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North by Northwest (1959)
Another plot that makes your head spin, but after seeing Vertigo it's clear what Hitchcock likes to do (seeing 19 of his movies in a row...

Matt Mantel
Oct 17, 20183 min read
Vertigo (1958)
Nothing short of a masterpiece. If Citizen Kane never came out, this film would be the standard. Everything from the title sequence to...

Matt Mantel
Oct 17, 20182 min read
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
As Hitchcock said in the Truffaut interview, this was certainly done by a professional. The clarity of storytelling, the lighting, the...

Matt Mantel
Oct 16, 20183 min read
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
Quite a bizarre film. It reminded me a lot of The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie by Buñuel. It feels like Hitchcock finally got tired...

Matt Mantel
Oct 14, 20182 min read
Rear Window (1954)
Now this is the good stuff. The best part of this movie is how simple the directing is. The directing does not get in the way of the...

Matt Mantel
Oct 13, 20183 min read
Rope (1948)
For most of this movie I thought I'd wasted an hour and twenty minutes of my life. Mostly crummy performances, of course Jimmy Stewart as...

Matt Mantel
Oct 11, 20182 min read
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
This was quite a trip. I can't say it was my favorite kind of trip, but it was thrilling, suspenseful, heartbreaking, and uncomfortable....

Matt Mantel
Oct 10, 20182 min read
Rebecca (1940)
Another big jump in cinematic quality comes Rebecca, which I quickly realized is an almost identical plot to Paul Thomas Anderson's The...

Matt Mantel
Oct 9, 20183 min read
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
This film really seemed like two movies: before the train and after the train. Sometimes it's a struggle watching a few of Hitchcock's...

Matt Mantel
Oct 8, 20182 min read
Young and Innocent (1937)
This wasn't the greatest film, much of it could've been improved or left out, like the child's birthday party that Erica (Nova Pilbeam)...

Matt Mantel
Oct 7, 20182 min read
Sabotage (1936)
A very successful film that takes a very simple situation— an saboteur commits acts of terror in London— and transforms it into a...

Matt Mantel
Oct 6, 20182 min read
The 39 Steps (1935)
This was almost a 50/50 combination of North by Northwest and It Happened One Night (which premiered just a year before this). Rather...

Matt Mantel
Oct 4, 20183 min read
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
This was really a great movie. There was a clear budget jump to this one from Hitchcock's previous films, and just the title card tells...

Matt Mantel
Oct 3, 20182 min read
Number 17 (1932)
According to Filmstruck's brief description of this movie, Hitchcock didn't want to direct this one (referring to my comment about Rich...

Matt Mantel
Oct 3, 20182 min read
Rich and Strange (1931)
This film came across as a project Hitchcock wasn't very interested in doing. That might not be saying much from the same guy that's...

Matt Mantel
Oct 2, 20182 min read
The Skin Game (1931)
Hitchcock's first "talkie" of my list (Blackmail being his first) certainly took every second it could for dialogue. There are many drawn...

Matt Mantel
Oct 2, 20182 min read
The Manxman (1929)
A charming film which I which surprised was very timely: a father Pete (Carl Brisson) whose wife Kate (Anny Ondra) leaves him with their...

Matt Mantel
Sep 30, 20182 min read
The Farmers Wife (1928)
A fairly charming comedy-drama about a man Mr. Sweetland (Jameson Thomas) failing to find a wife after he is widowed. He ends up choosing...

Matt Mantel
Sep 30, 20183 min read
Downhill (1927)
Just finished up a first draft of a feature script I'm working on so finally have time to do another post. This is another silent film...

Matt Mantel
Sep 29, 20183 min read
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
Watching Hitchcock's films always impresses me by how timeless they are. When I first watched Psycho I was shocked at how terrified I...

Matt Mantel
Sep 23, 20183 min read
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