Alfred Hitchcock: 5 underrated movies

There are several films of the filmmaker, commonly known as the 'Master of Suspense', which are always selected in all the tops and lists about Cinema, coming from the four corners of the world. Titles as "North by Northwest", with its bumpy espionage adventure, or the psychological horror of "Psycho" and also the obsession with the illusion of "Vertigo" (which now can not get rid of the 'Best Film of All Time' label, thanks to the notorious list of the magazine "Sight and Sound") made Hitchcock a director who is in the memory and growth of several generations of moviegoers and directors. However, despite these popular selections of the greatest titles in the history of Cinema (that have more or less dubious criteria - such as the Empire ones), there are a few titles of the Master that remain hidden from the general public - or at least devalued by a good part of it. Maybe because, in that motion pictures, the viewers were waiting to find a purely hitchcockianism visible in other films (such as the three mentioned earlier), or because they thought the film would be one thing and turned out to be something completely different, or because, in some of these more 'obscure' movies, Hitchcock did not explored only the suspense and the tension and decided to go much beyond, filming stories with epic proportions about the disorders of relationships and mankind. This article wants to resurrect five titles which, in my opinion, deserve to be seen, or revised or rethought. There are five works of the Hollywood era of Hitchcock, who were, perhaps, thanks to the mediatism and attention obtained by so many masterpieces that the director elaborated in the states. Hope you'll enjoy, and find (more) good reasons to learn in detail the brilliance of one of the greatest masters of cinema. As if there were not already enough!

1. - Lifeboat [1944]

Like "Rope", "Dial M for Murder" and "Rear Window", "Lifeboat" has its story confined to a single scenery, where all interactions and conflicts between the different characters are developed. It is a film that reflects the concerns of a time, by speaking of World War II and the danger of how Nazi threat could spread to the rest of the world. And this is demonstrated through the boat, which can even be seen as a metaphor for humanity, and to the way thar one single person can cause panic to many people. Hitchcock focuses here his usual tension in an unexpected way, unpleasant for some, but interesting and even addictive, for others. Besides having one of the most original filmmaker cameos, "Lifeboat" is a stunning exercise in narrative that, despite having characteristics that could be easily adapted to a play, was constructed in an brilliant manner, that only the Cinema could come true. An outstanding deconstruction of the sad atmosphere of war, and a flawless picture of suspense that makes us think in  the most generous and cruel things of the human being.

2. - Spellbound [1945]

Just talking of collaboration that Salvador Dali gave the film (creating the most memorable sequence of the story, which was longer than what it is on the theatrical and final cut) can make you understand how, despite some flaws (there are a couple of completely pointless scenes),"Spellbound" is another Hitchcock film that deserves to be discovered. It's a story of crime, amnesia and surreal dreams, with the beautiful Ingrid Bergman and with Gregory Peck in a role that many consider today too exaggerated. However, the disturbances of his character very well reflect the doubts and mysteries beyond the most obtuse cases of psychoanalysis, and being Hitchcock an expert in the art of manipulating the minds of viewers, it would come the day when science would be used in one of his films. A very interesting movie that lives of the chemistry between the two protagonists, that is so dangerous, because of the consequences of the scientific methods, and for the crime they attribute to the amnesic patient, in circumstances that will be unveiled step by step, throughout the plot.

3. - Under Capricorn [1949]

It is the only color film on this list, and it is probably the most undervalued and trampled of them all (even with the big acclaim from the gang of "Cahiers du Cinéma"), especially because it's the most 'anti-Hitchcock': "Under Capricorn" is not a thriller itself, like other films of the director, and among the various non-thrillers that he did this should be the one this deviates more of the best known iconic ideas in the style of filmmaker. Revolves around a love triangle, in the 19th century Australia, filming the social hierarchy that provides several contradictions between the characters and the feelings they cherish one another, divided for reasons of power, but also by dark secrets of the past and by mysteries that are waiting for an answer. With a fabulous cinematography and a magnificent set and costumes, and exciting in the construction of the romantic intrigue and the opposition between different factions of the nobility society of the time, "Under Capricorn" has very few moments of suspense, but the center of the melodrama and other components of the narrative are very well thought out in a way that only Hitchcock could have done - even if nothing in this movie looks like so many others of his curriculum.

4. - I Confess! [1953]

Among all underrated Hitchcock films (or between at least those who constitute this list), "I Confess!" is my favorite. It was poorly received at the time of the original release in the USA, because of the connection between the plot and some rituals of catholicism, whose meanings were inconceivable to American culture - the secrecy of the confession, which makes the intimate relationship between the priest and the sinner in something akin to a psychiatrist and his patient, but with spiritual matters. And that's why Father Michael Logan (a masterful performance by Montgomery Clift) does not reveal the identity of the murderer, who assumed the crime in an improvised confession shortly after the occurrence, and this will bring to the priest some problems - including the fact that he will become the no. 1 suspect of a crime he didn't commit. Compliance with the rules is assumed instead of individuality in this story, and this makes the theme of "innocent who becomes criminal in the eyes of public opinion" receive a new dimension in theHitchcockian universe: because in this case, Father Michael knows every detail that could exonerate him of the false accusation ... but he can not use them, because of the priesthood duty. "I Confess!" has a brilliant suspense that we could only find in other great films of the Master. Why was thrown into the ditch of oblivion? The passage of time can help you to look this movie in other way to the principles of the restricted and complex religion that is portrayed - and this is only a small part in this diabolic work about ethics, values​​, despair and cowardice.

5. - The Wrong Man [1957]

The plot is the same of  'I Confess' and many other Hitchcock movies, that his, the man accused of a crime he did not commit (one of his beloved themes). But here we see the adaptation of a true story - and despite that, it overlapse reality, and to a mere television and recreation of facts, to be an invention very well imagined by the filmmaker. However, we should not forget that Hitchcock didn't forgot the real side of the story, emphasizing, from the beginning, that the situation we described throughout the film is more amazing and unusual than many fictional elements we find in some of its most solid and provocative thrillers. Played by the brilliant Henry Fonda (in one of his most exciting performances) and Vera Miles in the role of the fragile wife of the accused, which ultimately feel physically and psychologically the consequences of the judicial error, "The Wrong Man" starts with simples elements for telling something that, unfortunately, became the most banal type of tragedies of our time, to create a sense of discomfort and concern in the viewer, who feels not only close to the characters that came on the screen, but also that what is happening to them has also to do with him, and with his condition in the middle of a disorganized and weakened society. Another great Hitchcock film that, even it is the least underrated title of this selection, it ended up to be unfairly forgotten, in comparison to other and more popular films of the director.