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Alfred Hitchcock's Centennial

"To my way of thinking, the best suspense drama is that which weaves commonplace people in what appears to be a routine situation, until it is revealed (and fairly early in the game) as a glamorously dangerous charade." - Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock from Hitchcock at 100

There are scores of online tributes to movie director Alfred Hitchcock, The Master of Suspense. These activities devoted to the director have been especially festive this year, which would have seen Hitchcock's 100^th birthday (August 13 -- a Friday, of course, the year Hitchcock was born). The best Hitchcock sites have several common elements: musical themes from the director's movies and television shows, video excerpts from films, sound bites from Hitchcock and his stars (including his famous, "Good evening"), and ample supplies of still images,

The New York Times' site, Hitchcock at 100, is a comprehensive overview of the director and his films, and includes many movie scenes presented via RealPlayer (download it here). For example, witness Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren in The Birds) sitting on a bench outside a school as ominous feathered creatures assemble around her. Or see John Ballantine (Gregory Peck in Spellbound) describe his haunting dream of murder to Dr. Constance Peterson (Ingrid Bergman).

The director appeared briefly in 36 of his films. The New York Times' site records Hitchcock's explanation of the cameos (under the subheading Director and Bit Player): "I have wormed my way into my own pictures as a spy. A director should see how the other half lives. I manage that by shifting to the front side of the camera and letting my company shoot me, so I can see what it is like to be shot by my company."

Another site, Alfred Hitchcock Presents greets you with the eerie theme from Psyche, which accompanies an image of the chilling house on the hill behind the Bates Motel. The site is slow to load, but offers in-depth descriptions of Hitchcock's creative periods, ranging from The Silent Years (between 1925 and 1928) to The End (between 1972 and 1974).

Both site include intimate biographies of Hitchcock, including details of his personal life that influenced his films. In his childhood, for example, the cherubic Hitchcock developed a fear of police and punishment. At age five, he was sent with a note from his father to a London police chief requesting little Hitch be locked in a jail cell for five minutes. Upon his release, Hitchcock was told, "That's what we do to naughty boys." The director later said he could never forget the sound and the solidity of that closing cell door and the bolt."

Widescreen Cinema
Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo

You should see Vertigo before examining this site, warns the webmaster. That's because the 1958 him noir classic is thoroughly discussed here, in scintillating text synopsis and breathtakingly reproduced still pictures. The site takes you on a pictorial tour of film locations in San Francisco, where the story begins, to the Mission San Juan Bautista, where the film's mysterious plot reaches a climax. Background material on the making of the movie is explored, and books for further study are suggested. The site also shows how many landmarks and tourist attractions from the film have survived, and includes an informative description of how Vertigo was restored and re-released in late 1997.

The Hitchcock Page

There are two exceptional features on The Hitchcock Page: Filmography and Pure Cinema. The list of movies includes each film's running time, release date, and the studio with which Hitchcock collaborated. Clicking on the film's title reveals even more detail, linking directly to The Internet Movie Database at Mississippi State College. In Pure Cinema, you can see "the shots of the master" such as the shower scene in Psyche. Choose to display the images as very low-tech HTML animation, frame by frame, or in a "full layout," that resembles a photographer's print sheet of negatives.

Psyche ... Check Right In!

This site contains facts, sights, and sounds of what many people consider Hitchcock's scariest film, including a look at "the most terrifying 45 seconds in motion picture history." Trivia reveals that the blood in the shower scene was actually chocolate syrup. Animation mixed with still pictures show Marion Crane's (Janet Leigh) death sequence, and a sound clip spookily replays Anthony Perkins gasping for air when he discovers what Mother has done. Here's another sample of the trivia you'll find here: Hitch's wife, Alma, discovered an error in the original cut of the shower scene -- Leigh was still breathing while draped over the tub. The gaffe was immediately corrected.

The Definitive Alfred Hitchcock Links Page

This is the motherload of Hitchcock Links -- leading to more than 140 sites. It's split into three sections. The first features general sites, including The Macguffin Web Page, which "offers a wide perspective of opinions on various Hitchcock topics." The second section lists dozens of sites that focus on Hitchcock films, with the majority devoted to Psyche, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Notorious, and Shadow of a Doubt. The third section highlights television shows, music connections, sound clips from several films, sites in foreign languages, and 30 of the 36 cameos from movies in which Hitchcock appeared.

Web fans believe beyond a Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock is still the Master of Suspense.

Alfred Hitchcock - The Enigma

Trivia here lists the most featured actors and actresses in Hitchcock films, including Leo G. Carroll, Edmund Gwenn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart. Hitchcock's Quotable Quotes are dependably amusing: "One man wrote to me after I had Janet Leigh murdered in a bathtub in Psyche, that his wife had been afraid to bathe or shower since seeing the film. He asked me for suggestions as to what he should do. I wrote back,'Sir, have you considered sending your wife to be dry-cleaned?"

The Society of Rear Window Ethics

The superb Images section of this tribute site features the cast of the movie, including the residents of the apartments around Jeff Jeffries' (Jimmy Stewart) courtyard -- the people he spied on through his rear window. In one shot, Lisa Carol Fremont (Grace Kelly) reclines on a bed. In another, Hitchcock makes a dock-winding cameo. The Trivia section discloses that the indoor set of Rear Window was the largest built at Paramount Studios at the time. It consisted of 32 apartments, with 12 fully furnished and occupied by the supporting cast. There's a brief comparison of the movie and the book, as well as reviews, articles, and essays.

Universal Hitchcock

Different aspects of the director's legacy with Universal Studios are spotlighted monthly on this tribute site. Discover new things about old classics. Test your skills with trivia. Rummage through the complete Hitchcock filmography. Search through the complete Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV episode guide. You can learn about every Hitchcock show that originally appeared during seven television seasons from the first episode, "Revenge," which aired October 1955, to the 266th instalment, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," from July 1962. The film guide includes Universal's half-dozen Hitchcock releases in the '60s and '70s as well. While the design of the site is attractive, the navigation isn't very intuitive, and you might have to employ some patience to dig for specific information.

Here are other sites to check out.

• Hitchcock at 100
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents