WEEK 24: Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Hello! And welcome back, if you are indeed back, to Weekly Hitch. This is a film studies type project in which I watch all of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, in chronological order, and then I write about them and sometimes friend and family read what I write because they’re kind.

This week I’m watching Hitch’s second American film, but personally – I think it would be more accurate to call it ‘The First American Hitchcock’, because while it was made after Rebecca, this week’s film is far more like the British master we’ve come to know. So buckle up for war! Excitement! Thrills! Romance! It’s 1940’s Foreign Correspondent!

WEEK 23: Rebecca (1940)

Hello! And welcome back once again, to Weekly Hitch. This is a film-studies sort of blog in which I watch all of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies in chronological order and then write about them and try to learn things. It’s like a hobby, only I try make other people join in against their will.

For week 23 here at Weekly Hitch, we – and Hitchcock – enter the 1940’s and move to America for Hitch’s biggest, and possibly best film yet. It’s a classic tale of romance and suspense, and teamed Hitch up with one of the great producers of the age, David O Selznick. So, read on if you like, as I learn about 1940’s Rebecca.

WEEK 20: Young and Innocent (1937)

We’re back – finally – after a slight hiatus and a rather hectic couple weeks at a new job, with the twentieth week of Weekly Hitch! This is a film blog wherein I watch and think about all of Alfred Hitchcock’s films in chronological order, and then I write about them here and you read half the post and then sort skim to the end and maybe look at the pictures.

This week Hitchcock brings us the light and fun and thrilling adventure/romance of 1937’s Young And Innocent. It’s a pleasure of a movie and one of the best of Hitch’s mid-thirties thrillers and the perfect palate cleanser after the paranoid panic of Sabotage.

WEEK 18: Secret Agent (1936)

And we’re back, once again, and welcome to week 18 of Weekly Hitch, a film-studies blog wherein I watch all of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies – in chronological order – and then I write about them, also in chronological order because that’s just how things happen in the world due to the relativistic nature of time and whatever.

This week, Hitch and us are riding high off the success of The 39 Steps and straight into a nearly forgotten and constantly overlooked espionage drama, 1936’s Secret Agent. So get ready for intrigue and drama, in a world where nothing is what it seems!

WEEK 17: The 39 Steps (1935)

Hello there, and welcome back to the seventeenth week of Weekly Hitch! This is a film-studies blog-type project wherein I watch every single one of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies, in chronological order, and then write about them in a way that probably only makes sense to me and maybe other slightly deranged people.

This week we follow up Hitchcock’s breakthrough thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much, with the smashiest smash hit The 39 Steps. It’s the film that really put Hitch on the international map, and you do not want to not read why I think you shouldn’t not see it. If you get what I mean.

WEEK 11: Murder! (1930)

Hello again you wonderful people, and welcome back to Weekly Hitch – a blog sort of thing, in which I watch every Hitchcock movie and then try to work out what makes them good, or bad, or ugly.

This week Hitchcock returns to suspense and thrills with one of his very few actual “who-done-its” – the pleasant, but uneven 1930 film, Murder!

WEEK 9: Blackmail (1929)

Hello once again, and welcome back to Weekly Hitch. This is a film studies project sort of thing in which I watch all of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, in chronological order, and then analyze them to the best of my meagre ability. It’s sort of like I’m going to a very weird film school, and you have to read all my homework.

This week, our last week in the twenties, also brings us our very first film with actual synchronized sound – and brings Hitchcock back to form (and to murder) with a morally ambiguous and rather startlingly raw thriller with 1929’s Blackmail.

WEEK 4: Easy Virtue (1927)

Welcome back to Weekly Hitch, where I watch most of Hitchcock’s movies in chronological order for a year and then try to make you read about it. It’s like having a friend who is a huge movie-nerd, only you don’t also have to come to my birthday party. (Please come to my birthday party)

Four weeks in on the project and we are still just 2 years into Hitch’s directing career – as we plunge into a emotional and moralistic world in Hitchcock’s 1927 silent film dramatization of Noel Coward’s play Easy Virtue.

WEEK 3: Downhill (1927)

Welcome back to Weekly Hitch, where I watch most of Hitchcock’s movies in chronological order for a year and then try to make you read about it. Sort of like a school, but you don’t get tested or graded and I don’t know if you’re here.

For this third week, we continue on through Hitch’s early silent films at Gainsborough Studios, with his follow-up picture to The Lodger – a melodrama about the dangers of women and honesty, and Hitchcock’s fourth film; 1927’s Downhill.

WEEK 2: The Lodger (1927)

Welcome to the second week of Weekly Hitch, in which I watch most of Hitchcock’s movies in chronological order for a year and then try to make you read about it. Fun, right?

For week two of the project we arrive at Hitchcock’s third film, 1927’s The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. Hitch’s second film, The Mountain Eagle, is considered lost and may never be seen again – so we had to skip over that and continue on with a really great and pivotal film – a movie that Hitch himself would later call “the first true Hitchcock picture.” So let’s get the week underway with, The Lodger.