Early Hitchcock Films Suck

My dad recently decided that he wanted to watch more Hitchcock films, as he remembered loving them as a kid.  While we were waiting for our selected movies through Netflix I went down to the library and checked out some of his earlier work, such as Murder! and  Lifeboat.  

Afterword, we both looked at each other and said "what the fuck?!" how did Hitchcock become so big?  The story lines were so confusing that I couldn't even give an adequate description, Murder! is about a jury voting to convict a murderer and has second thoughts.  Lifeboat, is of several survivors of a torpedoed ship. (and these I got from IMDB)  Granted, these are very early films but the dark footage made it hard to concentrate and the vocals were very muffled.  

We then decided to watch some of his more popular films such as Rear Window, Dial M for Murder and The Birds;  Rear Window did not transfer at all, all four members of my family fell asleep at different points, thinking it was boring and Jimmy Stewart came off as a perv.  The Birds was laughable, my mom warned my brother and I that it was going to scare the shit out of us and instead, didn't see the horror in it (you can see the strings on the birds for crying out loud!)  Dial M for Murder was still a stand-up movie although not  suspenseful as I remember it being, and therefore a bit underwhelming.  Overall, it was very disappointing and expected Hitchcock films to stand out a little more.