The 10 Best Alfred Hitchcock Thrillers From The '50s and '60s
Strangers on a Train (1951) · Dial M for Murder (1954) · Rear Window (1954) · To Catch A Thief (1955) · The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) · Vertigo ( ...
Hitchcock directed many movies
Hitchcock made his directorial debut in 1919 with the silent film The Pleasure Garden, but he was best known for thrillers like Psycho and Vertigo, which debuted decades later. Throughout his heyday, <anchor>Hitchcock directed many movies</anchor> that continue to hold up to this day, making for some absolute must-watches for any film fan.
Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies to Watch on Criterion In December 2021
Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies to Watch on Criterion In December 2021

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# 5 Lesser-Known Hitchcock Films to Watch in Criterion Channel's "Hitchcock for the Holidays" Series

 [Criterion Channel](/tag/criterion-channel/)

![4](https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress%2Fwp-content%2Fauthors%2F60f048cbf2d36-ProfileSmall.png?fit=crop&w=90&h=90)

By [Evan Ramirez](/author/e-rami/)

Published Dec 4, 2021

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![hitchcock-movies](https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/hitchcock-movies.jpg)

Poll a number of movie fans and ask them about the greatest directors of all time, chances are you’d get a lot of mentions of **Alfred Hitchcock**. With the Criterion Channel’s "Hitchcock for the Holidays" [series](https://www.criterionchannel.com/directed-by-alfred-hitchcock), the streaming service is putting together 21 films for viewers to watch. In that list are a number of the [auteur’s greatest films](https://collider.com/why-does-alfred-hitchcock-rope-look-like-one-take/), including movies like _**[Vertigo](https://collider.com/tag/vertigo/)**_ and [_**Rear Window**_](https://collider.com/tag/rear-window/). However, along with those classics are a number of great underseen films.

In this list, we’ll take a look at 5 of those films, and explore a number of the Master of Suspense’s greatest works that many people might be unaware of.

RELATED: [Start Here: Five Movies That Will Get You Hooked on Alfred Hitchcock](https://collider.com/alfred-hitchcock-best-movies/)

## The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

![the-lodger](https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/the-lodger.jpeg)Image via Woolf & Freedman Film Service

Often cited as the first great Hitchcock film, there’s a clear directorial vision that’s present throughout _**The Lodger**_, especially when compared to many of his other earlier works. The film takes audiences to London, as a serial killer remains at large. When a young man ( **Ivor Novello**) takes up lodging at a guest house, suspicions begin to arise around his stay. With Novello in the lead role—who Hitchcock would also work alongside in the same year in _**Downhill**_—he gives a well-rounded performance that does a great job of creating a sense of unease around him.

Taking clear inspiration from Jack the Ripper, Hitchcock gets a solid foundation for a mystery shrouded in the increasingly heavy subject material. In many ways that a lot of his older films so perfectly utilize sets in a way that they almost feel like characters themselves, the residence in _The Lodger_ has a similar creepy old house vibe. You’d see this in movies like _**Gaslight**_ (1944), which would utilize its almost suffocating at times setting incredibly well, and a type of set that Hitchcock himself incorporated so wonderfully in movies like _**Psycho**_. It’s an easy case to make that _The Lodger_ is Hitchock’s finest silent film effort, as it so expertly captures all of the early elements of what audiences would later come to love him for.

## Sabotage

![sabotage-alfred-hitchcock](https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/sabotage-alfred-hitchcock.jpeg)Image via General Film

Hitchcock’s love for film comes into play throughout the setting of _**Sabotage**_, as the camera turns on a small London cinema and the destructive force that lives within it. As one of the members of a terrorist organization plans out his next attack, a detective working undercover next door attempts to thwart the plans. A dastardly **Oskar Homolka** is at the front and center of the movie and gives a wonderfully effective performance here.

So much of Hitchock’s films up until this point paint many of his villains as one-dimensional. _Sabotage_ is one of the first that does a great job of providing clear, complex ideas that the villain holds, and because of the way Homolka plays him as a complicated family man, he never comes across as flat. Seeing him try and navigate between running a movie theater, attending to his family, and planning these horrible acts, makes the end product incredibly compelling in the way the story unfolds.

## Young and Innocent

![alfred-hitchcock-young-and-innocent](https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/alfred-hitchcock-young-and-innocent.jpeg)Image via Gaumont Film Company

After a young man finds the corpse of a woman he knew on the beach, he is quickly accused of committing the crime. Along with a young woman, he sets out to find the key piece of evidence in helping him clear his name. What’s fun about _**Young and Innocent**_ is how Hitchcock incorporates **Nova Pilbeam**’s character into the scheme of things. She’s the daughter of a police officer, and as she finds herself along for the ride, she also has to interact with her family members, all while continuing to keep up the facade of what’s really happening around her.

Through the mid-30s till the early 40s, there's definitely a similar throughline that runs through Hitchock's career. Oftentimes you have the everyman finding himself caught up in a large conspiracy, oftentimes setting out to thwart the problem with a woman by his side. That's definitely the case with _Young and Innocent_ as well, though you can see the clear sense of development as far as Hitchcock’s techniques are concerned. The suggested viewing order for all of these films would be in chronological order, as it offers a nice insight into Hitchcock's progression as a director. Many of his films up to when _Young and Innocent_ were released often centered around a primary couple, and the duo here is easily one of the most entertaining, as they squabble and come together in hopes of finding out the truth.

## Saboteur

![alfred-hitchcock-saboteur](https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/alfred-hitchcock-saboteur.jpeg)Image via Universal Pictures

As with _Young and Innocent_, _**Saboteur**_ is another film about a man wrongly accused. Unlike that film, however, here Hitchock makes the leap to the United States, and because of that, it adds a nice change of pace to almost all his other movies. The film opens quickly with a bang, as an aircraft factory worker during WWII finds himself on the run after he’s pinned for a fire that ends up killing his best friend.

Though he’d already made a number of other films while residing in the U.S., _Saboteur_ really felt like Hitchcock's first American-made movie, with its setting spanning multiple states, as its protagonists made their way across the country. Because of the vastness of the U.S. landscape, _Saboteur_ at times feels like a long-running adventure, as our main characters attempt to make headway in finding out the true culprit behind the fire, while also uncovering an even greater mystery.

## Shadow of a Doubt

![shadow-of-a-doubt](https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/shadow-of-a-doubt.jpeg)Image via Universal Pictures

Arguably the greatest work in Hitchcock’s filmography up until this point, _**Shadow of a Doubt**_ feels like the perfect storm of all of the Master of Suspense’s tricks. In the film, **Joseph Cotton**, just two years removed from _**Citizen Kane**_, turns in a wonderfully creepy performance. When a long-lost uncle (Cotton) comes to stay with his sister, his niece ( **Teresa Wright**) begins to uncover secrets about him that become alarmingly worrisome. The dark road that took him to their house appears to be littered with many secrets that are attempting to catch up with him.

The relationship between Charlie and her uncle is at the center of the film, and it’s perfectly crafted in that Hitchcock gives audiences a clear reason to root for her. There’s a great seed planted early on that’s the basis for why the entire relationship works, as Charlie is a character that just wants to learn more about the person for whom she was named after. As she slowly but surely unravels the mystery as to what exactly her uncle has been doing, and as their complex relationship begins to deteriorate just as quickly as it was formed, the audience is left on the edge of their seat. It’s a truly wonderfully crafted and exhilarating experience to watch unfold, and it’s no wonder Hitchcock himself often cited _Shadow of a Doubt_ as his favorite movie that he made.

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