Psycho: Sins of the Mother
Janet Leigh. Photo: Universal In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock decided to shake things up after making several films that were in color, generously budgeted and featured A-list stars. His new picture…
Rear Window: A View to a Kill
James Stewart. Photo: Paramount This masterpiece from Alfred Hitchcock reunited the director with James Stewart from Rope (1948), another thriller that was set entirely in one apartment. This film has…
North by Northwest: Rushmore Rumble
Cary Grant. Photo: MGM According to one biography on Alfred Hitchcock, it was Bernard Herrmann who introduced screenwriter Ernest Lehman to the director. They hit it off and decided to…
Raiders of the Lost Ark: Meet Dr. Jones
Harrison Ford. Photo: Paramount In the beginning, before there was a movie, everybody involved did their part in contributing bright ideas to the project that would become the best adventure…
Jaws: A Whale of an Adventure
Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss. Photo: Universal In 1975, scientists knew a thing or two about sharks. The public, however, seemed to be largely ignorant. That must be…
Silence of the Lambs: Quid Pro Quo
Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. Photo: Orion Rumor has it that author Thomas Harris has never seen the film adaptation of his novel “The Silence of the Lambs”. If it’s…
Schindler’s List: A Place of Protection
Liam Neeson and Ben Kingsley. Photo: Universal In 1993, Schindler’s List was a seminal event, one of those things you simply had to experience. I was in school and every…
The Departed: Keeping Your Enemies Closer
Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson. Photo: Warner When I went to see this movie with a friend the other night, his expectations were not too high. Martin Scorsese had, in…
Aliens: Mother Against Mother
Sigourney Weaver. Photo: 20th Century Fox When I first heard about this film, I was 11 or 12 years old and pretty much a novice when it came to movies.…
Terms of Endearment: Fighting Back the Tears
Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson. Photo: Paramount It never fails. I’ve seen this film, director-producer James L. Brooks’ first, four or five times and it always leaves me…