Mar 18th   
The Phantom of the Open*  (12A)  
(Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley)

(GB 2021)     
EOne/Ingenious/BBC Films/BFI/Cornerstone/Baby Cow. 102m.

In 1976 Barrow-in-Furness crane operator Maurice Flitcroft pretends to be a professional golfer at the British Open.
Another British story of parochial underdogs (similar in spirit to The Duke), with lots of clichés thrown in - many of them historically true - and meticulously observed by its leading man.

Written by: Simon Farnaby, from the book by himself and Scott Murray.
Producers: Tom Miller, Nichola Martin, Kate Glover.
Director: Craig Roberts.
Starring: Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Rhys Ifans, Jake Davies.
Photography: Kit Fraser.
Music: Isobel Waller-Bridge.

Oct 5th  
I Confess**   
(US 1953)                         
Warner Bros. 94m. bw

A priest hears a murderer's confession but cannot break the seal, even though he himself is chief suspect.
Somehow not always convincing (with a slightly unnecessary flashback sequence), but typically well filmed Hitchcock thriller, making good use of locations in Quebec.

Written by: George Tabori, William Archibald, from the play "Our Two Consciences" by Paul Anthelme.
Producer/Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Starring: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne, O.E. Hasse, Dolly Haas, Roger Dann.
Photography: Robert Burks.
Music: Dmitri Tiomkin.

Jun 12th
Under Capricorn
(GB 1949)                                               
Warner Bros/Transatlantic. 117m.

In early colonial Australia, an ex-convict's wife is traumatized by his taking the blame for a murder that she committed.
Disappointingly tame mystery melodrama with vague echoes of Rebecca, only occasionally in some of Hitchcock's style but very watered down. The actors make it a worthwhile but not very memorable entertainment.

Written by: John Colton, Margaret Linden, Hume Cronyn, James Bridie, from the novel by Helen Simpson.
Producers: Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Bernstein.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Starring: Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Michael Wilding, Margaret Leighton, Cecil Parker, Jack Watling, Denis O'Dea, Ronald Adam, Francis de Wolff.
Photography: Jack Cardiff.
Music: Richard Addinsell.

Oct 30th 

Sabotage**                            

(GB 1936)                     
Gaumont British. 76m. bw

A cinema manager's wife discovers that her husband is a saboteur who is instructed to plant a bomb in Piccadilly Circus.
Efficient, reasonably faithful Hitchcock adaptation of Conrad's The Secret Agent (ironically retitled because of the confusion with Hitch's previous film), with his usual stylised touches, which extend to some of the acting.

Written by: Charles Bennett, Ian Hay, Helen Simpson, E.V.H. Emmett, based on the novel "The Secret Agent" by Joseph Conrad.
Producers: Michael Balcon, Ivor Montagu.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Starring: Oscar Homolka, Sylvia Sidney, John Loder, Desmond Tester, Joyce Barbour, William Dewhurst, Peter Bull, Torin Thatcher, Austin Trevor.
Photography: Bernard Knowles.
Musical Direction: Louis Levy.

Mar 12th
High Anxiety*
US 1977. Twentieth Century Fox/Crossbow. 94m.

The agoraphobic new head of a California asylum finds his sanity threatened.
Thriller spoof with occasional funny moments and even more occasional passing references to Hitchcock, but with little of his style or suspense.

Written by: Mel Brooks, Ron Clark, Rudy DeLuca, Barry Levinson.
Producer/Director: Mel Brooks.
Starring: Mel Brooks, Harvey Korman, Madeleine Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Ron Carey, Howard Morris, Dick Van Patten, Barry Levinson.
Photography: Paul Lohmann.
Music: John Morris.

June 6th
The Manxman* (PG)
Barbican Cinema, London

GB 1929. British International. 90m. bw. silent

A publican's daughter marries a local fisherman but loves his best friend, an aspiring Isle of Man deemster.
Average love triangle melodrama, uncharacteristically shot (for Hitchcock) in beautiful Cornish locations instead of the Isle of Man. Though not a thriller, ample evidence that Hitch could have turned his hands to other genres had he been allowed to.

Written by: Eliot Stannard, from the novel by Hall Caine.
Producer: John Maxwell.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Starring: Carl Brisson, Malcolm Keen, Anny Ondra, Randle Ayrton, Clare Greet.
Photography: Jack Cox.

Musical Accompaniment: Stephen Horne (on two instruments).

Aug 21st
Vertigo**
US 1958. Paramount. 128m. Vistavision

An agoraphobic detective is hired to pursue a necrophiliac with whom he falls in love, but cannot prevent her death because of his condition. Traumatised, he then meets a woman who resembles her and decides to mould her into his lost love.
Overrated and rather infuriating Hitchcock mystery with some splendid set pieces, but they come in between ages of tedious prowling after the enigmatic heroine. Hitch annoyingly ditches any supernatural element half-way through for the usual murder plot, which by his standards is a very minor one. Despite the labour of love, audiences were not ready for James Stewart as a romantic obsessive.

Written by: Alec Coppel, Samuel Taylor, based on the novel "D'Entre les Morts" by Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narjerac.
Producer/Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Henry Jones, Raymond Bailey, Lee Patrick.
Photography: Robert Burks.
Music: Bernard Herrmann.
Titles: Saul Bass.

Restoration: Robert A. Harris, James C. Katz.

+ Grace Kelly (to become Princess Grace of Monaco) and Vera Miles (who became pregnant) were both sought before Kim Novak was hired.

June 11th
Shadow of a Doubt***
US 1942. Universal. 108m. bw

A murderer of wealthy widows takes refuge in his family's home town, where his idolising eldest niece begins to unravel the truth.
Hitchcock's favourite "American" film. Although the opening scenes marking the villain's trail seem perfunctory, as is the unnecessary addition of romantic scenes with a detective, this is otherwise a brilliant piece of homespun idealised Americana with the murder element simmering underneath like an unwelcome (and inexplicable) skeleton in the closet. Not a corruption of the American Dream, but more a loving evocation of the old American way of life, where nobody wants the spell to break.

Written by: Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, Alma Reville, from a story by Gordon McDonell.
Producer: Jack Skirball.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge, Macdonald Carey, Wallace Ford, Edna May Wanacott, Charles Bates.
Photography: Joseph Valentine.
Music: Dmitri Tiomkin.