When Woody Allen talks about the directors he seeks to emulate, imitate, or merely copy from, the names he is likely to mention are Ingmar, Federico, and maybe Jean (as in Renoir). Notwithstanding his well-publicized penchant for the giants of midcentury European cinema, Allen also owes a major debt to a far less pretentious (and, in truth, a far more entertaining) filmmaker: Alfred Hitchcock.

No, Allen has never made a thriller centered on birds or a horror picture about a crossdressing killer. Yet, throughout his films, murder and thoughts of murder are surprisingly common. To wit, no fewer than five major Allen dramas center on protagonists who commit, or conspire to commit, murder and are able to justify the most horrible of crimes: Crimes and Misdemeanors, Match Point, Cassandra’s Dream, Irrational Man, and the new Coup de Chance. These films are artful and suspenseful in the Hitchcock manner.