Justin: Why you should catch these seven classic Alfred Hitchcock films on Netflix

Netflix usually focuses more on Adam Sandler movies than the classics. So it’s a pleasant surprise to see the streaming service showcasing seven of Alfred Hitchcock’s best, including “Psycho,” “Rear Window” and “The Birds.”

You’ll marvel at how well they hold up.

“His films are still as good as ever,” said Rob Silberman, who has been teaching a class on Hitchcock at the University of Minnesota for more than two decades. “They’re not just antiques or costume dramas that feel detached. The excitement is still there.”

Despite the heavy push from Netflix — it also just added 2012’s “Hitchcock,” with Anthony Hopkins hamming it up in the title role — a significant number of subscribers are bound to ignore the invitation to revisit the past. They’re too busy counting the days before the July 25 release of “Happy Gilmore 2.”

That’s a mistake.

Hitchcock’s films aren’t always great. Too many of them have abrupt, sloppy endings that suggest the rotund director wanted to wrap before his three-steak dinner got cold. At times the camera operator exhibits more pizzazz than the actors.

But if you want to appreciate the twists and turns of contemporary flicks, his work is required viewing.

“Sinners” is getting props for the way director Ryan Coogler lulls the audience into thinking they’re getting a dissertation on racial tension in 1930s Mississippi, waiting until the second half of the film to unleash vampires. But Hitchcock pulled off that trick 60 years earlier in “The Birds.” It takes nearly an hour before Minnesotan Tippi Hedren and the townspeople face their first full-fledged attack from above.

Each episode of Netflix’s “Adolescence” was shot in one continuous take, making it harder for viewers to turn away from the horrible acts of a seemingly normal teenager. Hitchcock set the standard for that approach with 1948’s “Rope.”

There’s a reason Tom Cruise recruited Hitchcock’s most famous disciple, Brian De Palma, to helm the first “Mission: Impossible.” The franchise’s exotic locations, charismatic villains and nonstop action were blended together in 1959’s “North by Northwest.”

The audacity to kill off a major star early in the film? It happened in “Psycho” long before Drew Barrymore suffered an early demise in “Scream.”

“‘The Birds’ and ‘Psycho’ are starting points for contemporary horror,” Silberman said. “The special effects can seem a little hokey, but the students are fascinated by things like the sounds and silences.”

For those already familiar with Hitchcock’s work, multiple viewings reap new rewards. Silberman points out that the immortal line from “Psycho” — “Mother ... She isn’t quite herself today” — is a lot funnier when you already know what’s coming.

For me, the biggest takeaway from rewatching the Netflix collection is just how often women steal the show. I never considered Hitchcock a feminist, especially after Hedren accused him of hurling real ravens at her, dramatized in the excellent 2012 film “The Girl,” currently available on Max.

But women are often the smartest, most capable protagonists in a Hitchcock film. In 1956’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” Doris Day’s character has left behind a successful singing career to play domestic housewife to Jimmy Stewart’s domineering surgeon. In one scene, he forces a sedative on his wife to keep her calm. It’s about as dated as John Wayne “romancing” Maureen O’Hara in John Ford’s “The Quiet Man” with sticks and spankings.

But Day is three times smarter than anyone else in the picture, thinking one step ahead of Stewart, who spends too much time on a wild goose chase and trying to figure out how to eat an African dinner with one hand.

The best thing about 1976’s “Family Plot” is Barbara Harris’ sex-starved psychic looking to pull off a major con. The scene in which she crawls all over her boyfriend (Bruce Dern) as their runaway car threatens to go over a cliff is a comic masterpiece.

But “Plot” isn’t among Hitchcock’s best. His two finest films, “Notorious” and “North by Northwest,” aren’t included in the Netflix tribute. Silberman wishes the streaming service would have included more black-and-white gems, such as “Shadow of a Doubt.”

And there’s no substitute for seeing Hitchcock in a theater where you can hear fellow film lovers gasp and guffaw.

“It’s always a win to be in an environment with other human beings,” said Barry Kryshka, executive director of the Twin Cities-based Trylon Cinema, which just wrapped up its annual Hitchcock Film Festival. “People sometimes ask why they should go to the theater when they can watch films on a quality screen at home. Well, you can get drunk in your basement, but it hasn’t killed the appeal of going to bars. There’s something special about that communal experience.”

Still, Netflix does a nice job of filling the void until next year’s fest. If you still can’t fathom watching anything made more than 50 years ago, settle for Sandler’s 2019 flick, “Murder Mystery,” in which he gets framed for murder in Europe. It owes a lot to Hitch.