WEDNESDAY

JULY 26

2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

I’ve been providing daily Best Bets for almost 10 years now, give or take a hospital stay or two – and never, in all that time, have I done what I’m doing today. Not only is the entire evening devoted to the movies by a single director, but the entirety of Best Bets is provided by a single network. Much of Best Bets this month has tracked TCM’s month-long Wednesday/Friday salute to 50 Years of Hitchcock – but tonight, in the network’s chronological film tour of Hitch’s entire movie output, is the absolute zenith, providing a quartet of films, a double double feature, arguably without parallel by any director. Vertigo, Hitchcock’s 1958 masterpiece about sexual obsession and deep-seated fears, is only the opening salvo. James Stewart stars as the man so haunted by a past love that he remakes another woman into her image – and Kim Novak, in a haunting dual role, plays both the woman and her doppelganger. (Novak also is the guest of Robert Osborne in TCM’s 2013 interview special, Kim Novak: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival, which precedes Vertigo at 7 p.m. ET tonight.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST

TCM, 10:30 p.m. ET

In 1959, Alfred Hitchcock followed Vertigo with another solid classic: North by Northwest, in which Cary Grant becomes the victim of a case of mistaken identity, and is both pursued and pursuer in a deadly chase that takes him across the country in a very particular direction. The action ends up, memorably, at Mount Rushmore – which at this writing still has four giant heads, not five. Eva Marie Saint co-stars.

PSYCHO

TCM, 1:00 a.m. ET

In 1958, Alfred Hitchcock made Vertigo. In 1959, he made North by Northwest. And in 1960, using most of the crew from his TV series, he made Psycho. That’s an annual output of masterpieces that’s nothing less than astounding – and by the time that troika had hit the marketplace, Hitch was the Master of Suspense, then and forever. Janet Leigh dominates the beginning of Psycho, Anthony Perkins the ending, and what happens in between remains as fresh and frightening as it was more than 55 years ago.

THE BIRDS

TCM, 3:00 a.m. ET

After Psycho wrapped in 1960, Alfred Hitchcock spent the next few years busying himself with his TV anthology series, and looking for suitable film ideas. In 1963, he settled on The Birds – and delivered his fourth indelible suspense film in a row. All of them are shown, unedited and uninterrupted and in chronological order, tonight on TCM. When I was young, I would have given almost anything to see these four films in one sitting, anywhere. Tonight, I don’t even have to get off my couch. Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren star.

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David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.

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