Populist

Nail-Biting Allowed: Alfred Hitchcock’s 10 Most Memorable Scenes

No director in history crafted as many unforgettable, technically brilliant and fearfully entertaining vignettes as the Master of Suspense. Here are his very best

The Crop Duster in North by Northwest

By Ben CosgroveNov. 16, 20120

Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images

The beauty of this scene is the genuine sense of menace that pervades what in lesser hands might have come across as a cartoonish interlude. A guy in a suit steps off a bus in the middle of nowhere. An anonymous pilot in a cropduster tries repeatedly to kill him (strafing him with machine-gun fire, no less). That simple proposition is brought to thrilling life — and an absolutely perfect conclusion in what may be Hitch’s most thoroughly entertaining film — by the director’s mastery of tension and by the simple pleasure of watching Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) transition so marvelously from detached bemusement to outraged shock to primal, running-for-his-life fear.

Next Robert Donat’s Nonsense Speech in The 39 Steps

Full List

Hitchcock's Most Memorable Scenes

Follow @TIMECulture

12 comments

Newest | Oldest

ShoottheCritic

How about...

Strangers on a Train - so many scenes, but the last merry-go-round is brilliant.

Vertigo - the scene you named is amazing, but I also love when he first sees her in the restaurant.

Spellbound - the dream sequence.

But my favorite has to be the climax to Rear Window, which is on your list. So kudos.

- Shoot the Critic, http://shootthecritic.com

PhilSmith

He had a gay couple as secondary prime characters in The Lady Vanishes 1938. Pushing the edge back then.

MauiSparks

Hats off to Hitchcock! According to http://edwardbass1.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html, the Hitchcock was a prolific writer and was known for his 'brilliance in cinematography.' The blog also says that he 'popularized shots that imitated the movements of the human eye.' Now that's a smash!

ZacJ

I love all of these scenes (especially the crows gathering on the jungle gym.) I would personally add the scene from Rebecca where Mrs. Danvers tricks Joan Fontaine's character with a costume and then tries to convince her that her life isn't worth living and she should jump to her death. Also, the final scene in Psycho where Mrs. Bates (kind of) contemplates how she will convince everyone she is innocent. And the scene where Marion eats dinner in the parlor with Norman. Come to think of it, lets just add every scene from Psycho to the list of best Hitchcock scenes. I LOVE HITCHCOCK!

TomThurnblad

What about Hitchcock's Oscar-winning film? "Rebecca"(1940). The ending where Mandalay is burning, where husband and wife frantically look for each each other in the crowd.

ZacJ

@TomThurnblad Rebecca is good. In another post I mentioned including the scene where Mrs. Danvers tries to convince Mrs. de Winter to commit suicide. Another good one would be the scene where Mr. de Winter reveals to his new wife what his real feelings for Rebecca were. That movie is a true classic. It and Gaslight (which is not a Hitchcock film) are the two classics I feel do the best job of being thrillers but almost convincing you at times that they are actually horror films.

ValleyGal1946

I love all of hitchcoks movie..I don't have a favoite one...I have all of them on either dvd or vhs format...you forgot..Rope , The Trouble With Harry...Strangers on a Train...Family Plot...al fantastic movies.

1 Like

Now that I have learned how he was stalking Tippie Hedren, I find the man repulsive.

Used to love the movies but after watching them for years, they now simply seem hack/dated. I do like Shadow of a Doubt.

I prefer Charade (non-Hitchcock).

tanderson1412

Some other scenes you could have considered are the murder scene on the steps of the government building in "Foreign Correspondent" where the murderer escapes in a sea of black umbrellas, the parlor scene in "Psycho" --- which I think is more powerful than the shower scene, and certainly the great Carousel scene at the end of "Strangers on a Train", which I think is one of the greatest scenes in all of the Hitchcock films.

doubleshiny

The brilliant thing about the scene in The Birds is that he lets the audience in on the mounting danger by cutting from the jungle gym to Tippy three times with shots of the same length. Then he lingers on Tippy for a shot almost twice the length of the others, and when the wide shot comes there are twice as many birds as before, which is where the scare comes for the audience.

Androphiles

The Albert Hall sequence in Hitchcock's own remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much remains one of the greatest scenes of accumulating suspense in all of cinema.