In a few minutes I'll be watching 1946 "Notorious"...one of the few Hitchcock films I like. He minimizes his usual tricky, cutesy crap in this film. I do like some of his very early, British films from the 30's and 40's...generally before he came to the US. However, to be fair, I did like "Rope" (for the attempt at giving the appearance that the entire film was shot in one take...although Jimmy Stewart was unbelievably and embarrassingly miscast), "Strangers On A Train", and "Psycho".
I would watch Ingrid Bergman read the phone book, and she is, as usual, just wonderful in this film...as is Claude Rains. Cary Grant, for a change, doesn't just do "Cary Grant" in this film. He actually doesn't really do that much at all, which is fine. The only other film of his where I think his performance is spectacularly good is 1944 "None But The Lonely Heart". He play a hardscrabble cockney, which is what he was when he was still Archie Leach, and before he took on the Cary Grant persona. It is clear that he knew people like his character, Ernie Mott...and he is truly wonderful actually playing a role other than "Cary Grant"...which was all he did in most of his films.