Murder! The films of Alfred Hitchcock: ‘Reality is something that none of us can stand, at any time.’

Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville on the set of Psycho, 1960.

The films of Alfred Hitchcock

‘Content, I am not interested in that at all. I don’t give a damn what the film is about. I am more interested in how to handle the material so as to create an emotion in the audience. I find too many people are interested in the content. If you were painting a still life of some apples on a plate, it’s like you’d be worrying whether the apples were sweet or sour. Who cares?’ – Alfred Hitchcock.

[silent films} Always Tell Your Wife (short) (1923), The Pleasure Garden (1925), The Mountain Eagle (1926) (lost film), The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), The Ring (1927), Downhill (1927), The Farmer’s Wife (1928), Easy Virtue (1928), Champagne (1928), The Manxman (1929),

Hitchcock’s family shot: with his daughter Pat.

[sound films} Blackmail (1929), Juno and the Paycock (1930), Murder! (1930), Elstree Calling (1930), The Skin Game (1931), Mary (1931), Rich and Strange (1931), Number Seventeen (1932), Waltzes from Vienna (1934), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Secret Agent (1936), Sabotage (1936), Young and Innocent (1937), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Jamaica Inn (1939), Rebecca (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), Suspicion (1941), Saboteur (1942), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), The Paradine Case (1947), Rope (1948), Under Capricorn (1949), Stage Fright (1950), Strangers on a Train (1951), I Confess (1953), Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), The Trouble with Harry (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), The Wrong Man (1956), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), Marnie (1964), Torn Curtain (1966), Topaz (1969), Frenzy (1972), Family Plot (1976).

‘Fear isn’t so difficult to understand. After all, weren’t we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It’s just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual.’ – Alfred Hitchcock.

Family Plot was officially Hitchcock’s 53rd and final film.

Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar but he was nominated as Best Director five times, for Rebecca, Lifeboat, Spellbound, Rear Window and Psycho.

Hitchcock made cameo appearances in 39 of his 52 surviving major films:

Alfred Hitchcock movie cameos

Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville on their wedding day, 1926.

Alfred Hitchcock at Claridges Hotel in London, in 1954.

Family Plot was officially Hitchcock’s 53rd and final film.

‘Reality is something that none of us can stand, at any time.’ – Alfred Hitchcock.

‘I’m a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.’ – Alfred Hitchcock