Hitchcock's themes:

1. suspense-thriller genre

2. transference of guilt: the wrong man accused:

hero pursued & must solve problem to establish innocence:

THE 39 STEPS / THE WRONG MAN / NORTH BY NORTHWEST

3. the double (doppelganger): related to transference of guilt:

the ghostly double of a living person which haunts its counterpart:

SHADOW OF A DOUBT / STRANGERS ON A TRAIN / VERTIGO

4. the guilty woman: degree of punishment depends upon degree of guilt:

complicity in murder: results in death: VERTIGO

lesser crimes: she must suffer, then restored to "normalcy":

BLACKMAIL / NOTORIOUS

disproportional punishment: PSYCHO

5. the nightmare amidst the commonplace:

ordinary fears of normal human beings transformed into abnormal occurrences:

the underlying chaos: paranoia: PSYCHO / THE BIRDS

horrible crimes take place in public places:

THE LADY VANISHES:

train

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

amusement park

MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (both)

concert hall

6. the moral complicity of the voyeur:

films narratively constructed around voyeuristic situations:

guilt is extended to viewers because of subjectivity of films:

SPELLBOUND / REAR WINDOW / VERTIGO

7. obsessive love: REBECCA / PSYCHO / VERTIGO

8. the hero is often infirm: must ultimately confront both exterior enemy and himself:

physical problems: Stewart's broken leg in REAR WINDOW

personal/emotional problems: SPELLBOUND / VERTIGO

9. the weight of the past upon the present: REBECCA / NOTORIOUS / PSYCHO / VERTIGO

Hitchcock: inclined towards:

1. false leads, suspects, etc.: the MacGuffin: focuses the quest:

NOTORIOUS / NORTH BY NORTHWEST / FAMILY PLOT

2. sympathetic villains: SHADOW OF A DOUBT / STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

3. dull-witted police: often connected to wrong man theme:

SABOTAGE / TO CATCH A THIEF / NORTH BY NORTHWEST

4. atmosphere of romantic longing: REBECCA / SUSPICION / NOTORIOUS

5. black humor: sometimes pervades entire film:

THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY / FAMILY PLOT

6. refusal to cloud a good story with ideology: divorced from socialist/realist problems

Hitchcock's style:

1. bravura manipulation of editing / montage:

shower scene from PSYCHO: 78 separate shots / 45 seconds of screen time

2. master of the moving camera:

ROPE: made up almost entirely of 10-minute takes

REAR WINDOW: opening shots: Hitchcock as master of the establishing shot:

actually 4 shots w/moving camera:

proximity tells us much that editing wouldn't reveal:

about protagonist Stewart: where he lives, profession, etc.

3. self-conscious naration:

calls attention to itself by the way it's done: 2 ways this happens:

a. narration confines itself to single character's point of view more than usual:

optical subjectivity: lets us see through character's eyes:

powerful tool for audience identification

b. use of narrational intrusions: commenting on the action:

symbolic inserts: SPELLBOUND: giant gun

revelatory camera movements: YOUNG AND INNOCENT:

from wide shot of room to c/u of twitching eye

unexpected camera angles: THE WRONG MAN:

overhead shot of hero being locked in jail cell

sound overlaps: THE 39 STEPS: sound bridge

creative use of sound: BLACKMAIL: "knife": emphasizes woman's guilt

Hitchcock's cameo appearances: his "signature" on the film

because of self-conscious narration: there's a tension:

between what the character knows & what narration tells us:

we feel we want to help character

but narration never tells all: suppressive aspect to narration

4. sets up challenges for himself: technical innovator:

sound: creative use of sound in BLACKMAIL

color: TROUBLE WITH HARRY: autumn leaves in New England

ROPE: 10-minute takes

set pieces: Mount Rushmore in NORTH BY NORTHWEST:

motif running through films: chase through a famous setting

5. use of actors' images:

heroes: actors used: e.g., Grant, Stewart:

augmenting generic conventions with their own personas

"cool blonde" heroines: fire under ice: cool and disdainful:

yet underlying eroticism

in general: smooth, slick male --- offset by --- cool, sleek female

6. economy: nothing unnecessary: everything tinged with meaning:

Hitchcock plays with us on this

7. preparation: Hitchcock prepared thoroughly for filming: storyboards:

but left some room during filming for alternative takes, etc.

"Actors should be treated like cattle."

bgs: 01-05