Ranking Alfred Hitchcock's famous movies from Best to Worst is always going to be a highly controversial endeavour. His filmography is so vast and he has many many popular pictures - not just the big ones like Vertigo and Rear Window, but he has cult followings for films such as Rope, Marnie and Life Boat. It is an impossible task to satisfy all of his fans. I have tried in this feature to represent a wide range of Hitchcock pictures from his oeuvre. I have not ranked them according to my personal preference, but to a preference that I think will satisfy the majority of his fans. I have also decided to keep it to just ten movies. It has not been an easy task and I doubt that it will please everyone but you can add your comments and dissent into the box below.
10. Topaz (1969)
Topaz is based on the best selling book by Leon Uris and concerns a French Intelligence agent who becomes enmeshed in the drama of the Cold war. First through the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis and then through trying to break an international Soviet spy ring. Some consider Topaz underrated, some consider it just bad, it is certainly an atypical Hitchcock film in that it doesn't go with his major themes and motifs. It is extremely complex in its plotting and the viewer would need to have knowledge of the Cuban Missile crisis for the film to make proper sense. Apparently Hitchcock was in a bad mood and ill whenever he made it as a studio had nixed a project of his. The film is well directed but not well paced - being too talky at times. Interesting as a Cold War thriller, it is not likely to end upon Hitchcock fans' Top 10 lists.