15 Alfred Hitchcock Films You Can Watch for Free on YouTube
To celebrate the Master of Suspense's 125th birthday, dive into these films from him and learn how one of the greatest directors ever told his stories
It’s the 125th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s birth this week (August 13, 1899), so I thought I would celebrate here at 5AM StoryTalk by compiling a collection of his films available for you to watch and study on YouTube for free. Consider this one of this Substack’s semi-regular educational supplements to help in your creative journeys.
I’ve been a Hitch fanatic since I was, oh, about fourteen years old, which is about the time I realized many of the “old films” being replayed on TV, at the sleepiest hours of the day, were a lot better than most of the new, very often direct-to-video films my family preferred to watch. Not that I didn’t love many of the B-films my local video store loved to paper their walls with posters from — Robot Jox! Blind Fury! Steel Dawn! — but I was already beginning to understand how much there was to learn from these classics that didn’t involve men trying to kill each other in such extraordinary ways. Not that Hitch’s films didn’t feature murder and bloodshed. Just fewer robots, katanas, and exposed bones (though some might argue they’re lesser for this).
Find below fifteen Hitchcock films available for you to watch for free and study on YouTube, including one of his undisputed masterpieces — Rebecca. Some have even been restored and presented in HD. This is an excellent way to improve your understanding of cinema, storytelling (especially suspense), and general visual narrative craft.
Enjoy!
DOWNHILL (1927)
THE LODGER (1927)
BLACKMAIL (1929)
JAMAICA INN (1929)
THE 39 STEPS (1935)
SABOTAGE (1936)
SECRET AGENT (1936)
The quality of this one is less than ideal, but I still enjoy watching films this way. Reminds me of discovering them on my parents’ old B&W TV set.
THE LADY VANISHES (1938)
REBECCA (1940)
SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943)
SPELLBOUND (1945)
NOTORIOUS (1946)
THE PARADINE CASE (1947)
THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (1955)
CHARADE (1963)
Directed by Stanley Donen
I know I said fifteen Hitchock films, but this last one is a bit of a cheat as it’s often called one of the best Hitchcock films the man didn’t direct. It stars Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn (who somehow never appeared in a Hitch film) and is a personal favorite.
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Thanks for sharing this list Cole! Of those available on the site Blackmail, Rebecca, and Shadow of a Doubt are my favorites. Blackmail is interesting because it began as a silent film but then "talkies" were taking over. Most of it (but not all!) was reshot as a sound film. Rebecca is his only film to win the Best Picture Oscar. Hitchcock said that Shadow of a Doubt was his personal favorite.
We recently invested in ad-free Premium YouTube, mainly because we realised we're actually watching it as much, if not more, than the streaming services we're subscribed to. Suddenly, all the old movies and episodes of classic TV on YouTube have become very appealing. Thanks for the tip about Hitch!