Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection: Part 1

As you could probably tell, I am a person who enjoys his movies.  I’ve enjoyed them since I was a child, having grown up watching movies all the time.  It led to my wanting to own movies I like, and even movies that I dislike.  I just like to own movies for the sole reason of saying I own them.  It makes me feel good to have a growing movie collection.  When both of these interests come together, it brings me joy beyond almost no other.

Christmas morning brought both of those together for me.  One of my few gifts was the Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection, filled with movies I like and hoped that I’d like.  I’ve been a fan of Hitchcock since I first saw Psycho so many years ago.  This seemed like the perfect Christmas wish list idea for me.  I get to own fifteen different Alfred Hitchcock movies on blu-ray?  Yes please.  I would love to own those on blu-ray.  Now I do.  And I feel good.

Since Christmas, I have been going through this set, seeing great movies that I’ve seen before, and discovering others that I now cherish and love in their own way.  I would like to take some time and share with you how I felt about each of the movies in the set, five movies at a time.  There is no specific order to which movies I will be writing about in a given installment.  It will just be three installments with five movies each.  Time to begin.

Saboteur

This is the first movie in the set and it was a great way to start off the Hitchcock collection.  Though I wouldn’t nearly call it Hitchcock’s greatest film, there are many elements within it that show how capable Hitchcock is in the director’s chair.  This, like a few of Hitchcock’s other films, is primarily a chase movie.  A character is framed for sabotaging things, and is then chased.  It all leads to a fantastically done climax in which there is an absence of music.  This one little detail can make all the difference.  With no music, I was thrown right into the struggle that the characters faced in the scene and it felt more visceral.  It felt real.

North by Northwest

I threw this one in here for the sole reason of the subject matter being similar.  Saboteur is about a man framed and being chased.  North by Northwest is a man with mistaken identity being chased.  Both have climactic scenes set atop American landmarks.  The biggest difference between them is the added experience that Hitchcock had when making North by Northwest.  Everything about the movie is done on a bigger scale.  There is a longer distance travelled, the locations are more notable, and there are more people in danger.  It’s all bigger.  Almost every scene is memorable in this classic.  Watch this movie.  Watch it.

Frenzy

This movie is unique in that it was one of the, if not the, only times that Hitchcock made an R rated movie.  There isn’t much violence by today’s standards, but by the standards of the time when it was made, it was enough to get that R.  What surprised me was the nudity, actually.  Hitchcock movies tend to have violence of some sort, or the insinuation of violence.  Frenzy had that, and more, but it also had nudity.  The movie felt a little more gritty than other Hitchcock movies.  I would have loved to see what he would have done by continuing down the R rated path.  Alas, Hitchcock would soon die.  That’s too bad.  It would have been interesting to see more movies in the vein of Frenzy by the master of suspense.

Rope

I’m getting this one out of the way early.  This may, in fact, be my favourite Hitchcock film.  I thought I liked Rear Window more, but a rewatch of Rope showed me how great this movie is.  This was an experimental one for Hitchcock.  The movie is shot in nine minute takes, or something around that length.  The few cuts that there are in the movie are usually hidden through the camera panning to something dark.  Not only are the long shots impressive, but it forced the actors to work harder and avoid any mistakes.  And then there’s the background.  This is what impresses me the most about this movie.  The movie is set in real time, during a dinner party.  The background changes as the party goes on.  However, it changes in real time, as if the sun is setting and the city is beginning to light up for the night.  It’s wonderful to watch.

The Birds

I can see why some people adore this movie, but it does not do too much for me.  The Birds is a very simple idea that gets extended too long.  There are some great setpieces and thrilling moments, but there is also a lot of in between stuff that does not seem necessary to the story.  You might think I’m way off base with this stuff, but the moments of filler dragged the movie for me.  This is one of the few times I can remember myself watching one of the movies in the box set and thinking “How long has it been? How much of the movie is left?”  I don’t feel this way about any other Hitchcock movie I have seen.  It bothers me.  It eats away at me like one of those birds would.  There are great things in this movie, but it’s just too long.