Few filmmakers’ careers have received the attention and study of Alfred Hitchcock’s. With 2022’s My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock, documentarian Mark Cousins attempts to view this topic through a fresh lens.

Across Name, we get a look at the career of Hitchcock. This leads to an examination of his work in a variety of ways that delve into his collaborations and cinematic techniques.

The gimmick here comes from the manner in which Cousins presents the discussion. Rather than use the standard “talking head” interview subjects or archival clips of Hitch and/or others, Name utilizes a voice actor (Alistair McGowan) to portray the director.

That seems uncontroversial on its own, but potential clamor may come from the nature of the dialogue McGowan utters. In this film, “Hitchcock” discusses the topics via lines written by Cousins.

Which feels like something of a cheat, honestly. Basically this means we get a film historian’s look at Hitchcock’s work but offered to us as if the filmmaker himself made these notes.

The movie starts with the inaccurate claim that the film was “written and voiced by Alfred Hitchcock”. That becomes the least of its problems because the basic format grates.

The manner in which “Hitchcock” narrates the tale from beyond the grave seems cloying and annoying, and McGowan’s performance makes it worse. If the movie wants to use a voice imitator, shouldn’t it find a good one?

McGowan wheezes his way through the role and creates an unconvincing and irritating impression. The film also uses “Hitchcock’s” random asides in an attempt to seem chummy and informal but they simply wind up as phony.

Visually, Name delivers a mix of movie clips, archival photos, modern shots of London and other areas, and various ephemera. This means weird shots of exotic fish and an attractive young woman who just stands there.

We also see Hitchcock himself at times. Despite the existence of thousands of images of the filmmaker, Name repeats the same shots over and over.

All this makes Name annoying in terms of its vocal delivery and monotonous in its visual display. It also lacks nearly the content required to fill its 120 minutes.

Name comes with maybe an hour of useful material. The rest of the project meanders and dawdles with the gimmicks already mentioned.

At times Name manages a decent look at Hitchcock’s techniques, though it doesn’t come with immense insight. It can feel more like a recitation of cinematic choices than a real investigation of these methods.

Even with better content, Name would flop due to its terrible filmmaking choices. Between tedious visuals and the truly awful choice of a voice actor, the documentary doesn’t work.

My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. With its mix of new and archival footage, Name looked appropriate for this sort of program.

As always, I viewed the old material and the new shots with different expectations, and the archival stuff showed ups and downs. These could look pretty good at times, but we also got some messier clips.

I didn’t have any real problems with those, however, as I figured they were about as good as we could get. In any case, the sporadic flaws of the old bits didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the program. They blended just fine and didn’t cause distractions.

Overall, the new footage offered nice visuals. Sharpness was quite good, as virtually no softness impacted on the new footage. Those elements appeared concise and accurate.

Colors were reasonably natural, and no notable defects affected the new footage. Blacks and shadows followed suit, as they seemed perfectly positive. Overall, the visuals were solid given the program’s parameters.

As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Name, it became a low-key affair. Stereo delineation of music appeared positive and the overall soundfield seemed more than acceptable, with use of the surrounds to reinforce the score.

Effects lacked much to do, as dialogue and music dominated. The sides and surrounds mustered some information for street scenes and the like, but not a lot of material in that realm popped up along the way.

Audio quality was solid. The narration sounded just fine, as the dialogye offered perfectly acceptable clarity.

Music also demonstrated good range and definition, while the occasional effects appeared well-reproduced. This mix felt like a “C+“ but it remained more than acceptable for this sort of documentary.

A handful of extras cropped up here, and audio of actor Alistair McGowan’s voice test runs four minutes, 12 seconds. This offers a pretty forgettable reel, as it offers no insights into his performance.

In a more substantial vein, we get an Interview with Writer/Director Mark Cousins. Conducted by Chuck Rose, the chat lasts 26 minutes, 46 seconds.

Cousins discusses what led him to the project, casting Hitchcock’s voice, and the construction of Name. All though Cousins produces some good insights, Rose makes himself the focus too often so his drawbacks as an interviewer mean this becomes a spotty reel.

Graphics Animation Tests go for one minutes, 34 seconds and just show early versions of some elements seen in the final film. These never become compelling, though some narration to discuss them would’ve added value.

Next up, Mark Cousins Introduces Notorious, Rope and Saboteur. It goes for six minutes, 46 seconds and offers Cousins’ filmed lead-in to theatrical showings of those films.

Cousins gives a few thoughts about the works to be screened. He provides a decent collection of remarks, though he films himself in a manner that becomes irritating.

The disc opens with ads for Made in England, Merchant Ivory, Kidnapped and Roseland. We also get the trailer for Name and an alternate trailer that uses Cousins’ voice as Hitchcock in a truly awful impersonation.

As a study of cinematic methods, My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock offers sporadic insights. Unfortunately, these get buried among too many unnecessary tangents and a silly ‘first person’ POV that becomes a persistent annoyance. The Blu-ray brings appropriate picture and audio as well as minor supplements. Name comes with too few insights and too many silly contrivances to sustain its two-hour running time.