American version is a very professional production, that is considered to be better than the first one - in addition the two movies differ on many decisive points. It does, however, seem more like lack of material or the need of a break, even though the movie is quite good.

105 min., b/w.
Prod: Alfred Hitchcock for Warner Brothers.
AP: Herbert Coleman.
Scr: Maxwell Anderson and Angus McPhail from an original story by Anderson.
Ca: Robert Burks.
Cut: George Tomasini.
Mu: Bernard Herrman.
Arc: Paul Sylbert.
Cast: Henry Fonda (Balestrero), Vera Miles (Rose), Anthony Quale (the lawyer).
Remark: The movie is based on a true story that lived up to the full extend of Hitchcock's fear of the police: he feared the possibility of being accused, imprisoned without being ably to get in touch with his family and convicted for a crime he didn't commit. This was exactly what happened to the bassplayer Christopher Emanuel Balestrero. Being an authentic case that lived up to his worst imaginations, he insisted on an authenticity close to the pedantic; among other things he shot "on location" the places the actual events took place, some of the extras were even people involved in the actual events. This was a very personal movie, considered to be one of the principal movies in his production.

120 min., colour.
Prod: Alfred Hitchcock for Paramount.
AP: Herbert Coleman.
Scr: Samuel Taylor and Alec Coppel based on the novel "D'entre les morts" by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.
Ca: Robert Burks.
Cut: George Tomasini.
Mu: Bernard Herrman.
Arc: Hal Pereira and Henry Blumstead.
Co: Edith Head
Cast: James Stewart (Scottie Ferguson), Kim Novak (Madeleine/Judy), Barbara Bel Geddes (Midge), Tom Helmore (Gavin Elster).
Remark: This is without any doubt one of the superiour masterpieces of Hitchcock's production, together with "Strangers on a Train" and the two succeeding movies. In addition it is a movie with the very rare quality that it gets even better every time you watch it. This movie - and the other materpieces - is that kind of movie you just have to see.
This movie contains a piece of superiour cinematography that is a typical example of Hitchcock's virtuosity: it is the decisive scene in which Scottie tries to follow Madeleine up the tower, to prevent the "suicide" - his dizziness is visualized by using a combined zoom and a camera movement in the opposite direction, an effect that (without changing perspective) on the same time is compelling and repelling, an elegant representation of his mixed emotions.

136 min., colour.
Prod: Alfred Hitchcock for MGM.
AP: Herbert Coleman.
Scr: Ernest Lehman.
Ca: Robert Burks.
Cut: George Tomasini.
Mu: Bernard Herrman.
Arc: Robert Boyle.
Cast: Cary Grant (Roger O. Thornhill), Eva Marie Saint (Eve Kendall), James Mason (Vandamm), Jessie Royce Landis (Mrs. Thornhill).
Remark: This movie is considered among Hitchcock's masterpieces - I totally agree, this movie has it all. It is a genuine "road thriller" of the superiour kind, it is the light contrast to his previous movie, "Vertigo", and especially the succeeding movie, "Psycho". He was obviously having fun when making this movie, something you feel during the entire movie. He even had the reserve of energy to make some friendly fun with his first American producer, David O. Selznick; when Roger O. Thornhill is asked what the "O" stand for, he answers: "Nothing!" - David's "O" was also purely ornamental, not really an initial.
He even had the energy to make fun with the Production Code. When Roger Thornhill escapes on the train from New York to Chicago, he meets Eve Kendall; when they're sitting together in the dining car, Eve says: "I never discuss love on an empty stomach" - if you look carefully and use lip-reading instead of listening to the dialogue, it is obvious that she is really saying "I never make love on an empty stomach"; in 1959 the heroine couldn't say something like that, which made it necessary to change the line on the sound track - Hitch was a true master of circumventing the rules, without the censorship knowing what was really going on in his movies.