Alfred Hitchcock, the 1980s at the ArcLight Cinemas

In March, Los Angeles' ArcLight cinemas will host two mini-retrospectives: one dedicated to Alfred Hitchcock at ArcLight Hollywood, the other dedicated to the 1980s at ArcLight Sherman Oaks. The two film series run from March 2-30. (Scroll down for the schedule/ticket info.)

The Hitchcock films are all among his biggest and best-known successes (and they should look good on the big screen):

• the romantic spy drama Notorious (1946), in which Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant become involved with a Nazi spy ring in Rio de Janeiro (courtesy of spymasters Claude Rains and Madame Leopoldine Konstantin, both of whom steal the movie from the nominal stars);
• the thriller Rear Window (1954), whose most interesting features are Robert Burks' vibrant color cinematography and the always welcome Thelma Ritter, ever ready with some sardonic aside or other;
• Hitchcock's all-out entry into the type of over-the-top horror film that was quite popular in the late 1950s, Psycho (1960), with Janet Leigh as the unlucky bank employee and Anthony Perkins as The Son-Mother;
• and The Birds (1963), another horror drama, starring Tippi Hedren as a woman whose fancy clothes and jewelry raise the wrath of Northern California's hippie birds.

The 1980s films will also benefit from the ArcLight's big screens:

• Martin Scorsese's boxing drama Raging Bull (top photo, 1980), considered by many (I'm not among them) the best American movie of the 1980s;
• The Steven Spielberg-produced, Tobe Hooper-directed Poltergeist (1982), which looks and feels more Spielbergian than Hooperian;
• Ghostbusters (1984), the action-horror-comedy filled with both special effects and Sigourney Weaver;
• the fluffy but enjoyable Back to the Future (1985), starring Michael J. Fox and for which Spielberg received credit as executive producer;
• and Dirty Dancing (1987), starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey.

Tickets available online at Arclightcinemas.com or at the ArcLight box office. For more information got to AFI.com.