This binging sesh kind of crept up on me. It started about a month or two ago when I watched a biopic starring Anthony Hopkins about Alfred Hitchcock simply titled "Hitchcock." I thought it was marvelous and of course Hopkins did a stupendous job, and though I don't think of him as a character actor much in the vein of an impressionist, he nailed it. He didn't overdo the quirky mannerisms like a comic would, ala Rich Little, but his speech pattern and the makeup they had on him; absolute chef's kiss.
This got me into a revival mood wanting to explore Alfred Hitchcock's body of work. Not to mention the venue I found this biopic on seemed resplendent with title after title of Hitchcock films. Of course I'm talking about YouTube.
Before getting YouTube Premium, I never thought about YouTube as a movie streaming platform, namely, I guess, because even the "free" movies were only free with ads, much like streamers like Tubi and such. But with Premium, of course, no ads. What's more, plenty of independent channels place movies on YouTube as well. So there's no shortage of pickings to be had in a Hitchcock binge. There are gaps, I found, and I'll have to address them as I come on them, but for now here's how far I've gone.
For this binge, I chose to skip movies that I've seen several times and feel saturated with like North By Northwest, Rear Window, Rope and Strangers on a Train. I was going to include The Birds and Psycho on this exclusion list as well since I've seen them so many times but I did watch them yet again just recently for the heck of it and I'm glad since there are many scenes that one tends to forget and gets reminded of upon each re-watch.
I just watched Torn Curtain for the first time and I thought that was excellent. I agree with a lot of critics about the casting of Newman and Andrews. No way I could buy Paul Newman as a brilliant scientist nor did I feel any chemistry between him and Julie Andrews, but the story was quite intriguing, the plot was intricate and hilarious in its constant twists and turns, the cinematography and the action scenes, especially the overtly extended scene where the Stasi agent goes through a Rasputin number of lethal efforts, were done just so well.
Right now I'm in the middle of Topaz. I thought for sure I had seen this movie before but so far I don't recognize a lick of it. Like Torn Curtain it's also a cold war thriller with "on the edge of your seat" suspense. After this I expect I'll endeavor to go back in time to some of Hitch's work in the 1930s like The Man Who Knew Too Much or 39 Steps. Sabotage is a great one too which I have seen but it's worth a re-watch.
Once I'm done binging his movies, I may top it all off with a few of his Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV shows. I always liked them.
Going into all these old movies is a bit of an escape right now from the craziness of the present. I think I'll think of it as a vacation from the 21st century. I for one sure wouldn't mind it. There's something a bit more comforting about simple ordinary everyday murderers and World War II and Cold War plotters, as long as everyone is polite and neatly dressed.