Psycho
Because we all like to be played. A boy's best friend is his mother.
4 balls out of 4. Though I still think the open matte Academy version is superior in many aspects.
The Birds
This has always been a bone of contention with me. I've never really gotten this film, and always felt it extremely overrated-being more of a technical exercise and showing the first signs of Hitch's downward spiral. The coldness coming form the leads, the tepid and slow opening third, the overall feeling of coldness and lack of vitality, the growing sense of dated artificiality that peaked on the next three films and the human story that requires great effort to establish a connection. The suspense is there eventually, and is incredibly done-as always. It's as if Hitch began to lose his connection to the material due to the increasing amounts of external constraints. The best performances come from the more minor characters and the birds themselves.
The script is flawed and frankly rather dull, I've always felt it would have been much improved by the addition of new writers or drafts.
The real problem with THE BIRDS is that is is too devoted to technique. Compounding this is its vastly underwritten characters. The film is at its best when there is no dialogue, and despite the wonderful eerie sound effects could and would work better as a silent film.
It seems coming off of PSYCHO that Hitch felt he could exercise even more technique against an audience and no longer needed the guise of an exploitation movie.
I think the primary problem lies in the script. Like the production on Psycho there probably should have been some more writers involved. The chilliness that emanates from the relatively lifeless performances and the TEPID opening third only increases throughout MARNIE,TORN CURTAIN and TOPAZ; not to mention the artificial quality. It wasn't until FRENZY that Hitch reached anything near his same high standard, and by then it was something of a last huzzah.
The film does get better with age however. The eeriness is exquisite once you get past all the flaws.
Uhh...a possible 3 balls out of 4?
BTW does anybody buy all the recent stories coming out about the Hitchcock-Tippi Hedren relationship? I've studied Hitch my entire life and always found that period of time relatively uncovered, but I'm not really buying all of the lurid new developments.