Alfred Hitchcockstarted his career in the silent era. An important part of the director’s visual artistry was learning, film after film, how to tell a story with nuance without using dialogue. One of the great strengths of his career when the industry transitioned into ‘talkies’ was just that. Though he often had great scripts to work with, Hitchcock is the master of suspense because of his keen ability to reveal plot, character, and motifs through images alone. His storytelling heightened when Technicolor came about because his use of color direction was superb. Relaying the interior motives and psychology of his characters using specific color schemes.
Updated November 24th, 2022: If you are here for Alfred Hitchcock and all of his outstanding work, you’ll be happy to know we’ve updated this article with new entries.
Needless to say, Hitchcock left an invaluable mark on the history of cinema. With all-time classics likeRear Window,PsychoandVertigo, Hitchcock will always be remembered as one of the greats. The master of suspense left behind a filmography that acts as a ‘how-to’ for any director who wants to make a thriller. Here are his best films.
12Frenzy (1972)
A freewheeling dervish into the streets of London,Frenzyhas the bleakest sense of humor of Hitchcock’s latest films. Well into the backend of his career, Hitchcock abandoned the tight craftsmanship he became known for having. Following a ‘wrong man, wrong place’ plot familiar with the auteur’s filmography, a serial killer that uses a necktie is running rampant.
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The murders are brutal, while the attempts to get rid of the body by the killer have a sick sense of humor, while the police procedural scenes have a sense of biting satire. With actor Jon Finch in the center, delivering a deliriously impassioned performance as the man who must clear his name.
11Marnie (1964)
A taut psychological thriller with an incredibly menacing atmosphere that lingers throughout,Marniestars Sean Conneryas a wealthy man who uses his power and devious charm to lure a kleptomaniac played by Tippi Hedren into his grasp. The film doesn’t have much of a plot but is instead shrouded in the mystery of Hedren’s character, her origins, and how Connery attempts to use his sick sense of love to confront her demons. Filled with a dread that culminates into one of Hitchcock’s most brutal finales,Marnieis as twisted as it gets for the master of suspense.
10The 39 Steps (1935)
The 1935 thrillerThe 39 Stepsis arguably Hitchcock’s first true classic. Full of suspense and humor, the film follows Richard Hannay, the innocent man with a murder charge on his head (a favorite Hitchcock trope, this time played by Robert Donat), who is unwillingly drawn into a spy chase. WithThe 39 Steps, the director popularized his celebrated plot device of MacGuffins (in this case some otherwise incidental military secrets), which drive the movie but are actually unimportant and irrelevant.
9The Birds (1963)
At times hilariously goofy, romantic, and most of all, terrifying,The Birdswill stand the test of time despite the clunk of its special effects because of how convincingly terrifying the attacks become. Hitchcock is a director who was known for his bluntness and brutality but no director of his stature was willing to put every character in danger, including school children, like Hitchcock was.The Birdsis a testament to horror films with aniconic performance from the legendaryTippi Hedren.
8To Catch a Thief (1955)
A beautiful travelogue through the French Riviera in gorgeous Technicolor that Hitchcock continued to shoot in,To Catch a Thiefis a film that coasts by on the strength of its directors' visual style while finding a balance with the charisma of its stars.Cary Grant playsa retired master thief who must catch a new copycat cat burglar to clear his name, all while falling for an incredible Grace Kelly. The night scenes, shot in a menacing green-tinged hue, provoke a sense of mystery throughout, never knowing who Grant’s thief can trust.To Catch a Thiefis a masterclass of visual splendor and immaculate design.
7Strangers on a Train (1951)
It’s not always the mystery that makes a thriller memorable; often it’s the ingenuity and brilliant mind of a twisted character at the center of the film’s conflict that gives the audience a great villain to hate. Such is the case withStrangers on a Train. Robert Walker plays the psycho in question who lures a professional tennis star, played by Farley Granger, into a sophisticated set-up about how they can get away with murder.
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However, the tennis star has trepidations, building conflict with Walker’a psychotic character, who is scheming to implement the plan to murder. The plot leads up to one of the great climaxes in Hitchcock’s oeuvre.Strangers on a Trainis a showcase of Hitchcock’s talents because he takes a bare-bones set-up and elevates it.
6Rope (1948)
Hitchcock was always refining his visual style, finding new ways to establish key motifs, themes, and character insights to be revealed later as plot details. In his 1948 feature,RopeAlfred Hitchcock wondered if he could do the same, but with one shot — and he could!
Crafting a murder mystery to look likeone running shotbefore it was fashionable, Hitchcock did what, at the time, seemed impossible. With the charming and cunning wit of his reliableleading man Jimmy Stewartat the center,Ropeis the culmination of innovative style and tangible boiling pot tension.
5Notorious (1946)
Featuring a dream cast headed by Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, this dark post-World War II film noir follows an enticing spy, Alicia Huberman, who is recruited by a government agent, T. R. Devlin, to gather information on a group of Nazis in South America. One of the most memorable scenes inNotoriousis a passionate two-and-a-half-minute kiss between Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant that circumvented the Hollywood production ban on kisses over three seconds. Hitchcock’s films are rarely so romantic.
4Psycho (1960)
Another set-piece from the master of suspense that will remain in the memory of film lovers forever is the infamous shower scene. Not only was that scene groundbreaking for its depiction of murder and the number of scene cuts in a short period, but also for killing off whom we thought the main character would be in the first 20 minutes.
Hitchcock was at his most innovative withPsycho,and he gave us the ultimate evil momma’s boy in Norman Bates. Played with a subtle naivety that transformed into psychopathy by Anthony Perkins.Psychois one of the great slashers of all time, and has been endlessly influential; even half a century later, it inspiredthe underrated horror seriesBates Motel.
3Vertigo (1958)
A director whose color palette and direction were unparalleled flexed an even richer tapestry in his psychological mysteryVertigo. With his Everyman muse James Stewart traversing the streets of San Francisco, Hitchcock took his work to dizzying and newfound intellectual and cinematic depths. As Stewart attempts to solve the case of the mystery woman, played with an intimate delicacy by Kim Novak, the two go on an unforgettable, spectral journey of identity, fear, and love.
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