`Beyond Hitchcock: Suspense Films that Rival the Master

Alfred Hitchcock’s pulse-pounding films set a high bar for suspense. But there are other Hollywood thrillers that rival the master’s lofty achievements. A few gifted filmmakers took the stylistic elements that Hitchcock pioneered and built upon them—or charted their own distinctive paths—to deliver gripping and insightful entertainment in the tradition of the master. In this course, we watch and discuss five of those films: The Stranger (1946), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Charade (1963), Wait Until Dark (1967), and The Fugitive (1993). The Stranger (1946), like Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943), tells the story of a vicious psychopath who takes refuge in a charming all-American town. Directed by the incomparable Orson Welles, who also plays the killer, it ends with a ticking-clock climax worthy of Hitchcock himself. Witness for the Prosecution (1957), directed by Billy Wilder, and nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, is a courtroom drama that most critics agree surpasses Hitchcock’s own trial film, The Paradine Case  (1947), as a cinematic achievement. Charade (1963), starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, has long been called “the best Hitchcock movie that he never made” because it captures his flair for humor, as well as his breathless pacing (thanks to the talented director Stanley Donen). In Wait Until Dark (1967), seemingly even more vulnerable and helpless than wheel-chair-bound Jimmy Stewart in Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), Audrey Hepburn plays a blind woman trapped alone in her apartment, who must face a ruthless killer. The Fugitive (1993) with Harrison Ford, brings the “innocent-man-on-the-run” cliffhanger that Hitchcock defined in The 39 Steps (1935) and North by Northwest (1959) to new heights. This course enhances our admiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s work, even as we appreciate other suspense classics and analyze reasons for the enduring appeal of the genre.