Our guide to all the Hitchcock classics returning to the big screen

English director Alfred Hitchcock poses with a stuffed crow in a promotional portrait for his film The Birds, 1963.

Considered by many to be the greatest director of all-time, Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, continues to heavily influence contemporary cinema. His films hold up incredibly well, and nothing compares to seeing them on the big screen - as we will have the chance to do this year. Dominic Corry reports.

Over the coming months you'll have the chance to check out Alfred Hitchcock classics because Event Cinemas are placing several back into theatres throughout the country for a series of one-off screenings.

But if you're not sure where to start we've put together a handy guide to each of the films showing.

The Birds (1963)

Plot: The residents of a seaside California town are randomly attacked by massive packs of marauding birds. The locals blame a recently arrived blonde (Tippi Hedren), on account of her being brazen enough to flirt with a widower (Rod Taylor).
Arguably Hitchcock's most ambitious work, and his best known film after Psycho (see below), the massive success of which afforded him the power to mount it. Set the standard for all ominous animal attack/nature fights back movies to come.
For fans of: Jaws (1975), Birdemic (2010), The Angry Birds Movie (2016).
Screening: Sunday May 12.

North By Northwest (1959)

Plot: A hapless advertising executive (Cary Grant) is mistaken for a spy by foreign adversaries and goes on the run, eventually teaming up with a young woman (Eva Marie Saint).
Context: A deliriously entertaining action romp with multiple iconic set-pieces (the crop duster, the auction, Mt Rushmore). It's the apex of Hitchcock's obsession with innocent men on the run. James Mason's delightfully devilish performance as Grant's pursuer has been imitated by well-spoken villains ever since.
For fans of: Visual sex metaphors, Silver Streak (1976), Kim and Kanye's first-born child.
Screening: Sunday June 23.

The 39 Steps (1935)

Plot: After a chance encounter with a secret agent in London, a Canadian man (Robert Donat) gets caught up in trying to stop a ring of foreign spies from carrying out a nefarious plan.
Context: A breathless early riff on the kind of plot he would most successfully explore in North By Northwest, this is the most famous of the many spy action thrillers Hitchcock made in Britain - see also: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Secret Agent (1936) The Lady Vanishes (1938) - before moving to Hollywood in 1939 to make Rebecca.
For fans of: The Bourne Identity (2002), the Mission: Impossible movies.
Screening: Sunday July 14.

Vertigo (1958)

Plot: A traumatised San Francisco police detective (James Stewart) becomes obsessed with a shop worker (Kim Novak), who reminds him of a woman whose life he couldn't save due to his paralysing fear of heights.
Context: It failed to make an impact upon its initial release, but this has grown over time to be (deservedly) considered Hitchcock's masterpiece, and it often tops lists of the best movies ever made. It's a beautiful, hypnotic exploration of the devastating power of obsessive love. The dream sequences will inform your nightmares for years.
For fans of: Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books (and TV shows), Basic Instinct (1992), Cliffhanger (1993).
Screening: Sunday August 25.

Psycho (1960)

Plot: After impulsively stealing from her boss to help her lover, a woman (Janet Leigh) seeks refuge from the road at a quiet motel overseen by a boyish clerk (Anthony Perkins) with a few secrets of his own.
Context: Arguably the most famous (non-monster) horror film of all time, and the movie that calcified Hitchcock's legacy as the world's best-known director, even if it's not necessarily his most representative work. Single-handedly inspired the slasher genre, and stigmatised showers for decades. The 1983 sequel, made after Hitchcock's death, is actually quite good.
For fans of: Friday the 13th (1980), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Bad Times at the El Royale (2018).
Screening: Sunday September 1.

Rear Window (1954)

Plot: Stuck in his apartment with two broken legs, a photojournalist (James Stewart) takes to observing the various neighbours that overlook the same courtyard. When he begins to suspect one of them of murder, his girlfriend (Grace Kelly) gets involved.
Context: A light, delectable, perfectly made high-concept thriller that everybody should see at least once. Hitchcock's voyeuristic tendencies have never been more flagrant, and he implicates the audience in the act. An utter joy to behold.
For fans of: Sliver (1993), spying on your neighbours.
Screening: Sunday September 22.

Dial M For Murder (1954)

Plot: A tennis-player (Ray Milland) hires a criminal to kill his wife (Grace Kelly), but must improvise when the plot goes awry.
Context: Something of a chamber piece, this is being screened in 3D, as it was originally. The set-pieces are marvellously tense, natch, but this is principally of interest for the novelty of seeing Hitchcock play with 3D, a format he never again employed. Remade as the Michael Douglas/Gwyneth Paltrow film A Perfect Murder (1998).
For fans of: Wait Until Dark (1967), Gone Girl (2014), fantasising about murdering your spouse.
Screening: Sunday October 27.