Hitchpod

I had the pleasure of sitting down early one morning in June to talk to the voices behind my favorite classic movie themed podcast, Hitchpod. If you’ve never heard of it, but love Alfred Hitchcock, go wherever you get your podcasts and download, follow or subscribe. They were so fun, witty and smart. Nothing beats a good conversion about Hitchcock, especially with these two! Here’s more about them, and our fun discussion.

I found Hitchpod in the summer of 2018. I had just gotten into podcasts and needed more options to listen to on my evening walks with my daughter. After typing in Hitchcock, Hitchpod was one of the few choices that popped up at that time. Really good decision on my part to give it a try because the first episode was on Rear Window (my favorite movie), and I was hooked. It was easy to listen to, fun, and entertaining. I’ve been listening to Hitchpod ever since.

Hitchpod premiered August 29th, 2016 and was created by Cat Jones, and Dan Liebke. Based in Australia, the podcast was a birthday gift from Dan to Cat (talk about a good birthday gift! ). He said they were already podcasting about the sport Cricket, so he decided to find all of the films, build the website then told Cat the next podcast would be about the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Cat said with having all the films on DVD at that point, it was easy to get started. Prior to the podcast, Cat had seen quite a few of the films already, spanning from childhood to adulthood. Hitch was already her favorite director. Dan had essentially seen none, aside from Cat’s favorite, North by Northwest. This difference in background gave the podcast a fun dynamic. You’ll quickly see though, Dan becomes a seasoned Hitchcock fan in no time.

Cat talked about going into the podcast knowing certain things they wanted to do. They knew in regards to watching the films, they wanted to go in random order instead of chronologically because she feared they’d give up during the long silent period. I couldn’t agree more. It was easier to watch the silent films this way because they were sporadic and spread apart. I love the randomness too of episodes and not knowing which movie would come up the next month. Both seasons are like this, and it’s fun!

Each episode during the first season covers fun items like the IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings, plot summaries, fun facts, favorite lines, the Bechdel test, MacGuffin, Hitchcock’s cameo and more tropes of his films. They call this the Hitchcock checklist. Bonus episodes were included all throughout the first season as well. Many would Hitchcockify modern movies, and look at other classic films like Double Indemnity and Charade. The second season is the Re-watch Countdown, consisting of the top 20 films as voted on by the listeners. It has revamped music, recaps of each year the films were made, a short summery, a limerick and joke section, breaking down stats on listener votes (I’m the patron who put Frenzy as last on their list if anyone was curious), answering and discussing twitter poll questions, a deep dive into a particular scene, and a Hitchcock do over for each movie. They’ve also been examining films that won Academy Awards in the years that the re-watch films were released. So far, episodes have covered the likes of The Godfather, Wings, and The Lost Weekend to name a few.

One of the fun things you can find on their website (I’ll link it at the bottom) is their list of rankings of the films. They comprised it as they went along during the first season of the podcast. I asked them about their favorites, and if they’ve changed with the re-watch. Dan talked about loving The Lodger, and that he probably underappreciated Vertigo. Vertigo is a film you certainly get more out of the second, third, fourth go around. Cat felt like her list stayed the same, saying only that she felt she enjoyed Lifeboat a little less the second time around, and enjoyed The Wrong Man a little more the second time around. Their both big fans of Stage Fright, and I concur. Let’s talk about this one more!

I had a few fun questions planned for the end of our conversation. The first was to find out who their favorite Hitchcock mother is. Trust me, if you’re a Hitchcock super fan, you’ve got one. For Cat, she chose Clara Thornhill, the mother in North by Northwest. Dan chose Jessie Stevens, the mother in To Catch a Thief. Both mothers they said were witty, older mothers who added humor to the films. For their favorite leading men, Dan chose Cary Grant and Cat chose my favorite, Jimmy Stewart. They both agreed Grace Kelly was their favorite leading lady, with Nova Pilbeam getting an honorable mention. When asked about their favorite villain, Cat was quick to answer Phillip Vandamm from North by Northwest as her favorite. Dan answered with one I wasn’t expecting: Robert Rusk from Frenzy. He is a bad one though. What movie would they go back and recast? Both agreed they’d want to recast Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor in The Birds, but they both love the movie. Dan suggested sliding Cary Grant and Grace Kelly into those roles. I would like to see that film, it would be interesting to see Cary Grant do a little horror. As for their least favorite Hitchcock films, Dan and Cat both chose Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the only venture into Screwball Comedy that Hitchcock took.

One of my final questions was asking them to put together a list of the essentials. Basically the Hitchcock starter kit for someone new to the world of Hitchcock. They chose The Lodger, The Man Who Knew Too Much (34), Rear Window, North by Northwest, and Psycho. Cat made a good point when talking about recommending films, and that is consider who it is you’re giving these recommendations to. You’re going to pick certain ones for a younger audience, certain films for a more seasoned classic film fan. Leave your favorite Hitchcock films, or your essentials in the comments. I’d love to hear what you think!

So will there be a 3rd season of the podcast? When asked about the future of the podcast, The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Show was axed as a possibility because there is another podcast currently covering these, and, in Australia they aren’t as easily accessible as they are here in America. No definite plans are in the works as the re-watch is under way. They foresee this second season lasting a couple of more years, but did throw out the possibility of a new podcast that would follow another director or possibly an actor like Jimmy Stewart. I just want to throw it out there, Val Lewton would make a great podcast subject. He didn’t come to mind at the time of the interview, but I’m throwing his name in the ring now. Joseph Cotten was brought up in the most recent episode on Gaslight as a possible subject for the next podcast, and that too is a great idea.

Whatever Hitchpod evolves into, I’ll be there! I hope you will be too. Visit Hitchpod online at http://hitchpodonline.com. You can access the podcast there, see rankings, become a patreon member like me, and more.

Slow down and enjoy a Tuesday Matinee.