The Master of Suspense

We just got the mother lode of Alfred Hitchcock movies over the holidays.

First, The Masterpiece Collection from my in-laws. Then, a series of 10 of his earliest films from a friend. Not a duplicate in the bunch - though there were apparently two versions, filmed decades apart, of "The Man Who Knew Too Much." Who knew?

In full, we've got one heckuva film festival in the making. Here's the rundown, not that there's any rush to get through them all:

1. The Lodger (1927)
2. Blackmail (1929)
3. Rich and Strange (1931)
4. Number Seventeen (1932)
5. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
6. The 39 Steps (1935)
7. Sabotage (1936)
8. Secret Agent (1936)
9. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
10. Saboteur (1942)
11. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
12. Rope (1948)
13. Stage Fright (1950)
14. Rear Window (1954)
15. The Trouble with Harry (1955)
16. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
17. Vertigo (1958)
18. Psycho (1960)
19. The Birds (1963)
20. Marnie (1964)
21. Torn Curtain (1966)
22. Topaz (1969)
23. Frenzy (1972)
24. Family Plot (1976)

This is going to take a whole lot of popcorn. But this is just the reason why we have the home theater set-up. Plus, next month, we have the eight disc Viva Pedro (Almodóvar) box set due to arrive.