> Personally, Stephen -- this will relieve you -- I think "Rear Window" is Hitchcock's greatest, bar none, and it will be high on my forthcoming "Top 100" list.

Good. Why is this view so uncommon? "Vertigo" and "Psycho" are both fantastic films, but neither one of them carries the extreme intensity of "Rear Window" which is made even more intense because it seems so plausible. And it's so easy to identify with Jimmy Stewart's character that it is very hard not to get caught up with the sort of claustrophobic feeling you get. The first time I watched the climax I realized how much I loved the movie. I don't think I've ever been so into a movie as I was then.

>
> As for "Frenzy," it's said to be an underrated great. Maybe it is -- by any other director, surely the work would have garnered more notice. But by virtue of the fact that Hitchcock directed many that are superior, it is often overlooked. Undeservedly so, perhaps, but let's not overcompensate by ranking it #8 in Hitch's filmography.

Well, I didn't mean to knock Frenzy, but I agree with what you said. I picked it just because it seemed to me to be so extremely absurd that it was on there when RW wasn't.

>
> Do you still have the list? I'd love to see the whole thing.

Copied from the IMDB Studio Briefing:

"DIRECTORS PICK HITCHCOCK'S GREATEST FILM

On Alfred Hitchcock's centenary, a panel of top directors assembled by the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine has selected Psycho as Hitchcock's greatest work. The panel included Martin Scorsese, Canada's Atom Egoyan and the U.K's Bruce Robinson, each of whom voted for Psycho. Milos Forman, John Carpenter and Baz Luhrmann selected Vertigo. The 10 greatest, in order: 1. Psycho (1960), 2. Vertigo (1958), 3. Notorious (1946), 4. Birds, The (1963), 5. North by Northwest (1959), 6. Shadow of a Doubt (1943), 7. Foreign Correspondent (1940), 8. Frenzy (1972), 9. Lady Vanishes, The (1938), 10. Marnie (1964). "