Good Evening: The Films of Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock is one of the few directors whose name defined a genre. His name above the title was as powerful, perhaps even more so, than of the stars of his films. Although Hitchcock was called “the master of suspense,” what marks his films is the blend of psychological terror and dark humor. Hitchcock’s film career began in the silent movie era and lasted through 1976 with his final film, Family Plot. He directed over 50 movies, not including his TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Despite Hitchcock’s tremendous influence on movie-making and directors such as Brian de Palma, Francois Truffaut, and Steven Spielberg, he never won an Oscar for directing, although he was nominated five times. Only one of his films, Rebecca, won the Oscar for best picture. During the course of the semester we will be exploring the movie career of Alfred Hitchcock, showing clips from some of the greatest movies that he ever made, including Rebecca, Strangers on a Train, Vertigo, Rear Window, The 39 Steps, and perhaps a film that scared people out of taking showers for a generation.