In honor of Alfred Hitchcock's birthday (August 13, 1899) Google has a cool logo today...

So, what are people's favorites among his movies? I'll start: I like Strangers on a Train, just because the guy is so thoroughly creepy. But I'll admit, certainly from a visual standpoint, later stuff like Vertigo is some of his best.

Hitchcock was a wonderful director, but it's occurred to me that several of his movies are terribly overrated.

The Birds is awful. Psycho is okay; far from the classic it's supposed to be.

Tha being said, I really like a lot of his British-produced B&W stuff. The 39 Steps is a cool, strange little picture. Sabotage is wonderful (but, then, I'm a sucker for Joseph Conrad).

And a good number of his big-budget American films are great.

But my favorite remains Rope. But, then, I'm a sucker for Dostoyevsky.

Edit: I changed my statement ``Psycho is simply fine'' to what you see above. I intended to mean that it's nothing more than fine (where ``fine'' is descriptive of mediocrity), but colloquialism tended to lose that meaning.

I prefer the Alfred Hitchcock Hour shows that were on TV, but as for movies, I gotta agree with Bitt, Birds, sucked... Psycho, awesome!

Edit: Ahh OK Bitt's edit makes it clear to me now, but I still like Psycho the best AFA movies go.

Rear Window, then Psycho.

Ditto: Rear Window. I like those "classic" ones. North By Northwest, Vertigo, but not Psycho so much.

Y'know, I almost mentioned Rope. For some reason, I can't get over my obsession with "the gimmick." Sure wish I hadn't known/read about it before seeing it for the first time.

Always liked North by Northwest

Many years ago I was in a local museum that was selling music box mechanisms. One of them was "Funeral March of the Marionettes", the theme music from Hitchcock's TV show. I'm still looking for an appropriate music box to mount it in.

I'm still looking for an appropriate music box to mount it in.

A miniature coffin, maybe?