Hitchcockian Movies : The Best Hitchcockian movies not directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Includes Movies with Hitchcockian Elements, not directed by Hitchcock himself.
********
1. Check out best Tarantino Like movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls015341630/[/link] .
2. Check out best Felliniesque movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls015216162/[/link] .
3. Check out best Lynchian movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls015263842/[/link] .
4. Check out best Hitchcockian movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls071418428/ [/link].
5. Check out best Coen-esque movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls031318624/[/link].
6. Check out best Lovecraftian movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls020140482/ [/link].
********
Doesn't include Remakes like
The Lodger 1944
The Lady Vanishes 1979
A Perfect Murder 1998 (Dial M for Murder remake)
Psycho 1998
Rear Window 1998
also Doesn't Include Parody Movies Like
High Anxiety 1977
also Doesn't Includes Sequels like
Psycho 2 1983
Psycho 3 1986
Bates Motel 1987
Psycho 4 1990
The Birds II: Land's End 1994
also Doesn't movies Spun off from The Lady Vanishes like
Night Train to Munich 1940
Crook's Tour 1941
********
1. Check out best Tarantino Like movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls015341630/[/link] .
2. Check out best Felliniesque movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls015216162/[/link] .
3. Check out best Lynchian movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls015263842/[/link] .
4. Check out best Hitchcockian movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls071418428/ [/link].
5. Check out best Coen-esque movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls031318624/[/link].
6. Check out best Lovecraftian movies list also [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls020140482/ [/link].
********
Doesn't include Remakes like
The Lodger 1944
The Lady Vanishes 1979
A Perfect Murder 1998 (Dial M for Murder remake)
Psycho 1998
Rear Window 1998
also Doesn't Include Parody Movies Like
High Anxiety 1977
also Doesn't Includes Sequels like
Psycho 2 1983
Psycho 3 1986
Bates Motel 1987
Psycho 4 1990
The Birds II: Land's End 1994
also Doesn't movies Spun off from The Lady Vanishes like
Night Train to Munich 1940
Crook's Tour 1941
List activity
73K views
• 94 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
98 titles
- DirectorStanley DonenStarsCary GrantAudrey HepburnWalter MatthauRomance and suspense ensue in Paris as a woman is pursued by several men who want a fortune her murdered husband had stolen. Whom can she trust?To say a suspense thriller bares the mark of The Master is as superfluous as saying one’s reading lamp owes a debt of gratitude to Edison. Yet, Stanley Donen’s 1969 “Charade” bares such a resemblance to an Alfred Hitchcock film as to be grounds for identity infringement, if such a thing existed. In fact, many filmgoers are often surprised to find out “Charade” wasn’t directed by him.
That said – this joyfully entertaining ride with the gorgeous Audrey Hepburn and the wickedly funny Cary Grant is not to be missed. With Henry Mancini’s wonderful score, the inventive animated opening title sequence by Maurice Binder, plus the wonderful Paris locations to perfectly set the mood for romance and danger, this mysterious tale of a murdered husband, missing gold and the rogue C.I.A. agents who think Audrey Hepburn has it is as perfect a Hitchcock film as one can watch without The Master having anything to do with its creation.
It was North By Northwest, which Cary Grant starred in 4 years earlier, that Stanley Donen had in mind when he decided to make a film based on Peter Stone's screenplay. He admired the film and the dialog and the whole concept of events unfolding as a result of mistaken identity or mistaken assumptions. Stone's screenplay had all of the elements of suspense and plot twists...all Donen had to do was introduce the element of wit and romance to pull of his hat tip to Hitchcock. - DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsStéphane AudranJean YanneAntonio PassaliaAn unlikely friendship between a dour, working class butcher and a repressed schoolteacher coincides with a grisly series of Ripper-type murders in a provincial French town.This is one of the only two films that Alfred Hitchcock wished he had made. Claude Chabrol was known as the "French Hitchcock," and "Le Boucher" was considered by many to be his masterpiece. This is a sort of Hitchcock style is he / isn't he a serial killer - thriller set in the stunning Perigord area of France.
They're several Hitchcockian themes in the film that keep repeating throughout its story. Smoking is one of the major themes that gets brought up again and again, and interestingly enough we never see Popaul smoking unless Helene decides to light up. Another Hitchcockian visual look is of the protoganist that plays Miss Helene. She is played by actress Stéphane Audranis who married the director Claude Chabrol in 1964, after a short marriage to the French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant. Her blond hair, is purposely shown many times from behind, one particular moment the camera actually zooms in, as she presents a look very similar to Hitchcock's actress Tippi Hedren. The way Popaul admires and watches Helene can be a similar parallel to the way director Hitchcock obsessed and molded his particular actresses that he worked with throughout his career. Another theme is Popaul's face admiring Helene, always watching her, most famously his face being seen in the frame of the classroom window. The first time that scene occurs it is looked at as slightly childish and humorous, the second time near the conclusion of the film, it gives off a voyeuristic and disturbing feel. Church bells ringing are another theme that is repeatedly heard throughout the soundtrack of the film, which can look at as a metaphor of time slowly running out between the two fatal characters. - DirectorHenri-Georges ClouzotStarsSimone SignoretVéra ClouzotPaul MeurisseThe wife and mistress of a loathed school principal plan to murder him with what they believe is the perfect alibi.Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Les Diaboliques (1955) is often referred to as “the greatest Hitchcock thriller that Hitchcock didn’t direct.” One Hollywood folktale has Hitchcock scrambling to secure the rights to its source novel, Celle qui n’était plus (She Who Was No More), only to be beaten out by the Clouzot by mere hours. Another version asserts that Hitch missed out on the Boileau-Narcejac novel because of his tight purse strings. Whichever (if either) version of the story is true, many continue to believe that while Clouzot created a masterwork of suspense cinema, we have been denied Hitchcock’s masterpiece. Clouzot himself seemed to know that he had snatched something special from the jaws of the master, as he paid homage to the master – while at the same time offering him inspiration.
Hitchcock was so taken with the film that he was known to own a print. He reportedly held multiple screenings of the film, especially when preparing production for his own masterpiece, Psycho. He even lifted two of the film’s most famous marketing gimmicks. Theaters would not to admit anyone after Les Diaboliques had started, and the film’s final title cards urge theater goers not to “be devils” and divulge any information about the film’s twists and turns, Hitchcock’s ad campaign for Psycho revolved around these two premises. Shortly after Les Diaboliques’ release, Hitchcock would secure the rights to another Boileau-Narcejac novel – D’Entre les Morts. He would move the story from the streets of Paris to San Francisco and re-title it Vertigo. - DirectorDelmer DavesStarsHumphrey BogartLauren BacallBruce BennettA man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try to prove his innocence.It's regrettable that Hitchcock and Bogart, two icons on their respective fields and of the same generation (they were born the same year), never collaborated. Was Hitchcock too protective of his aura not to let Bogie steal his thunder, or was the opposite? I do believe that a Hitch-and-Bogie movie wouldn't have been as inconceivable as having John Wayne in a musical, for there is at least one Bogart movie that proves me right, a film with something Hitchcockian about his character, Vincent Parry, whose face is only revealed at the third act, but I'll get to that later.
Yes indeed, "Dark Passage" is either full of reminiscences or premonitions of what would become Hitch's instantly recognizable trademarks, plot and style-wise. It's a paranoid thriller enrobed with a restrained romance finally blooming when approaching the finale, it's a suspenseful drama where everyone is a suspect from the mind of the wrongly suspected one, it's a tale of false identities and real assassins, it's one of the most memorable movies set in San Francisco and it's the third starring the legendary Bogart and Bacall duo. Yet, for once, the fascination doesn't rely on their undeniable chemistry (that mostly showed through Howard Hawks' movies) but on these little details that will remind you of Hitch's classic, so let's start the count.
1/ THE WRONG MAN / SUSPICION / NORTH BY NORTHWEST: The false identity or the wrongly accused man is a common source of thrills in Hitch movies: a generally harmless man taken for a dangerous criminal, especially when every friend he visits meets with an unfortunate accident… that's a premise, banal to say the least, but it gets spiced up when the hero's only way to prove his innocence is risking his life and dirtying his hands. In "Dark Passage", Parry said farewell to Irene (Bacall) but his honor forces him to come back when her life's threatened by a blackmailer, just like in "North by Northwest" when Thornhill is free but learns that Eve is still in danger. There's always the moment where the protagonists turn from passive to heroic, many Bogart characters show their nobility at the end of the film, like many Hitchcock heroes… in other words, they're late-bloomers.
2/ PSYCHO : The film was released with the Red Scare as political backdrop, it failed at the box-office after Bogart and Bacall retracted their protest actions and ended up testifying before the HUAC, but it's nonetheless a film of its era : dark, suspicious and paranoid. On that last aspect, "Dark Passgae" is a showcase of how paranoia can be conveyed by good writing and film-making, like Marion Crane, after she stole the money in "Psycho", every encounter is startling and unsettling, the less she wants to talk, the more talkative people get, the less suspicious she tries not to, the more she looks, exactly what Vincent goes through during the film. A man asking for a match, a cab driver too much questions, leading him to a plastic surgeon, but it could've been a police office as well … and speaking of cops, the dialog where a new-faced Vincent tries to outsmart a detective is pure example of verbal suspense. Action is an easy catalysis for thrills but to make it through dialogs is pure virtuosity.
3/ VERTIGO: Perhaps after "Vertigo", this is the only film where I saw relevance for it being set in San Francisco (not just for a car chase scene). The local touch is significant to the plot; not just some screenplay blank filler, like the scene where an exhausted Vincent climbs the interminable stairs to go to Irene's house on the highest side of that bumpy town, or how about his fist-fight near the Golden Gate. While it's easily forgettable that "Maltese Falcon" was set in San Francisco, it's rather impossible with "Dark Passage".
4/ REAR WINDOW / VERTIGO : The fall of Madge (Agnes Moorehead) out of the window looks exactly like Jeff's fall at the climax of "Rear Window" and it's more convincing, too, but it's also closer to those from "Vertigo" ... with the obligatory shrill female scream, naturally.
5/ SPELLBOUND : And lastly, there's this brilliant piece of surrealism during the face transformation sequence, working like an original and creatively designed parenthesis and a great transition between the first third of the film (subjective camera) and the second (Bogart's face covered with bandages), a sort of kaleidoscope of all the characters confusingly interacting in Vincent's mind… who's with him? who's against him? This is not Dali with his eyes and scissors, but it's mesmerizing nonetheless. Isn't the mark of a great movie to blow your mind, just when you think you had enough… with the long overuse of the subjective camera?
Speaking of the subjective camera, isn't that something to have one third of the film without showing Bogart's face (for obvious reasons) and the second third in bandages. That's the kind of audience-fooling, tricks Hitch loved to do, he who deprived his audience from Marion Carne all through "Psycho" second half, Delmer Daves deprives us from Bogie's face all through the first (and more) but we don't lose much since the film is rich in great supporting performances notably, from Houseley Stevenson as the wacky (in a spooky way) mad-scientist, to Agnes Moorehead whose interplays with Bogart almost overshadowed the romantic interludes with Bacall.
Especially the surgery scene is quite demented. Bogie goes under the knife and sees (or imagines) multiple dissolves and triple exposures of the odd doctor, with a distant Bacall at the center. Its a nightmarish sequence, something out of Hitchcock. - DirectorHenry HathawayStarsMarilyn MonroeJoseph CottenJean PetersAs two couples are visiting Niagara Falls, tensions between one wife and her husband reach the level of murder.From one superstar to the other. Who doesn't want to see Marilyn Monroe in a Hitchcock Movie? Well, this is the best one could get.
Vertigo is one Hitchcock movie that has influenced dozens of other movies. But what if someone told you it had a huge influence of NIagara on itself! Many people will, no doubt, experience a certain sense of deja vu as they watch some passages in this movie as it contains a number of similarities to Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo". The most striking ones are the presence of a blonde femme fatale, an obsessed male, the significance of bell towers to the plots and the prominent use of some very memorable location shots. The positions in which the dead bodies in the bell towers lie is also virtually identical. The fact that "Niagara" predated "Vertigo" by some years, leads to the view that Hitchcock must have been profoundly influenced by many of the elements of Hathaway's movie.
If there is any noir film that holds it noir gloom even though shot largely in daylight, not in a city, and in vivid color, Niagara is it. There are a handful of color noir films, not including some from the 1970s and later that get swept into the category in an expansive but not always helpful way (Chinatown, for one). But this is the real deal, and it's not a perfect film by any means, but it's also a neglected movie, valuable for it's unique feel, for the terrific night scenes it does have, and for the Niagara Falls, which Hitchcock was probably jealous of. There are lots of Hitchcock parallels--famous landmark for a setting, stereotypes played both ways, calm before the disaster, undisguised back projection and its confession of open artifice, innocents caught in a murderous world--but it it's better to see what this movie has on its own terms.
One thing Niagara has is Marilyn Monroe playing Rose Loomis. Monroe the actress is forced (or reinforced) into her recurring role as helpless siren, but she also shows off as the actress she always was, not brilliant, but very effective and smart. The disdain she has in a momentary sneer as she rolls over the second time in bed in her first scene is the first of a thousand good examples--listen to her in the shower backlit, or watch her at the souvenir shop, or on the phone. With a number of adjustments, her role here could have created a paradigm for the two-faced femme-fatale in the 1950s Hitchcock Movies--her coy chill, her thinly disguised greed, her human failings. We never mind sympathizing with a criminal when she is going down at the end if she has earlier shown her complexity and vulnerability. - DirectorDavid MillerStarsJoan CrawfordJack PalanceGloria GrahameAfter an ambitious actor insinuates himself into the life of a wealthy middle-aged playwright and marries her, he plots with his mistress to murder her.When I have recently viewed this wonderful film noir, I felt it was the right time because I had already got to know the greatest films of the genre, not superior ones but similar ones. What I mean by that are the films directed by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. When seeing SUDDEN FEAR, you had better be acquainted with some of Hitchcock's best films because then, you may realize that SUDDEN FEAR has so much in common with the gem of noir. It's Hitchcock's fertile theme and Miller's stylish bravura. From the characters, objects, undertones, certain details, doom-filled atmosphere to the unique charm of San Francisco and the utterance that seems to be the core of Hitchcock's suspense: "This place is so perfect for an accident." Let me broaden some aspects of David Miller's picture which make us see it as one of the greatest representatives of its genre in the purest form.
The TORMENTED LEADING CHARACTER, Myra Hudson played brilliantly by Joan Crawford, highlights something truly ahead of its time. As an executive producer of SUDDEN FEAR, Ms Crawford allows viewers to get into her inner psyche and provokes a progressive approach: we psychoanalyze her as a character! Nothing like a linear storytelling, forget it! Yet, something that talks about a psychological world. We psychoanalyze her 'professional eye' in the theater scene, her coldness melted on a train at the match game that becomes as mysterious as the manipulative flirts, her 'blind confidence' in wedding Lester, the seeds of doubt that are being slowly planted from the moment he does not answer her phone. As a matter of fact, this is a purely genius scene when viewers-observers, unlike Myra herself, are granted a signal: "something is wrong about him." As a result, we differ from Myra, we feel suspicion earlier than her and, consequently, wait for her disillusion. When the unbelievable shock comes in her library and she confronts the reality, her behavior is utterly unpredictable: she does not resort to a state of blending fantasy with reality but remains cold and disguised both to us and to the people around her. In that respect, isn't she a typical Hitchcock's leading lady? Apart from one difference - she is not a blonde. Nominated for Oscar, Joan Crawford offers us a pure masterwork of acting.
JACK PALANCE, who replaces Ms Crawford's initial wish of casting Marlon Brando or Clark Gable, is truly surprising as a leading man. The fact we are not used to him in such a highlighted performance that combines a doe-eyed romanticist with a secret fox makes the effect even more memorable. An important fact here to state is that Lester is equally appealing in the psychoanalyzing approach as Myra. His pretense at the beginning, his patronizing behavior on the train, his look at hands, and his gradual 'promotion' in Myra's eyes beautifully depict an ambitious type. Later, his vitality and efforts are, somehow, focused on two women: Myra and Irene. When Myra begins to be his object of wealth's desire, Irene becomes his object of lust's desire. She is a 'blonde of lust.' Their scheme is a realization of their sexuality - something very Hitchcock-like where crime goes with sex. "Kiss me hard..." Note the love scene at the fireplace in the summerhouse and the way it is shot. Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Jack Palance appears to give a performance beyond our expectations. - DirectorGlenn JordanStarsJack KlugmanElizabeth AshleyJames FranciscusDaniel Corban's wife Elizabeth disappeared after they had a fight. Then she shows up, yet he insists that the woman isn't actually his wife.Written by "Charade" writer Peter Stone, this movie will keep you testing on "What is going on" theories till the end. The Story goes like: When a man calls the police to report his wife missing, nobody is overly concerned. Even when a reluctant Inspector Levine (Jack Klugman) finally drives out to get Daniel Corban's (James Franciscus) statement about how his wife drove off after an argument and hasn't returned since, Levine still maintains that Corban shouldn't worry, she'll probably reappear soon enough. And he appears to be proved right when the local priest, Father Kelleher (Joel Fabiani) visits Corban and tells him his wife wants to come back - but as soon as Elizabeth (Elizabeth Ashley) walks through the door, Corban insists that this woman is NOT his wife! And that's just the very beginning of the movie.
Now Corban tries to prove to Levine and Kelleher that the woman is an impostor, while Elizabeth tries to convince them that her husband is disturbed and potentially in need of psychiatric help. It is up to Levine to find out the truth.
The mystery is extremely well crafted and full of plot twists, until the viewer can no longer be sure as to who is doing what to whom and why. At the same time, it has a great sense of humor, exploring the absurdly comical side of the situation as well as the mystery. Especially Levine has a lot of funny lines, and it is hilarious to watch the couple arguing over whether she is or isn't his wife in front of a rather puzzled-looking Kelleher and Levine as spectators to the domestic drama.
Adapted from a stage play, the teleplay is excellent. The casting is great, and so is the acting. A true masterpiece of hitchcockian elements. If you get a chance, you should definitely watch it! Every once in a while you might catch it on TV. It's around on VHS, and it's also on youtube. - DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsMichael CaineAngie DickinsonNancy AllenA mysterious blonde woman kills one of a psychiatrist's patients, and then goes after the high-class call girl who witnessed the murder.Brian De Palma is known to be an Admirer of hitchcock, and it shows in his movies. This is his movie that is closest to Hitchcock.
This is pure Hitchcock with an 80's dash of lurid perversion, an affectionately told tale of lust and murder with plenty of twists, huge helpings of style, a stunning Pino Donaggio score, and a trashy, giallo-inspired plot.
The Movie's start reminds of Vertigo, and the Hitchcockian touch remains till the end of the movie.
De Palma literally lifts parts of Vertigo (1958) for Dressed to Kill's infamous museum scene. Dressed to Kill's shower scenes, as well as its villain and method of death have similarities to Psycho (1960). De Palma also employs a prominent score with recurrent motifs in the style of Hitchcock's favorite composer Bernard Herrmann. The similarities do not end there.
But De Palma, whether by accident or skill, manages to make an oblique turn from, or perhaps transcend, his influence, with Dressed to Kill having an attitude, structure and flow that has been influential. Maybe partially because of this influence, Dressed to Kill is also deeply flawed when viewed at this point in time. Countless subsequent directors have taken their Hitchcock-like De Palma and honed it, improving nearly every element, so that watched now, after 35 years' worth of influenced thrillers, much of Dressed to Kill seems agonizingly paced, structurally clunky and plot-wise inept. But always remember this is what started it all. - DirectorTerence YoungStarsAudrey HepburnAlan ArkinRichard CrennaA recently blinded woman is terrorized by a trio of thugs while they search for a heroin-stuffed doll they believe is in her apartment.Critic Rex Reed huffed and puffed that “If Hitchcock could only laugh at himself, this is the movie he’d make.”
This is the Second Audrey Hepburn movie on the List. Let me remind you, audrey never worked with Hitchcock, so this and Charade are the closest you'll get to see her in a Hitchcock movie..
"The best Hitchcock film that Hitchcock never made". It think that is very true. Most of the film is shot within this basement apartment unit. And the thriller is so great because of Hepburn being blind and these three bad guys freely walking into her unit and introducing themselves as her husband's friends, or police, or some neighbour. But they all forget one thing: She uses her ears like no regular person does, she doesn't need eyes. But that is where the thriller kicks in. Sometimes it is pretty painful for us to watch (us who can see) because she seems so vulnerable. Wrapping around of all this is Henry Mancini's music. He is using a technique that he also used in the film "Night Visitor" where there is this melody on the keyboard and after everynote there is the detuned note following it. Pretty cool effect.
These slow, intricate developments are fascinating to watch but most importantly, lead to a climatic ending reaching Hitchcock levels of suspense. As the title of the film suggests, you really have to wait until dark to fully appreciate how well made this film is.
The fact is, that this could so very easily have become a very mediocre 'stage play to film' adaptation. What makes it that little bit special is very hard to pinpoint. Perhaps it's because it's NOT a Hitchcock, but could so very easily have been. One can only ponder how the master of suspense himself could have improved this gem of film?
4 Major Points that literally shouts of Hitchcock influence are :-
First, we have the doll. This is a classic "MacGuffin" in the Hitchcock tradition. A MacGuffin is an object on which the plot hangs, which drives the characters' actions. It could be anything -- a box of chocolates with diamonds inside, a slip of paper with incriminating evidence -- it doesn't matter what the item is that pushes the story along, and indeed we don't know what the doll contains until the last couple of reels -- precisely because it is inconsequential to the workings of the film.
Second, we have the central suspense-building technique of the film, which is that the audience knows what is going on while the protagonist does not. The blindness of the central character affords wide latitude in exploiting this idea. It is a technique often used by Hitch to manipulate the audience, memorably for example in Sabotage and Rope, to name only two. It works here to great effect.
Third, there is really only one "jump out and say boo!" moment in the movie and it is extraordinarily well-timed. After the suspense has been built to a fever pitch and artificially deflated there is an almost cathartic moment of leap-out-of-your-seat-and-scream shock before the last suspenseful moments. Compare it to Psycho, for example, and the final moments in the basement in that picture -- a similar effect on the audience.
Fourth, the criminals' plot is a little too involved to be realistic. But like the doll it exists only to produce suspense in the audience. On this level it richly succeeds. Hitchcock by and large dismissed credibility as key to a plot (read Hitchcock/Truffaut for many interesting thoughts on this). If the film is to engage the suspense of the audience on a cinematic level, to such an extent that they suspend their disbelief, the plot's purpose is to provide a framework in which this can occur. Again, the picture works on this level.
Fans of this will also like: "Rear Window,"(1954) "Memento," (2000) and "Vertigo" (1958). - DirectorBilly WilderStarsTyrone PowerMarlene DietrichCharles LaughtonA veteran British barrister must defend his client in a murder trial that has surprise after surprise.Apparently Hitchcock joked that people often told him how much they enjoyed his "Witness for the Prosecution" and Wilder complained that people thought that he'd directed "The Paradine Case"!
- DirectorRichard FranklinStarsStacy KeachJamie Lee CurtisMarion EdwardA laid-back American truck driver in south Australia suspects that the driver of a green van is killing young women along his route, and plays a game of cat-and-mouse to catch him.Combining a festering sense of dread with sassy, Tarantino-esque dialogue, this Hitchcockian outback thriller has lost none of its menace
Budgeted at $1.75m, at the time of its release Road Games was the most expensive Australian film ever mate. In the tradition of high-concept pitches that "sell the sizzle" by combining movie A with movie B, the easiest shorthand to describe Road Games is as a combination of Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Steven Spielberg’s Duel. - DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsRoy ScheiderJanet MargolinJohn GloverHarry breaks down and loses his job after his wife is assassinated - could it be his turn next ?A very decent effort from director Jonathan Demme before he went on to better things,LAST EMBRACE is inevitably compared to the works of Alfred Hitchcock,with many scenes derivative from many of the master's most famous works(VERTIGO,THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH,STRANGERS ON A TRAIN,etc.),but this is actually an effective suspenser in it's own right,with an intriguing plot,good performances and an exciting finale.Roy Scheider plays a Secret Agent just released from care after suffering a breakdown after his wife was killed in a shootout in a restaurant.After finding a woman(Janet Margolin)who has moved into his flat,he begins to suspect someone is trying to kill him after sinister messages in Amharic keep turning up.
The film would've been more superior with more humour and better pacing,but nevertheless this isn't at all a bad Hitch imitation,with the bird imagery(a motif Hitchcock used frequently in his films)and a fine musical score by Miklos Rozsa(who had himself worked with Hitchcock on SPELLBOUND)adding to the atmosphere.The performances are fine,especially Ms Margolin,an undervalued and lovely actress who never quite made it to the top,making her character quite pitiable despite her actions.Her early death at the age of 50 in 1993 was indeed a sad loss for a film performer who deserved better.
LAST EMBRACE was made shortly before Hitchcock's death in 1980;one wonders did he ever see this film? If so,I think he would have quite enjoyed the homage on view,not great,but fairly respectful and entertaining. - DirectorIvan PasserStarsMark HarmonMimi RogersPaul GleasonGetting nowhere with LAPD, a wife hires a P.I. to find her missing husband. Does he want to be found? After the initial report, the P.I. continues, wanting to see more of the cute wife.A wonderfully filmed, deliciously scored and brilliantly acted contemporary Hitchcockian thriller. Mark Harmon plays a private eye the likes of which hasn't been seen often and Mimi Rogers is perfect as the woman with the missing husband who hires him. The wonderful direction of Ivan Passer makes this a classic in its own right.
The actors are perfectly cast and have an easy chemistry with each other (and not just Mark Harmon and Mimi Rogers - all the actors are perfectly cast from the biggest to the smallest part!) while the script is a model of clarity and fun that most writers would do well to emulate.
The music score is a joy and works like gangbusters.
It makes you wonder why most directors think of Jazz as a fad when it can be made to work so well in so many settings. - DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsJohn TravoltaNancy AllenJohn LithgowA movie sound recordist accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger.De Palma, a director whose films are relentlessly linked to those of Alfred Hitchcock, has been accused of imitating the cinematic grammar of Hitchcock and other directors. And though De Palma’s signatures are often undeniably Hitchcockian in their intertextuality and polish, with Blow Out he goes beyond Hitchcock’s model and puts forth his own integrated obsessions which, present throughout his career as the defining signifier of his originality and importance as an auteur, demand an investigation of cinema itself.
In one scene, recalling the steady pull-back from an impending murder in Hitchcock's 'Frenzy (1972),' the camera literally swoops away from a bloody murder scene into a bustling street of oblivious pedestrians. (De Palma once again used a shot like this in 'Scarface (1983)' for the notorious chainsaw scene). In another sequence, when Jack realises that his tapes have been magnetically erased, the camera begins to rotate, and doesn't stop, superbly capturing the euphoria of the character's predicament.
The final chase sequence on the streets of Philadelphia during the celebration of the ringing of the Liberty Bell is as well staged and shut and as exiting as the similar climatic chase on Mount Rushmore in Hitchcock's "North By Northwest". The movie is perfectly balanced by the last scene and the hilarious opening scene mirroring each other but this time the scream is different. It IS a good scream that came from the streets of Philadelphia. - DirectorPaul NicholasStarsAnthony FranciosaSybil DanningIsabelle MejiasA teenage girl whose inaction caused her mother's death arranges a similarly gruesome fate for her stepmother and brother.Crackerjack thriller here, a deeply twisted film about a budding 12 year old psychopath's obsession with her own father and willingness to kill off anyone who comes between them. Tony Franciosa is good as the befuddled, utterly clueless father, Sybil Danning even better as the sex maven MILF single parent whom he is in love with, and the show is completely stolen by Isabelle Mejias as young Julie.
One thing I kept wondering about through the film: Does Julie know that her feelings for her father are twisted, and that her actions are wrong if not outright evil? The film scores points by not letting the viewer find out whether she actually knows right from wrong. Hitchcock would have been impressed by the plotting, especially the killing of a young child by a sex murderer who is rewarded for playing a part in young Julie's scheme by being set up for his own execution. The ending is also inevitable, or rather the only ending that was possible given the material. Anything else would have been a cop-out, and there is a knowing glint in someone's eye when it's all over to suggest that they didn't have a problem with how everything worked out.
You also couldn't make this movie today. It's too sick, twisted, amoral and politically incorrect. Modern viewers will be hard pressed to equate the film with anything later than THE GOOD SON, which lacks the psycho-sexual tension that raises JULIE DARLING's quease level beyond mere camp. Recommended as a double bill with William Grefe's IMPULSE with William Shatner. Creepy. - DirectorGeorge SluizerStarsBernard-Pierre DonnadieuGene BervoetsJohanna ter SteegeRex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia is abducted. After three years and no sign of Saskia, Rex begins receiving letters from the abductor.Sluizer’s 1988 classic bares similarities to many Hitchcock thrillers in that we spend almost as much time with the antagonist as we do with our protagonist Rex. On a road trip, Rex’s wife Saskia shares a disturbing dream with him, after which he vows never to leave her side. But upon stopping to fill the car with Petrol, Saskia wanders away and disappears without a trace.
Yet we know who has her, as we’ve met Raymond, a supposedly decent family man, practice and prepare for this abduction. What evolves in this tale is one of the most taut and terrifying suspense thrillers ever created, with our empathy for Rex’s tension-filled two-year search for his wife reaching an absolute breaking point.
This is quite an interesting film. While it relies on a similar theme as Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" and Robert Fuest's "And Soon the Darkness", it has quite the unique edge. I love that the story of both the boyfriend and the abductor are told. And not so we can sympathize with the abductor -- in fact, his motives become even more mysterious the more we know. It seems to be a Leopold and Loeb situation, but is never made explicit.
The final act is so chilling that Stanley Kubrick called it the scariest film he had ever seen, and asked Sluizer to advise him on the editing for “The Shining.” Skip the Kiefer Sutherland remake and see the original if you can find it. - DirectorPhilip DunneStarsRock HudsonClaudia CardinaleJack WardenA New York psychiatrist is solicited by government agents in connection with a former patient of his who also happens to be a scientist wanted by certain foreign powers.This is a pleasant mystery thriller with some light comedic moments and as such is typical of a lot of movies made in the same period of the middle to late sixties, most with one word titles such as this one has. Partly inspired by the popularity of the stylish "Charade" of a few years earlier, and more obviously influenced by Hitchcock, this is a mixed group of films with often middle aged or lesser known actors in the lead. This one has a biggie: Rock Hudson. He plays a psychiatrist with the wonderfully slick, Hollywoodish name of Bartholomew Snow, who gets in trouble up to his ears and, more to the point, eyeballs, when one of his patients turns out to be a prominent scientist who's being trailed some rather unsavory characters.
Hudson's ably supported by the luscious Claudia Cardinale, and the two make a very attractive couple. Also good is the late Jack Warden in a key role, and Guy Stockwell as a man who stutters. There's really no need to go much further into the plot except to say if one is in the mood for stylish, anodyne entertainment, this is a good one to catch. It has good credentials, too: directed by Philip Dunne, from a Lucille Fletcher story, photographed by the legendary Joe MacDonald. - DirectorDan GoldenStarsWilliam KattRick DeanMaria FordA city councilman explores the seedy side of town to help him decide how to approach an urban renewal project. Being obviously not from there, he is beaten in the street and his wallet stolen. A transient helps him and guides him into the sordid world surrounding a strip tease dive, and eventually he has an intense affair with one of the strippers. Then the stripper is murdered and he is implicated in the crime. Now, he must try to clear his name.The moral of this movie. One is never certain when evil enters one's life. As Lao-Tzu has said, "Only when man recognizes beauty as such, does ugliness become reality. Only when man recognizes goodness as such, does evil become reality."
One of the great hidden gems of late-night cable. The main actor, William Katt, has come a long way since he was Carrie's date for the prom. A second-generation actor (Bill Williams and Barbara Hale's son), Katt is great in this role, but the movie is stolen by the masterful performance of Rick Dean as the very bizarre "Sam Silver" in this Hitchcockian thriller. If ever there was an example of how big a part luck and studio hype play in film success, this is it. This movie deserves to be well-known, and it should have catapulted Rick Dean into a major role. Watch this movie, and tape it for your friends who have taste. - DirectorRodrigo CortésStarsRyan ReynoldsJosé Luis García-PérezRobert PatersonPaul is a U.S. truck driver working in Iraq. After an attack by a group of Iraqis he wakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter and a cell phone it's a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap.“Buried” is shot entirely in a coffin. Director Rodrigo Cortés cites Hitchcock's "Rope" and "Lifeboat" as major influences on his style. Hitchcock pioneered this form of single-location filmmaking.
The camerawork in “Buried” utilizes traditional Hitchcock devices such as voyeuristic gaze, Vertigo effect, POV and framing that creates claustrophobia and builds tension.
Music and ambient sound played key roles in “Buried.” The music borrowed very similar high and low-note, jarring tones from Hitchcock scores, keying up only to emphasize emotion or terror. Creaks, falling sand, breathing, the sound of a lighter igniting – these noises were raised and lowered in intensity in a calculated manner. - DirectorFede AlvarezStarsStephen LangJane LevyDylan MinnetteHoping to walk away with a massive fortune, a trio of thieves break into the house of a blind man who isn't as helpless as he seems.Hugely influenced by another Hitchcockian thriller named "Wait Until Dark".
This is Alvarez's first film in three years since his violent and solid remake of Evil Dead, and it is with this sophomoric debut that solidifies the genre filmmaker as someone with obvious talent. Alvarez delivers with almost Hitchcockian precision by using suspense and shock like a one-two punch combo. Inspirations are drawn from the best - Hitchcock, Fincher, and Wait Until Dark are a few - but Alvarez also provides his own unique vision that truly makes the film his own. Like the masters before him, Don't Breathe is purely cinematic, relying less on dialogue and more on visual storytelling and sound to drive the film. The cinematography is amazing as well as the creative sound design, so much so they are characters within the film themselves.
Don't Breathe builds its tension the hard way. Instead of relying solely on jump scares and gore, the film consistently paints itself and its characters into a corner then creatively gets them out of a bad situation while being both unexpected and completely organic. It's a hard high-wire act and one that you'd think a genre director like Fede Alvarez would stumble on. Yet Don't Breathe not only continues the Hitchcockian chamber-piece Renaissance kicked off by Disturbia (2007), it runs away with it. It artfully repackages old- fashioned thrills and kills it with a third act that's ominous but earned.
If there's a spiritual grandfather to Don't Breathe it's almost certainly Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948). Not only is the cinematography eerily similar but so are the themes which parities feeling of superiority (in this case moral not intellectual) with the banality of evil. 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) may have been this year's torchbearer for the old master's brand of suspense thus far this year but I'm going to go ahead and say its reign has been short-lived. Don't Breathe - don't miss. - DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsRooney MaraChanning TatumJude LawA young woman's world unravels when a drug prescribed by her psychiatrist has unexpected side effects.Side Effects is one of Steven Soderbergh's most assured pieces – a glorious finale to his oeuvre, and a comforting tip of the hat to Hitchcock. But unlike the pedantic masturbatory exercises that Brian DePalma would forever pump out in homage to the Master of Suspense (Dressed to Kill and Body Double), Side Effects is not a riff or tongue-in-cheek spin on Hitchcock. Instead, it’s a methodical, intelligent meditation on obsession, delusion, and the big con that would forever haunt Hitchcock and drive him to explore the dishonest nature of mankind in general.
Like Psycho, Side Effects distracts us with a character who may or may not be our protagonist and may or may not be trustworthy. I’m attempting to keep the plot details as non-specific as possible so as not to spoil, but as with the best thrillers, and my personal favorite storytelling mantra, “things are not what they seem.” We should not take anything anyone does or says for granted. Are we following Marion Crane from Psycho who pulls off a misguided last minute robbery, or is this a much more sinister and focused Judy Barton from Vertigo? - DirectorNacho VigalondoStarsKarra ElejaldeCandela FernándezBárbara GoenagaA man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences.In a review, Critic Matt Fisher wrote, "It's like if Philip K. Dick wrote a screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock".
At the beginning of the story, we have this Hitchcock element: we have a woman, who is working and building a table, and all the time she is thinking about putting the table inside the house. And then there is a man looking through binoculars at the forest. This is a real Hitchcock opening: you have a great house in a great forest, you have this great life, but you are looking through binoculars far from home. Why? What is he trying to find? Once he finds this fantasy of a naked girl in the middle of nowhere, he becomes a Hitchcockian character because he’s dealing with his own fantasies. Just like Norman Bates in Psycho, he’s a victim as well as a criminal. - DirectorClint EastwoodStarsClint EastwoodJessica WalterDonna MillsThe life of a disc jockey is turned upside down after a romantic encounter with an obsessed fan.John Cassavetes, the famed actor/director simply told Clint Eastwood, “the only thing wrong with this movie is that it doesn’t have the name “Hitchcock” on it.”
Misty as Hitchcock: Sir Alfred preferred manipulating the audience with long bouts of drawn-out dread, versus going for the jolt of a quick shock. Clint Eastwood works both forms of torture into his film. Not long ago I submitted an entry to another blogathon, The Hitchcock Signature, in which I discuss the visual commonalities between all of Hitchcock’s films. I mention it here because Misty could have easily made that list as well. Besides its obvious suspence/thriller theme, what makes Play Misty for Me a film Hitchcock could have made are its many Hitchcockian visuals/scenes.
Among other things, the main character’s distrust of the police in Misty, is also a theme prevalent in Hitchcock films. Then there’s the setting. The places in all Hitchcock films are central to his telling his stories on film, arguably as important as his characters. As I mentioned, Eastwood shot Misty in his own home town, giving the many exterior shots and those in various establishments a familiar, hometown feel. However, for his apartment, where many of the tense scenes take place, he chooses a claustrophobic, crowded place with a strange design and often depicts scenes at night when people are most vulnerable, a psychological advantage for suspense – a-la-Hitchcock. Smoke and shadows.
I must mention also a brief, but obvious Hitchcock homage (at least to me) during the film’s climactic, final encounter between Evelyn and Dave. In the scene, Evelyn yields a knife, way up over her head, a flash of the background – a bathroom curtain. Very similar to another psycho of much repute.
Source :- http://aurorasginjoint.com/2012/07/09/play-misty-for-me-eastwood-does-hitchcock/ - DirectorVijay AnandStarsAshok KumarDev AnandVyjayanthimalaA Police Commissioner's son comes under suspicion for being a jewel thief.A Bollywood Hitchcokian movie!!! Director of probably the best ever bollywood movie, i.e. "Guide", Vijay Anand, created the best hitchcockian movie of Bollywood(Indian Film Industry). "Jewel Theif" was critically acclaimed as well as, was a commercially successful hitchcockian movie - which can not be said about any other bollywood movie.
This thriller was a loose remake of 'Vertigo' and 'To Catch a Thief' - two very different genres of Hitchcock's thrillers. With its scintillating soundtracks and a racy plot, the movie held audiences spellbound and cash tills ringing.
Be it the plot, use of flashy colours like red, modern lifestyles and nail-biting suspense - the movie was perhaps the best bollywood adaptation of Hitchcock thrillers.
The lead played by Dev Anand was very close to the one Cary Grant played in the movie, 'To Catch a Thief'. The storyboard in which a reformed thief realises that someone else was using his tactics to pull off heists, also matched.
'Jewel Thief' also wove in scarier aspects from another Hitchcock murder mystery, 'Vertigo', where the hero, detective Scottie (played by James Stuart) suffers a 'nervous breakdown' in a game of double identities and entendre, one of Hitchcock's pet themes. - DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsCliff RobertsonGeneviève BujoldJohn LithgowA wealthy New Orleans businessman becomes obsessed with a young woman who resembles his wife."Obsession" is truly one of the best movie Hitchcock never made.
It came out the same year as the great master of suspense made his last movie, the "Family Plot", it has a classy, brilliant soundtrack by the legendary Bernard Herrmann that fits nicely in with the work he did for Hitchcock, it has a wonderful script by Paul Schrader that will keep you guessing till the last frame, and last but not least: it's directed by Brian De Palma, who despite being slammed by some critics for ripping off Hitchcock should in stead be praised for being able to copy the master better than any other living filmmaker.
Obsession, as has been noted numerous times, is De Palma's homage to Hitchcock's masterpiece, Vertigo. It's not a straight out copy as some reviewers have somehow managed to convince themselves, but narrative drive is similar. Robertson in grief for a passed on wife (Bujold) and daughter meets a doppelganger (also Bujold) of his dead wife 16 years down the line and becomes obsessed with her. As the new woman reciprocates the attraction, the relationship becomes wrought and borderline unhealthy, reaching a crescendo when muddy waters are stirred and revelations force the can to open and worms to spill everywhere.
Recommended by :- jrcjohnny99 - DirectorDavid FincherStarsMorgan FreemanBrad PittKevin SpaceyTwo detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.Se7en's killer is not seen until the final act of the movie, but he’s a living, breathing, grinning presence from start to finish. Kevin Spacey offers a John Doe lifted quietly from one of film’s all-time greatest villains: Joseph Cotten’s Uncle Charlie in Shadow of a Doubt, his railing against indulgence, his isolationist self-regard and final attempt at sexual sacrifice. David Fincher is an obvious disciple of Alfred Hitchcock; Se7en must join the league of Dressed to Kill, The Manchurian Candidate, Double Indemnity, and precious few others in the category of suspense films that are worthy of the Master.
- DirectorBlake EdwardsStarsGlenn FordLee RemickStefanie PowersA man with an asthmatic voice telephones and assaults clerk Kelly Sherwood at home and coerces her into helping him steal a large sum from her bank.Director Blake Edwards loved San Francisco so much that he filmed two movies here back to back—Days of Wine and Roses (1962) and then Experiment in Terror—and really gave Alfred Hitchcock a run for his money with Experiment. Though everyone thought of him as a comedian, Edwards proved he could pull a Hitchcock and ratchet up the suspense, plus he worked with his long-time collaborator Henry Mancini on an absolutely fantastic score; one of the best ever.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsVan JohnsonVera MilesCecil ParkerA blind American writer living in London stumbles upon a criminal conspiracy involving kidnapping and extortion.This is one of the relatively few movies that actually deserves the appellation of "Hitchcockian". Henry Hathaway did a marvelous job of matching a typical Hitchcock thriller-- much as Stanley Donen was to do, seven years later, in "Charade" (using Hitchcock-favorite Cary Grant).
Everyone who watches "23 Paces to Baker Street" says the same thing, it is very similar to a Hitchcock movie. From the styling through to the storyline director Henry Hathaway has crafted a movie which feels and looks like something Alfred Hitchcock would have made, maybe only lacking in Hitchcock's dark wit. But it works, the whole story revolving around a blind man over hearing what sounds like a nefarious plot between two people in a London pub then using his heightened senses to unravel a possible crime is both entertaining and clever, not without issue but most importantly entertaining.
In a way "23 Paces to Baker Street" is similar to Hitchcock's "Rear Window" where we have a central character who has a disability which limits them and they believe they know of a crime. - DirectorCarol ReedStarsRalph RichardsonMichèle MorganSonia DresdelA butler working in a foreign embassy in London falls under suspicion when his wife accidentally falls to her death, the only witness being an impressionable young boy.Based on Graham Greene's short story "The Basement Room", the film builds on the look of Hitchcock's "Rebecca", with a house as visually significant as Manderlay, plus fraught with Lillian Hellman's sophisticated view of childhood as in "These Three". Key is not just Georges Périnal's enthralling story, but the stunning direction by Carol Reed in how he uses gorgeous black and white cinematography from both a memorable interior and a London that ranges from scary night to a misleadingly bright daylight that is equally full of secrets, as seen in a new 35 MM print at NYC's Film Forum.
The beautiful production design is dominated by a gorgeous staircase in the ambassador's residence that has to rank with one of the all time movie centerpieces as in "Gone With The Wind", and is as central for the first and last third of the film as the Rear Window in another Hitchcock film. Reed has the camera go up and down those heavily symbolic stairs as a shared link from the main floors that are the busy public areas, down to the basement servant quarters then up and up to the private residential areas, with overlooking balconies and windows that are key for spying on each level. The staircase sets up several dramatic events (adding layers to the film's title), climaxing in a notable scene of the incredibly tense voyage of a child's innocent-seeming paper airplane that carries a significant clue slowly, slowly traversing that vertical no-man's/everyman's land from the top to the bottom, as we hold our breath where it will land. - DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsFanny ArdantJean-Louis TrintignantJean-Pierre KalfonAfter he's implicated in several murders, a real estate agent hides out from the cops while his intrepid secretary does some private investigating of her own to locate the killer.This romance/comedy/murder movie is the last film Truffaut made. It's called an homage to Hitchcock, and like many of Hitchcock's films it mixes murder with humor, with the two leads misunderstanding each other, a good deal of misdirection, and everything turning out okay.
A man is murdered and another man (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a suspect. Then the suspect's wife is killed and it looks like he did it. He hides from the police while his secretary (Fanny Ardant), who loves him, sets out to prove his innocence. More murders happen, red herrings are thrown about, and finally the killer meets justice, exiting on a great last line, "Women are magic, and I became a magician." Here and there are gentle reminders of scenes from Hitchcock movies, including the staggering victim with a knife in the back from North by Northwest.
The static/mobile dynamic of Vercel and Barbara brings to mind the relationship between the wheelchair-bound Jimmy Stewart and his detective-proxy-girlfriend Grace Kelly in Rear Window, which is only one of many references to Alfred Hitchcock. - DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsDennis WeaverJacqueline ScottEddie FirestoneA business commuter is pursued and terrorized by the malevolent driver of a massive tractor-trailer.While 1975’s “Jaws” was the film that launched Steven Spielberg’s career into the stratosphere, it was his 1971 made-for-TV movie “Duel” that jettisoned him from being Universal Executive Sid Sheinberg’s kid with potential to being hailed as the next Hitchcock.
Based on Richard Matheson’s short story, “Duel” is a white knuckler tale about a passive businessman (played by the excellent Dennis Weaver) driving through the California countryside who is continually stalked by a greasy covered tanker-truck. What elevates this simple plot from being an average Action chase film is Spielberg’s calibrated use of sound (with music only coming in at carefully selected moments, akin to Bresson) and a detailed selection of lenses and compositions that place us squarely in the perspective of Dennis Weaver’s lonely character, with the meta-last name of Mann.
In fact, we never see the face of the truck driver, just his tattooed arm, and are never given a clear reason for his relentless attack (echoes of Hitchcock’s “The Birds”). “Duel” so impressed the Universal Executives that extra scenes were then shot and the film was re-released as a theatrical Motion Picture in Europe. - DirectorEdward DmytrykStarsGregory PeckDiane BakerWalter MatthauAn accountant suddenly suffers from amnesia. This appears related to the suicide of his boss. Now some violent thugs are out to get him. They work for a shadowy figure known simply as The Major.Gregory Peck stars as David Stillwell, a man with a secret. The problem is: He doesn’t know he has a secret, because he is suffering from amnesia. Thus begins this psychological thriller in the Hitchcock tradition, set in New York City in the mid 1960s.
BTW this is written by Peter Stone, the same guy who wrote Charade. - DirectorPaul VerhoevenStarsMichael DouglasSharon StoneGeorge DzundzaA violent police detective investigates a brutal murder that might involve a manipulative and seductive novelist.Just compare how similar Sharon Stone's character, Catherine Tramell, was similar in appearance to Kim Novak's character in Vertigo, Madeleine, that's a good start to knowing Hitchcock connection to the movie.
Both movies are set in San Francisco, and both feature a detective who follows and then becomes obsessed with a woman. But both women are very different - Novak is innocent and unaware of how Stewart will become attracted to her (although she is aware that she is being used in a murder plot), whilst Stone starts reeling Douglas in from the moment she meets him, and she is a murderer. Basically, there are connections but none can really be elaborated on. However, it is interesting that Novak's character be the basis for the look of Stone's in her most famous scene.
Source :- http://monroesmile.blogspot.in/2013/01/vertigo-vs-basic-instinct.html - DirectorJonathan MostowStarsKurt RussellJ.T. WalshKathleen QuinlanA man searches for his missing wife after his car breaks down in the middle of the desert.Jonathan Mostow’s highly underrated “Breakdown” came and went with a whimper in 1997, yet this is little B-movie gem has wound up having a shelf life (file-life?) far beyond its initial reception. This movie is a combination of "Duel" and "Joy Ride" and I think it works out to be greater then either of them.
Movie Critic Roger Ebert Wrote in his review :-
""Breakdown'' is taut, skillful and surgically effective, the story of a man who finds himself trapped in a surrealistic nightmare. The story's setup is more entertaining than the payoff; as Hitchcock observed, suspense plays better than action."
Ebert even said that the Start of Breakdown is same as the start of another Hitchcockian movie called The Vanishing", i.e. when he comes to know that his wife is missing.
Okay lets get over Ebert and start our story. Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan star as Jeff and Amy, a once yuppie couple hoping to find a new life in California.
But when their Jeep Cherokee breaks down, they run into the sinister friendliness of the late veteran character actor J.T. Walsh, whose offer to help these stranded motorists turns into their worst nightmare. What propels “Breakdown” into the realm of the Suspense-Thriller rather than an Action film is Kurt Russell’s deeply felt performance as the desperate, unraveling and terrified everyman Jeff as well as J.T. Walsh’s disturbingly believable truck driver Red Barr, a loving family man who just happens to keep a private cellar in his barn for his kidnapped prey. Both actors keep the action and the chase scenes psychologically grounded in a chilling reality. - DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsLeonardo DiCaprioEmily MortimerMark RuffaloTeddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.“Shutter Island”, was very Hitchcock-esque. Sure it’s based off of a book (great one btw), but there was a lot of suspense lurking in the story. And the screenplay has many hitchcock moments.
If ever a motion picture needed to be seen in February this is it. As difficult to watch as it is to review, "Shutter Island" is a psychotropic mish-mash of "Shawshank Redemption" meets "Vertigo" meets "The Sixth Sense" meets "Inglourious Basterds" meets "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," all neatly wrapped up as an ode to Alfred Hitchcock but coming off as simply a nod to Brian DePalma.
Scorsese takes what he has learned from the great films of the past and puts it into his. The master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock's influence is everywhere you look in this film. And it is no wonder, considering Scorsese even showed one of his greatest works to the crew: Vertigo. And many of those ideas are present in Shutter Island; the cliff scenes scream Hitchcock, spiral staircases, gleaming knife, rocky cliffs, ad nauseum etc all scream Hitchcock. This is a film that creeps and crawls, and is filled with dark corners. And it is all heightened by the coming storm that looms over the island. This is classic Hitchcockian film noir.
****Spoilers Ahead*****
DiCaprio looked twitchy and unreliable from the start, and Ruffalo's snide tone when addressing him was a dead giveaway. So once again, we have the deluded murderer who constructs another life because he can't live with what he's done--and a whole bunch of histrionics. Plus rats! And Nazis! This is the kind of thing that Alfred Hitchcock and Norman Lloyd would have knocked out in 26 minutes.--In fact, I believe they did. It was called 'Premonition' and starred John Forsythe. Look it up, it's an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. - DirectorDuncan JonesStarsJake GyllenhaalMichelle MonaghanVera FarmigaA soldier wakes up in someone else's body and discovers he's part of an experimental government program to find the bomber of a commuter train within 8 minutes.Q. What would it be like if Alfred Hitchcock directed an episode of “Quantum Leap” with a script based on “Groundhog Day”?
A. Well, it wouldn’t turn out exactly like “Source Code,” but it’d be pretty close.
What with the mysterious women and mistaken identities, the train fixation and the heady pace, it recalls Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, a nod Director Duncan Jones confirms. "If we were ever talking about a reference, it was to Hitchcock. The score, the way that Jake was dressed, even the clock towers at the station. All these little things we were doing to try and bring this classic feeling to it."
The Hitchcockian case of mixed up identity like in North and Northwest and The Wrong Man is revealed to the viewer right off the bat, a bat that Jones raises much more and enough to strike out any baseball player. - DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsHarrison FordBetty BuckleyEmmanuelle SeignerIn a hotel room in Paris, a doctor comes out of the shower and finds that his wife has disappeared. He soon finds himself caught up in a world of intrigue, espionage, gangsters, drugs and murder.It seems appropriate that one of the most highly regarded (if controversial) directors of all time would eventually get around to making a homage to the Master, and with this film, he did just that. A doctor vacationing in Paris with his wife takes a shower- never a good idea in a Hitchcockian thriller- and gets out to find his beloved missing. The rest of the film encompasses his trying to figure out what happened to her as he gets more and more- you guessed it- frantic. With Harrison Ford in his prime, this intense thriller never quite got the recognition it deserved, but when your resume is as loaded with classics as Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown), that’s understandable. A clear predecessor to not one but two Liam Neeson thrillers- “Unknown” and “Taken”, this is a slick fun ride. See also Ford’s “What Lies Beneath” and Polanski’s “Death and the Maiden” for more familiar Hitchcockian fun.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsJodie FosterKristen StewartForest WhitakerA divorced woman and her diabetic daughter take refuge in their newly-purchased house's safe room when three men break-in, searching for a missing fortune.Fincher’s movies have been in dialogue with Hitchcock’s since the beginning—and not just in his serial killer movies (1995’s Se7en and 2007’s Zodiac). The Fincher film that draws most obviously from Hitchcock is Panic Room (2002). This is most clear in the opening title sequence, which is taken more or less wholesale from the opening of North by Northwest. Using the effect Hitchcock helped pioneer with that movie, Fincher uses “situational type” to show the credits hovering, three-dimensionally, just in front of New York City buildings.
Panic Room is, at times, reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's ‘Rope', as the camera pans through the building in long takes (engineered by hidden editing), showing us every corner of every room of the location.
Fincher himself reportedly described Panic Room as “Rear Window meets Straw Dogs,” and the parallels in the movie’s high-concept premise and single-location setting are fairly obvious: Both Panic Room and Rear Window find the protagonists trapped in their apartments where they sit helpless to stop the crime unraveling around them. (In the more modern Panic Room, they watch the break-in via surveillance cameras, rather than through an apartment window.) Several shots also seem indebted to Hitchcock. The break-in is shown in a highly unusual uninterrupted shot that has the camera backing out and away from the main characters, eventually heading down the stairs toward the street, in a sequence reminiscent of a famous long take in Hitchcock’s Frenzy. The last shot of the movie, which shows the characters looking at real estate listings in the park, is jazzed up through the use of a “Hitchcock zoom” (so named because Hitchcock helped popularize it with Vertigo). - DirectorPhil JoanouStarsRichard GereKim BasingerUma ThurmanA psychiatrist becomes romantically involved with the sister of one of his patients, but the influence of her controlling gangster husband threatens to destroy them both.Film critic Roger Ebert liked the screenplay and thought director Alfred Hitchcock, known for these types of thrillers, would have liked it as well. He wrote, "I'm a sucker for movies that look and feel like this. I like the pounding romantic music, the tempestuous sex scenes, the crafty ways that neurotic meddlers destroy the lives of their victims, and of course the handcrafted climax..." Ebert also thought the movie was needlessly complex.
In many ways Final Analysis has an Alfred Hitchcock thriller feel to it. We have the psychiatrist, the couch, the woman with bizarre dreams, the mysterious and beautiful blonde with the jealous husband, a murder, mystery and suspense, and even scenes reminiscent of Vertigo. Even so, the movie doesn't really get going until midway and it's Eric Roberts as the scary gangster-type husband who starts to clang the warning bell ring that something seriously bad is about to happen. For me, I found the support actors the more interesting to watch. Paul Guilfoyle, playing the role of Isaac's attorney friend, added delightful dashes of humour; and Keith David as a policeman who suspects Isaac of murder was like a Cheshire Cat clawing at a mouse. - DirectorPark Chan-wookStarsMia WasikowskaNicole KidmanMatthew GoodeAfter India's father dies, her Uncle Charlie, who she never knew existed, comes to live with her and her unstable mother. She comes to suspect this mysterious, charming man has ulterior motives and becomes increasingly infatuated with him.Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook's American debut Stoker is currently playing in theaters (read our review), but it's one of the more direct takeoffs from Hitchcock's cinema released this century. Indeed, screenwriter Wenworth Miller (star of the TV series Prison Break) has openly and proudly admitted that Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt was the "jumping off point" for his script. Stoker, like Shadow of a Doubt, revolves around a young woman (Mia Wasikowska) who discovers that her mysterious Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode) may not be the gentleman he presents himself as. The films different significantly in other regards, in terms of story developments and artistic style. However, there's no question that Chan-Wook's first Holllywood picture can be considered a direct descendent of the Hitchcock school for movie-making.
- DirectorJaume Collet-SerraStarsLiam NeesonDiane KrugerJanuary JonesWhen a man awakens from a coma only to discover that someone has taken on his identity, he teams up with a young woman to prove who he is.In Unknown, director Jaume Collet-Serra flips the conventions of archetypal Alfred Hitchcock films on their head with a kind of reverse-Wrong Man thriller. But, in due course, the film’s inventive updates on established material serve the same escapist, entertaining purpose. The Master of Suspense often framed his leading man for murder, sending him on a mission through impossible adventures at landmark locales to clear his good name and rescue the blonde damsel. From The 39 Steps to Saboteur to North by Northwest, this was Hitchcock’s most recurring story structure. And while modern nods, such as Spielberg’s Minority Report, have paid homage astonishingly well, few have turned the basic plot elements of Wrong Man thrillers inside-out like this.
In a way, the film combines a typical Hitchcockian Wrong Man thriller with elements of Roman Polanski’s Frantic, as both feature a disorientated American struggling to reconnect with his wife via the help of a sexy local. - DirectorTerry GilliamStarsBruce WillisMadeleine StoweBrad PittIn a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.A time-travel thriller that dares to compare itself to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” But this 1995 holiday-season release finds a profound poignancy in its sci-fi premise and actually pays back its debt to Hitchcock in a scene so layered it spins a new twist into his bottomless spiral of a movie.
That scene falls toward the end of “12 Monkeys,” which is, like “Vertigo,” a love story between a damaged detective and a dead beauty. Willis’ James Cole, sent from the 2030s, hides out with his psychiatrist, kidnap victim and lover, Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe), in a theater where “Vertigo” is showing. It’s late 1996; a viral plague will kill her and 5 billion others in a few weeks. On-screen, Kim Novak’s first incarnation explains her bogus “past life” to Jimmy Stewart, pointing to the dated rings in the trunk of a fallen redwood. “I was born here, here I died.”
“I saw this movie when I was a kid,” Cole remembers. He was 8 when the virus was released — now, in other words — and was among the handful of survivors who went to live underground. Evidence has just forced Dr. Railly to believe him, and she’s finally stopped calling his apocalyptic warnings “a meticulously constructed fantasy.”
A meticulously constructed fantasy — like Kim Novak’s preposterous impersonation in the first part of “Vertigo” and like Jimmy Stewart’s crazed makeover in the second. As the 1990s lovers watch the older film, Cole marvels, “The movie never changes. It can’t. But every time you see it, it’s different, because you’re always a different person.” As Jimmy Stewart never does, Cole grasps the futility of trying to relive a moment locked away in time.
Source :- http://www.salon.com/2002/08/19/12_monkeys/ - DirectorTerence YoungStarsSean ConneryRobert ShawLotte LenyaJames Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E.Alfred Hitchcock was originally considered as director for the film version in 1958, with Cary Grant as Bond and Grace Kelly as Tatiana Romanova, but the deals fell through when the Hitchcock movie Vertigo performed badly at the box office. The helicopter scene in this film mimics a famous scene from the movie Hitchcock did instead, North by Northwest, in which the main character, played by Cary Grant, is chased by a cropduster.
The helicopter chase scene was not in the original novel, but were added to create an action climax.
Not only do we have the Hitchcock style train journey but, as soon as Bond sets foot on the train, the whole narrative becomes ‘Hitchcockian’. In the style of the best ‘who-done-its’, Kerim Bey is murdered and Bond has to find out who has committed the crime. - DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsCraig WassonMelanie GriffithGregg HenryA young actor's obsession with spying on a beautiful woman who lives nearby leads to a baffling series of events with drastic consequences.De Palma gets another entry on our list.
The main plot from Rear Window was used for Body Double, while it also used elements of Vertigo. - DirectorDavid MillerStarsDoris DayRex HarrisonJohn GavinIn London, a recently-wed American woman's sanity comes into question after she claims to be the victim of a threatening stalker.This looks and feels like a Hitchcock picture.. Starring a blonde Doris Day, who is driven to the brink of insanity by anonymous threatening phone calls. It also helps that, John Williams, repeating his inspector role from Dial M for Murder and Anthony Dawson, the perfect villain, who is also from, Dial M for Murder..
Released the same year as Hitchcock's original Psycho, this intriguing mystery thriller explored some of Hitchcock's past themes and plot-devices, making comparisons very strongly to Rear Window and Vertigo.
Although it does seem a lot like a copycat, it makes little difference because this film stands very much on its own feet. Doris Day stars, surprisingly, as the troubled lead who is just on the edge of a nervous breakdown due to all of the threats being made by an unseen antagonist.
The look of the film is very much Hitchcock. I'm sure director David Miller had his particular style foremost in mind during production. Lots of shadows, over key-lighting actors and the occasional slanted angle, along with the patented Hitchcock camera panning and zooming. It doesn't take a total genius to figure it out, but I think it gives the film its style and charm and I can't find fault in that at all. - DirectorGeorge CukorStarsCharles BoyerIngrid BergmanJoseph CottenTen years after her aunt was murdered in their London home, a woman returns from Italy in the 1880s to resume residence with her new husband. His obsessive interest in the home rises from a secret that may require driving his wife insane.The gothic, noirish and effective melodrama, with the theme of a menaced, terrorized, sheltered or threatened woman (or wife) by a deranged man (often a husband), was inspired by a number of similar films made in the 1940s:
Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), with Joan Fontaine
Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941), with Joan Fontaine
Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943), with Teresa Wright - DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsRebecca RomijnAntonio BanderasPeter CoyoteA woman tries to straighten out her life, even as her past as a con-woman comes back to haunt her.Femme Fatale is a film Alfred Hitchcock would be proud of. Director Brian De Palma crafts an elegant and intriguing heist thriller with more than its share of twists and turns.
Whether or not Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is a great actress is debatable. Yet she is a true Hitchcock-ian heroine: icy, deliciously duplicitous, and sexy as hell. Her performance may not be spectacular, but it is certainly one of the most bravado performance. - DirectorSatoshi KonStarsJunko IwaoRica MatsumotoShinpachi TsujiA pop singer gives up her career to become an actress, but she slowly goes insane when she starts being stalked by an obsessed fan and what seems to be a ghost of her past."Perfect Blue" has often been described by it's plethora of onlookers as: "Alfred Hitchcock meets Walt Disney"
Blood, gore, fear and mood escalates – much like Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds (1963), and by the end the movie is near incomprehensible. Satoshi Kon is great at confusing the viewer. - DirectorWoody AllenStarsScarlett JohanssonJonathan Rhys MeyersEmily MortimerAt a turning point in his life, a former tennis pro falls for an actress who happens to be dating his friend and soon-to-be brother-in-law.Match Point is a modern-day film noir with shades of Hitchcock films including Strangers on a Train with Suspicion, and those are just two films off the top of my head.
Match Point has several tropes of a Hitchcockian story ingrained throughout. Obviously, the “cool blonde” of Hitchcock’s films applies here in the character of Nola Rice.
A suspenseful Alfred Hitchcock-like meditation on the vagaries of desire and fate, by way of Theodore Dreiser.
Without spoiling the plot, i can say that as a dramatic device, it’s brilliant, and would have made Alfred Hitchcock proud — our ‘hero’ proves his point about how it’s better to be lucky than good in the most profound way possible, and without even realizing it. - DirectorRobert SiodmakStarsDorothy McGuireGeorge BrentEthel BarrymoreIn 1916, a shadowy serial killer is targeting women with "afflictions"; one night during a thunderstorm, the mute Helen feels menaced.Looking at Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945) and The Spiral Staircase, you can see the former’s influence on Siodmak’s movie. For one thing there’s the eerie music, with the killer’s theme played by a theremin, a musical instrument first used in cinema by Miklos Rozsa in Hitchcock’s movie.
Then there’s the hero suffering from a malady caused by a past trauma. In Hitchcock’s movie, Gregory Peck loses his memory after witnessing a murder; in this movie, MgGuire becomes mute after a fire kills her parents. Both are in love with a doctor. - DirectorRichard SaleStarsTyrone PowerMai ZetterlingLloyd NolanA ship's officer finds himself in command of a lifeboat full of survivors of a sunken luxury liner.Full of suspense and high drama, similar to ''Lifeboat'' by Alfred Hitchcock. However, Abandon Ship, it's a little know film.
- DirectorBryan SingerStarsKevin SpaceyGabriel ByrneChazz PalminteriThe sole survivor of a pier shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a seemingly random police lineup.Verbal/Keyser isn’t just a foil for a hero; he is layered and complex and compelling, and no matter how much we ought to root against him, we can’t help but find ourselves enamored by him. And THAT is so ver Hitchcockian.
‘Why is it that we can’t tell a lie through a flashback?’ asked Alfred Hitchcock in an interview by François Truffaut. He recently had experienced a failure with his film Stage Fright in which the audience is given false information through a flashback sequence. The audience is very trusting therefore when confronted with a lie told and shown on screen it considers it as a breach of loyalty.
‘Knowing that we have to take verbal accounts on trust, we reserve a small space in our minds for the possibility that trust will be betrayed. But when the falsehood is presented directly to our eyes rather than our ears, our circumstances are altogether different.’ (Sutcliffe, p. xii)
‘Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects (1995) could be said to be almost nothing but a lie told in a flashback’. (Sutcliffe, p. xi). Even though part of the audience felt betrayed, a larger amount was delighted to be cheated in such a brilliant way which led to the film’s success. - DirectorByron HaskinStarsLizabeth ScottDon DeForeDan DuryeaThrough a fluke circumstance, a ruthless woman stumbles across a suitcase filled with $60,000, and is determined to hold onto it even if it means murder.Too Late for Tears is a finely-tuned movie with tension that builds and never lets up. It is reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s work in the 1940s and early 1950s, but director Byron Haskin establishes his own style right at the start. Haskin is grittier than Hitchcock, but also treats us to plenty of funny lines.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsRoy ScheiderRobert ShawRichard DreyfussWhen a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Cape Cod, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.Steven Spielberg has been name-checking Hitchcock as an influence on the direction of Jaws since the very beginning—
but Alfred Hitchcock was still alive and working even as he was being turned into “history.
Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal's presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark's impending appearances. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of classic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock.
As Spielberg put it years later, "The film went from a Japanese Saturday matinee horror flick to more of a Hitchcock, the less-you-see-the-more-you-get thriller." In another interview, he similarly declared, "The shark not working was a godsend. It made me become more like Alfred Hitchcock than like Ray Harryhausen." - DirectorJohn M. StahlStarsGene TierneyCornel WildeJeanne CrainA writer falls in love with a young socialite and they're soon married, but her obsessive love for him threatens to be the undoing of them both as well as everyone around them.The cinematography in "Leave Her to Heaven"- David Lean meets Alfred Hitchcock
- DirectorMartin DonovanStarsHart BochnerColin FirthDora BryanIn early 1980s Buenos Aires, a struggling movie theater owner takes in a roommate but suspects he is responsible for a series of political assassinations.1988, Agentinian writer-director Martin Donovan cast All-American heartthrob Hart Bochner and not yet leading man Colin Firth in one of the all-time great cult films and my choice for the best Hitchcock movie Hitchcock Never Made, Apartment Zero. An homage to Hitchcock's love for voyerism, sexual obsession, and the charismatic villain, the film (about a cinema owner) has elements of Hitchcock classics such as Shadow of a Doubt, Rear Window, Strangers on a Train, Vertigo and Psycho to make a funny, grotesque and even sad thriller.
The movie is very much the kind of film Alfred Hitchcock would have made if he continuted making movies into the 1980s. From the voyeristic point of view shots before murders to the structure of apartment, reminiscient of the Bates mansion and even apartment building evoking the Rear Window court yard and Vertigo stairs. Even the political storyline has elements with similarities to films such as Torn Curtain, Topaz, and Notorious, and the hunt for the killer is reminiscent of films such as Frenzy and Shadow of a Doubt. But all these elements are simply meant to highlight the film's psychological thriller and relationship drama, the aspects which have kept Hitchcock's films relevant and compelling no matter the generation watching.
Hitchcock had a fascination with sexual obsession and Adrien and Jack's relationship is much like those created between men and women in Vertigo and Marni and underlined homosexual male relationships seen in Rope, Strangers on a Train, and North by Northwest. The film doesn't shy away from presenting the film as a homosexual thriller, despite both men claiming to be straight. Adrien, whether raised to believe homosexuality is wrong or is simply sexually repressed claims he will not participate in meaningless sex, especially in the time of AIDS. But he is undenably attracted to Jack and this attraction and evenual obsession is eventually what brings about his unravelling, just as obsession brought down Hitchcock's characters, Vertigo's Scotty and Philip in Rope. - DirectorLewis AllenStarsRay MillandRuth HusseyDonald CrispA composer and his sister discover that the reason they are able to purchase a beautiful gothic seacoast mansion very cheaply is the house's unsavory past.Hitchcock never really tackled supernatural themes but if he did, the results would look a lot like this glorious ghost story. Like a great many films (not least Fritz Lang's Secret Beyond the Door and Hitchcock's own Suspicion), it takes its cues from Rebecca – tales of Cornish creepiness were big news in the 1940s. Director Lewis Allen does more than crib a location though: he evidently studied Hitchcock's ability to conjure atmosphere and create tension, all the better to spook us with.
- DirectorRené ClémentStarsAlain DelonMaurice RonetMarie LaforêtTom Ripley is a talented mimic, moocher, forger and all-around criminal improviser; but there's more to Tom Ripley than even he can guess.Fans of Anthony Minghella’s 1999 Matt Damon film “The Talented Mr. Ripley” owe it to themselves to see the French film “Purple Noon,” the first adaptation of Patricia’s Highsmith’s fantastic novel – an origin story for one of literature’s most oddly sympathetic sociopaths, Tom Ripley.
Director René Clément delivers the perfect combination of sun-splashed Technicolor madness as we truly get inside the mind of Alain Delon’s star making performance as Tom Ripley, the chameleon who yearns to either love or become the wealthy Philippe Greenleaf.
Though Clément’s conclusion takes too many liberties with Highsmith’s original ending, his ability to sustain a slow, creeping tension throughout as we, despite ourselves, worry as to how Tom will wriggle his way out of his crimes, is a true marvel to behold. It’s interesting to note that Ms. Highsmith was also the author of the book “Strangers on a Train,” another tale of repressed homoerotic longing turned violent which became the basis for one of Hitchcock’s greatest films. - DirectorDan TrachtenbergStarsJohn GoodmanMary Elizabeth WinsteadJohn Gallagher Jr.A young woman is held in an underground bunker by a man who insists that a hostile event has left the surface of the Earth uninhabitable.I've been thinking about what film I could use to compare '10 Clover-field Lane' to, and while I think even a comparison to a specific film might give too much away, I feel safe in saying that it is absolutely Hitchcock. It's a brilliant, brilliant movie that's told in the best possible way: by showing, not telling.
Surfacing without prior notice, filmed in absolute secrecy & marketed without giving away anything at all, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a masterpiece of suspenseful filmmaking that retains its air of mystery by always staying one step ahead of its viewers. Unpredictable, claustrophobic & making ingenious use of Hitchcockian elements, this orgy of twists n turns delivers the chills with great effectiveness and is further uplifted by stellar performances from its cast.
In an era of bloated blockbusters, 10 Cloverfield Lane is refreshingly pared down – a chamber piece rather than an epic. The shots of Michelle in the car and the wonderfully atmospheric, Bernard Herrmann-like music rekindle memories of Janet Leigh in Hitchcock's Psycho. Director Dan Trachtenberg and his screenwriters Josh Campbell, Matt Stuecken and Damien Chazelle (from Oscar-winner Whiplash) deliberately withhold information. As viewers, we are as disoriented as Michelle herself the moment her car spins off the road. We know something is awry, but whether it's a hurricane or an alien invasion or simply a squall in the heroine's private life isn't immediately specified. Whatever the case, the end result is the same. She is a captive in a bunker.
And, Here's something that the director himself said during the promotion :- " Yeah, absolutely. I’m hugely influenced by Alfred Hitchcock. Notorious is one of my favorite Hitchcock movies. That movie has a great sequence set around a set of keys. We have our own little moment with a set of keys that’s quite fun. " - DirectorWilliam WylerStarsTerence StampSamantha EggarMona WashbourneA man kidnaps a woman and holds her hostage just for the pleasure of having her there.The Collector is as good a thriller as anything Alfred Hitchcock could have come up with. It's essentially a two-character story as there really aren't any other significant supporting characters. We briefly meet Clegg's aunt (Washbourne) in a flashback to his days of working at a bank and being mocked for his butterfly collection.
Alfred Hitchcock might have seemed like a better bet for The Collector, but even those who found the film too downbeat admitted that Wyler had created a Hitchcockian atmosphere. - DirectorOtto PremingerStarsKeir DulleaCarol LynleyLaurence OlivierA woman reports that her young daughter is missing, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed.Much like the hype of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, audiences were not allowed to tell the film’s ending. The film’s poster promoted a tagline “No One Admitted While the Clock is Ticking” I will also choose not to reveal the film’s coda in this post, so as not to give away the culmination of the film’s secrets or it’s finale.
BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING can easily be included in the list of such impressive films which play with the suspense element so beautifully that you at once have Hitchcock in mind the moment the end credits start rolling. - DirectorRaffaello MatarazzoStarsAmedeo NazzariYvonne SansonEnrica DyrellWidowed and having lost his two children, Guido yearns for the nun Luisa, the woman with whom he had a relationship in "Nobody's Children", the first part of this duology. Then he meets Lina, a chorus dancer who looks just like Luisa.Made three years later, the sequel to Nobody’s Children, The White Angel (1955), picks up where the earlier film left off, on the precipice of profound despair. While traditional melodrama relies on symmetry and completion, Nobody’s Children, despite sending its main man, woman, and child through elaborate spirals of anguish, denied its audience closure. The White Angel finishes the job ingeniously. Though nothing would indicate that Matarazzo was attempting anything self-referential, the film so luxuriates in melodrama that it almost seems to be winking at its own byzantine ways.
- DirectorGerd OswaldStarsRobert WagnerJeffrey HunterVirginia LeithA ruthless college student resorts to murder in an attempt to marry an heiress."A Kiss Before Dying" is an outstanding thriller with Hitchcock-level suspense courtesy of Gerd Oswald, a director much better known for his TV work on "The Outer Limits" and "Star Trek."
Similar to Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (and predating that classic by four years), the story shifts perspective to her sister Ellen and a detective who try to put the pieces together to figure out who murdered Dorothy. - DirectorRobert BentonStarsRoy ScheiderMeryl StreepJessica TandyA Manhattan psychiatrist probes a patient's murder and falls for the victim's mysterious mistress.This movie is like a homage of scenes to hitchcock. There are number of scenes taken from hitchcock movies.
Interpreting a dream literally to solve a crime is Spellbound.
Belltower is Vertigo.
Woman in a red room ripping up evidence is Marnie.
Bird statues hovering over significant locations is Psycho.
The Birds: Jessica Tandy as the star's mother, a bird attacks, and a swarm of birds outside a window.
North by Northwest: Glen Cove, Long Island home with a long driveway and a name at the front of the drive, plus the auction house scene.
Rear Window: George spying on Brooke through the window.
Notorious: The female lead is motivated by her foreign father's betrayal.
***Movie recommended by jrcjohnny99 - DirectorBiren NagStarsBiswajeet ChatterjeeWaheeda RehmanLalita PawarIn this re-imagining of Du Maurier's Rebecca, a recently wed woman discovers the ghost of her husband's first wife still haunts their home.2nd, of only two worthy Hitchcockian movies from bollywood. Even if you are a Hardcore Bollywood movie fanatic, 90% chances are that you still might not have seen this movie.
The supernatural black-and-white 1964 thriller starring Biswajeet and Waheeda Rehman with its memorable soundtrack and some of the most spine-chilling sequences of the ghost of the dead first wife haunting the second one.
It was modelled on 'Rebecca' and 'Pyscho', two of Hitchcock's masterpieces. 'Rebecca' used the 'ghost' of a dead first wife as it's ghostly and thriller element, while 'Psycho' narrated the hair-raising tale of a psychopath, who murdered women, mostly in their baths, and dismembered their bodies
'Kohra' lifted a bath sequence from 'Psycho' and the ghost of the first wife, who had been poisoned to death, from 'Rebecca'.
Plots apart, 'Kohraa' also used Hitchcock's ingenuous camera techniques to convey the elements of 'supernatural and mystery'.
One such technique was the 'slipping in' effect. Executed through a mirror in 'Kohra', it was as if the characters were walking through a mirror and floating out from the other side.
The nature of sounds and music also took off from Hitchcock. The songs seemed to be emanating from another world and enveloping you. This Bollywood adaptation of Hitchcock movies also used the strong sexual metaphors that Hitchcock inserted into his films - like drops of water on a woman's face, sweat, nervousness, all a symbolising latent sexual frisson in intimate sequences of intrigue and passion.
Spoilers
............
The Movie has a twist ending, i.e. different from the Movie or Novel "Rebecca". - DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsJoan CrawfordFred MacMurrayConrad VeidtOxford Professor Richard Myles and his new bride Frances are off on a European honeymoon. It isn't the typical honeymoon: they are on a spying mission for British Intelligence on the eve of World War II.Perhaps it lacks the finesse of the Hitchcock style—and on at least one occasion borrows a trick from his "The Man Who Knew Too Much"—but this is slight exception.
The “killer,” played by Bruce Lester, is a little-known actor (he has a nice role in The Letter), and here he is given the chance to portray a man seeking his revenge on the Nazis. (The murder scene was used once before by Alfred Hitchcock; here it seems hijacked and of no use.) - DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsBarbara StanwyckBurt LancasterAnn RichardsWhile on the telephone, an invalid woman overhears what she thinks is a murder plot and attempts to prevent it.Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window I can’t help but think about that all-time favorite whenever I consider this similar, but lesser film from Anatole Litvak. The similarity comes from the simple setup of having a character that is confined to a single room, who by chance uncovers a horrendous crime. In this case, due to crossed telephone wires, Barbara Stanwyck’s Leona Stevenson, an invalid, uncovers the planning of a murder. When she tries to contact police and tell them what she heard, they say that they can do nothing on such speculative information. Alone in the house and scrambling to find out why her husband Henry (Burt Lancaster) has not returned home, Leona begins to worry and reminisce about her past.
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsFrank SinatraLaurence HarveyJanet LeighAn American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.For the scene in the convention hall prior to the assassination, Frankenheimer was at a loss as to how Marco would pinpoint Raymond Shaw's sniper's nest. Eventually he decided on a method similar to Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940). Frankenheimer noted that what would be plagiarism in the 1960s would now be looked upon as an homage.
Frankenheimer also acknowledged the climax's connection with Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 and 1956) by naming the Presidential candidate "Benjamin Arthur". Arthur Benjamin was the composer of the Storm Clouds Cantata used in both versions of Hitchcock's film. - DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsEwan McGregorPierce BrosnanOlivia WilliamsA ghost writer, hired to complete the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister, uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy.This is a good old spy story that we haven't seen the likes of for many years. Because it involves mostly English characters, my mind wandered back to Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film, The 39 Steps.
As in his previous films, Roman Polanski paid tribute to Alfred Hitchcock by using the device of the “MacGuffin” in The Ghost Writer. The MacGuffin, the object that does not matter, is the supposedly revealing manuscript, written by a writer who is now a ghost, washed up on the beaches of Nantucket. Hitchcock’s MacGuffins appeared regularly in his films, for example, as a spool of film in North by Northwest, but the raison d’être of the plot was to resolve Cary Grant’s mother complex and to mate him, correctly, with the cool/hot blonde, Eva Marie Saint. The spies vying for the information embedded in the film and the information itself were all irrelevant. For Hitchcock, it was always the Romance. Famous for his irony, Hitchcock proves to be a cheerful soul compared to Polanski’s dark inner visions. In The Ghost Writer, there is no romance, no happy ending, no resolution beyond a cynical slap at the CIA and a farewell to the puppet people die and a salute to the master manipulators live long and prosper. - DirectorGuillaume CanetStarsFrançois CluzetMarie-Josée CrozeAndré DussollierAn accidental discovery near a doctor's estate stirs up some painful memories eight years after his wife's hideous murder, and now, things are bound to take a turn for the unexpected. Does the good doctor know more than he's letting on?Made in the Alfred Hitchcock mode, Tell No One is about an innocent man implicated in murder and on the run. (Like the French, I am a sucker for Hitchcock references.) It has a terrific sequence of a foot chase on a highway. Terror in the sunlight.
Tell No One is the tantalizing tale of Alexandre Beck (Francois Cluzet), who is married to his childhood sweetheart Margot (Marie-Josee Croze). She is the victim of a brutal act. - DirectorChristopher NolanStarsChristian BaleHugh JackmanScarlett JohanssonAfter a tragic accident, two stage magicians in 1890s London engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other.At first glance, The Prestige might not seem a particularly Hitchcockian film. For one thing, it’s set in the world of magic, and while Hitchcock occasionally dabbled in that world in his films – his first big success, The 39 Steps (1935), had its plot turn on a magician named “Mr. Memory” – as well as movies that dealt with events that couldn’t be explained rationally (The Birds (1963)), mostly, his movies followed “real-world” laws, no matter how fanciful the plots were. For another, among many things, The Prestige is a mystery, and while Hitchcock did make films with twists in them, more often than not, he told us the information, and the rest of the movie was us waiting to see when the characters would be able to figure things out (most notably, of course, in Vertigo (1958)). Still, it does involve murder, which Hitchcock returned to time and again, and also, like a magician, Hitchcock would often show you he had nothing up his sleeve while hiding something (supposedly) in plain sight the entire time, and that certainly is Nolan’s method in The Prestige.
Source :- http://lipranzer.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/the-prestige-the-best-hitchcock-movie-hitchcock-never-made/ - DirectorJ. Lee ThompsonStarsGregory PeckRobert MitchumPolly BergenA lawyer's family is stalked by a man he once helped put in jail.The work of Alfred Hitchcock was influential on the style of Cape Fear. As with the 1962 film version, where director J. Lee Thompson specifically acknowledged Hitchcock's influence, strove to use Hitchcock's style, and had Bernard Hermann write the score, (see Cape Fear (1962 film)), Scorcese made his version in the Hitchcock manner, especially through the use of unusual camera angles, lighting and editing techniques. Additionally, Scorcese's version has opening credits designed by regular Hitchcock collaborator Saul Bass and the link to Hitchcock is cemented by the reuse of the original score by Bernard Herrmann), albeit reworked by Elmer Bernstein. The scene where Cady murders with the piano wire while dressed as the maid Graciella also recalls Hitchcock, specifically the psychosexual crossdressing in female clothing which forms a core theme of Hitchcock's Psycho (although here Cady merely uses the woman's clothing as a deceptive disguise).
- DirectorSidney GilliatStarsDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Glynis JohnsJack HawkinsIn post-WW2 Europe, when the dictator of a small police state dies during surgery, the operating surgeon, who's a visiting American doctor, is held captive in order to preserve the terrible state secret.Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, the two young Britons who wrote the scripts of "The Lady Vanishes" for Alfred Hitchcock and "Night Train" for Carol Reed, have now demonstrated that their talent for the detail of a Continental "chase" and for the tension of a peril-fraught situation is not limited to dreaming them up. In their own film, entitled "State Secret," which came to the Victoria yesterday, they have turned out completely a thriller which matches their old masters' to a T.
As a matter of fact, the general pattern of this man-on-the-run film is so close to that of "The Lady Vanishes" and "Night Train" that one might observe a suspiciously imitative similarity among the three. Indeed, if one were ungracious, one might even accuse the gentlemen of being too diligent in emulating the shoemaker who sticks to his last. For this tale of a man with secret knowledge trying desperately to get away from grim pursuers in the depths of Middle Europe is conveniently like those other two.
Source :- http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9405E2D9133EEF3BBC4D53DFB667838B649EDE - DirectorColin HigginsStarsGoldie HawnChevy ChaseBurgess MeredithA San Francisco librarian picks up a hitchhiker whose car has broken down, which leads to her being stalked and hunted by shady individuals. A cop she briefly met during a function eventually comes to her rescue.Foul Play marks the second of two Colin Higgins screenplays to liberally lift plots straight from the works of Alfred Hitchcock, then wrap it up in 70s comic style, Silver Streak being the other. Call this The 39 Steps meets The Man Who Knew Too Much, but played mostly in farcical style. It's probably as much an homage as High Anxiety, but this definitely is closer to the true spirit of Hitchcock, with no less than a dozen references to some of the best of his films.
Source :- http://www.qwipster.net/foulplay.htm - DirectorDavid MametStarsSteve MartinBen GazzaraCampbell ScottAn employee who develops a lucrative secret process for his corporation is tempted to betray the company when higher ups attempt to take the process from him. Dastardly intrigue ensues.I guess I could describe the Spanish Prisoner as the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock (alive and well inhabiting the body of director David Mamet) come back to haunt us with an insane dark wit, a smart enigmatic mystery, and a surreal game of murder and falsehood. I needed my vacation. I needed a thriller I could enjoy without wanting to tear to shreds on the first try. In the words of the little girl in Poltergeist "It's he-re!"
Here's what Critic Roger Ebert said about the movie :-
"The Spanish Prisoner'' resembles Alfred Hitchcock in the way that everything takes place in full view, on sunny beaches and in brightly lit rooms, with attractive people smilingly pulling the rug out from under the hero and revealing the abyss. - DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesEdward G. RobinsonLoretta YoungAn investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi.Story-wise, The Stranger lacks originality. It is essentially a reworking of Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943), with Uncle Charlie being substituted by Franz Kindler. Both films are set in postcard perfect small-town America, feature the villain launching into a psychotic monologue while sitting at a family dinner-table, and climax with a dramatic scene atop a bell tower. Edward G. Robinson also seems to be channelling his cranky investigator from Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944), and in doing so instils a methodical intelligence in his stereotypical character.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsHarrison FordMichelle PfeifferKatharine TowneThe wife of a university research scientist believes that her lakeside Vermont home is haunted by a ghost - or that she is losing her mind.The What Lies Beneath script co-written by Clark Gregg (who plays Agent Coulson in The Avengers) and two-time Oscar-winner Sarah Kernochan (9 1/2 Weeks) revisits the murder-mystery plot of Hitchcock's Rear Window by combining it with a may-or-may-not-be supernatural angle. Moreover, the protagonist is a blonde heroine (Michelle Pfieffer) - the same archetype that appeared throughout Hitch's films - and her husband (Harrison Ford) is even named Norman, as a reference to Norman Bates from Psycho. Director Robert Zemeckis took everything a step further, by emulating Hitchcock's visual style through suspenseful editing and carefully-composed shot selection (drawing from Alan Silvestri's score, which is mean to harken back to Bernard Herrmann's compositions for many Hitchcock pictures). That's not to say anyone would mistake What Lies Beneath for a Hitchcock production, but his figurative prints are all over that exploration of married life's dark side.
- DirectorRobert SchwentkeStarsJodie FosterPeter SarsgaardSean BeanA bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet, the child vanishes, and nobody will admit she was ever on the plane.Hitchcock's 1938 film The Lady Vanishes (based on Ethel Lina White's novel "The Wheel Spins") is a mystery novel-turned film involving a shady collection of people aboard a moving train. Nowadays, though, planes are the preferred means of transportation across vast distances, which makes Flightplan an appropriate contemporary re-imagining of that premise. That's not to say the script from Peter A. Dowling and Billy Ray (The Hunger Games) is a pure knock-off, but there are definite parallels between Lady Vanishes and this thriller about a mother (Jodie Foster) whose daughter mysteriously vanishes mid-flight. Some of the similarities were accidental, as the main character was originally written to be a man (with Sean Penn eyed to play the role) and not a woman, a la Hitch's comical-thriller. Nonetheless, director Robert Schwentke (RED) very much constructs the film as the sort of sinister guessing game that the "Master of Suspense" would've liked to play.
- DirectorD.J. CarusoStarsShia LaBeoufDavid MorseCarrie-Anne MossWhen a teenager is placed under house arrest, he succumbs to despair and starts spying on his neighbors, hoping to spice up his life. This, however, leads him to witness a serial killer on the loose.Director D.J. Caruso's Disturbia is often referred to as being "Rear Window starring Shia LaBeouf," and with good reason. Christopher Landon (Paranormal Activity 2-4) wrote the story and script in the 1990s, but it was put on hold after Rear Window was remade in 1998 (starring the late Christopher Reeve). Even after the delay, the right holders to Cornell Woolrich's story "It Had to be Murder" (the basis for Rear Window) sued the studios and people behind Caruso's film. That lawsuit ultimately failed because Disturbia does go far enough in refashioning Rear Window as a mystery-thriller involving a housebound young man (LaBeouf) in the suburbs, who suspects his neighbor is a killer. Nonetheless, when you break the story down to its basic components, it kinda feels like someone played Mad Libs with the setup for Hitchcock's famous single-setting tale of voyeurism and murder - and turned the results into a script featuring teenagers.
- DirectorD.J. CarusoStarsShia LaBeoufMichelle MonaghanRosario DawsonJerry and Rachel are two strangers thrown together by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and family, she pushes Jerry and Rachel into a series of increasingly dangerous situations, using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move.One year after Disturbia hit theaters, director D.J. Caruso and actor Shia LaBeouf reunited for Eagle Eye. The lucrative action-thriller is about as incredulous and preposterous as they come, but the similarities between its core plot and character elements and Hitchcock's North by Northwest are readily apparent (once you look past certain logic-defying story points that I will not spoil here). Both films, for example, follow an amiable and unsuspecting main character (LaBeouf), who must run for his life after becoming involved in an elaborate scheme involving mistaken identities, criminal forces, federal agents and a woman (Michelle Monaghan) who may or may not be more than she appears. Caruso doesn't stage the set pieces or action with the sophistication and wit of North by Northwest, but he does travel a similar route towards producing high-tension storytelling.
- DirectorJoel SchumacherStarsColin FarrellKiefer SutherlandForest WhitakerPublicist Stuart Shepard finds himself trapped in a phone booth, pinned down by an extortionist's sniper rifle. Unable to leave or receive outside help, Stuart's negotiation with the caller leads to a jaw-dropping climax.Believe it or not, screenwriter Larry Cohen pitched this project to Hitchcock back in the 1960s. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to "crack" the story until a few decades later (after the director had passed away)
- DirectorMark TonderaiStarsJennifer LawrenceElisabeth ShueMax ThieriotAfter moving with her mother to a small town, a teenager finds that an accident happened in the house at the end of the street. Things get more complicated when she befriends a boy. A double murder is not an accident.Without spoiling anything, let's just say this Jennifer Lawrence thriller borrows a handful of useful tricks from Psycho.
- DirectorKenneth BranaghStarsKenneth BranaghEmma ThompsonAndy GarciaA woman who has lost her memory is taken in by a Los Angeles orphanage, and a private eye is enlisted to track down her identity, but he soon finds that he might have a past life connection to her that endangers their lives.Dead Again is an unholy union of Psycho, Rebecca, Vertigo and Spellbound, with Branagh and Thompson making an excellent team. Thompson in particular has the most blood-curdling scream I’ve ever heard. The finale is silly, but so bold and demented that you just have to admire it. A grotesque, funny, Gothic pulp masterwork
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJeanne MoreauJean-Claude BrialyMichel BouquetJulie Kohler is prevented from suicide by her mother. She leaves the town. She will track down, charm and kill five men who do not know her. What is her goal? What is her purpose?The Bride Wore Black (1968) is noted as being director François Truffaut's gleeful homage/pastiche of the cinema of Alfred Hitchcock, with the usual characteristics of deception and retribution, cool cinematography and a lush score by none other than Bernard Hermann all being co-opted alongside some nicely subtle allusions to the broader aspects of the thriller and mystery genres. Whereas it would have been fairly easy for the filmmaker to produce a work that was a shot-for-shot recreation of something that Hitchcock might have done - like for example with De Palma or Van Sant - Truffaut takes the familiar style and iconography of Hitchcock's work - in particular from films like Strangers on a Train (1951), To Catch a Thief (1955) and most prominently Marnie (1964) - and fashions a film that is, on the one hand, an affectionate ode to the filmmaker and, on the other hand, a cruel lampoon. In doing so, the director is able to produce a film that is not only interesting in terms of story and character, but often very funny too.
- DirectorRob ReinerStarsJames CaanKathy BatesRichard FarnsworthAfter a famous author is rescued from a car crash by a fan of his novels, he comes to realize that the care he is receiving is only the beginning of a nightmare of captivity and abuse.Yes I included Rob Reiner's version of Stephen King's novel. If you're in doubt, then watch the film again! It has terrific cinematography by Barry Sonnenfeld, and it greatly lives up to one of Hitchcock's laws: "the greater the villain, the greater the picture" as Kathy Bates' psychopath is so good you'd love to strangle her with your bare hands! The film is often pure Hitchcock the way it uses the camera to put us - the viewer - in the position of the protagonist (James Caan), all very effectively told visually. Also it manages to scare the heck out of us without ever seeming exploitative, which is VERY RARE in modern thriller/horror movies. I'm sure Hitchcock himself would have enjoyed this film greatly, especially its most shocking scene (the one with the sledge hammer), where Reiner actually leaves the stunned audience LAUGHING as Bates delivers the "God I love you"-dialogue. Who would have thought that the tv comedian who made Spinal Tap, Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally would ever be able to channel the Master of Suspense!?
- DirectorDanny DeVitoStarsDanny DeVitoBilly CrystalKim GreistA bitter ex-husband wants his former spouse dead. A put-upon momma's boy wants his mother dead. Who will pull it off?What happens when you take Hitchcock style suspense and paranoia and mix it in with traditional ,theatrical style comedy. You get "Throw Mamma From the train.
This is the story about two guys with the same problem.
Larry Donner (played by Billy Crystal) is suffering from severe writters' block, brought on by the success of the novel that his Ex-wife (Make Milgrew) stole from him.
Owen Lift (played by Danny DeVito) is suffering from the ability to write because of his nasty, demanding, over-bearing mother (played by Ann Ramsey).
Larry, who is Owens' creative writing teacher, tries to advise him on the the fundamentals on writing a good murder novel. His one tactic is for Owen to see a Hitchcock film and understand the importance of motive and alibi. Owen takes the advise the wrong way and thinks that Larry wants him to participate in a criss-cross murder plot for the other. And the mayham begins. - DirectorPedro AlmodóvarStarsGael García BernalFele MartínezJavier CámaraAn examination on the effect of Franco-era religious schooling and sexual abuse on the lives of two longtime friends.Same as De Palma, Almodovar's every movie can be called as Hitchcockian, but none is as close as this one.
A local reviewer called "Bad Education", "Vertigo" with drag queens. That's a much more appealing depiction than the off-putting montage of images that make up the trailer. After two black comedies, Almodóvar has returned to the psychological thriller. The effect is not unlike a Hitchcock script directed by Luis Buñuel by way of early Brian DePalma, particularly "Sisters", which upped the ante on Hitchcock by adding a bit of shock value.
The opening credits, (a pastiche of Saul Bass with a Herrmanesque score) deliberately evokes late Hitchcock and the film recalls "Vertigo", stylistically as well as thematically, Retro titles featuring red, black and a white are accompanied by Alberto Iglesias' score, reminiscent of Psycho composer Bernard Herrman, another film about someone loving someone who is not whom they appear to be, each revelation building inexorably to a denouement as layers are quite literally stripped away. In a film which. in a sense, is 'about' acting, the performances are uniformly excellent, though to be fair, Gael Garcia Bernal, (certainly the best actor of his generation), stands head and shoulders above the rest playing a variation of roles, or rather a variation of the same role. All in all this is exquisite, pertinent all-encompassing film-making that only confirms Almodovar's position in the front rank of world class directors. - DirectorJordan PeeleStarsDaniel KaluuyaAllison WilliamsBradley WhitfordA young African-American visits his white girlfriend's parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.This movie is appropriately in a genre Mr. Jordan Peele has christened, "Social Thriller". The movie creates a very unsettling feeling from the beginning that slowly builds to a crescendo, that forces the viewer to see prejudices head on. When all is said and done, you now have kind of a bird's eye view of what is wrong with society. But besides that, it hints a Hitchcock-type of thrill that is sure to deliver Goosebumps.
Another aspect of the film that hints at the big reveal in the turning point just before the third act is the physique, athletic talent, and sexual stereotypes of black males. You'll notice that clues are dropped here and there, albeit subtly, at the relationship between Rose's family & friends and members of the black community. The worship of Chris' body by many of Rose's family friends makes for an incredibly uncomfortable sequence of encounters at the outdoor picnic. The unsettling weird encounters between Chris and all the people he meets at Rose's family home each work to grow the level of tension and terror in the film–the fear of something dreadful looming on the horizon. Without relying upon a proliferation of jump scares and visceral horror, Peele successfully increases the level of anxiety to terrifying levels in the film. Reminiscent in the ways that Hitchcock or Kubrick may have directed this film–in terms of relying upon the fear of something not visible to the naked eye–Peele incorporates the feeling of uneasiness every moment he can without over saturating the plot. Perfect amount of all the elements that make up the American horror film can be found in this deeply disturbing narrative.
A HUGE congratulations to Jordan Peele for hitting a HOME RUN, his first time up to bat. Looking forward to future projects from him. GO SEE, GET OUT. - DirectorMichael PowellStarsKarlheinz BöhmAnna MasseyMoira ShearerA young man murders women, using a movie camera to film their dying expressions of terror.Director Michael Powell, released this grisly shocker the same year Hitch put out Psycho. The divergences from that point are remarkable: Psycho was a giant hit that confirmed its director’s status as a master suspense filmmaker, while Peeping Tom was resoundingly rejected as perverse and amoral, and its response greatly tarnished Powell’s filmmaking career. Much of this was cultural: Powell was a British filmmaker, and his native audience wasn’t quite ready for this potent mix of pop psychology and terror. But Peeping Tom has since been recognized as the classic it was, boasting a scorching style of its own while mirroring Hitchcock’s pet themes of voyeurism, obsession, and murder.
- DirectorBrad AndersonStarsWoody HarrelsonEmily MortimerBen KingsleyA Transsiberian train journey from China to Moscow becomes a thrilling chase of deception and murder when an American couple encounters a mysterious pair of fellow travelers.One of many films influenced by Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train”- this one disappeared without a trace from theaters back in 2008, but it’s definitely worth a look. Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer play a vacationing American couple that decides to take the scenic route home via the famed Trans-Siberia Express. Along the way, they meet another couple, played by Kate Mara (sister of Rooney, best known for “American Horror Story”) and Eduardo Noriega (who played Che Guevara in the movie of the same name), both of whom seem kind of sketchy. Troubles ensue, especially when Roy gets left behind at a stop along the way and must race to catch up. Ben Kingsley also crops up in this underrated thriller.
- DirectorRobert LepageStarsLothaire BluteauPatrick GoyetteJean-Louis MilletteThe year is 1952, in Québec City, Québec. Rachel (Suzanne Clément), sixteen, unmarried, and pregnant, works in the church. Filled with shame, she unburdens her guilt to a young Priest under the confidentiality of the confessional. In the present year of 1994, Pierre Lamontagne (Lothaire Bluteau) has returned to Québec to attend his father's funeral. He meets up with his adopted brother, Marc (Patrick Goyette), who has begun questioning his identity and has embarked on a quest for his roots that would lead them to the Québec of the 1950s. Past and present converge in a complex web of intrinque where the answer to the mystery lies.Visually, this is one of the best films ever made. There are 3 elements, one in 1952 Quebec, one in 1989 Quebec and one actually from Alfred Hitchcocks "I Confess", of which this movie seems to be a realy loose remake of.
A complicated family past haunts two brothers in search of the truth. Via flashbacks we meet the family in turmoil, coincided with the making of Alfred Hitchcock's I CONFESS. With the creative use of past and present interweaved, we slowly find the truth that has been sitting under our noses at all times. Very clever and a very effective piece of cinema story telling. - DirectorPeter YatesStarsKelly McGillisJeff DanielsMandy PatinkinIn 1950s America, an FBI agent and a blacklist victim uncover a plot to smuggle Nazi war criminals into the country.There are many allusions to different Hitchcock pictures, not least the choice of Kelly McGillis in the starring role. She is dressed up as Grace Kelly, and she is not far off the mark.
In solid Hitchcockian style, we have been following this nice and nosy woman while she slowly discovers skullduggery and then realizes that she has placed herself at great risk. And in equally solid Hitchcockian style, we have met the man in agent Cochrane who with persistence and humor will attempt to keep her from danger while joining her in uncovering a plot that deals with German war criminals and powerful men in high places. - DirectorCurtis HansonStarsSteve GuttenbergElizabeth McGovernIsabelle HuppertA young executive starts an affair with his boss's wife which then escalates into a nightmare after he lies to the police in order to protect her.The Bedroom Window is a decent thriller based on a novel by Anne Holden. This adaptation to the screen is written and directed by Curtis Hanson who, of course, would later go on to make the brilliant L.A. Confidential. The film has a fairly Hitchcockian story line, and even apes Hitchcock's favourite theme of an innocent man circumstantially framed for a crime he didn't commit. However, Hitch always went to great lengths to ensure his stories were logical (in North By Northwest, for example, he and script-writer Ernest Lehmann spent a year getting the credibility of the screenplay just right). In The Bedroom Window there are just too many plot holes, too many moments that defy plausibility, and therefore the film cannot be seriously likened in quality to a Hitchcock movie. That's not to say it doesn't have enjoyable features along the way.
- DirectorJohn WooStarsTom CruiseDougray ScottThandiwe NewtonIMF agent Ethan Hunt is sent to Sydney to find and destroy a genetically modified disease called "Chimera".An agent is teamed with a woman he’s never met before, whose father has just been convicted for spying. The woman agrees to revisit a past relationship as part of their mission to get close to the villain. Our hero isn’t too comfortable with this, but goes along with it. The villain’s amorous intentions distract him into jeopardising his plans. There is a smuggling setpiece at a racetrack. The heroine ends up drugged and our hero must rush to save her. Are we talking about Hitchcock's Notorious or Mission: Impossible II here? Oh, it’s both.
- DirectorEloy de la IglesiaStarsCarmen SevillaDean SelmierPatty ShepardMarta spends a few days alone while her husband is on a business trip. But she starts to get scared when she hears some mysterious steps every night on the top floor. Her neighbor will try to convince her that it is her husband's footsteps when he returns from work, but Marta does not believe it and begins to investigate.Another excellent offering from De La Iglesia, this is even more of a slow-burning thriller than THE CANNIBAL MAN (1972) but the scenario it conveys of place, characters and situations holds one's attention, even if there is a definite slackening during the last act (picking things up again with a stunning climax that not only marries the REAR WINDOW {1954}-inspired proceedings up to that point to a STRANGERS ON A TRAIN {1951}-type twist but also takes care to produce one additional ace for the finale!) and which now seems to be something of a directorial trait.
The GLASS CEILING, in fact, is confidently Hitchcockian but also presenting concerns that obviously interested the film-maker, such as what sort of mischief may be going on within the walls of a house (which, in this case, is amplified by making the central setting a condominium). However, the script merely uses fanciful conjecture as a means to an end, which is another character study of a lonely figure (here leading lady Carmen Sevilla, and for which performance she won the Cinema Writers Circle award) whose grip on reality is quickly fading (depicted via a notable dream sequence) and how the people she comes into contact with react to this (there is even a disturbing subtext, which one hopes is not quite true, of landowning studs and horny errand-boys preying on such abandoned wives!). - DirectorYoussef ChahineStarsFarid ShawqiHind RustumYoussef ChahineA newspaper salesman at the train station in Cairo develops an unhealthy obsession with a woman who sells refreshments.“ Now hailed as a masterpiece by critics after its re-discovery, this Hitchcockian thriller from Egypt is still not available in America! However, once again, Europe has this on DVD.
This isn't Chahine's first film, but it is quite possibly Chahine the auteur's first film. Although it contains a fair bit of Lang and a little Hitchcock (it is remarkably similar in its final stages to Hitchcock's "Psycho", which would only come out two years later, even some of the editing is similar), - DirectorShinji AoyamaStarsKoji YakushoHiroko YakushimaruAkira EmotoThree couples are staying at a lakeside cottage with their children. They want them to prepare intensely for a prestigious high school's entrance exam with the help of a private tutor. One night, one of the wives confesses to her husband that she has killed his mistress...Channeling Hitchcock in Japan
Koji Yakusho has a lot in common with Jimmy Stewart. He often plays a bemused everyman to whom the most awful things happen. This movie puts his character in precisely that position. It's not just a mystery, but it's also a satire on the Japanese national obsession with getting kids into the best schools at any price.
Yakusho's character, Sunsuke Namiki stands outside of that obsession, as a self-made successful former dropout, so he doesn't buy into his wife's insistence on getting their daughter into an elite high school as fervently as his wife would like. In many of the scenes at the tutoring retreat in the country, he's isolated from the other parents, who function more cohesively as a group in typical Japanese fashion. But he does try, because he loves his daughter with all his heart.
He has another problem, in the form of his mistress, who visits the kind of trouble on him and the others at the tutoring retreat that gets her killed. How and why are not as they seem, and the ending is worthy of any of Alfred Hitchcock's darkly funny mysteries. - DirectorCurtis HansonStarsRob LoweJames SpaderPalmer Lee ToddA soft and hesitant young man is in danger when he tries to break toxic relationships with a mysterious stranger claiming to be his friend.Successful LA marketing analyst Michael Boll (James Spader) seemingly has it all -- except a sense of self-confidence. Enigmatic drifter Alex (Rob Lowe) enters Michael's life and immediately begins to exert a negative influence. As Michael's self-esteem zooms (aided by generous dollops of sex and drugs) he allows himself to be dragooned into a life of crime by the demonic Alex. The "doppelganger" aspects of Bad Influence, and the film's many unexpected twists and turns, echo films of Alfred Hitchcock, especially Strangers on a Train. The film's boldest stroke is to cast the likeable Lowe as the bad guy (albeit a charming one) and the often villainous Spader as the malleable milquetoast.