Foreign Correspondents: Deeper into Hitchcock

Hitchcock's only "true story" is a sombre New York rhapsody about an innocent man wrongly accused, with a touch of neorealism and the overwhelming paranoia. "The Wrong Man" boasts fantastic performances by Henry Fonda and Vera Miles and finds the director working with a material that seems both personal and deeply immersed in Catholic values. Join us as we explore the film&...

Hitchcock’s sumptuous remake of his own “The Man Who Knew Too Much” is a VistaVision spectacular with great cast (Doris Day & James Stewart!) and equally wonderful locations (Marrakesh and London). An American couple on holidays find themselves in a perilous situation: their son gets kidnapped by unknown criminals. To find him, they would travel to Europe and finally reach the Royal Albert Hal...

An odd entry in Alfred Hitchcock's 1950s canon, "The Trouble with Harry" continues to puzzle and amuse - well, at least it amuses some of us... Join us as we explore this quirky, old-fashioned, lovingly crafted black comedy with our special guest, translator and cinephile Jan Dzierzgowski.

Shot in glorious Technicolor and in panoramic VistaVision, "To Catch a Thief" remains one of Hitchcock's most elegantly crafted cosmopolitan delights. Côte d'Azur gets the full "touristy" treatment in the story of John Robie "The Cat" (Cary Grant): an ex-thief who needs to find a real jewelry thief prowling on the rooftops of Southern France. Featuring two of the director's favorite actresses, Gra...

One courtyard to rule them all: join us for the robust discussion of "Rear Window" with our very, very special guest. Professor Sidney Gottlieb from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut is the editor of celebrated volumes "Hitchcock on Hitchcock" and the editor of "Hitchcock Annual" published by Columbia University Press. He is also a wonderful conversationalist and a generous support...

1954 was one of Hitchcock's best years: he released two films, "Dial M for Murder" and "Rear Window". Both were shot in color and both focused on husbands attempting to murder their wives and go unpunished. "Dial M for Murder" introduced Grace Kelly to the Hitchcock universe, boldly experimented with 3D photography and seamlessly translated the play to the screen...

Hitchcock in Quebec! "I Confess" stars Method actor Montgomery Clift in one of his most restrained performances as a handsome, innocent priest accused of murder. The most overtly "Catholic" of Hitch's movies, "I Confess" is also one of the lesser appreciated gems in the director's stellar 1950s output. Join us as we explore the movie and its Holocaust underton...

Patricia Highsmith, Raymond Chandler, Robert Walker and Robert Burks: these are only several of the extremely talented people who contributed to Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train," a film which officially opens the master's most glorious and successful decade. At once taut and dreamlike, cruel and perversely sensual, the movie begins with a chance encounter that leads to nightmar...

Both breezy and unexpectedly weird, "Stage Fright" features the famous "false flashback" sequence and takes us on a ride through post-war London. Jane Wyman stars as a naive young actress who spies on a diva (Marlene Dietrich at her juiciest) to clear her friend's name. We explore this underappreciated gem directed by Alfred Hitchcock with our special guest, Darragh O'D...

"Under Capricorn" is a true oddity: an old-fashioned Gothic melodrama which experiments with long takes; a movie set in Australia but visibly shot in a studio; a financial failure that is claimed by some to be one of the master's greatest works. Join us as we explore the film with our special guest Andrei Gorzo - one of Romania's most brilliant film critics and scholars, and a pr...

Hitchcock's singular achievement – his first film in color, his first independently produced Hollywood picture and a narrative composed exclusively of long takes – is also his boldest adventure with homosexual themes (which appear, as is obvious for 1948, in a coded form). “Rope” continues to be a fascinating, taut thriller with many secrets, unforgettable lines and an atmosphere of postwar ni...

Alfred Hitchcock's last collaboration with David O. Selznick was not fondly remembered by the most important parties involved (Gregory Peck reportedly hated the film), but it is still a fascinating example of the power dynamics in classical Hollywood, embodying the tensions between the director and the producer. "The Paradine Case" was an absurdly expensive venture with a budget which rivaled that...

One of Hitchcock's finest and most beloved works, "Notorious" has a timeless appeal and is undoubtedly one of the best – and most disturbing – classical Hollywood movies ever made. Cary Grant, Claude Rains and an utterly brilliant Ingrid Bergman star in this mature Gothic noir about Americans spying on Nazis in Brazil. Professor Patrick Keating, author of "The Dynamic Frame: Camera Movement in Cla...

You may be surprised but our podcast is not always simply Alfred Hitchcock Appreciation Society. We shower "Spellbound" with a fair share of criticism but we also tell stories of our first encounter with the movie and its famous dream sequence designed by Salvador Dalí. Hitch's bold venture into the secret world of Freudian psychoanalysis stars Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. It also features a d...

Rarely seen and underappreciated, the two French-language short films that Hitchcock made during World War II, "Bon Voyage" and "Aventure Malgache", are among his most interesting and exciting works of the 1940s. We are delighted to be able to discuss them with Professor Charles Barr, author of "English Hitchcock" and a monograph of "Vertigo" published by the British Film Institute. Join us as we...

Hitchcock's most important cinematic contribution to the war effort and a considerable technical achievement, "Lifeboat" stars the inimitable Tallulah Bankhead who, along with a bunch of other characters, is left stranded in the middle of the ocean after the Nazi's attack on their ship. Based on a story by John Steinbeck, the film mixes propaganda with thrills, violence and surprising sexual...

Small-town America turns sinister in this unforgettable gem co-scripted by the esteemed playwright Thornton Wilder. The film stars Joseph Cotten as Uncle Charlie, one of the most complex Hitchcock villains, and Teresa Wright as his initially unsuspecting niece. Listen to the episode in which we take a closer look at "Shadow of a Doubt" and later on discuss the film with the fantastic Hitchcock sch...

Considered to be the first Hitchcock film which makes significant use of American landscapes and places, "Saboteur" is an exemplary wartime thriller: a slick piece of propaganda turned into a curious and not necessarily reassuring vision of American society. Join us as we explore this entertaining gem starring Norman Lloyd as the villain and featuring the famous finale at the Statue of Liberty.

Hitchcock's first film with Cary Grant and one of his strangest works, "Suspicion" features an Oscar-winning performance of Joan Fontaine and still remains a puzzle for viewers. Is Grant's character a killer? Or are we just getting paranoid? Join us as we explore the meanings and production history of this Gothic thriller which is also, suprisingly, an uncovential comedy of manners.

Hitchcock's only screwball comedy is a treat for those who like to see the director doing something unexpected and slightly beyond his comfort zone. Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery play a New York couple who suddenly discovers that their marriage is actually not valid. Will they decide to remarry? We are joined by Olympia Kiriakou, the author of "Becoming Carole Lombard: Stardom, Comedy, and...

Finally Foreign Correspondents are discussing... Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent", starring Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall and George Sanders. This spectacular and big-budget spy story, made in 1940, competed with "Rebecca" at the Oscars. Join us as we explore the first film in which Hitch tackled the topic of WWII.

Hitchcock's first American picture and one of the most gorgeous Gothic thrillers ever to come out of Hollywood, "Rebecca" remains as fascinating and seductive as more than 80 years ago. Join us as we explore the film with Patricia White, author of the recent BFI Film Classics book on "Rebecca".

"Jamaica Inn", starring the unimitable Charles Laughton and young Maureen O'Hara, is one of the least appreciated Hitchcock films, but it is a fascinating starting point for a discussion about the director and his actors. We are joined by Dan Callahan, author of the recent book "The Camera Lies: Acting for Hitchcock", with whom we talk about the screen presence of Laughton, Barbara Stanwyck and......

"The Lady Vanishes" is one of the most charming and beloved movies Hitchcock ever made: a spy thriller comedy with a fantastic cast, witty script and flawless mise-en-scène. Join us for this discussion of the film with our special guest: film scholar and writer J. E. Smyth.

In this episode we are joined by Alex Ramon, a film critic for the British Film Institute and Sight & Sound and our dear friend. Together we explore one of the loveliest of Hitchcock's British gems: an unassuming adaptation of a crime novel by Josephine Tey with Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney in leading roles. Why the three of us like "Young and Innocent" so much? Check out the episode and...