Alfred Hitchcockcemented his place in Hollywood legend as possibly the first truly great auteur filmmaker, with a string of classic movies in the immediate post-war period. BetweenNotoriousin 1946 andThe Birdsin 1963, Hitchcock put together a body of work that few directors in the history of cinema could rival, including his three most celebrated movies,Rear Window,Vertigo,andPsycho. Yet the director already had a string of classics to his name prior to this legendary run.
Indeed, Hitchcock was already considered thebest director in Britainbefore his move to Hollywood in 1939, to direct David O. Selznick’s production ofRebecca, Daphne du Maurier’s classic gothic horror story. Between 1927 and 1939, he was at the helm of several landmark movies in early British cinema, some of which are now considered among his greatest works of cinema. Luckily for Hitchcock fans, a handful of the director’s early British classics are currently available to stream on Amazon’s Prime Video service.
This early thriller was later remade by Hitchcock in 1956 with James Stewart and Doris Day in the starring roles, but the first version ofThe Man Who Knew Too Mucharguably beats its remake in certain respects. The movie is just over half the length of the later version, and this more economical approach to the story gives it a darker and more clinical edge.
Why Alfred Hitchcock Remade The Man Who Knew Too Much
Alfred Hitchcock’s filmography is stuffed with classic movies, like Vertigo and Psycho, but why did he remake his own film The Man Who Knew Too Much?
Hungarian actor Peter Lorre stars as anunforgettable Hitchcock villainfollowing his terrifying performance in Fritz Lang’sM, and the film’s opening is set in a European spy haven in Switzerland. This setting feels like a more appropriate backdrop for the sinister events that unfold there than Stewart and Day’s trip to Marrakesh, Morocco. What’s more, the original movie’s suspenseful final scene features some of the most inventive camerawork of any Hitchcock film.
The only silent movie on this list,The Lodger: A Story of the London Fogwas Hitchcock’s first critical and commercial success, and provided the blueprint for everything he made after it. Its plot revolves around a mass murderer after young blonde women. In fact, the first ever “Hitchcock blonde” is murdered in the film’s opening shot. The rest of the movie is a thrilling game of cat and mouse full of misdirection and suspense.
A young Ivor Novello stars as the titular character, and 1920s London features heavily in stylish sepia tones. This movie is a must for fans ofsilent-era films, as well as those looking to understand how its director developed his signature style. Look out for the doubleHitchcock cameoas well.
Blackmailwas not only Alfred Hitchcock’s first movie with sound. It was the first British feature film produced with sound, and the first talkie to become a box-office hit in Europe. Still, its production started out as a silent movie, so Hitchcock incorporated the language of silent cinema into its staging.
The film is perhaps the most conventional of his early efforts, but it includes a visually stunning sequence at the British Museum, which utilizes some of the same visual cues Hitchcock later applied toVertigo’s endingscene. Its winding, intensifying approach to unraveling a murder investigation and use of clever dramatic irony also point the way toward later Hitchcock hallmarks.
Sabotagewas the second movie Alfred Hitchcock made that would later go on to attain the status of a masterpiece. The movie is charged with tension from the moment it begins with a scene depicting a theater blackout, an ingenious reflexive trick designed to scare its original cinema-going audience.
10 Most Suspenseful Alfred Hitchcock Scenes, Ranked
Alfred Hitchcock has created intense thrillers like Vertigo and Psycho, but which are the master of suspense’s most suspenseful scenes!
It could also be the first film in which Hitchcock’s primary motive was inducing a perpetual state of surprise in those watching. ThroughoutSabotage’s 75 minutes, everything that happens feels like something unexpected, as the tension ramps up to a final, explosive crescendo, and a brilliantHitchcockian plot twistto finish.
Hitchcock’s best early movie,The 39 Stepsestablished him among the foremost filmmakers of cinema’s golden age. It’s a fascinating noir-like thriller, with Robert Donat’s Richard Hannay paving the way for many of the director’s most notable main characters, from James Stewart’s Scottie Ferguson in Vertigo to Cary Grant’s Roger Thornhill inNorth by Northwest. Madeleine Carroll, meanwhile, is one of Hitchcock’s very best female leads in her role as Pamela.
The 1939 Stepswas the first time that Hitchcock was able to apply his technical mastery of cinema and creative innovations to the medium in a coherent, holistic manner to an entire feature film. The movie is tonally consistent, while brimming with the director’s tradework suspense and narrative themes he’d return to again and again throughout his career. For diving into the early part of Alfred Hitchcock’s career, there can be no better starting point.
