30 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies Ranked for Filmmakers

Just one year after the release of The Birds, Hitchcock released Marnie, his second collaboration with star Tippi Hedren. Marnie is a rather heavy-drama about trauma in the wake of sexual abuse.

Hedren never worked with Hitchcock again after the release of Marnie, citing the director’s obsessive infatuation with her as the main reason. In her later years, Hedren accused Hitchcock of making obscene sexual demands of her, which he strongly denied.

Few films of the 1930s and 1940s were as influential on writers of the “Hollywood New Wave” as The 39 Steps was. In an interview with The New Yorker, renowned screenwriter Robert Towne said, “It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapist entertainment begins with The 39 Steps.”

I’ll admit, I’m not quite as fond of the movie as Towne is, but his assertion that the film was a foundational piece of escapist cinema is undeniable. And it was the birthplace of the MacGuffin.

First and foremost: Can we please acknowledge the trailer above? Alfred Hitchcock was widely known to not only cameo in his own films, but narrate their trailers as well.

That being said, the Family Plot trailer is beyond absurd — and not in a bad way. Actually, quite the contrary, it’s a kind of comic masterpiece.

Frenzy was not only one of Hitchcock’s last films ever made, but also a return to England for the director. Most of the film’s cast was unknown at the time of production, which was atypical for a Hitchcock picture (most of his works feature at least one star).

Courtroom dramas weren’t widely popularized until the late 1950s, with the likes of 12 Angry Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, Inherit the Wind and many more. But that didn’t stop Hitchcock from directing the influential The Paradine Case 10 years prior.

Lifeboat is a brilliant minor work from Hitchcock, produced in the midst of World War II. The film takes place entirely on a lifeboat, and was shot mostly at the studio lot with a fake ocean and rear projection. It’s certainly not an epic by studio standards, but it makes the most of what it’s got — which, as it turns out, happens to be a great deal.

The plot here is almost non-existent, which is rare for Hitch. Instead we have a rich character study and sociological experiment. What happens when British and American survivors of a German U-boat attack bring a German sailor onto their lifeboat? It's another rather subversive film from Mr. Hitchcock, especially considering this is a studio film made at the height of WWII.

Young and Innocent is a by-the-book story of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, elevated by narrative nuance and excellent filmmaking. The film stars Nova Pilbeam as a well-intentioned young woman who’s caught in the middle of a murder case. Pilbeam gives an excellent performance, which ties together the picture quite nicely.

The infamous crane shot (above) is proof that Hitchcock was always pushing what was possible in filmmaking. It starts as an extreme wide shot and narrows down all the way to an extreme close-up. The unfortunate blackface performers aside, this shot is a technical achievement and a masterful way to lure the audience in to make sure they see what you want them to see.

Spellbound is a twisting and turning suspense thriller from Alfred Hitchcock that nearly reaches the heights of his greatest works. Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck star in the film and both give excellent performances.

The picture’s progressive story follows a psychoanalyst who must use her intelligence and training to deduce the psyche of a killer. It’s a fantastical film, marred only by poor pacing and some rare filmmaking blunders from director Alfred Hitchcock. But don't forget the Surrealist dream sequence courtesy of the one and only Salvador Dalí!

Foreign Correspondent is a classic Hitchcock tale of espionage that stands apart for its timely social commentary. Released in 1940, Foreign Correspondent was a cinematic response to the tension of World War II, which American had not entered yet. The film's final scene is cleared intended to stoke concern in the public for the battle ahead.

There's a spectacular plane crash sequence that's not to be missed — make sure you watch the interview above where he discusses the ingenious way it was shot (around the 4:35 mark). It was rare for Mr. Hitchcock to comment on such real and meaningful goings-on in the world but he handled it with just as much aplomb as his usual fare.

Rope is widely known as the “one take” Alfred Hitchcock film, but in reality, it was actually a series of long takes cut together to seem continuous through elaborate camera tricks. 

The story of Rope revolves around two young men who murder their friend, hide his body in a trunk in the living room, then host a dinner party with the deceased’s family and friends. They do this as a twisted philosophy experiment in which they hope to prove that they can get away with murder.

To Catch a Thief is a 1950s popcorn-picture that has just enough suspense to work through to the end. The film is carried, perhaps more than any other Hitchcock film, by its two lead actors: Grace Kelly and Cary Grant, who have great on-screen chemistry.

The Lady Vanishes was one of the last pictures Hitchcock directed in Great Britain before relocating to Hollywood in 1939. It’s fitting, then, that the film would go on to inspire many of his later works, including Strangers on a Train.

“Birds? Why would someone make a horror film about birds?” you might ask. I hate birds. Lots of people hate birds. That’s due to a phenomenon known as ornithophobia — the fear of birds — and Hitchcock understood better than anyone how to tap into it. 

A seminal title in Alfred Hitchcock’s canon, Dial M for Murder is a complex thriller with elaborate branching narratives. The film is based on a play of the same name that was written by Frederick Knott.

Hitchcock turns a nighttime glass of milk into a thrilling narrative device in Suspicion. As the name of the film implies, suspicion abounds, right up until the credits roll.

In a film in which nothing is for certain, Cary Grant delivers a nuanced performance that keeps the audience guessing as to his true character. And Joan Fontaine rejoins Hitchcock as yet another innocent and vulnerable woman at the mercy of deceptive men. The milk scene is certainly iconic but you've got to see the entire film to put it all into context.

Boy, Alfred Hitchcock sure does love crimes on trains. Gruesome train crime aside though, Shadow of a Doubt really is one of Hitchcock’s most well-rounded pictures.

It’s hard to find fault with the brilliant Rear Window. The film is undoubtedly one of the most iconic made during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and has inspired countless pictures, such as The Conversation and Disturbia.

Considering the time in which it was made, Rear Window’s forward-thinking story is perhaps its most notable element. 

At the time, anyone labeled a voyeur was usually assumed to have psychological issues. But with the advent of technology and smartphones in particular, voyeurism has become normalized in mainstream culture. 

Rebecca is one of Hitchcock’s great early works and it was his first project upon relocating to Hollywood. The film is full of suspense and intrigue, which invites the audience into an otherworldly setting where the truth seems as elusive as a white rabbit. This is Hitch's attempt at a Gothic melodrama and his film based on the Daphne du Maurier.

It’s a bit funny that of all the 50-plus films Hitchcock has made, Psycho is far and away the most iconic. Psycho is much more intimate than Hitchcock’s epics, and that intimacy is what brings the director’s attention into focus.

Strangers on a Train is a surprisingly engrossing thriller. What begins as a simple encounter between — you guessed it — two strangers on a train becomes a cat-and-mouse game of murder and blackmail.

His most famous film about mistaken identity, North by Northwest, is also one of the best Alfred Hitchcock movies. The film stars his frequent star, Cary Grant as a man on the run from mysterious, yet deadly forces.

Alfred Hitchcock hit the lottery casting Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman opposite one another in Notorious. The duo have excellent chemistry, which carries the narrative through thick and thin to an excellent finale.

Vertigo is Alfred Hitchcock’s undisputed masterpiece: a deeply nuanced story of obsession conveyed with dreamlike imagery. Although many of Hitchcock’s other films deal with taboo subject matter, none do so as explicitly as Vertigo.

James Stewart stars as Scottie, a detective who develops severe acrophobia (fear of heights) after witnessing a woman fall to her death. What follows is a thinly-connected story of Scottie’s aimless wanderings across San Francisco, and his obsession with an idealized woman.

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