Subscribe to the JBFC
E-bulletin.

Enter your e-mail to receive updates every Thursday.
 
 
JBFC Media and Education Center
 
JBFC Ranked #1

Charity Navigator Four-Star Charity
   

Hitchcock Returns

Who can resist a summer of Hitchcock movies—on the big screen in beautiful prints? This time around, we're showing twelve great films we haven't screened before, along with four of the master's greatest hits: Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window, and North by Northwest.

Notorious July 2, 6, 7
Dial M for Murder July 3, 4
Lifeboat July 5, 9
The Wrong Man July 5, 8, 10
Vertigo July 11, 13, 17
Mr. and Mrs. Smith July 11, 12, 14, 15
Rebecca July 12, 14, 16
Suspicion July 18, 21
Saboteur July 19, 22
Spellbound July 19, 23
Rear Window July 20, 24
To Catch a Thief July 21, 22, 23 *Schedule Changes--See Below*
Frenzy July 25, 31
The Man Who Knew Too Much July 26, 28
Psycho July 26, 29
North by Northwest July 27, 30



SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
NOTORIOUS July 2, 6, 7
1946. 101 min. NR. US. Buena Vista.
"The most elegant expression of the master's visual style." (Roger Ebert)
Featuring one of the most famous screen kisses in film history, this sharp, dramatic classic stars Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as spies who infiltrate a clandestine band of German scientists formed in Brazil after World War II. Screenwriter Ben Hecht's trenchant dialogue and a heart-wrenching supporting performance by Claude Rains both earned Oscar nominations. A supreme blend of high tension and romance.


SHOWTIMES/TICKETS

DIAL M FOR MURDER July 3, 4
1954. 105 min. PG. US. Warner Bros.
"The audience is made to break out in chilly bumps and the tension is drawn so tightly that one can almost feel it in the throat." (New York Times)
Jealous and broke, Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) concocts what seems like an airtight scheme to murder his wealthy wife (Hitchcock's quintessential blonde, Grace Kelly), who's a bit too chummy with his best friend (Robert Cummings). But things go nerve-rattlingly wrong—it's pure Hitchcock.


SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
LIFEBOAT July 5, 9
1944. 96 min. NR. US. 20th Century Fox/Criterion.
"A tremendously provocative film." (New York Times)
Based on a John Steinbeck story, this engrossing war movie is ingeniously contained within the smallest set ever used on a film: a lifeboat populated by the survivors of an Allied freighter sunk by a German U-boat in the Atlantic. The intense examination of the fine line between nationalism and morality features a strong ensemble cast including Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Hume Cronyn, and Walter Slezak.


SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
THE WRONG MAN July 5, 8, 10
1956. 105 min. NR. US. Warner Bros.
"Truly harrowing." (Slant)
The movie's original tagline says it all: "The police were convinced....The witnesses were positive....Yet he was...THE WRONG MAN." Henry Fonda stars as a powerless "little man" embroiled in a case of mistaken identity. Based on a true story, the film has a documentary style that lends it psychological grittiness. Fonda is compelling, as always, and Vera Miles contributes a haunting performance that reveals the emotional cost of the ordeal.


SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
MR. AND MRS. SMITH July 11, 12, 14, 15
1941. 95 min. NR. US. Warner Bros.
"A chucklesome comedy...with endless camera magic." (New York Times)
Did Hitchcock miss his true calling as a director of witty, light comedies? Before he took ownership of the thriller genre, he created this breezy marital romp. In the vein of The Awful Truth, it features a stunning and hopelessly scatterbrained Carole Lombard and an earnestly funny Robert Montgomery as a happily married couple who discover that they are neither married nor happy.


SHOWTIMES/TICKETS

REBECCA July 12, 14, 16
1940. 130 min. NR. US. Buena Vista.
"Magnificent romantic-gothic corn, full of Alfred Hitchcock's humor and inventiveness." (Pauline Kael)
In Hitchcock's first American movie—and his only Best Picture winner—Joan Fontaine is brilliant as the intimidated young second wife of a wealthy, powerful man (Laurence Olivier) whose first wife's haunting presence still lurks in his life and in his house. Captivating and deeply atmospheric from its famous opening lines to its pyrotechnic finale.

Vertigo
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
VERTIGO July 11, 13, 17
1958. 129 min. PG. US. Universal Pictures.
"A ravishingly beautiful hallucinatory nightmare." (New Yorker)
Perhaps the most resonant of Hitchcock's many 1950s masterpieces. Dark, twisty, and dreamlike, it includes stellar performances by James Stewart as an ex-cop trying to protect a mysterious blonde, Kim Novak as Hitchcock's archetypical femme fatale. Add stunning widescreen photography, subtle color, and a sheer-perfection score by Bernard Herrmann—does it get any better than this? Two Oscar nominations.


SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
SUSPICION July 18, 21
1941. 99 min. NR. US. Warner Bros.
"This is the first film in which Hitchcock puts his dazzling technical imagination wholly in the service of his art." (Dave Kehr)
Joan Fontaine's Oscar-winning performance is at the center of this romantic thriller about a young woman who grows to suspect her debonair husband (Cary Grant, natch) of planning an unspeakable crime. Weaving dread and ambiguity, Hitchcock plays virtuosically on the audience's expectations.


SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
SABOTEUR July 19, 22
1942. 108 min. NR. US. Universal Pictures.
"A swift, high-tension film which throws itself forward so rapidly that it permits slight opportunity for looking back." (New York Times)
In this wartime thriller, a forerunner to North by Northwest (look for the Statue of Liberty sequence), the trademark wit of cowriter Dorothy Parker is lavishly on display. In one of Hitchcock's many "wrong-man" plots, a falsely accused protagonist (Bob Cummings) must track down and expose the real bad guys in order to clear his name.


SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
SPELLBOUND July 19, 23
1945. 111 min. NR. US. Buena Vista.
"A tense and exciting tale, a psychological thriller packed with lively suspense." (New York Times)
Playing Dr. Edwardes, the new director of an asylum, Gregory Peck captures the attention (and heart) of a colleague (Ingrid Bergman). But who is the real Dr. Edwardes? Only Freudian analysis will tell. With a mind-bending dream sequence courtesy of surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and an Oscar-winning score, this tangled tale of psychological intrigue explores just how far the unconscious mind will go to repress the memory of trauma.


SHOWTIMES/TICKETS

REAR WINDOW July 20, 24
1954. 112 min. NR. US. Universal Pictures.
"Its appeal, which goes beyond that of other, equally masterly Hitchcock works, is undiminished." (New York Times)
This witty nail-biter, a tour-de-force of voyeuristic paranoia, features a wheelchair-bound James Stewart spending a hot summer eavesdropping on his neighbors' lives from his apartment window. Grace Kelly is his lovely girlfriend, and Thelma Ritter shines in a memorably acerbic supporting role. Stunningly shot in rich color, it garnered four Oscar nominations.

To Catch a Thief
SHOWTIMES/TICKETS

***Scheduled screenings on July 8, 11, 14 have been cancelled. These screenings have been rescheduled for July 21, 22, 23***

TO CATCH A THIEF July 21, 22, 23
1955. 106 min. NR. US. Paramount Pictures.
"Slick, sophisticated...a good, exciting time." (New York Times)
In Grace Kelly's final film for Hitchcock (she met her future husband, Prince Rainier, on the set) she plays a radiantly charming sophisticate to Cary Grant's notorious retired jewel thief, temporarily back in business—or so it seems. A stylish blend of romance, intrigue, and double entendres shot on the Riviera, which never looked more spectacular.



SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
FRENZY July 25, 31
1972. 116 min. R. UK. Universal Pictures.
"Hitchcock's smacking his lips and rubbing his hands and delighting in his naughtiness." (Roger Ebert)
After many years making films in the US, Hitchcock returned to form (and to London) for this tale of a rapist and serial killer on the loose. Hitch's second-to-last feature (and his only one to receive an R rating, for nudity) boasts a terrific screenplay by Anthony Shaffer (Sleuth). It's a film that evokes a voyeuristic darkness—creepy even by Hitchcockian standards.


SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
July 26, 28

1934. 75 min. NR. UK. Kino International.
On vacation in Switzerland, a British couple and their daughter encounter a mysterious stranger. Next thing they know he's been shot, and the family finds itself ensnared in intrigue involving kidnapping and an assassination attempt in London's Albert Hall. Film buffs disagree over whether this version, with a riveting Peter Lorre, or Hitchcock's 1956 remake is the better telling of the heartpounding suspense story.


SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
PSYCHO July 26, 29
1960. 109 min. R. US. Universal Pictures.
"Psycho should be seen at least three times by any discerning filmgoer." (Andrew Sarris)
Take a young woman (Janet Leigh) on the run, the creepy Bates Motel, its eccentric owner (Anthony Perkins), and his domineering but mysteriously unseen mother. Then add the shower scene, perhaps the most famous—and certainly one of the most frightening—sequences in film history. Aided by Bernard Herrmann's shrieking score, this is a true horror masterpiece.


SHOWTIMES/TICKETS
NORTH BY NORTHWEST July 27, 30
1959. 136 min. NR. US. Warner Bros.
"Hitchcock's ultimate wrong-man comedy." (Village Voice)
A big, gripping thriller featuring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint and filled with scenes that have been seared into moviegoers' collective unconscious: A crop duster, dipping low over a fallow field, "dusting crops where there ain't no crops." Giant stone faces on Mt. Rushmore. A train barreling into a tunnel. Screenplay by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures" and succeeded.
 

 

 

 

 

Back to Main JBFC Series Page


JACOB BURNS FILM CENTER • 364 MANVILLE ROAD, PLEASANTVILLE, NY, 10570 • 914.747.5555
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit film and education organization
©Jacob Burns Film Center • All rights reserved • Website Design: H Plus, Inc
Questions about this site, please contact the webmaster • privacy policysite map