Hitchcock's worst movies (alphabetical, not by stinkiness)
Submitted by Bobo LaTuque on Fri, 10/22/2004 - 08:28
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- Easy Virtue (1927)
- I have no idea if this was considered a good movie in the 20s, but the concept is so very dated that the morals it portrays seem totally alien.
- I Confess (1953)
- Boring. Just plain boring. I have watched this one only twice since I bought the tape about 10 years ago. The second time was merely to confirm how tedious it was.
- Man Who Knew Too Much, The (remake, 1956)
- This is greatly inferior to the original, even if Hitchcock himself preferred this one. He just had a thing for blondes- but even he could probably have strangled Doris Day if she had to launch into Que Sera Sera one more time. Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day? Who came up with that combination?
- Manxman, The (1929)
- I really don't believe anyone on earth at any place at any time was ever as naive and just plain stupid as the protagonist, nor as idiotic as his girlfriend who married him only because it seemed like the proper thing to do. Ghastly to watch, and redeemed in only tiny measure by the fact that- being a silent- one doesn't have to actually hear any of the dopey dialogue.
- Marnie (1964)
- I can't think of enough bad things to say about this one. It, too, is tedious and uninteresting, unbelievable and forgettable. Besides, Sean Connery's accent is patently Scots, yet he's supposed to be portraying an American of several generations' descent. Blah.
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)
- Hitchcock proves that humor and comedy are not the same thing; he did humorous touches quite well, but he had absolutely no talent for a "light romantic comedy" which he demonstrates conclusively with this piece of cheese. REN: "Is it really steeenky?" STIMPY: "Just the way you like it!"
- Number Seventeen (1932)
- I don't recall actually reading this in either of the Hitchcock biographies I've read, but surely this was a contractual obligation movie. Tedious, boring and silly, not to mention barely comprehensible. I had to watch it the second time just to figure out what was going on and who was who.
- Paradine Case, The (1948)
- Blah, blah, blah. Yawn. As a movie, this is awful; as a soporific it works quite well.
- Rich and Strange (1932)
- Perhaps should have been entitled "Annoying and Frivolous", or "Stupid and Pointless".
- Stage Fright (1950)
- At the moment I can't think of anything specific that I disliked about this, but after having seen it twice I still can't remember what the heck it was about! Neither do I have any impulsion to watch it a third time.
- Under Capricorn (1949)
- Another pointless "blah, blah, blah" movie with little of interest and another odd pairing of lead actors.
- Wrong Man, The (1956)
- Even Henry Fonda couldn't make this interesting, even though it was supposedly based on a true story. It's depressing and dull and just goes on forever.
Author Comments:
I am a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock, and have 50 of his movies on VHS, Laserdisc and DVD. Some of his stuff was very good indeed ( Shadow of a Doubt, Rear Window, parts of Foreign Correspondent, Rebecca, Strangers on a Train etc. But I'm not deluding myself; some of his movies were just stinkers, and here's my list of them.
I liked Marnie better than you, and I haven't seen all of the Hitch films you have, but I have to agree that The Wrong Man is mis-hit, and I don't particularly like either Topaz or Jamaica Inn. I think it's hard to put out as many movies as Hitch did and have them all be great. By the way, Hitch did not want to do Paradine Case and had some pretty well-documented arguments with producer David Selznick over that film (especially casting choices). Nice list.