When you have a couple of hours to spare, look at the scene between Bogart and Dorothy Malone in the bookstore in The Big Sleep and then look at the scene where Kirk Douglas directs Lana Turner in the bookstore scene in The Bad and the Beautiful. If you don't think there's a tie-in, I'll be surprised. Minnelli was riffing on Hawks.

Thanks, whiskey. I agree that Notorious and Shadow of a Doubt are also great movies. There are, in fact, only a handful of Hitchcock movies that are not good.

Just for reference, these would include The Paradine Case, Torn Curtain, and I Confess, but damn few more than that.

Gregory Peck is not the ideal Hitchcock hero any more than Paul Newman is. To be perfect in a Hitchcock film, a guy has to have a quirkier personality than Peck or Newman. Peck was equally dull in Spellbound, another of my non-favorites from Hitch.

Marnie was, yes, a definitely not-good Hitchcock film, but I found its sexual obsessiveness somewhat interesting.

The relationships between Barbara Harris/Bruce Dern and Karen Black/William Devane made Family Plot a lot better than it might have been. Hitchcock directed those actors remarkably well.

Yeah, Peck doesn't fit well in Hitchcock films.

The Lodger is one of my favorite Hitchcocks.

Sticking with the early British films, Champagne is fairly weak, with some of the directorial flourishes being kind of hammy, and a sloppy script, mediocre comedy, etc.

I don't think I made it through Juno and the Paycock.

Under Capricorn is kind of a weird period costume drama. A bit of a yawner.

Waltzes from Vienna is supposed to be a dud, but I've never partaken.