Top 10 Hitchcock Films

Nice! I've made a ranking list of all the Hitchcock films I've seen: http://letterboxd.com/neglify19/list/alfred-hitchcock-ranked/

Here are the top ten:

10. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
9. The Wrong Man (1956)
8. North by Northwest (1959)
7. The 39 Steps (1935)
6. Rear Window (1954)
5. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
4. Strangers on a Train (1951)
3. Vertigo (1958)
2. Rope (1948)
1. Psycho (1960)

You guys know I can't do this right? ;) My theory has always been that with the back to back production of Man Who Knew Too Much and 39 Steps, Hitch entered the realm of the otherworldly in the medium and never looked back. I have yet to see all the silents and their alternates in both sound/silent and foreign language iterations, so here I will stick with the '34-'76 main period.

Pinnacles of the art form; in that they fully represent the term "magic of the movies": The 39 Steps (1935) Foreign Correspondent (1940) Notorious (1946) Rope (1948) Rear Window (1954)  Vertigo (1958) North by Northwest (1959) Psycho (1960) Frenzy (1972)

Masterpieces: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) Sabotage (1936) Young and Innocent (1937) The Lady Vanishes (1938) Rebecca (1940) Saboteur (1942) Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Lifeboat (1944) Spellbound (1945) Strangers on a Train (1951) Dial M for Murder (1954) To Catch a Thief (1955) The Trouble with Harry (1955) The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) The Wrong Man (1956)

A beautiful and delicate picture that was mangled by outside forces and can never quite recover: Marnie (1964)

Pictures that don't quite work, yet still somehow attain a level of craftsmanship and storytelling that make them great: Secret Agent (1936), The Paradine Case (1947) Stage Fright (1950) I Confess (1953) The Birds (1963) Topaz (1969)

   
The admitted few which simply don't work due to outside pressures etc. : Jamaica Inn (1939) Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) Suspicion (1941) Torn Curtain (1966)
   
A terrible disaster that you cannot tear your eyes away from and has some sort of haunting quality to it: Under Capricorn (1949)
   
And the touching goodbye of sorts: Family Plot (1976)

To me they are all great, despite the weaknesses of some. I only get frustrated with the constant interference that occurred on Suspicion, Torn Curtain and Topaz. My biggest criticism has always been about the narrative of The Birds which frankly is terrible.

A personal list of only 10 would probably resemble this, a very loose list of favorites.

Vertigo

Notorious

Rope

Rear Window

The 39 Steps

Foreign Correspondent

North by Northwest

Psycho

Frenzy

Saboteur

The absolutes are Vertigo and Notorious, which are his best pictures beyond any doubt.