Alfred Hitchcock knew how to manipulate the compulsive emotions of an audience in a darkened theatre. But there is much more to Hitchcock than mere suspense. His playful visual style and humor were evident already in his early films, and he made some of Hollywood's most intensely romantic pictures, such as Rebecca and Vertigo. His movies never get old.
This is a good opportunity to introduce your friends to the shared pleasure of watching great classic movies in a classic movie theatre.
The non-profit Stanford Theatre Foundation is dedicated to the preservation and public exhibition of films from the Golden Age of Hollywood. This means classic movies in a classic movie palace, complete with Wurlitzer organ rising from the orchestra pit every night before and after the 7:30 show, or providing the accompaniment to “silent” films. The theatre itself was built in 1925, and has been restored to recreate the original experience of going to these movies.
Note: This is an unofficial posting of the Stanford Theatre schedules, from published information. This site is in no way connected with the Stanford Theatre nor the Stanford Theatre Foundation. Please check out the official site at stanfordtheatre.org in case this schedule isn't quite up-to-date! Programs are subject to change. For information, call (650) 324-3700.
(Showtimes in parentheses are for the Saturday and Sunday screenings.)
Cary Grant (Roger Thornhill), Eva Marie Saint (Eve Kendall), James Mason (Philip Vandamm), Jessie Royce Landis (Clara Thornhill), Leo G. Carroll (Professor), Philip Ober (Lester Townsend), Josephine Hutchinson (Handsome Woman), Martin Landau (Leonard), Adam Williams (Valerian), Edward Platt (Victor Larrabee), Robert Ellenstein (Licht), Les Tremayne (Auctioneer).
In Hitchcock's most successful blending of romance and suspense, and one of Hollywood's most enduring classics, mild-mannered advertising executive Cary Grant answers the wrong page one afternoon and finds himself embroiled with spies, murderers, the FBI, and Eva Marie Saint — which only gives Hitchcock the chance to display some of his most extravagant fantasies, such as the crop dusting scene and the Mt. Rushmore climax.
"Cinema, approached in this way, becomes a truly abstract art, like music... It's obvious that the fantasy of the absurd is a key ingredient in your film-making formula." François Truffaut
"The fact is I practice absurdity quite religiously." Hitchcock
"Since that [crop-dusting] scene doesn't move the action forward, it's the kind of concept that would simply never occur to a screenwriter; only a director could dream up an idea like that." Truffaut
Hitchcock appears crossing the street.
North by Northwest has been the seventh most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 59,456 tickets since 1990.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Jan 24, 1990; last played July 2025
Robert Donat (Richard Hannay), Madeleine Carroll (Pamela), Lucie Mannheim (Annabella Smith), Godfrey Tearle (Prof. Jordan), Peggy Ashcroft (Margaret Crofter), John Laurie (John Crofter), Helen Haye (Mrs. Jordan), Wylie Watson (Mr. Memory), Frank Cellier (Sheriff Watson), Peggy Simpson (Young Maid).
When a woman stumbles into his room with a knife in her back, a Canadian vacationing in London finds himself a police suspect. He has only one clue to clear himself: find the secret of the 39 steps. Seeking to prove his innocence, he travels to Scotland and becomes entangled with a spy ring and — even better — Madeleine Carroll.
This film, remarkable for its humor and suspense, captivated audiences everywhere.
"Simply one of the best films of its genre" Baseline Movie Guide
The Thirty-Nine Steps has been the fortieth most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 26,805 tickets since 1989.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Sep 4, 1935; last played June 2025
Teresa Wright (Charlie Newton), Joseph Cotton (Charles Spencer Oakley "Uncle Charlie"), Macdonald Carey (Jack Graham), Henry Travers (Joseph Newton), Patricia Collinge(Emma Newton), Hume Cronyn (Herbie Hawkins), Edna May Wonacutt (Ann Newton), Wallace Ford (Fred Saunders), Charles Bates (Roger Newton), Constance Purdy (Mrs. Martin).
A young woman gradually discovers the shocking truth: that her charming visiting uncle may be the notorious Merry Widow murderer.
The film was shot on location in Santa Rosa (highly unusual for 1943). The younger daughter is played by a Santa Rosa girl whose father ran the local grocery store. Thornton Wilder's screenplay captures the flavor of small-town America.
Tiomkin's score is great fun, twisting the "Merry Widow Waltz" into a phantasmagoria.
Hitchcock claimed this was his favorite.
Hitchcock (cameo appearance as a bridge player on the train):
He's a killer with an ideal; he's one of those murderers who feel that they have a mission to destroy. It's quite possible that those widows deserved what they got, but it certainly wasn't his job to do it. There is a moral judgement in the film... Uncle Charlie loved his niece, but not as much as she loved him. And yet she has to destroy him. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: `You destroy the thing you love.'
Shadow of a Doubt has been the thirty-sixth most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 30,586 tickets since 1992.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Mar 7, 1992; last played June 2025
Nova Pilbeam (Erica Burgoyne), Derrick de Marney (Robert Tisdall), Percy Marmont (Col. Burgoyne), Edward Rigby (Old Will), Mary Clare (Aunt Margaret), John Longden (Inspector Kent), George Curzon (Guy), Basil Radford (Uncle Basil), Pamela Carme (Christine Clay), George Merritt (Sgt. Miller), J.H. Roberts (Henry Briggs).
A quarrel leaves a woman dead. Her body washes up on the beach, a raincoat belt wrapped tightly around her neck. The prime suspect is the owner of the belt, the dead woman's gigolo, who escapes the authorities and enlists the aid of the daughter of a local constable in seeking out the real murderer.
The innocent charm of this delightful film makes it even more enjoyable than some of Hitchcock's later masterpieces. Highly recommended!
Young and Innocent has been the seventieth most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 17,578 tickets since 1990.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Apr 30, 1990; last played June 2025
Laurence Olivier (Maxim de Winter), Joan Fontaine (She), George Sanders (Jack Favell), Judith Anderson (Mrs. Danvers), Nigel Bruce (Maj. Giles Lacy), Gladys Cooper (Beatrice Lacy), Florence Bates (Mrs. Van Hopper), Reginald Denny (Frank Crawley), C. Aubrey Smith (Col. Julyan), Melville Cooper (Coroner), Leo G. Carroll (Dr. Baker), Leonard Carey (Ben), Philip Winter (Robert), Edward Fielding (Frith), Forrester Harvey (Chalcroft), Lumsden Hare (Tabbs).
After the death of his wife Rebecca, Max de Winter brings his timid young new wife home to his ancestral estate, but the new mistress of Manderley is haunted by the memory of the mysterious Rebecca and by the sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danver, pathologically devoted to the dead Rebecca.
Best Picture of 1940 and undoubtedly one of the greatest romantic films ever made. David O. Selznick brought Alfred Hitchcock to Hollywood under contract to direct four pictures. Both men were already masters of their trade, but their collaboration yielded this timeless masterpiece, which combines the distinct genius of both. Selznick fought to cast little-known Joan Fontaine for what was her finest performance.
Waxman's music insidiously suggests the ghostly presence of the dead Rebecca. The score employs a novachord, an early electronic keyboard instrument.
Hichcock's cameo appearance: walking by a telephone booth.
Rebecca has been the sixteenth most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 44,466 tickets since 1989.
first played at the Stanford Theatre May 26, 1940; last played June 2025
Margaret Lockwood (Iris Henderson), Michael Redgrave (Gilbert Redman), Paul Lukas (Dr. Hartz), Dame May Whitty (Miss Froy), Cecil Parker (Eric Todhunter), Linden Travers (Margaret Todhunter), Mary Clare (Baroness), Naunton Wayne (Caldicott), Basil Radford (Charters), Emile Boreo (Hotel Manager), Philip Leaver (Signor Doppo), Zelma Van Dias (Signora Doppo), Catherine Lacey (The Nun).
A lady mysteriously vanishes from a train. The other passengers deny that she ever existed, but a young woman is determined to find her. Hitchcock's last great British film is one of the most consistently engaging films anyone ever made.
"The quintessence of screen suspense." Pauline Kael
The Lady Vanishes has been the fifty-fifth most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 22,281 tickets since 1990.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Jan 22, 1990; last played June 2025
Cary Grant (Johnie Aysgarth), Joan Fontaine (Lina McLaidlaw), Sir Cedric Hardwicke (Gen. McLaidlaw), Nigel Bruce ("Beaky" Thwaite), Dame May Whitty (Mrs. McLaidlaw), Isabel Jeans (Mrs. Newsham), Heather Angel (Ethel), Auriol Lee (Isobel Sedbusk), Reginald Sheffield (Reggie Weatherby), Leo G. Carroll (Capt. Melbeck).
A meek wife grows sick with suspicion when she becomes convinced her charming husband has plans to murder her and claim her fortune. Joan Fontaine isn't quite sure. Don't be surprised if you're not quite sure either: the original story had a different ending.
Joan Fontaine won an Oscar for her performance. This was the second of Waxman's four scores for Hitchcock, and the first of the four films that Hitchcock and Grant made together.
Suspicion has been the twenty-seventh most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 32,776 tickets since 1989.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Mar 8, 1942; last played June 2025
Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd, Alastair Sim, Kay Walsh, Sybil Thorndike, Miles Malleson, Hector MacGregor, Joyce Grenfell, Andre Morrell, Patricia Hitchcock.
A man accused of murder enlists the help of a young actress to prove his innocence.
Many objected to Hitchcock's unusual use of a 'flashback' that turns out not to be true.
Dietrich sings Cole Porter's The Laziest Gal in Town and Edith Piaf's La Vie en Rose.
"What appealed to me was the idea that the girl who dreams of becoming an actress will be led by circumstances to play a real-life role by posing as someone else in order to smoke out a criminal." Hitchcock
Cameo appearance turning back in street to look.
first played at the Stanford Theatre May 11, 1950; last played Apr 2013
Robert Walker (Bruno Antony), Farley Granger (Guy Haines), Ruth Roman (Anne Morton), Leo G. Carroll (Sen. Morton), Patricia Hitchcock (Barbara Morton), Laura Elliott (Miriam Haines), Marian Lorne (Mrs. Antony), Howard St. John (Capt. Turley), Jonathan Hale (Mr. Antony), John Brown (Prof. Collins), Norma Varden (Mrs. Cunningham), Robert Gist (Hennessey).
In one of Hitchcock's most fascinating films, a sympathetic psychopath (Robert Walker) ensnares a champion tennis player (Farley Granger) into a murder pact.
This film is noteworthy for Robert Walker's remarkably subtle portrayal of the demonic Bruno, who is one of Hitchcock's greatest creations.
Tiomkin's score is especially effective in the famous tennis match, alternating the musical themes of the two characters.
"One of the best things... is the explosion, with the follow-shots on feet going one way and then the other. There are also the crisscrossing rails. There's a sort of symbolic effect in the way they meet and separate." - François Truffaut
"A key exposition of the madman hero." David Thomson
Cameo appearance boarding train with double bass.
Strangers On a Train has been the twenty-eighth most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 32,761 tickets since 1989.
first played at the Stanford Theatre July 8, 1951; last played July 2025
Joel McCrea (Johnny Jones / Huntley Haverstock), Laraine Day (Carol Fisher), Herbert Marshall (Stephen Fisher), George Sanders (Scot ffolliott), Albert Basserman (Van Meer), Edmund Gwenn (Rowley), Eduardo Cianelli (Krug), Robert Benchley (Stebbins), Harry Davenport (Mr. Powers), Martin Kosleck (Tramp), Barbara Pepper (Doreen), Eddie Conrad (Latvian Diplomat), Charles Wagenheim (Assassin).
Another four-star Hitchcock masterpiece, with an American reporter stumbling upon a Nazi espionage ring. The film contains a remarkable series of set-pieces, including the Dutch windmill rotating backwards.
"The picture was pure fantasy, and as you know, in my fantasies, plausability is not allowed to rear its ugly head." Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock passes Joel McCrea on the street.
Foreign Correspondent has been the fifty-fourth most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 22,365 tickets since 1989.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Oct 27, 1940; last played May 2024
Sylvia Sidney (Sylvia Verloc), Oscar Homolka (Carl Verloc), John Loder (Sgt. Ted Spencer), Desmond Tester (Steve), Joyce Barbour (Renee), Matthew Boulton (Supt. Tablot), S.J. Warmington (Hollinshead), William Dewhurst (A.S. Chatman), Austin Trevor (Vladimir), Torin Thatcher (Yunct), Aubrey Mather (Greengrocer).
The Verlocs manage a small movie theater in London. Mr. Verloc, however, moonlights as an anarchist bomber and saboteur, something his wife doesn't realize until too late.
Compelling and stark, this film was banned in some countries as a textbook on terrorism. It is actually based on Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, but the title had to be changed to avoid confusion with Hitchcock's previous film.
"It may be just about the best of his English thrillers." Pauline Kael
Sabotage has been the ninety-eighth most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 12,610 tickets since 1990.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Apr 23, 1990; last played June 2025
Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, Otto Kruger, Alan Baxter, Clem Bevans, Norman Lloyd, Alma Kruger, Vaughan Glaser, Dorothy Peterson, Ian Wolfe.
An innocent aircraft worker is accused of sabotage and must find the guilty person in order to clear himself. The famous finale takes place on top of the Statue of Liberty.
"Still, there's a serious error in this scene. If we'd had the hero instead of the villain hanging in mid-air, the audience's anguish would have been much greater." Hitchcock
"Probably, but the scene is so powerful that the public can't help being terrified just the same." Truffaut
Cameo appearance at a newstand.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Mar 5, 1992; last played July 2025
Ray Milland (Tony Wendice), Grace Kelly (Margot Wendice), Robert Cummings (Mark Halliday), John Williams (Chief Inspector Hubbard), Anthony Dawson (Capt. Lesgate).
A man plots to have his wealthy wife killed, but when his plan backfires he frames her for murder.
"I should mention that this is one of the pictures I see over and over again. I enjoy it more every time I see it. Basically it's a dialogue picture, but the cutting, the rhythm, and the direction of the players are so polished that one listens to each sentence religiously. It isn't all that easy to command the audience's undivided attention for a continuous dialogue. I suspect that here again the real achievement is that something very difficult has been carried out in a way that makes it seem quite easy." Truffaut
Cameo appearance in a college photo on wall.
Dial "M" for Murder has been the thirty-fourth most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 32,001 tickets since 1992.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Mar 14, 1992; last played July 2025
James Stewart (Rupert Caldell), John Dall (Shaw Brandon), Farley Granger (Philip), Joan Chandler (Janet Walker), Sir Cedric Hardwicke (Mr. Kentley), Constance Collier (Mrs. Atwater), Edith Evanson (Mrs. Wilson), Douglas Dick (Kenneth Lawrence), Dick Hogan (David Kentley).
Two college students kill a third for intellectual thrills and hide his body in a chest from which they serve cocktails to the man's parents, fiancée, and former professor.
This intense film was an important experiment from a technical point of view, in that it is shot in continuous 10-minute takes and lacks normal film editing.
"I undertook Rope as a stunt; that's the only way I can describe it... I got this crazy idea to do it in a single shot." Hitchcock
This was the first of James Stewart's four films with Hitchcock.
Hitchcock makes his cameo appearance crossing the street under main title.
Rope has been the fifty-sixth most widely
attended film at the Stanford Theatre — 21,525 tickets since 1989.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Nov 1, 1948; last played June 2025
Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone, Esther Minciotti, Charles Cooper, Nehemiah Persoff, Laurinda Barrett, Norma Connolly, Doreen Lang, Frances Reid, Lola D'Annunzio, Robert Essen, Kippy Campbell, Dayton Lummis, John Heldabrand.
Semi-documentary about a man accused of a crime he did not commit, filmed in the locations where the actual events took place, using some of the actual people involved in the real case as extras.
"We come back again to my eternal fear of the police. I've always felt a complete identification with the feelings of a person who's arrested, taken to the police station in a police van and who, through the bars of the moving vehicle, can see people going to the theatre, coming out of a bar, and enjoying the comforts of everyday living." Hitchcock
Cameo appearance narrating prologue.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Feb 6, 1957; last played July 2025
Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne, O.E. Hasse, Dolly Haas, Roger Dann, Charles Andre, Judson Pratt, Ovila Legare, Gilles Pelletier, Nan Boardman, Henry Corden.
A priest hears a murderer's confession but will not divulge the man's identity to the police, even when he himself is accused and arrested for the crime.
"We Catholics know that a priest cannot disclose the secret of the confessional, but the Protestants, the atheists, and the agnostics all say, `Ridiculous! No man would remain silent and sacrifice his life for such a thing'." Hitchcock
Cameo appearance crossing at top of staircase.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Mar 17, 1992; last played July 2025
James Stewart (L.B. Jeffries), Grace Kelly (Lisa Carol Fremont), Wendell Corey (Thomas J. Doyle), Thelma Ritter (Stella), Raymond Burr (Lars Thorwald), Judith Evelyn (Miss Lonely Hearts), Ross Bagdasarian (Songwriter), Georgine Darcy (Miss Torso), Sara Berner (Woman on Fire Escape), Frank Cady (Man on Fire Escape).
A reporter confined to his apartment with a broken leg passes his time watching the neighbors from his rear window. When the wife of a henpecked husband suddenly disappears, he can only suspect the worst.
"To my mind, Rear Window is probably your very best screenplay in all respects: the construction, the unity of inspiration, the wealth of details." Truffaut
"He's a real Peeping Tom. [A critic] complained that Rear Window was a horrible film because the hero spent all of his time peeping out of the window. What's so horrible about that? Sure, he's a snooper, but aren't we all?" Hitchcock
"We're all voyeurs to some extent, if only when we see an intimate film. And James Stewart is exactly in the position of a spectator looking at a movie." Truffaut
Cameo appearance winding a clock.
Rear Window has been the eighth most widely attended film at the
Stanford Theatre — 58,507 tickets since 1989.
first played at the Stanford Theatre July 19, 1987; last played June 2025
Cary Grant (John Robie), Grace Kelly (Frances Stevens), Jessie Royce Landis (Jessie Stevens), John Williams (H.H. Hughson), Charles Vanel (Bertani), Brigitte Auber (Danielle Foussard), Jean Martinelli (Foussard), Georgette Anys (Germaine), Roland Lessaffre (Jean Hebey), René Blancard (Commissioner Lepic).
Cary Grant plays a retired cat-burglar who is suspected of a series of jewel thefts committed by a copy-cat.
More romantic comedy than suspense thriller, the film was made on location on the French Riviera, where Grace Kelly met Prince Rainier.
"Grace Kelly actually looks alive, and she's sexier than she is in anything else." Pauline Kael
"Sex on the screen should be suspenseful, I feel. If sex is too blatant or obvious, there's no suspense." Hitchcock
Hitchcock's cameo appearance is on a bus, next to Cary Grant.
To Catch a Thief has been the sixth most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 61,676 tickets since 1989.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Sep 14, 1955; last played June 2025
Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Diane Baker, Martin Gable, Louise Latham, Bob Sweeney, Milton Selzer, Alan Napier, Henry Beckman, Edith Evanson, Mariette Hartley.
A frigid kleptomaniac? It must have been something about her childhood.
Tippi Hedren's compelling performance banishes the otherwise natural thought that the story resembles a Freudian pot-boiler.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Sep 2, 1964; last played July 2025
Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine, Mildred Natwick, Mildred Dunnock, Jerry Mathers, Royal Dano, Parker Fennelly, Barry Macollum, Dwight Marfield, Leslie Woolf.
"The trouble with Harry is... he's dead!" was a publicity tag line for this black comedy. When Harry's body turns up in the woods, several people assume they are responsible for his demise.
Beautifully filmed on location in Vermont in the Fall. This was Shirley MacLaine's first movie.
"The whole humor of the picture hinges on a single device: an attitude of disconcerting nonchalance. The characters discuss the corpse as casually as if they were talking about a pack of cigarettes." Truffaut
"That's the idea. Nothing amuses me so much as understatement." Hitchcock
Cameo appearance walking past outdoor art exhibit.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Mar 19, 1992; last played July 2025
James Stewart (John "Scotttie" Ferguson), Kim Novak (Madeleine Elster / Judy Barton), Barbara Bel Geddes (Marjorie "Midge" Wood), Tom Helmore (Gavin Elster), Henry Jones (Coroner), Raymond Bailey (Doctor), Ellen Corby (Manageress of McKittrick Hotel), Konstantin Shayne (Pop Leibel), Lee Patrick (Older Mistaken Identity), Paul Bryar (Capt. Hansen), Margaret Brayton (Saleswoman).
A San Francisco man engages a detective to investigate his wife's unusual fantasy that she comes from a different time. Widely regarded as Hitchcock's greatest masterpiece, Vertigo is a film that deserves to be seen over and over. Here is another chance!
Despite Hitchcock's outspoken reservations about her, Kim Novak gave one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema.
The film was photographed in and near San Francisco. If you are inspired to make a pilgrimage to San Juan Bautista, you will discover that the actual mission does not have a tower.
"That whole erotic aspect of the picture is fascinating... when Stewart hauled Kim Novak out of the water... he takes her to his place, where we find her asleep in his bed. As she gradually comes to, there's an implication, though it's not specifically stated, that he's probably taken the girl's clothes off and has seen her in the nude. The rest of that scene is superb, as Kim Novak walks around with her toes sticking out of his bathrobe and then settles down by the fire, with Stewart pacing back and forth behind her." Truffaut
"So it is a masterpiece and an endless mystery — a love story, yet a hate story, too… If you are moved by this film, you are a creature of cinema." David Thomson
Hitchcock makes his cameo appearance crossing the street.
Vertigo has been the fifth most widely attended
film at the Stanford Theatre — 64,406 tickets since 1989.
first played at the Stanford Theatre June 15, 1958; last played July 2025
Rod Taylor (Mitch Brenner), Tippi Hedren (Melanie Daniels), Jessica Tandy (Lydia Brenner), Suzanne Pleshette (Annie Hayworth), Veronica Cartwright (Cathy Brenner), Ethel Griffies (Mrs. Bundy), Charles McGraw (Sebastian Sholes), Ruth McDevitt (Mrs. MacGruder), Joe Mantell (Salesman), Doodles Weaver (Fisherman), Richard Deacon (Man in Elevator).
Birds begin to take over a small oceanside town in northern California, launching mysterious attacks on the humans who live there.
The Birds took three years to complete, due to technical requirements and special effects. Cary Grant turned down the lead. Filmmaker Federico Fellini considered The Birds "One of the great films of all time."
Bernard Herrmann, who composed many memorable scores for Hitchcock films, also created every bird sound in this film.
"The story construction follows the three basic rules of classic tragedy: unity of place, and of time, and of action. All of the action takes place within two days' time in Bodega Bay. The birds are seen in ever growing numbers, and they become increasingly dangerous as the action progresses." Truffaut
"An audacious use of science fiction apocalypse to dramatize intimate emotional insecurity." David Thomson
"One of the greatest films of all time" Federico Fellini
Cameo appearance walking two small dogs.
The Birds has been the thirty-eighth most widely attended film
at the Stanford Theatre — 28,207 tickets since 1992.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Mar 30, 1992; last played July 2025
Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova, Hansjoug Felmy, Tamara Toumanova, Ludwig Donath. Wolfgang Kieling, Gunter Strack, David Opatoshu, Gisela Fischer.
A top US nuclear scientist defects to help the East Germans develop a high-tech defense against nuclear weapons. His girl follows him, without realizing the truth.
Fans of Paul Newman or Julie Andrews might want to watch this, but don't expect too much.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Apr 10, 2000; last played Apr 2000
John Forsythe. Frederick Stafford. Dany Robin, John Vernon, Karin Dor, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Claude Jade. Michael Subor, Roscoe Lee Browne, Per-Axel Arosenius.
A French spy helps the CIA uncover Soviet activities in Cuba.
The film has some colorful moments, but it is not equal to the Master's best work.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Apr 10, 2000; last played Apr 2000
Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates), Janet Leigh (Marion Crane), Vera Miles (Lila Crane), John Gavin (Sam Loomis), Martin Balsam (Milton Arbogast), John McIntyre (Sheriff Chambers), Lurene Tuttle (Mrs. Chambers), Simon Oakland (Dr. Richmond), Frank Albertson (Tom Cassidy), Patricia Hitchcock (Caroline), Vaughan Taylor (George Lowery), John Anderson (California Charlie).
Hitchcock's most notorious and terrifying film. A lonely young man and his mysterious mother run a small roadside motel where people check in... but don't always check out. Taking a shower was never the same again after 1960.
Psycho was shot by a television unit at a cost of $800,000. The notorious shower scene took 7 days to shoot, has 70 camera setups, and lasts 45 seconds on screen. What we see and what we think we see are two different things: the knife never touches the body.
When originally released, no late-comers were admitted once the film had started, and audiences were asked not to reveal the ending to their friends.
"Psycho has a very interesting construction and that game with the audience was fascinating. I was directing the viewers. You might say I was playing them, like an organ... I take pride in the fact that Psycho, more than any of my other pictures, is a film that belongs to film-makers... The way in which it was told caused audiences all over the world to react and become emotional." Hitchcock
"Despite decades of parody and imitation, this picture has lost none of its power to manipulate audiences' emotions. Pure filmmaking at its finest." Leonard Maltin
Cameo appearance on sidewalk in Texas hat.
Important notice: Many who first saw Psycho in their youth have reported lasting emotional disturbances. Parents are cautioned, therefore, against bringing young children to this film.
Psycho has been the thirty-fifth most widely
attended film at the Stanford Theatre — 31,795 tickets since 1989.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Aug 21, 1960; last played July 2025
Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Anna Massey, Alec McCowen, Vivien Merchant, Billie Whitelaw, Clive Swift, Bernard Cribbins, Michael Bates, Jean Marsh.
Another variation on Hitchcock's favorite theme of the innocent man on the run.
Unlike his previous two rather disappointing films (Torn Curtain and Topaz) this is a genuine Hitchcock thriller — his last.
The late date of this film would normally have excluded it from the Stanford Theatre. Out if respect for Hitchcock, we have included it in our festival. It is rated R and has graphic violence.
first played at the Stanford Theatre Apr 17, 2000; last played Apr 2000