Hitchcock: Still the Master of Suspense!~And the ONLY man who can make me lock my bathroom door
everytime I take a shower for the rest of my life!~
Hitchcock: Still the Master of Suspense!
The "MacGuffin" is "Nothing"
Hitchcock's films were built around what he called "the MacGuffin" which is something that the entire story is built around yet has no real importance to the viewer. It is a device or element that catches the viewer's attention and drives the plot, but within the story it is something that every character is concerned with. For instance, in the spy film Notorious (1946) an American agent sends a woman to spy on her ex-lover who is a Nazi suspected of plotting something. It's uncovered that the Nazi's have discovered the capabilities of uranium--which is the MacGuffin because it's only an element on
which you can carry the real story of two men in love with the same woman and how far they will go to prove their love. So actually, this spy film is more about the mechanics of love rather than spies.
As Hitchcock's movies progress, he uses the MacGuffin to keep us spinning in one
direction while the real action is about to hit us from the side. A great example is in the film Psycho (1960). Through most of the first part of the film we are lead to believe that the movie is about a woman who has stolen a large sum of money--which is the MacGuffin here because it is used only to move us into the Bates Motel where the real story is of a maniac-murderer with a split personality. By carrying the MacGuffin--the robbery--so far into the movie, the real story hits us out of nowhere with incredible impact.
The "Bomb Theory" & It's Effect on Plot Structure
The "bomb theory" serves as a tool to draw the audience closer into the story.
Hitchcock gives the audience more information--the ticking bomb--than the characters are given to create suspense by involving the audience. Hitchcock explains this effect simply when he says, "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it" (Patricio Lopez-Guzman, http://nextdch.mty.itesm.mx/~plopezg/Kaplan/quotes.html). A good example is in the film Frenzy (1972) when an innocent man shows up at the wrong place at the wrong time and falls suspect to murdering his ex-wife. The real
murderer, Bob Rusk, uses a tie identical to Richard Blaney's to strangle Brenda Blaney in her office while her secretary is out to lunch. Bob locks the door behind him and slips away from the building and out of sight just as we see Richard approaching the building. When Richard finds the door locked and no one answering the door, he leaves at the precise time we see the secretary returning from lunch and she spots him leaving the building. We are the only ones who know what the secretary is about to find as the camera remains fixed on the outside of the building and we wait for the reaction. It is a pause that seems to take forever, and as we wait we witness another "ticking bomb", so-to-speak, in two unsuspecting passers-by. The anticipation of the "blast" becomes two-fold as we wait for their reaction to "the reaction" which is the secretary's screams coming from inside the building that suddenly jolt the passers-by.
The "Wrong Man" Theme & It's Effect
Hitchcock uses the "wrong man" theme in numerous films including The 39 Steps (1935), Rebecca (1940), Spellbound (1945), Strangers on a Train (1951), The Wrong Man (1956), North By Northwest (1959), and Frenzy (1972). The theme is effective because first, any audience could relate with the feeling of total helplessness and fear of being wrongly accused and committed of a crime, and second it actually happens in real life and is totally possible.
Hitchcock's Preoccupation With Fear & Anxiety
Hitchcock's preoccupation with fear and anxiety stem from his own experiences of
fright as a child. His most published, and personally expressed, experience was an incident that occurred to him at the age five years old when he "committed some misdeed"--of which he repeatedly expresses an inability to recall--that his father felt needed an immediate and impressionable "lesson in discipline". He was sent by his father to the police station with a note--of which it's contents he knew nothing--and handed it to the police chief for reading. After reading the note, the police chief put him into a cell, slammed the cell doors shut, and left the terrified young Alfred in the cell for five minutes. Hitchcock said that the "sound and solidity of that closing cell door and the bolt" always stayed in his memory. Afterwards, young Alfred was released with the chilling remark delivered by the officer: "that's what we do to naughty boys" (John
Shepler, www.execpc.com/~shepler/hitchcock.html).
Another reinforcement of Alfred's "fear of authority and punishment", according to Shepler in the above mentioned web site, was when he attended a Jesuit school where punishment was delivered by "beatings on the hands with a rubber strop". Shepler writes that Hitchcock compared these terrifying incidences equivalent to
"going to the gallows". The fear Hitchcock relates to unfair punishment delivered by some authority comes out in many of his films including North By Northwest (1959) where Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a wanted agent named George Kaplan whom doesn't exist, and in The 39 Steps (1935) where Richard Hannay must evade the authorities and an unjust imprisonment to search for the proof of his innocence in a crime.
The Use & Effect of Familiar Locales
Familiar locales as settings in Hitchcock's films first create a sense of associated and well-known order with the audience--the here, the now, the "understood" possible. When the unsuspecting disorder of evil or tragedy is presented within the familiar setting, the thrill of "all things" possible creates suspense that draws the audience closer to the story. My favorite example would be in North By Northwest (1959) where a familiar order of geography is established throughout the film starting with New York, speckled with the suspense of underlying disorder surrounding government secrets, and finally climaxing atop Mount Rushmore in a deadly, on-the-edge chase and battle scene between the "good guys" and the "bad guys". Equally as thrilling is the scene that takes place in a common cornfield where the main character, Roger Thornhill, is chased by an prop-plane. Both the field and the plane are familiar expectations to one another within the scene. However, we are hit with the unexpected thrill of danger when the plane turns to tune-in on Thornhill in the field and intentionally run him down. In the book, The Art of Alfred Hitchcock, Donald Spoto notes further the effect of this use of familiar locales as "a fantasy of the absurd" in comparing the film's title to a
quote from Hamlet: "I am but mad north-northwest" (pg. 307).
Cinematic Techiques Unique to a Hitchcock Film
Alfred Hitchcock said in a television interview, "I don't care about the subject matter...but I do care about the pieces of film and photography and the sound track and all the technical ingredients that make the audience scream...With Psycho it wasn't a message that stirred the audience...They were aroused by pure film."
In his above statement, Hitchcock is talking about the art of telling a story--through cinematic technique--in a way no other media can. In his example of Psycho (1960), he's simply saying that--to the audience, a homicidal maniac is only a homicidal maniac, and a stabbing only a stabbing until it's presented in a way--through cinematic technique instead of gory detail--that draws the audience into the shower with the victim, and into the story with the victimizer. The cinematic techniques unique to his films include the use of subjective camera and point of view, the careful use of angle shots, using quick camera cuts, and filming from far to near.
Characterization of the Villian--"Brutality With a Smile"
I find this view of sociopathic behavior, void of conscience, in a character to be the most frightening slap-in-the-face of "all things possible" in a Hitchcock film. The first example that hits me is the smiling, "happy-go-lucky", "loving son" appearance of Bob Rusk in Frenzy (1972) who delights in the "rush" he receives in committing a hands-on murder while raping his victim at the same time. Next I think of Norman Bates in Psycho (1960)--a polite, quiet, secluded, devoted son who would casually smile and munch on candy as he watches the corpse of his victim and the evidence sink to the bottom of a pond. Outstanding impact!
Images Given to Women--Objects of Desire & Targets for Violence
From a hasty observation, as Donald Spoto writes in his section on the film Rear Window, one might think that Hitchcock "was a man with contempt for women's dignity" because of the bad things that happen to them in his films (The Art of Alfred Hitchcock, pg.220). In addition, as objects of desire they are portrayed as creatures of deception. However, with a closer look I found that the deceptive women always had redeemable qualities guided by some kind of conscience, and their deceptive nature stemmed from being victimized in their past. As far as being portrayed as targets for violence, Spoto points out in the same paragraph that Hitchcock's "real contempt is for
the victimizer, in every case a man". Further Spoto adds that in Hitchcock's romances, (the character of Lisa played bu Grace Kelly in Rear Window (1954) being the best example) the women possess loving and "resourceful" qualities that are "alien to the manipulative, ungrownup man". Personally...I believe Hichcock was an adorable little man who must have been "putty" in the hands of any blonde. ~giggle~
The Effect of "Humor"
The humor that Hitchcock adds to a suspense film, or even a murder film, lightens the drama, or the tension, of the moment just long enough to blend the fantasy with reality. For me, the bits of humor--including the quick cameo appearances--worked like a "peek-a-boo" effect as well. It adds an effect of familiar association or relation with the character. As with the murderer in Frenzy (1972) who goes back to his ditched victim to retrieve the evidence that could convict him...it only stands to reason that when rigormortis has set in, you're going to have to break a few fingers to open a dead person's hand. (HaHaHa!)
What Aspect of Hitchcock's Films Impressed Me Most??
Oh my what a loaded question! I love it all! His genius in cinematic technique that turns a simple plot into a dynamic work of art; His imagination and confidence in experimenting with new ideas and technique; His excellence in casting that could breath life into totally relatable characterizations; His sensitivity in creating delicious romance; His clever humor and ability to throw it in at the right time; His deep themes, images and ideas that continue to unfold after multiple viewings; His ability to make you lock the bathroom door every time you take a shower for the rest of your life!
2001, 2002.
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