75TH ANNIVERSARY PRESENTATION
 

In the 75 years since Alfred Hitchcock was the first director to bring a Patricia Highsmith novel to the screen, there have been 21 big screen adaptations of her work. Yet the first remains among the best. Its intriguing plot — two men jokingly agree to murder each other’s worst enemies, only one isn’t joking — inspired some of Hitchcock’s most iconic scenes and one of the best performances in any of his films. Robert Walker, in his penultimate film, was an inspired choice to play Bruno Anthony, the dissolute playboy who enjoys manipulating socially ambitious tennis player Farley Granger. The film is filled with great Hitchcock touches: a murder reflected in a pair of glasses, a tennis match where one spectator stares at a player rather than following the ball, and an out-of-control merry go round. It’s been remade six times on film and TV, but none can match the original.

Restoration by Warner Bros. Discovery.