Torn Curtain finds Hitchcock returning to the spy thriller at the height of the Cold War. Eschewing the gadgetry and sexual innuendo of the James Bond films, Hitchcock instead crafts a lean, tense portrayal of the quest to rescue the formula for an anti-missile system from behind the Iron Curtain. At the same time, in true Hitchcockian fashion, this quest also serves as a test for the relationship between an American spy and his wife. While the film has never achieved classic status, several of its sequences remain striking examples of the master’s ability to construct heart-stopping set pieces, perhaps most famously in the ambivalent depiction, in real time, of a brutal murder committed out of expedience by the film’s hero.
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Vertigo
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1958
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
To Catch a Thief
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1955
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
The Trouble with Harry
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1955
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
The Paradine Case
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1947
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Stage Fright
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1950
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Rebecca
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1940
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Notorious
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1946
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Rear Window
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1954
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Dial M for Murder
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1954
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Lifeboat
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1944
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Saboteur
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1942
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Murder!
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1930
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Family Plot
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1976
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Under Capricorn
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1949
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1956
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Spellbound
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1945
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Strangers on a Train
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1951
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Torn Curtain
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1966
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Suspicion
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1941
Screening on Film
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The Complete Alfred Hitchcock
Shadow of a Doubt
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1943
Screening on Film