The Independent (14/Aug/1999) - Alfred Hitchcock presents...

(c) The Independent (14/Aug/1999)

Alfred Hitchcock presents...

There can't be many deceased sons of Leytonstone who feature in more than 20,000 web sites. Few would argue that Alfred Hitchcock, however, born a hundred years ago, doesn't deserve this on-line ovation. His centenary is being celebrated at the National Film Theatre, where a retrospective of his work is under way.

If you want to learn about the Master, though, choose your site carefully. For every entertaining and informed Hitchcock site, there are dozens of sweaty-palmed shrines to the shower scene in Psycho. The Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com) is a reliable starting point, providing an exhaustive filmography. Of the amateur sites, Greatest Films (www.filmsite.org), when it's not advertising its awards, finds time to give scene-by-scene commentary of some of Hitchcock's better-known films such as North by Northwest

Real devotees ought to check out The MacGuffin (http://www.labyrinth.net.au/muffin), an on-line version of the magazine dedicated to Hitchcock. Densely laid out with an almost illegibly small typeface, The MacGuffin bills itself as "a scholars' {sic} site" and then proceeds to bash film academics. Eccentricities aside, there is a host of engrossing articles here. For a selection of Hitchcock links, try TD Film (http://www.tdfilm.com), or, for a discounted selection of the films themselves, have a look at Blackstar http://www.blackstar.co.uk.