25 Movies that inspired or influenced Alfred Hitchcock
The first ten movies on the list are Hitchcock's Top 10 Favorite Movies. He made the list in 1939 when moving to the United States. Note that there's only a single talkie on the list. The rest are movies mentioned by Alfred Hitchcok in various interviews as inspirational. In an early interview he talked about three directors whose works he enjoyed and admired. The three he mentioned were; D.W. Griffith, Georges Méliès and Alice Guy Blaché. He've also repeatedly spoken of his admiration of the films of Cecil B. DeMille. In fact there's two DeMille movies on his Top 10, including the first spot on the list.
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- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsAgnes AyresClarence BurtonTheodore RobertsMary Maddock becomes a seamstress after her husband Steve wastes their money on booze. Her employer provides her as an escort to accompany millionaire Mallory. Her husband tries blackmailing Mallory and is later killed by his accomplice, leaving Mary free to wed the millionaire.This 1921 Cecil B. DeMille movie was listed by Alfred Hitchcock as his favorite movie in 1939.
- DirectorJohn S. RobertsonStarsGareth HughesMay McAvoyMabel TaliaferroThe people of Thrums ostracize 12-year-old Grizel and her mother, known as The Painted Lady, until newcomer Tommy Sandys, a highly-imaginative boy, comes to the girl's rescue and they become inseparable friends. Six years later Tommy returns from London, where he has achieved success as an author, and finds that Grizel still loves him. In a sentimental gesture he proposes, but she, realizing that he does not love her, rejects him. In London, Tommy is lionized by Lady Pippinworth, and he follows her to Switzerland. Having lost her mother and believing that Tommy needs her, Grizel comes to him but is overcome by grief to see his love for Lady Pippinworth. Remorseful, Tommy returns home, and after his careful nursing Grizel regains her sanity.
- DirectorRex IngramStarsLloyd IngrahamAlice TerryRamon NovarroWhen a nobleman murders his best friend, a lawyer becomes a revolutionary with his heart set on vengeance.DVD
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsLeatrice JoyConrad NagelEdith RobertsThough betrothed to fellow socialite Richard, Iris weds her chauffeur Tom, leaving Richard to marry the family laundress' daughter Shamrock. Class differences lead to divorces and remarriages.
- DirectorMaurice TourneurStarsAnna Q. NilssonMilton SillsFrank CampeauThe passengers on an ocean steamer guided by a strict captain are shipwrecked. He gives the main woman in the group 24 hours to choose her mate from among the motley community.
- DirectorJohn S. RobertsonStarsRichard BarthelmessMay McAvoyIda WatermanA crippled World War I veteran retracts to a small cottage in the countryside to escape from his nosy family and to hide from the outside world. There he meets a plain but also a very kind young woman. She reveals to him that the house he is staying in is in fact a very old honeymoon cottage. Spirits of newlyweds from the past, who are still swirling through the cottage, soon cast a love spell upon them.
- DirectorEwald André DupontStarsEmil JanningsMaly DelschaftLya De PuttiPrologue: The murderer "Boss" Huller - after having spent ten years in prison - breaks his silence to tell the warden his story. "Boss", a former trapeze artist, and his wife own a cheap side-show that displays ''erotic sensations''. But he longs for his former glamorous life in the circus. When he meets the orphan Berta-Marie, he falls under her spell and leaves his wife and young son behind. He makes Berta-Marie his partner in a new trapeze number. One day, the famous trapeze artist Artinelli takes note of them and engages them for his trapeze show in Berlin. Their salto mortale becomes an immediate sensation. Calculatedly and cold, Artinelli seduces Berta-Marie and destroys "Boss'" happiness.Blu-Ray
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinMack SwainTom MurrayA prospector goes to the Klondike during the 1890s gold rush in hopes of making his fortune, and is smitten with a girl he sees in a dance hall.Blu-Ray
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsEmil JanningsEvelyn BrentWilliam PowellA former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary.Blu-Ray
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsPaul MuniGlenda FarrellHelen VinsonWrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a Southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him.DVD
Great Paul Muni movie. The final entry on Alfred Hitchock's Top 10 list, and the sole Talkie. - DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsHenry B. WalthallSpottiswoode AitkenBlanche SweetPrevented from dating his sweetheart by his uncle, a young man turns his thoughts to murder.DVD
Alfred Hitchcock wrote an article in 'Film Weekly' in 1931 where he praised this movie and called it "the forerunner and inspiration of most of the modern German films, to which we owe so much artistically". - DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishMae MarshHenry B. WalthallThe Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.Blu-Ray
Hitchcock took inspiration from the 'Ride of the Valkyries' sequence. It informed the chase scenes and philosophies around chase/suspense in his movies. - DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRobert HarronMae MarshThe story of a poor young woman separated by prejudice from her husband and baby is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.Blu-Ray
Hitchcock particulary liked the scene of the car/train-race to save Mae Marsh’s husband from the gallows. - DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRichard BarthelmessMrs. David LandauA naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.Blu-Ray
Hitchcock was influenced by the ice floe sequence. - DirectorFritz LangStarsBernhard GoetzkeLil DagoverWalter JanssenWhen a woman's fiancé disappears, Death gives her three chances to save him from his fate.Blu-Ray
Alfred Hitchcock mentioned this movie as a great inspiration in the Truffaut interviews. Some sources claim this as his all-time favorite movie. Luis Buñuel was also highly taken by this film. He called it his main inspiration for starting to make movies himself. - DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeAud Egede-NissenGertrude WelckerArch-criminal Dr. Mabuse sets out to make a fortune and run Berlin. Detective Wenk sets out to stop him.Blu-Ray
Scholar John Orr interprets the innocent man faking identities in Hitchcock's 'The 39 Steps' (1935) as an inversion of Lang’s villainous master of disguise, Dr. Mabuse. - DirectorFritz LangStarsBrigitte HelmAlfred AbelGustav FröhlichIn a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.Blu-Ray
Alfred Hitchcock visited the set of Metropolis in 1926 during it's production. - DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeGerda MaurusWilly FritschThe mastermind behind a ubiquitous spy operation learns of a dangerous romance between a Russian lady in his employ and a dashing agent from the government's secret service.Blu-Ray
This movie inspired the opening of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Blackmail' (1929) - DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsEmil JanningsMaly DelschaftMax HillerAn aging doorman is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel.Blu-Ray
"The prime example of expressing a story idea… told visually from beginning to end." -Alfred Hitchcock - DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsGeorge O'BrienJanet GaynorMargaret LivingstonA sophisticated city woman seduces a farmer and convinces him to murder his wife and join her in the city, but he ends up rekindling his romance with his wife when he changes his mind at the last moment.Blu-Ray
Murnau's use of pastoral settings and evocative human close-ups, seems to have inspired Hitchcock when he made 'The Farmer’s Wife' (1928) - DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsCharles FarrellMary DuncanDavid TorrenceA Chicago waitress falls in love with a Minnesota farmer, and decides to face a life in the country.Blu-Ray
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPierre BatcheffSimone MareuilLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.Blu-Ray
Alfred Hitchcock would later hire Salvador Dalí (who co-directed this movie with Luis Buñuel) to do the set-design for his movie 'Spellbound' in 1945. - DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsVictor AndréBleuette BernonA group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.Blu-Ray
- DirectorAlice GuyIn a society in which gender roles are switched, will men tolerate being unequal?Blu-Ray
This movie also inspired another genius director, namely Sergei M. Eisenstein who watched it as a kid when he was eight years old. He mentions it in his memoirs. - DirectorAlice GuyStarsMace GreenleafBlanche CornwallMarian SwayneTrixie believe the only way she can save her older sister from dying of tuberculosis is by preventing the autumn leaves from falling, so one night she steals into the garden in her nightie and fastens fallen leaves to branches with twine.Blu-Ray