Yesterday, for the first time this millennium, I had the privilege of opening up my list of Alfred Hitchcock creations and placing a check in a couple of boxes. \u00a0This is a great accomplishment, as this is one of the oldest and most difficult lists to complete. \u00a0I first acquired a list of Hitchcock’s directoral outings in 1990, and, nearly 20 years later, I still haven’t seen everything on the list.<\/p>\n
By comparison – in 2004, I printed off a list of Sherlock Holmes stories (the ‘official’ ones – the ones written by Arthur Conan Doyle) and, within a year, I had read them all. \u00a0<\/p>\n
But Hitchcock’s creations are a different beast. \u00a0He worked in Britain, Germany, France and America. \u00a0He began working in the film industry in the early 1920s. \u00a0Back then, there wasn’t quite the push to preserve films for posterity. \u00a0Then there was a little thing called World War II – Germany and Britain weren’t exactly great places to store works of art.<\/p>\n
At any rate, between 1922 and 1980, Hitchcock directed 81 works of art. \u00a0But my list doesn’t have all 81. \u00a0For one thing, his first few films are lost; destroyed during war (did we need another reason to hate the Nazis?). \u00a0Second, the film Blackmail<\/em> was initially released as both a silent and a talkie (this was when studios were making the transition); I’ve seen the sound version, but I see no need to see an identical version of the same film. \u00a0The same can be said of Mary<\/em>, a German version of Murder! <\/em>– I am not certain Mary<\/em> still exists, but I’m not terribly concerned about seeing a shot-for-shot recreation of a film I’ve already seen (got that, Gus Van Savant?). \u00a0Lastly, his final film, A Short Night, never got past the screenplay stage because, well, Hitchcock exited the project in a manner fitting for the master of macabre: he died.<\/p>\n The breakdown is, then, as follows:<\/p>\n Feature-length films still in existence: 54<\/p>\n Short films: 2<\/p>\n Episodes of Alfred Hichcock Presents<\/em>: 17<\/p>\n Episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour<\/em>: 1<\/p>\n Episodes of the radio program The Alfred Hitchcock Show<\/em>: 1<\/p>\n Episodes of Suspicion<\/em>: 1<\/p>\n Episodes of Ford Star Time Theater<\/em>: 1<\/p>\n So you see my difficulty. \u00a0How does one go about finding ancient films of mediocre quality at the local video store? \u00a0How does one find two short films shot in France during the German occupation? \u00a0How does one find one particular episode of a low-rated TV series that was cancelled decades ago? \u00a0<\/p>\n It started easy. \u00a0My parents were going out one evening, and my Dad took me to the video store to get a movie for myself. \u00a0I couldn’t find anything I liked, so he suggested Rear Window<\/em>. \u00a0I had only vaguely heard of that movie and its director. \u00a0But I loved what I saw, and, when I told my Dad, he suggested I next rent The Birds<\/em>. \u00a0I stayed at my Aunt Debbie’s house one night, and she rented Lifeboat <\/em>for us to watch. \u00a0Later, my Aunt Jodi had me over to watch Rope<\/em>. \u00a0Since it seemed Hitchcock could do no wrong, I decided to see everything he ever directed. \u00a0\u00a0I worked at the library, and so I just rented (for free!) all the Hitchcock I could. \u00a0My friend Ryan and I got together to watch all sorts of Hitchcock films. \u00a0By 1992, I had seen almost everything.<\/p>\n Almost.<\/p>\n For about 5 years, my list floundered. \u00a0Then we got cable, and TVLand begain playing all the episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. \u00a0I kept track of which ones were airing on which days, so that I could make sure to see the Hitch-directed episodes. \u00a0One day, TVLand had a marathon of episodes he directed, and my wife kindly taped them all. \u00a0That weekend, we watched them all, and by Sunday night, I had checked off 16 of the 17 episodes.<\/p>\n Then, one day, my wife and I ventured to a hole-in-the-wall video store, where I was shocked to find a couple of Hitchcock films I’d never seen. \u00a0We rented them. \u00a0The owner of that store gave me a catalogue of a specialty film store in California, and told me they might have some of what I was looking for. \u00a0I called that store, and, to my delight, they had 4 Hitchcock films – and those two episodes from random TV shows – I’d never seen. \u00a0When I told them I live in Minnesota, they laughed, saying they’d never had a customer from so far away. \u00a0Nevertheless, they agreed to ship me a box of VHS tapes. \u00a0In the days before Netflix, this was a rare treat.<\/p>\n I also had trouble finding those short French films. \u00a0I periodically checked Suncoast Video. \u00a0They never had them in stock, but an employee said they could special-order them for me. \u00a0The two boring, confusing short films set me back $44.<\/p>\n But I did more. \u00a0Dial ‘M’ for Murder<\/em> was originally shot for 3-D viewing, so when Oak Street Cinema had a special presentation, Jennifer and I ventured to Minnecrapolis to see it. \u00a0I wrote to a radio archive organization asking for the radio program, they had it, and I bought a copy. \u00a0I read the screenplay to A Short Night<\/em>.<\/p>\n By 1999, I had seen 52 of the 54 motion pictures, and 19 0f the 20 TV episodes. \u00a0<\/p>\n Then the Internet came. \u00a0I had hoped that such an information device would readily afford me the items I was missing, but I was unable to find them. \u00a0I checked every few months. \u00a0Recently, Hulu began uploading episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents to their site, and I waited with anticipation until the episode I hadn’t seenwas uploaded. \u00a0Finally, it was. \u00a0So, yesterday, I watched it. \u00a0In a rash of good luck, some good soul also uploaded Waltzes from Vienna<\/em> to YouTube. \u00a0Despite being billed as a musical and as non-Hitchcockian, I still enjoyed it. \u00a0It told a good story, was in good condition, had some fun humor and great music. \u00a0<\/p>\n If anyone can find a copy (online, VHS, DVD, 8mm) of Downhill <\/em>(also known as When Boys Leave Home<\/em>), I’d appreciate it. \u00a0That’s probably an understatement.<\/p>\n Click here for a list of Hitchcock films.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to see how many Hitchcock films you can name<\/a> (can you beat my score?).<\/p>\n Click here to watch Waltzes from Vienna<\/a> (it’s not a musical).<\/p>\n