Patrick Védie Not only a good glimpse at the legendary works of the Master of Suspense, this documentary, which, had it been a series, could have focused on more films, but a more modern approach that does not only repeat what Hitchcock declared himself about his movies in the famous Truffaut book. It is a very good lesson to all those who still consider Hitch only from that point of view. One of the film's greatest pleasures - one only wishes we had been given more of it - is to watch all those modern directors (who mainly started their career years after Hitchcock had died) explain the different movies and what they meant to them. Seeing, among others, Bryan Singer getting quite excited when explaining the bird's first attack on Bodega Bay is inspiring...should not every film fan and, even more, every director have the same light in his eyes when being allowed to speak about the classics, or movies in general?

douglasjarry Despite giving a glimpse at some intriguing archive footage this treads the same path as previous looks at Hitch's career. Shame whoever was responsible for researching this piece chose to pull out (amongst others) the old chestnut about the failure of "Torn Curtain". If they had done their job better they might have pointed out that at the time of its release it was Universals top box office grosser of all time some failure. Also wasn't Spielberg hanging around Universal during the Hitchcock years? I've never seen or heard of him talking about his co-worker.As has been pointed out the director of this special seemingly chose to leave out the titles which fell outside the rather limp thesis. While not wishing to take anything away from my favourite director I think the time has come to remember that movie-making is a collaborative process and one of Hitchs strengths was working with an enormously talented set of creative personnel (often referred to rather disparagingly as technicians) who supported his creativity and raised it to new levels.

Swift-12 This film was re-monikered DIAL H FOR HITCHCOCK when I saw it recently on cable.We get it all here. Clips from the films. Commentary about his craft. Commentary about the personal impact he had on current film-makers. Personal insights from a few people who'd worked with Hitch. A brief biography blended in with a chronological survey of some of his career highlights. We also get Hitchcock himself; both in serious archival interview as well as entertaining appearances from his trailers and TV show intros. And montages. Glorious beautifully crafted montages. We get it all. Except for that compulsive-monster stuff you can only find in the tabloid-style book THE DARK SIDE OF GENIUS.I was very impressed by the montage sequences and how they artfully chose just the right images to blend with what the commentators were saying. It didn't hurt that Bernard Herrmann's score to VERTIGO was used, both for the long opening montage as well as the closing sequence.Commentators included several directors from today ... Wes Craven, Brian DePalma, Jonathan Demme, Robt Altman, Peter Bogdanovich.Would have been nice to get old footage of interviewed commentators from days of old ... folk that Hitchcock had worked with. The only ones left to interview were ... Norman Lloyd (the actor who took the plunge off the Statue of Liberty in SABOTEUR and whom collaborated closely on the 50's TV show ... he also had become a very close personal friend with Alfred and Alma)... Janet Leigh, who needs no introduction ... Tippi Hendren, ditto ... Teresa Wright, the nice young lady in SHADOW OF A DOUBT... and Joseph Stefano who wrote the screenplay to PSYCHO.Stefano's comments were very keen as he mused about where the hell such a civilized man as Hitchcock could have found the deep dark places of the human soul within himself to mine. His narration synched-up nicely with the montage, displaying short snippets of various characters in close-up, tortured souls, lonely souls ... as Stefano's comments were handed over to the voice track of Norman Bates: "we're all alone. Trapped like animals. In our own private cages."For Hitchcock aficionados, there might not be anything new to glean here. It covers old territory like explaining "The McGuffin" theory. But it doesn't go much into technical things like his montage-approach to editing ... or the pre-eminence of building a long anxious suspense sequence, compared to a brief sudden shock. (These kinds of things are covered more thoroughly in the 1970's docu series THE MEN WHO MADE THE MOVIES ... but when will we ever get treated to THAT again??) This is still a great retelling of his life and career in a fresh style, and a nice entertaining way to spend 90 minutes. In fact I got sucked into watching part of it a second time. But this (like Hitchcock's own work) is like a rollercoaster -- you can enjoy it over and over.

Brian Blueskye This is a great look into the man known as Hitchcock. There are alot of interviews with alot of the stars who worked with Hitchcock telling all about him, and the movies they were in. There are some appearences by alot of the directors of today saying what they admired of Hitchcock. Hitchcock is the master of suspense, and this is a look into how he worked, who he worked with, where he got some of the ideas for his movies, and a great documentary you shouldn't miss. You also see how "Psycho" shocked some people in a way where they had nightmares for years. A must see, a most definite must see.