Psycho (1960) : 3 Stars 1/4
Adapted from the 1959 novel Psycho by Robert Bloch , the black & white film centers on the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who ends up at a secluded motel after embezzling money from her employer, and the motel's disturbed owner-manager, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Hitch took many risks with this movie and all paid off by hitting gold in the box office, making it his most profitable. "Psycho" is simple, well-crafted and with an awesome particular scene (shower) !
IMDB : 8.6 from 237,487 voters (Top250#30)
Tomatometer: 97% (78 reviews)
Box Office: 50 Million ($388,990,000 Adjusted for inflation)
production cost: $806,947 ($6,277,829 Adjusted for inflation)

I don't really think it's simple at all. The entire first third of the movie is an exciting thriller until suddenly it becomes a horror film and completely shifts protagonists. How often does that happen?

Psycho is the kind of film I wish I could go back in time, and see without knowing the twist.

Yeah. The first time I actually saw the film was with a bunch of my buddies in high school, and we were more shocked by the scene with the P.I. on the stairs than anything else--we knew about the shower scene and the ending.

By simple I meant easy to follow.

Vertigo (1958) : 3 3/4 Stars
It is psychological thriller film adapted from the 1954 novel D'entre les morts by Boileau-Narcejac. John "Scottie" Fergusson (James Stewart) is a San Francisco detective recently retired due vertigo and depression however despise these disabilities he accepts to investigates the unusual activities of an old friend's much-younger wife Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) . Jimmy Stewart's acting is superb , the films shows a complete arc about his acrophobia and his scenes with Kim Novak who also plays a complex character are excellent. The camera "Vertigo" effect is very good. The pace of the movie at the beginning is slow but half way onwards really suck you in.
IMDB: 8.5 from 144,405 users (top250#52)
Tomatometer: 98% (58 reviews)
Production cost: $2,479,000 ($19,753,083 Ajusted for inflation)
Box Office: (Only USA) $14,000,000 ($111,554,325 Adjusted for inflation)

I am not spoiled for Pyscho's twist, and I guess it right about halfway through. The obscuring of the mother in the shower scene had me guessing, and then the camera angle with the PI scene at the stairs and when the mother was carried down only confirmed it, the latter scene especially telling in how it tries to trick us. It's still a great movie, and I imagine that movies copying and being influenced by its style many times since is the reason why the twist might seem obvious today.

+1

Shadow of a doubt (1943) : 2 Stars 3/4
An American psychological thriller, black & white Hitch's earliest classic film starring Teresa Wright as an innocent teen ager and Joseph Cotten as her evil uncle "Charlie" . Based on a short story by Gordon McDonell and screenplay by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville (Hitch's wife). This is a dark and unsettling "family" movie but guess what? The very favourite of Hitch lol
IMDB: 8.0 from 31,849 votes
Tomatometer : 100% from 31 reviews
Production cost: Unknown
Box Office: Unknown

Marnie (1964) : 2 Stars 1/2
Based on a novel by Winston Graham, Mark Rutland (Sean Connery) is a wealthy man with a hobby for animal behaviour who marries Marnie (Tippi Hedren) a thief with pathological serious problems and tries to help her to confront them . Sean Connery was in his hey hey "James Bond" days and Hitch was having a string of hits but neither of them saved this boring psychological thriller. Connery and Hedren acting performance are good but the production values with very obvious "fake" backgrounds" and annoying blood "flash back" effects even for the times seemed very under average . Definitely a second "tier" Hitchcock film
IMDB: 7.1 from 22,128 users
Tomatometer: 80% (From 30 reviews)
Box Office: $7 Million world wide ($52,420,000 Adjusted for inflation)
Production cost: $ 3 million ($22,000,000 Adjusted for inflation)

Yep, "Marnie" is all over the place, way too long and with poor special FX. For me it started with "The Birds" when Hitchcock had lost it - IMHO it was all the way downhill after that, with the exception of one last great movie: "Frenzy", where he made the very smart move to go "back to the roots" - in this case back to his native London with a fantastic all British cast.
Hitchcock was at a peak from the late 50s through 1960. Look at the long list of movies (many of them great ones) he made before that. It's obvious he had to run out of steam and out of fashion at a certain point. One evidence that Hitch himself was aware of that was that he fired composer Bernard Herrmann during production of "Torn Curtain", released two years after "Marnie". The widely believed reason is that there was a clash of two huge egos. That was very likely true, but I also believe that Hitch had heard the jazzier music in movies like "Charade" (which is basically a Hitchcock movie with just a little more light humor and the leads gender-reversed - music by the great Henry Mancini) and found Herrmann's style too heavy and by the time out of fashion (Herrmann himself stated in an interview that he was against composing a jazzier score, something Hitch asked for). Hitch very likely started to doubt himself and lost focus. I am only speculating, but I guess there are quite a few people agreeing with me.

BTW: regarding Hitchcock's post-Marnie composers: he inicially hired the aforementioned Herny Mancini for "Frenzy" and fired him because he sounded "too much like Herrmann". After that he hired Ron Goodwin, which was an excellent choice BTW. But I can't help noting that Mancini was American and Goodwin British. But that is again only speculation from myself. Reality is always more complex.

And one last little known (or talked about) thing: Hitch's last movie "Family Plot" was scored by the always awesome John Williams (who started as a jazz pianist and co-arranger with Henri Mancini).

BTW: Bernard Herrmann got his chance to prove that he can write a great jazzy (even if not upbeat) score: "Taxi Driver".

Vertigo is my favorite of the ones I've seen.

The 39 Steps (1935) : 3 Stars
A black & white thriller film loosely based on the 1915 adventure novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan . Richard Hannay ( Robert Donat) tried to help a woman stranger by bringing her to his apartment (London) where she is killed just after she informed him of a spy plot, then having being framed for murder Hannay heads to Scotland (the only clue given by the woman) to wreck this spy plot and clears his name. On his way to Scotland meets Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) a blond (really? lol) lady who initially does not trust him but later on helps him in his adventure. The plot might be a bit far-fetched but this movie is fun, surprisingly fast-paced for a 1935 film with full of twists and turns.
IMDB: 7.9 from 28,750 users
Tomatometer: 98 % from 41 reviews
Box Office: Unknown
production Cost: Unknown

Frenzy (1972) : 3 Stars
The film is adapted on the novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Arthur La Bern and it is about a serial killer who is murdering London women with a necktie. Hitch is back on form after several flops with his last great film before his death. Very well paced movie with no twist but plenty of suspense, macabre scenes and even some minor humour provided by the relationship between the Chief Inspector and his wife.
IMDB: 7.5 from 20,408 votes
Tomatometer: 87% (30 reviews)
Box Office: $12,600,000 ($69,980,000 Adjusted for inflation)
Production cost: $2 million ($11,110,000 Adjusted for inflation)

3.5! 3.5!

I'm not quite sure about the details, because it was something I saw on a TV documentary about Hitchcock several years ago, and I haven't seen anything in writing about it, not even on Wikipedia, but apparantly the studio turned down Hitchcock's planned follow-up to Psycho. According to the documentary, this was a big blow to Hitchcock, in part because he'd been allowed to do pretty much whatever he wanted ever since he'd come to the States. I don't recall the documentary suggesting that this blow to his ego played a part in his artistic decline in the 60's, but it was certainly easy to infer that.

Dial M For Murder (1954) : 3 Stars
Based on the popular mystery play by Frederick Knott who wrote also the screenplay. An ex-tennis pro (Ray Milland) carries out a plot to murder his wife (Grace Kelly) but when things did not go as planned then he improvises a plan B. The film was shot with M.L. Gunzberg's Natural Vision 3-D camera rig (It looks good in 3D) and for that, Grace Kelly acting (The most beautiful Hitch's blond) and the duel of wits between her husband and Chief Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) made this movie one of my favourites from Hitch.
IMDB: 8.2 from 56,906 users Top250#167
Tomatometer: 84% (From 31 reviews)
Box Office: $6 Million ($51,780,000 Adjusted for inflation)
Production Cost: $1.4 Million ($12,080,000 Adjusted for inflation)

I saw that one for the first time last year and loved it. Ray Milland was excellent. If anything, the character of Halliday is filler. I didn't like him following the inspector all the way around.

The Birds (1963): 2 3/4 Stars
A suspense/horror film loosely based on the 1952 story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier. I personally enjoyed this well crafted movie as an hobbyist film maker about a simple plot on birds suddenly turning nasty.
IMDB: 7.8 from 82,689 users
Tomatometer: 96% (from 46 reviews)
Box Office: $11,403,529 ( $86,570,000 Adjusted for inflation)
Production cost: $3.3 Million ($25,040,000 Adjusted for inflation)

Ok Folks, this it for me in this round . I saw 10 Hitch's films and my ranking is as follow:

1) Vertigo (1958) : 3 3/4 Stars
2) Rear Window (1954) : 3 1/2 Stars (My own favourite because the fun and dreaming about Grace Kelly lol)
3) Psycho (1960) : 3 1/4 Stars
4) North by Northwest (1959) : 3 1/4 Stars
5) Frenzy (1972) : 3 Stars
6) Dial M for Murder (1954) : 3 Stars
7) The 39 Steps (1935) : 3 Stars
8) Shadow of a Doubt (1943): 2 3/4 Stars
9) The Birds (1963) : 2 3/4 Stars
10) Marnie (1964) : 2 1/2 Stars

Feel free to use this thread for any thing related to Alfred Hitchcock "The Master of Suspense" : You Betcha!