Alfred Hitchock's Favorite Films

F.T. Can you remember specifically some of the films that appealed to you at the time?

A.H. Though I went to the theater very often, I preferred the movies and was more attracted to American films than to the British. I saw the pictures of Chaplin, Griffith, all the Paramount Famous Players pictures, Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, as well as the German films of Decla-Bioscop, the company that preceded UFA. Murnau worked for them.

F.T. Can you single out a picture that made a special impression?

A.H. One of Decla-Bioscop's most famous pictures was Der müde Tod.

F.T. Wasn't that directed by Fritz Lang? The British title, I believe, was Destiny.

- Hitchock, by Francois Truffaut

Those Italian fellows are a hundred years ahead of us. Blow-Up and 8 1/2 are bloody masterpieces. (Vanity Fair)