I’ve just finished a 2 month Alfred Hitchcock film festival. Here are my 3 main takeaways:

Here’s how the festival worked:

Two movies would play back to back Thursday/Friday and two different movies would do the same Saturday/Sunday. So in essence I watched 4 Alfred Hitchcock movies every week. These were organized mostly chronologically (starting with 39 Steps from 1935 up to Marine from 1964) but also thematically (Strangers on a Train and Psycho were in the same day as “Psycopath” movies).

In order I watched:

The 39 Steps (1935) – The Lady Vanishes (1938) – Young and Innocent (1937) – Sabotage (1936) – Rebecca (1940) – Suspicion (1941) – Saboteur (1942) – Foreign Correspondent (1940) – Shadow of a Doubt (1943) – Notorious (1946) – Lifeboat (1944) – Spellbound (1945) – Dial M for Murder (1954) – Rear Window (1954) – The Man who knew too much (1956) – Vertigo (1958) – North by Northwest (1959) – To catch a Thief (1955) – I confess (1953) – The Wrong Man (1956) – Strangers on a train (1951) – Psycho (1960) – Rope (1948) – The Trouble with Harry (1955) – The Birds (1963) – Marnie (1964)

**My 3 main takeaways from Alfred Hitchock which I found so curious:**

**1) Alfred Hitchcock hates Cops**

This sounds funny but is Alfred Hitchcock an ACAB? His filmography would say… probably? I couldn’t help but notice that in every single one of these movies, with 3 exceptions, the cops are at best incompetent (almost always the case) and at worst corrupt (sometimes the case). Hitchcock’s most common narrative device, the “wrong man” relies on the cops mistaking the protagonist for the killer/spy/etc and hunting him down based on terrible leads and assumptions. They’re bad at that too. Often this comes with overt criticism of law enforcement and how they overlook details for quick convictions.

The three exceptions are the Detective in the excellent Dial M For Murder, who demonstrates great deductive skills and solves the case (while still being a huge asshole), the protagonist of Vertigo, a retired cop whose mental condition hinders his work, and the cop in Rear Window, who is friendly to the protagonist but unhelpful until evidence of murder proves too overwhelming for even this lazy bum to deny. With the exception of the *retired* cop in Vertigo, these officers of the law are *Always* unfriendly and unhelpful to the protagonist(s). EDIT: Just remembered to mention “The Wrong Man” (1956). The only “true story” Alfred Hitchcock ever adapted was that of a man that was entrapped and wrongly accused by the police of theft. The entire movie is one of disillusionement with the American Justice System, which I think is quite telling.

**2) Obsessed with the “Foreign Threat”**

Going back all the way to the 1930s (The 39 Steps) and stretching into the 1950s (North by Northwest being incredibly similar to 39 steps), Hitchock often has antagonists representing a (most often undisclosed but pretty on the nose) foreign threat. These are his spy movies, one of his two main styles besides the murder thriller. The protagonist(s) uncovers a conspiracy by an spy organization working for a foreign power (The germans in the 1930s and 1940s and the Russians later), and has to figure out a way to stop them, often being framed as the “wrong man” along the way.

It is very interesting how these invoke his patriotic sense. First for the UK with his earlier movies, and later for the US when he moved there. These spys are portrayed as *anathema* to proper british and American ideals. They’re often overtly foreign as with the Hungarian terrorist for hire in “Sabotage” (bad movie) and the secret German spy in “Foreign Correspondent” (bad movie), and are very often mercenary, working for money as much as a sense of loyalty to the foreign power. Its very interesting how much the “Foreign Threat” is a trope in Hitchcock’s movies.

**3) Hitchcock is very funny!**

Its crazy to think how much of a reputation Alfred Hitchcock has for being a “Horror director” when he essentially only ever made 2 horror movies (if that!). The Psychological thriller Psycho, and the admitedly very scary “The birds” (truly a masterpiece btw, insane how the concept works). In reality, most of his movies are thrillers, and most of them are *filled with comedy!*

In particular I would highlight “The Lady Vanishes” and “The Trouble with Harry” as his two most overt comedies. The lady vanishes is officially a spy thriller but it has so many jokes and ridiculous bits in it that it span off a whole comedy franchise.

Hitchcock often leans into absurdist or dark humor, and the results are often great, particularly when paired with tension. Watching Rear Window in a packed theater, I couldn’t help but notice how people laughed just as much (if not more) than when they gasped.

I have many different takeaways, but these are the main 3 that I couldn’t stop thinking about, and that I haven’t seen regurgitated to death before.

[Here’s the list organized from favorite to least favorite in my Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/olavops/list/hitchcock-ranked/)

Hope you enjoy the read!

by Mervynhaspeaked