The Alfred Hitchcock Blogathon 2016 Tag

Eva of Coffee, Classics and Craziness is hosting The Alfred Hitchcock Blogathon, which runs between today and Saturday. To go along with it, she has created a tag made of nine Hitchcock-related questions for all of us (blogathon participants or not) to answer. I thought this would be quite a fun thing to do, so here it is. Be sure to check all the entries to the blogathon.

 

1. What was the first Hitchcock film you ever watched?

Rear Window (1954). Fun fact: it was also the first time I saw James Stewart in colour.

 

2. What's your favorite Hitchcock film?

Again, Rear Window. I think it is a brilliant film — great script, excellent direction and I love the pairing of James Stewart and Grace Kelly. I also really like Psycho (1960).

3. What's your least favorite Hitchcock film?
I think probably Rope (1948). There isn't a particular reason why I didn't like it, though. I just thought it was a little too weird and claustrophobic, if that makes any sense. Granted, it is a very technically ambitious film, but it just didn't work for me, to be honest.

4. What's your favorite Hitchcock cameo?
I would say probably To Catch a Thief (1955), where he is just casually sitting next to Cary Grant on a bus. Or maybe in Notorious (1946), where he is drinking champagne at the party in Claude Rains's house. He downed that glass like a pro!

5. Who's your favorite Hitchcock villain?
Definitely Norman Bates from Psycho. Anthony Perkins is FLAWLESS as Norman. I think he really understood and related to the character and that came across on screen, which in my opinion makes the film ever more perfect. Joseph Cotten's Uncle Charlie in Shadow of a Doubt (1943) is a very good one, too. Oh, and Claude Rains as Alec Sebastian in Notorious.

 

6. Hero?

At the risk of sounding repetitive, James Stewart as L. B. «Jeff» Jefferies in Rear Window. I also quite like Cary Grant as T. R. Devlin in Notorious and Gregory Peck as John Ballantyne in Spellbound (1945). Can Peck actually be considered the «hero» in that film? Either way, I really like him in it. Oh, and Cary Grant in Suspicion (1941). Would you say he is a hero or a villain? Because I really him in that too. Such an intriguing character.

7. Heroine?
I really like Joan Fontaine as Lina McLaidlaw in Suspicion. I think her character is really interesting and I like the way she carries herself throughout the film. Or maybe — yes, you guessed it — Grace Kelly as Lisa Fremont in Rear Window.

  

8. What's your favorite Hitchcock quote?

I like me a good quote, so a few pop to mind:

 

Anthony Perkins' short speech to Janet Leigh in Psycho: 

You know what I think? I think that we're all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and we claw, but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch.

 

This brilliant exchange between James Stewart and Grace Kelly in Rear Window:

Kelly: I wish I could be creative.

Stewart: Oh sweetie, you are. You have a great talent for creating difficult situations.

 

This cute little exchange between Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman in Spellbound:

Peck: Will you love me this much when I'm normal?

Bergman: Oh, I'll be insane about you! 

 

And, although I didn't like Rope, I love it when James Stewart shouts, «Did you think you were God, Brandon?» It's such a quotable quote. Brandon, played by John Dall, is one of the murderers in the story, along with Farley Granger (spoiler alert!).

 

9. And, finally, how many Hitchcock films have you watched?

So far, I have watched 17 Hitchcock films. In case you are at all interested, these are the ones: Foreign Correspondent (1940), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), Suspicion (1941), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), 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) and Psycho (1960).

I REALLY want to watch Rebecca (1940) — especially because Laurence Olivier is in it — but I want to read the book first. I also really want to watch Strangers on a Train (1951), mostly because of Robert Walker, whom I adore.