Hitchcock Movie Recs

Posted November 18, 2025

39 Steps Web 4

We asked members of the cast and design team their Hitchcock movie recommendations! Add their picks to your watch list! Learn more about APT's The 39 Steps here.

John Taylor Phillips' Hitchcock Recommendations

Marcus Truschinski, Richard Hannay in The 39 Steps


I love so many of them. My favorites are probably Vertigo, Rear Window, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, North by Northwest and Rebecca. I know that’s far too many, but I was a huge fan of his films growing up. Patricia Highsmith is one of my favorite novelists, so Strangers on a Train is definitely up there. There used to be a ride at Universal Studios in Florida called “Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies” that I loved when I was a kid. It was 3-D. At some point, the film started malfunctioning, and birds started flying out of the screen and landing on people in the rows in front of you. The shower scene from Psycho was filmed live and re-created to show you how it was shot. I think they showed a film of Hitchcock highlights, which were mesmerizing and made me even that much more interested in film and acting.

Sartje Pickett, Music Composition & Sound Design, The 39 Steps

The Birds is the film I know the best and the one that had the most impact on me when I watched it as a kid. I later discovered that it was revolutionary in its approach to sound design. Oskar Sala used a combination of recorded birds along with eerie "bird-like" sounds produced by an electronic instrument called the mixtur trautonium to create the sounds of The Birds. There’s no traditional musical soundtrack for the film, per se; instead, it is these disturbing bird sounds that make up the score for the film.

Rebecca and Dial M for Murder are two others that I’ve enjoyed.

Side note: I’m a big fan of Bernard Herrmann, a composer who collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock.

Neil Brookshire,
Assistant Director


I was trying to think of something cool to write, and I drew a blank. So here are the titles.
Rope

Rear Window

To Catch a Thief

Holly Payne,
Costume Designer

The Birds - the first Hitchcock movie I ever watched. As a teenage motel maid, I watched it going room to room, hurrying between rooms so I didn't miss anything.


Psycho


Dial M for Murder - Grace Kelly is a vision in this one!


Brenda DeVita, APT Artistic Director

Psycho - Love a crazy murder mystery. It was brand new and original. I like being scared, and that scared me.


North by Northwest - I'm a big Carey Grant fan. Didn’t realize it was a Hitchcock film until I was watching a whole series of his work. 


Rebecca - I almost can't tell you why, but he’s just a great story teller, and he can tell a great mystery. Plus, who saw that ending coming?


Photos feature the cast of The 39 Steps, Marcus Truschinski, Laura Rook, Nate Burger and Casey Hoekstra, 2025.
Photos by Dan Norman.