North By Northwest, The Lady Vanishes are among some of the most popular movies ever assembled.
However, Hitchcock's filmmaking career began as far back as 1925. He spent nearly a decade honing his craft before finding widespread acclaim. With nearly 70 film titles to his name, many have never gotten the recognition they deserve. For more, here are Alfred Hitchcock's 10 Most Underrated Movies.
I Confess (1953)
Made in between Strangers on a Train and Rear Window, I Confess is a long-forgotten Hitchcock thriller starring Montgomery Clift at the height of his popularity.
The story follows a petty thief named Otto Keller (O.E. Hasse) who inadvertently murders a man who catches him looting his home in Quebec City. Torn with grief and guilt, Keller returns to his familiar church in order to confess his sins to Father Logan (Clift). Keller confesses to murdering his former employer, leaving Father Logan in a legal bind when he cannot betray the man's trust and tell police of the crime he committed.
Torn Curtain (1966)
Released after the critical and commercial success of The Birds and Marnie, Hitchcock's Torn Curtain failed to resonate as well among moviegoers when released in 1966. The romantic Cold War thriller stars Paul Newman and Julie Andrews.
When Professor Michael Armstrong (Newman) accepts a post in Denmark, he tells his fiancee Sarah (Andrews) to wait for him at home as he may be abroad for some time. Sarah suspiciously follows him anyway, learning that her husband is working on a top-secret formula in East . Feigning defection to the East, Michael and Sarah are forced to find a way back home safely.
The Wrong Man (1956)
Hitchcock directed two films that were released in 1956, both of which were overshadowed by his landmark follow-up films, Vertigo and North by Northwest. In The Wrong Man, Henry Fonda plays a victim of mistaken identity with lasting ramifications.
Fonda stars as Manny Balestrero, a struggling jazz bassist working nightly in a New York City nightclub. Desperate to pay for his wife Rose's (Vera Miles) dental bills, Manny decides to take a loan off her life insurance policy. When he arrives at the insurance office, he is mistaken for a man who robbed the place two times earlier in the year. Manny maintains his innocence and cooperates with the police, but appears guiltier at every turn.
Stage Fright (1950)
Overshadowed by on the classic film-noir Hitchcock's Stage Fright is a female-driven thriller people often forget to mention speaking of the master of suspense's filmography.
When Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) is accused of murdering his lover's husband, his close friend and struggling actress Eve Gill (Jane Wyman) offers to help hide him from the police. Cooper tells Gill that the real murderer is his lover Charlotte (Marlene Dietrich), prompting Gill to investigate on her own. However, when she meets the lead detective on the case, she falls in love with him.
Lifeboat (1944)
Although it was nominated for three Academy Awards, Lifeboat remains an unheralded Hitchcock title. Based on the John Steinbeck novel, the story follows a group of surviving soldiers in the wake of a torpedo attack who finds refuge on a lifeboat harboring an enemy.
Upon seeing their U-boats sunken during a WWII battle, the various survivors from all walks of life climb aboard a small lifeboat and wait for rescue. When they pull a man out of the water that turns out to be responsible for sinking their boat, tempers flare and tensions rise.
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
The other oft-forgotten film Hitchcock released in 1956 is The Man Who Knew Too Much, which is a remake of his own movie of the same name from 1934. Both films remain underrated, but that Hitchcock felt the need to remake his own movie gives precedent to the original.
While vacationing in Switzerland, Bob and Jill Lawrence are asked by a dying friend to retrieve a secret letter from his property. When they do so, their daughter is immediately kidnapped, leading to the discovery that their friend was an assassin with an imminent hit-job to complete.
Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)
Despite winning retroactive plaudits, Shadow of a Doubt rarely gets mentioned when listing Hitchcok's all-time greatest films. The plot concerns a young woman who falls into panic and paranoia in the belief that her visiting uncle might be a secret murderer.
Bored by her ordinary life, Charlotte Newton (Teresa Wright) is thrilled by the arrival of her cool uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotton). However, when she witnesses his erratic behavior including taking an interest in mysterious serial killer targeting rich widows, she begins to suspect Charlie of foul play.
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
In a tale of WWII intrigue and espionage, New York news reporter Johnny Jones (Joel McCrae) is sent abroad on assignment to cover the impending war as a foreign correspondent.
Tasked with landing a scoop on a treaty agreed to by a pair of European countries, Jones runs into one stonewall after another. With the help of a local woman named Carol Fisher (Laraine Day), Jones sets out to locate a series of spies with sensitive information regarding key diplomat Van Meer (Albert Bassermann).
Frenzy (1972)
The penultimate narrative feature of Hitchcock's unparalleled career belongs to Frenzy, a Giallo-like horror/thriller about a serial killer murdering street prostitutes with a necktie.
When London is besieged by "The Necktie Murderer," police suspect a man named Richard Blaney (John Finch) to be the culprit after his wife is brutally slaughtered. Blaney evades the law and sets out to prove his innocence by identifying the real killer before it's too late.
Rope (1948)
Designed to appear as one long unbroken shot, Rope is a thinly-veiled metaphor for the gay relationship two murderers are desperate to keep people from discovering.
Brandon (John Dall) and Philip (Farley Granger) are two men living together in a New York City apartment. When the murder a man with a rope and stuff him a trunk placed in the middle of the room, the two men must keep the body from being discovered by a group of partygoers. James Stewart plays Rupert Cadell, the men's former schoolteacher who slowly pieces the crime together.
