Last April, Netflix announced, to much fanfare, that it had secured the rights to streaming rights to a collection of films from horror legend Alfred Hitchcock, the director behind classic films like Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963). To celebrate, the company even organized in-person screenings at the Paris Theater, a single-screen cinema it owns and operates in New York. However, it turns out that the celebration was short-lived. On Aug. 1, six iconic Hitchcock thrillers disappeared from the streaming service. But like with any great film from the Master of Suspense, this story comes with a twist: Most of them are now streaming somewhere else — for free.
Here’s a list of Hitchcock movies that vanished from Netflix earlier this month:
- Psycho (1960)
- Rear Window (1954)
- The Birds (1963)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
- Vertigo (1958)
- Family Plot (1976)
- Frenzy (1972)
And here’s a list of the Hitchcock movies you can now watch for free on YouTube (with ads):
- Rope (1948)
- The Trouble With Harry (1955)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
- Vertigo (1958)
- Psycho (1960)
- The Birds (1963)
- Torn Curtain (1966)
- Topaz (1969)
- Family Plot (1976)
You can literally watch any of these films for free right now on YouTube, although be warned that the ads run roughly every eight minutes. You can even watch The Birds right here in this Polygon article:
Unfortunately, this does mean that Frenzy, one of Hitchcock’s only R-rated films, is no longer streaming anywhere, although you can always rent it from your VOD service of choice. However, as a consolation, I’d like to recommend Rope, one of the director’s most overlooked and intriguing films.
Released in 1948, relatively early in the director’s career, Rope tells the story of a “perfect murder” committed by two young men who kill their classmate and then throw a party in the same Manhattan apartment to prove that they can get away with it. The movie unfolds in real time, and Hitchcock uses some clever filmmaking tricks to create the illusion of a single, uninterrupted shot. It’s a subtle and understated story compared to those of the classics that would follow, but if you’ve already watched Psycho and Vertigo a dozen times each, it’s worth checking out one of Hitchcock’s lesser-known works.
Either way, for anyone who was sad to see these classic thrillers leave Netflix so soon after their celebrated arrival, it’s nice to know that Alfred Hitchcock still has a home in the streaming landscape. The fact that it’s totally free is just a bonus.
