As the UW Cinematheque Hitchcock Masterworks series transitions from the Master’s British period to his Hollywood period next week, you might want to catch up with some of his lesser known films that have fallen out of copyright.
The good folks at Open Culture have posted a list of public domain Hitchcock films that are available for streaming at archive.org.
It is not that difficult to watch the films on your television, if you do not like watching films on your computer monitor. Obviously, you could just hook up a computer to your television (you haven’t done that yet?). Or you could cast the archive.org playback page to your television using a Chromecast. Finally, if you have a Roku Streaming Player you could install the Nowhere Archive private channel from The Nowhere Man.
You can check out the Open Culture page, or follow the links in the block quote below.
Bon Voyage – Free – A French language WWII propaganda film by Alfred Hitchcock. (1944)
Champagne – Free – A silent comedy film based on an original story by English writer and critic Walter C. Mycroft. (1928)
Downhill – Free – In this silent film, a public schoolboy “takes the blame for a friend’s theft and his life falls apart in a series of misadventures.” Also released under the title, When Boys Leave Home. (1927)
Easy Virtue – Free – Early silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Loosely based on a play by Noël Coward. (1928)
Jamaica Inn – Free – A young woman discovers that she’s living near a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecks for profit. Stars Maureen O’Hara, Robert Newton and Charles Laughton. (1939)
Juno and the Paycock – Free – Early sound film by Hitchcock also released under the name The Shame of Mary Boyle. (1930)
Memory of the Camps – Free – An attempt to revive a World War II film meant to document the Holocaust. Hitchcock was involved with the original project. (1985)
Murder! – Free – Hitchcock’s third talkie film based on a novel and play called Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson. (1930)
Number 17 – Free – A gang of thieves gather at a safe house following a robbery, but a detective is on their trail. (1932)
Sabotage – Free – Alfred Hitchcock directs this British thriller based on Joseph Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent. Also released as The Woman Alone. (1936)
Secret Agent – Free – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this film was loosely based on stories by W. Somerset Maugham. Stars John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll and Robert Young. (1936)
The 39 Steps – Free – One of Alfred Hitchcock’s first hits. British thriller is based on the novel with same name by John Buchan. (1935)
The Farmer’s Wife – Free – Early Hitchcock silent film based on a play by British novelist Eden Phillpotts. (1928)
The Lady Vanishes – Free – British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Stars Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave. (1938)
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog – Free – One of Hitchcock’s silent classics. A landlady suspects her lodger is a murderer killing women around London. (1927)
The Man Who Knew Too Much – Free – A man and his wife receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet. (1934)
The Manxman – Free – Buy DVD – This was Hitchcock’s last silent film. (1929)
The Pleasure Garden – Free – After several collaborative efforts, Hitchcock made his solo directorial debut in the German-British co-production based on a novel by Oliver Sandys.
The Ring – Free – This silent film focuses on a love triangle between two men and a woman. One of Hitchcock’s minor works. (1927)
The Skin Game – Free – A 1931 Hitchcock film based on a play by John Galsworthy recounts the tragic tale of a family feud. (1931)
Waltzes From Vienna – Free – Alfred Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut that this film (about the writing and performance of The Blue Danube) was the low point of his film career. (1934)
Young and Innocent – Free – Originally released in the US as The Girl Was Young, this Alfred Hitchcock film was based on Josephine Tey’s novel A Shilling for Candles. (1937)