Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Department of English
and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Bc. Martin Burget

Works of Alfred Hitchcock: An

Analysis

Master´s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Dr.

2013

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I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,
using only the sources listed in the bibliography.

……………………………………………
Author’s signature

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I would like to thank my supervisor doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Dr. for his
advice, guidance and support.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………….5

2. Hitchcock Biography…………………………………………………………..8

3. Cultural Importance Of Alfred Hitchcock……………………………..……17

4. Hitchcock and Auteur Theory, Unifying Elements in Hitchcock´s Films…26

5. Suspense…………………………………………………………………….…39

5.1 Suspense…………………………………………………………….……..39

5.2 Subjective Suspense and Exploitation of Spatial Setting………...……. 50

5.3 Shared Suspense and Morality of Suspense…………………………..…61

5.4 Sexuality, Voyeurism, Humor and Suspense……………………..….…..66

6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………..………73

Bibliography………………………………………………………………...……..77

Czech Abstract…………………………………………………………….………82

English Abstract………………………………………………………..………….83

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1. Introduction

This thesis focuses on the works of Alfred Hitchcock, British born director, who

is one of the most recognized movie directors of all time. The thesis aims on

Hitchcock´s films in general pointing out the unifying elements which connect them but

the core of the thesis and its main focus is directed at suspense, how Hitchcock

employed suspense in his films and the techniques he used to generate it. In order to

connect the thesis from a very specific field of film studies to a more general

perspective of cultural studies, the thesis also provides short examination of Hitchcock´s

author style related to auteur theory and also cultural impact of Hitchcock´s persona is

examined by a general overview of his reception in Europe and in the United States.

Alfred Hitchcock was connected with film industry almost since its very

beginning when it was making the first steps to utilize its significant potential in

entertainment provision. There have not been many film directors that would leave such

an important impact on the movie industry: ―Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to

emerge from these islands (British), Hitchcock did more than any director to shape

modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for

narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and

engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else‖ (Smith 85). The master of

suspense is one of the most often used nicknames for the director who became almost

the official representative of suspense and psychological thriller movies. Hitchcock was

famous for exploiting the combination of love and murder and the works from his

repertoire, which contains more than fifty films, all share his signature style. ―In

America you respect him because he shoots scenes of love as if they were scenes of

murder. In Europe we respect him because he shoots scenes of murder like scenes of

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love. Anyway, it´s the same man we are talking about, the same man, and the same

artist‖ (Truffaut, Hitchcock 18). Hitchcock ventured into numerous genres and

experimented with a variety of techniques that made him a very versatile and reliable

director he was and still is a major figure in popular culture. ―He was one of the

founding fathers of the cinematic art and, together with Eisenstein and Murnau, helped

define its visual language. So fruitful was he that a single film could spawn an entire

genre, as Psycho helped create the modern horror film and North by Northwest the style

and tone of the James Bond films, not so much cloak and dagger as tuxedo and irony‖

(Lewis 460). Hitchcock exerted strong control over his films and was always a

perfectionist that gave his films distinctive looks which made them easily

distinguishable. However, it is not only the craftsmanship and focus on detail that make

us remember Hitchcock more than thirty years after his death: ―It is because of his

sensitive understanding of the potential for film to say and show things that cannot

easily be done in other genres of art. From his earliest silent work, he saw film as a

medium for the imaginative expression of space and thought. This is his real

breakthrough, and he exploited those potentials as no director has, before or since‖

(Lewis 458).

In the chapter Hitchcock Biography, a general and brief overview of Hitchcock´s

life and mainly his films is provided in order to establish picture of his repertoire and to

facilitate orientation in number of films that shall be used in the thesis as example cases

of Hitchcock´s employment of suspense.

Next chapter is dedicated to cultural importance of Alfred Hitchcock as he was a

director whose influence reached beyond the sphere of movie industry. In the peak of

his career, Hitchcock was a well established cultural icon that was willing to accept such

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position and exploit its potential.

The chapter Hitchcock and Auteur Theory, Unifying Elements in Hitchcock´s

Films focuses on Hitchcock´s distinctive style and examines his production from the

perspective of auteur theory, a look at Hitchcock´s films through the lens of post

structuralism and cine-analysis is also provided. Finally, this chapter also focuses on the

unifying elements that can be explored in Hitchcock´s films and it gives examples of

certain features that tend to repeat in them.

Chapter Suspense and its four sub chapters analyze suspense in general, what it

is, how it is created and most importantly how Hitchcock employed suspense in his

films with the focus being primarily on spatial setting, morality and sexuality. The thesis

offers various examples from a number of movies to illustrate the discovered

observations and quotes from various academic scholars are used to support author´s

arguments.

In Conclusion the findings from the thesis are summarized to provide a final

general overview of the observed topic.

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2. Hitchcock Biography

Alfred Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England on 13 August 1899

to a family of William, a greengrocer and poulterer, and Emma Jane. Hitchcock family

was Catholic which placed them outside of the majority of England´s Protestant

religion. Alfred was the second son and the youngest of three children. When he was 11

he was sent to Salesian College and the Jesuit Classic School St. Ignatius College in

London. He recalled the years spent at this school as being very important for the

formation of his personality: ―It was probably during this period with the Jesuits that a

strong sense of fear developed-moral fear of being involved in anything evil. I always

tried to avoid it. Why? Perhaps out of physical fear. I was terrified of physical

punishment‖ (Truffaut, Hitchcock 26). After he finished the studies at St. Ignatius

College at the age of fifteen, Hitchcock begun to work at Henley Telegraph Company

where he was employed as a draftsman and advertising designer. At the same time he

was taking courses at the University of London where he studied art. Hitchcock was

interested in film already at this time and he read movie journals from the age of

sixteen. During his time at Henley Hitchcock started to express his creativity by

regularly submitting short articles for in-house publication which had been established

at the company. Hitchcock soon became one of the most prolific contributors and his

first ever short story called Gas from 1919 already revealed what themes and topics

were close to Hitchcock – the story is about a young woman who thinks she was

assaulted only to be revealed that it was a hallucination. It was in 1920 when Hitchcock

applied for job at title department at London branch of Paramount's Famous Players

Lasky which would eventually become Paramount Pictures. The establishment of

Famous Players Lasky in England created a lot of excitement and expectation as the

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American company was expected to bring the know how to British film industry which

was at the time significantly inferior to that of its American counterpart.

Compared to Hollywood, the British industry

was a perennially weak sister. English films

were fewer in quantity, and generally

considered inferior in quality. The production

equipment and values were often second-rate.

(McGilligan 100)

Hitchcock got the job and he soon became head of the title department and it was

through this work that Hitchcock got close to film making when the industry was still

making its small steps to become a mainstream media and during times when it had to

recover after devastating world war which crippled its output and this recovery would

take another ten years. ―In those days it was possible to completely alter the meaning of

a script through the use of narrative titles and spoken titles. Since the actor pretended to

speak and the dialogue appeared on the screen right afterward, they could put whatever

words they liked in his mouth‖ (Truffaut, Hitchcock 27). Hitchcock met several

established American writers and he begun to be involved in scriptwriting and shortly

after he became assistant and art director at Islington Studios. It took Hitchcock fife

years from his starting point as a draftsman to become a film director. The move to

Islington was important for Hitchcock not only from the perspective of his professional

life but also personal life because it was at Islington where he met his wife and

collaborator Alma Reville. In 1922 Hitchcock had the first opportunity to shoot his very

first picture which was named Number Thirteen. However, Hitchcock´s first projects

were plagued by production problems and simply bad luck and his first movie was no

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different. Number Thirteen was canceled after only few shots had been made and the

film would never be finished. Ironically, Always Tell Your Wife which Hitchcock

directed a year later faced the same fate, it was never finished and only two reels are

known to survive. The first movie that Hitchcock finished was The Pleasure Garden

which was, however, a flop. The film was shot in Germany where Hitchcock had spent

time before which was important for him as he ―he had immersed himself in

expressionism (in Germany)‖ (McGilligan 172). The true breakthrough came in 1926

when The Lodger: A Story of the London fog was released. This is considered to be the

first true ―Hitchcock film‖ with themes and motives that would run through many films

during his entire career. The film features a man on the run who is hunted down by

mainstream society. ―The Lodger was also a novel Hitchcock professed to love. The

story of a psycho killer stalking London, it was the kind of material that struck a deep

chord with him. And though in his later work he would often drastically change the

novels he filmed, revising their stories to meet his own needs, in this first important

instance he tried to be faithful‖ (McGilligan 177). After the commercial success of The

Lodger Hitchcock was becoming a popular figure and it was at this time that he got

married with Alma Reville, a woman who accompanied Hitchcock in his professional

and personal life until his death.

Hitchcock started to work on his next films Downhill and The Ring, which is the

only film with Hitchcock´s original screenplay, followed by Farmer´s Wife, Easy Virtue

and Champagne in 1928 which Hitchcock considered as ―probably the lowest ebb in my

output(...)What happened, I think, is that someone said, "Let's do a picture with the title

Champagne"” (Truffaut, Hitchcock 57). The next stage of Hitchcock´s career begun

after he finished filming The Manxman in 1929. His tenth feature was intended as

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another silent film but British International Pictures studio eventually decided that the

film would be a converted to sound during the production. The Blackmail became the

first Hitchcock´s sound film in 1929. The reception was very good and the film received

positive reviews: ―The Daily Mail said the new Hitchcock film was ―the best talking

film yet—and British,‖ while Kine Weekly described it as a splendid example of

popular all-talkie screen entertainment‖ (McGilligan 273). However, the influence of

silent movies remained a very strong presence in the next sound stage of Hitchcock´s

career, in fact it remained important until the end of his career. In his interviews with

Truffaut, he expressed regrets about the arrival of sound since he believed the

availability of dialogue had reduced the importance of film narrative:

In many of the films now being made, there is very

little cinema: they are mostly what I call photographs of

people talking. (Truffaut, Hitchcock 87)

The manifestation of silent movie techniques is evidently present in sound films such as

in The Man Who Knew Too Much and most notably in Psycho which are characterized

by sparse dialogue and long stretches where the narration proceeds purely through

visual images. In The Man Who Knew Too Much, the sequence when Dr. McKenna and

his wife try to prevent assassination attempt lasts 10 minutes without dialogue. The two

protagonists are actually speaking but we cannot hear them, we can only assume what

they are saying as in a silent movie. This scene illustrates Hitchcock´s philosophy which

was shaped in the era of silent films: ―When we tell a story in cinema, we should resort

to dialogue only when it’s impossible to do otherwise. I always try first to tell a story in

the cinematic way, through a succession of shots and a bit of film in between‖ (Truffaut,

Hitchcock 97). In Psycho, there is a similar sequence with a complete lack of dialogue

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for more than 17 minutes when Norman Bates disposes of evidence of his murder of

Marion Crane. ―Because he elects to manage without dialogue, Hitchcock has to rely on

cinematic techniques to advance the story and hold our attention‖ (Fordham). At this

time of Hitchcock´s career, there was no doubt that the young director would become a

major star, at least in the environment of the British cinema. 8 films followed after The

Blackmail before Hitchcock finished one of his most acknowledged films of the British

part of his career. In 1935 he released The Man Who Knew Too Much which he later

remade in 1956 when he was already making films in the United States, it was the only

film Hitchcock ever remade. The 39 Steps followed shortly after The Man Who Know

Too Much and if the previous film was one of the highlights of Hitchcock´s British

repertoire, then The 39 Steps may be considered as the number one. This was also one of

the first films where Hitchcock introduced MacGuffin, a plot device used to fuel the

narrative without having clear defined explanation of its occurrence in the plot. ―When

The 39 Steps was released, audiences flocked to see the new Hitchcock film. Critics

hailed it—first in England, then in America as Hitchcock’s best, most entertaining film

to date‖ (McGilligan 380). Hitchcock´s next major success came in 1938 with the film

The Lady Vanishes which once again cemented Hitchcock´s position among the top

British filmmakers and more importantly, at least from the perspective of the second

stage of Hitchcock´s career in United States, his reputation started to grow

exponentially and he was drawn to start filming oversees. ―Three unique and valuable

institutions the British have that we in America have not. Magna Carta, the Tower

Bridge and Alfred Hitchcock, the greatest director of screen melodramas in the world‖

(Leff 16). The Lady Vanishes was a comic thriller and it was a commercial success

which gave Hitchcock confidence after three rather disappointing box office

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performances of Secret Agent, Sabotage and Young and Innocent. The quality and

commercial reception of The Lady Vanishes also ―confirmed the opinion of American

producer David O. Selznick that Hitchcock indeed had a future in making films in

Hollywood‖ (Spoto 71). Ironically, Hitchcock´s last film that was made in the Great

Britain, Jamaica Inn, was a failure and even the director himself considered the film to

be ―a complete absurd idea‖ (Truffaut, Hitchcock 121). In 1939 ―the temptation of

America had become irresistible. Hitchcock often said that London’s gloomy weather

was his signal motivation. ―The sky was always gray, the rain was gray, the mud was

gray, and I was gray‖‖ (McGilligan 428). While the physical environment of England

may have really been a contributing factor in Hitchcock´s decision to move to United

States, the most important factor was simply the difference between British and

American cinema.

Hitchcock´s shift to America proved decisive for his artistic

development in the way that the technical resources placed at his

disposal allowed Hitchcock´s stylistic vocabulary to be sharpened

and expanded. (Allen 254)

British movies could not stand against their American counterparts and

Hollywood had always been at least a step ahead of the rest of the world, including, of

course, the Great Britain. ―I wasn't in the least interested in Hollywood as a place. The

only thing I cared about was to get into a studio to work. I did regard their movie-

making as truly professional and very much in advance of that of the other countries‖

(Truffaut, Hitchcock 125). Hitchcock´s American journey started very impressively with

Rebecca in 1940 and the director soon realized the big step he had made: ―Hitchcock

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was quickly impressed with the superior resources of the American studios compared

with the financial limits he had often faced in England‖ (Leff 30). Hitchcock´s debut

was a success but the relationship with his producer deteriorated as David Selznick

imposed restrictive rules on his director. Hitchcock made further 13 movies during the

era of 1940´s which means that this decade was the most productive period of

Hitchcock´s entire career with Spellbound and Rope, Hitchcock´s first color film,

usually being labeled as the most significant. Hitchcock´s films made in 1940´s had a

large variety, ranging from romantic comedies and courtroom dramas to film noir. Films

from this decade established Hitchcock as one of the most sought after directors in the

United States but the peak of his production was about to come and climax in the next

thirteen years when the director made the most celebrated films of his repertoire.

However, the highly successful decade of 1950´s did not start very well as Stage Fright

was a clear failure. But Hitchcock´s position was firmly reestablished by his next major

movie Strangers on a Train from 1951 which was based on novel of the same name

which the director personally picked. The movie was a success despite the fact that it

received mixed reviews at first and Hitchcock himself was not particularly pleased with

the final outcome: ―As I see it, the flaws of Strangers on a Train were the

ineffectiveness of the two main actors and the weakness of the final script. If the writing

of the dialogue had been better, we'd have had stronger characterizations‖ (Truffaut,

Hitchcock 198). Strangers on a Train was followed by three popular films, I Confess,

Dial M for Murder and most notably Rear Window from 1954 which is widely

considered as one of Hitchcock´s greatest films. ―It was a possibility of doing a purely

cinematic film, you have an immobilized man looking out. That's one part of the film,

The second part shows what he sees and the third part shows how he reacts. This is

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actually the purest expression of a cinematic idea‖ (Truffaut, Hitchcock 214). Rear

Window was followed by To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry and Hitchcock´s

only remake of his own film The Man Who Knew Too Much. Vertigo which was released

in 1958 received negative reviews and had poor box office receipts upon release but it

would eventually become one of Hitchcock´s classics. The film also marked the end of

the director´s collaboration with James Stewart who was one of his leading male actors

together with Cary Grant. Hitchcock himself liked the film and considered it to be a film

he was content with: ―The whole erotic aspect of the picture is fascinating. I was

intrigued by the hero's attempts to re-create the image of a dead woman through another

one who's alive.‖ (Truffaut, Hitchcock 243) Over the years Vertigo has established its

position amongst the world´s best reviewed films. But Hitchcock did not slow down

after disappointing receipt of Vertigo and a year later North by Northwest was released.

―North by Northwest is the picture that epitomizes the whole of Hitchcock´s work in

America. It's always difficult to sum up all the ups and downs in stories in a few words,

but this one is almost impossible.‖ (Truffaut, Hitchcock 249) The film was very

successful right from the beginning, it received positive reception both from critics and

general audience and when Psycho aired in movie theatres a year later, Hitchcock´s

popularity reached the highest levels. It is no coincidence that the period between 1953-

1960 is widely considered as the peak of Hitchcock´s professional life. Psycho contains

possibly the most famous scene of all Hitchcock´s films and perhaps one of the most

famous scenes in the history of cinema.

The unprecedented violence of the shower scene, the early death

of the heroine, the innocent lives extinguished by a disturbed

murderer became the defining hallmarks of Hitchcock's new

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 horror movie genre and have been copied by many authors of

subsequent horror films. (Leitch, Encyclopedia 262)

Psycho was the most profitable film of Hitchcock´s career and at the time it was

the most profitable black and white sound film ever made. But Psycho not only marked

the high point of Hitchcock´s career, at least popularity and money wise, but it also

signaled the approaching end of his career as none of the subsequent films released

matched the public reception and the quality of Hitchcock´s features from the decade of

1950´s. Birds, which was shot in 1962 and released a year later, was based on a short

story by Daphne du Maurier. In Birds and subsequently in Marnie, which was a

disappointment mainly from commercial perspective, Hitchcock used the last ―icy

blonde‖ of his career, Tippi Hedren, who is known to have had a very distinctive and

rather unpleasant experience working with Hitchcock who supposedly destroyed her

professional life. The last 15 years of Hitchcock´s career were limited by the director´s

deteriorating health and it was clear that the director was in decline. This fact was

reflected in the quality and reception of Hitchcock´ final movies. Torn Curtain and

Topaz were not received positively by audiences. The penultimate film of Hitchcock´s

production, Frenzy, marked a comeback to the Great Britain but it would not change the

inevitable direction of the director´s professional life. His last finished project, Family

Plot from 1976, was considered mediocre and performed poorly at box office.

Hitchcock´s health further deteriorated after shooting Family Plot and the director spent

the final years of his life in the privacy of his home in Bel Air, California, where he died

on 29 April 1980.

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3. Cultural importance of Alfred Hitchcock

The war and the post-war years have transformed our

cinema. It has evolved through internal pressure and in the

place of poetic realism – which can be said to have died

out, we have psychological realism. (Hathaway)

During interwar and post World War II period a change in significance of movies

occurred. Films became more than a mere entertainment, they became a medium to

spread audiovisual information, signs and ideas which resulted in a certain shift of the

way movies were understood. From being a pure experimental form of entertainment at

the very beginning to objects with aesthetic value, films post 1960´s became subjects of

various social studies. Film theorists became more and more obsessed with the social

value of the cinema which had its impact on the way films influenced society. As

Christian Metz argues that films are means of identification for the spectators, the

cinema´s signifier is perceptual (visual and auditory) – more perceptual than many other

means of expression (42). Movies have become a major part in our social lives and

famous actors and directors are not only movie stars but they often become popular

social icons and Alfred Hitchcock is an example. His films are continuously being

analyzed and interpreted by general public, film enthusiasts and professional film critics

but they have also become objects of popular culture. Hitchcock was one of the first

major directors and perhaps the most successful director to exploit the seemingly

infinite potential of television and advertising. As cinema evolved, so did the medium of

television and Hitchcock was fully aware of this fact. When it comes to public image,

propagation of name and exploitation of publicity, Hitchcock was one of the most self

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publicizing directors in movie history. ―When Alfred Hitchcock came to America from

the British film industry in 1940, he arrived lured by the promise of two things all film

makers desire: creative autonomy and money. He would eventually acquire both‖ (King

56). Hitchcock carried over his meticulous and perfectionist approach from film making

to self propagation. Leitch acknowledges Hitchcock as ―genius for self-advertising‖

(Encyclopedia 7). Between the years 1955 and 1965 Hitchcock was involved in famous

television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents where he was the host and producer. This

series became very popular and was very important for establishing Hitchcock´s name

further beyond the domain of cinema. Hitchcock was almost a synonym for the genre of

suspense thrillers and he was very famous at the time and his strategy to spread his

influence beyond cinema paid off as he became a popular celebrity and an American

icon. No longer was Hitchcock an important film director, he became an important

person of American culture. This was a significant success as he was able to increase the

public awareness of his persona even further and, of course, there were significant

monetary gains connected with his celebrity status. ―He created a contrived public

image that exaggerated his Englishness, his appetites, and his macabre humor. He

marketed his films in a manner that was at times sensational, at other times ridiculous.

In creating this public persona, Hitchcock was quickly tagged as the Master of

Suspense, and his films did well at the box office‖ (King 56).

In the world of cinema, Hitchcock was known for his determined

professionalism. On television screen he became famous for his cynical remarks, black

humor and a very distinctive appearance which was very often a target for parody. But

Hitchcock was able to make use of his image from of both these worlds, the more

serious version of himself which movie spectators knew from cinema and his more

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relaxed version that people knew from his television appearances. The director always

tried to showcase his distinctive style so that the viewers knew what they can expect and

he carried the same approach from cinema to television. The title picture of the Alfred

Hitchcock Presents series featured a very simple caricature of Hitchcock which the

director created himself and each episode was always opened by an ironic and cynical

remark. This helped Hitchcock to create a distinctive style for his television

appearances, thus something similar that people knew from his films.

Hitchcock´s popularity and cultural importance was also demonstrated by the

presence of his persona in popular book series Alfred Hitchcock and the Three

Investigators which was a detective series created by Robert Arthur. As in Alfred

Hitchcock Presents, ―in The Three Investigators Hitchcock always introduced the

detective story‖ (Leitch, Encyclopedia 54). Hitchcock was also approached to introduce

a series of books that carried his name. It was a series of short stories which were very

popular at that time and they mainly focused on thriller and suspense stories, to name a

few: Alfred Hitchcock´s Anthology, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to be Read with

the Door Locked, Alfred Hitchcock´s Monster Museum. However, Hitchcock had almost

nothing to do with the mentioned titles. ―He did not participate in the process of writing,

selection or editing of the stories. Hitchcock solely lent his name to the project and

generated income from selling of the books‖ (Leitch, Encyclopedia 58). This is another

example of Hitchcock´s mainstream importance whose influence spawned far beyond

the domain of cinema. Hitchcock was very aware of such position and he tried to use its

potential to full extent. References to Hitchcock films can be found almost everywhere

and Psycho, Hitchcock´s probably most famous film, is an illustration of this.

References to the famous ―shower scene‖ have been used many times. Psycho does not

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only rank amongst the best films of all time but it also belongs to a group of films that

are the most important from the perspective of film making and popular culture as well.

The film set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behavior and sexuality in

American films which subsequently brought the same topics to a wide public

discussion. ―Psycho has become one of the most recognizable films in cinema history,

and is arguably Hitchcock´s best known film‖ (Silet). Psycho created a lot of

controversy due to the severe violence and nudity which appeared in the film.

―Internationally, Hitchcock was forced to make minor changes to the film, mostly to the

shower scene. In Britain and New Zealand the shot of Norman washing blood from his

hands was objected to and in Singapore, though the shower scene was left untouched,

the murder of Arbogast and a shot of Mother's corpse were removed‖ (Leigh 105).

Hitchcock saw the potential of fear and anxiety that the novel offered and was willing to

utilize such approach in his film adaptation. However there seemed to be a price for his

commercial success. The price Hitchcock seemed to pay were very critical reviews of

his films. American and especially European critics reviewed Hitchcock´s movies very

harshly, belittling their artistic value and attacking his status among proponents of

auteur theory:

Why do the critics of Cahiers du Cinema take Hitchcock so

seriously? He's rich and successful, but his movies have no

substance. (Truffaut, Hitchcock 25)

In his memoirs, Francois Truffaut recalls an event when he argued with

American critics about value of Hitchcock´s films: ―In the course of an interview during

which I praised Rear Window to the skies, an American critic surprised me by

commenting, "You love Rear Window because, as a stranger to New York, you know

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nothing about Greenwich Village." To this absurd statement, I replied, "Rear Window is

not about Greenwich Village, it is a film about cinema, and I do know cinema‖

(Hitchcock 11). The under appreciation by American film critics points out at difference

in reception of Hitchcock´s production in United states and the Great Britain, in

particular England. It is widely believed that Hitchcock reached the peak of his career in

United States and his production in the Great Britain tends to be overlooked at times.

With the passage of time, those of us who have followed Hitchcock´s

career have the feeling that it was only after his arrival in the United

States that he reached his creative peak. It would almost seem as if he

was destined to work in Hollywood. (Truffaut, Hitchcock 122)

Hitchcock himself acknowledged that his career was divided into two parts not only

from geographical perspective but the two parts were also very distinctive and his work

in those two stages of his career had different attributes. ―For want of a better term, we

might label the initial phase the period of the sensation of cinema, and the second phase,

the period when the ideas were fertilized‖ (Truffaut, Hitchcock 123). In their very

extensive interview from 1962, Hitchcock and Truffaut tried to characterize British and

American cinema and also how it was influenced and shaped by societies of these two

distinctive cultures. According to Truffaut, ―there is something anticinematic about

England‖ (Hitchcock 123), a genuine incompatibility existed between traditional

English culture and film making which may explain why Hitchcock desired to shoot

films in America rather than in Europe. This may also be the reason why Hitchcock

seemed to reach the true peak of his creativity and success in United States.

This may sound farfetched, but I get the feeling that there are

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 national characteristics, among them, the English countryside,

the subdued way of life, the stolid routine that are antidramatic

in a sense. The weather itself is anticinematic. Even British

humor, that very understatement on which so many of the good

crime comedies are hinged, is somehow a deterrent to strong

emotion. (Truffaut, Hitchcock 123)

According to Truffaut these properties of British audience hindered Hitchcock´s

ability to become as successful in Great Britain as he became in the United States.

―Considering the high intellectual level in England, and in the light of the universal

stature of her great writers and poets, the only two British film makers whose works

have actually survived the test of time and space are Charlie Chaplin and Alfred

Hitchcock‖ (Hitchcock 123). Truffaut further argues that film making was often looked

down upon by intellectuals and social elite in the Great Britain. One of important factors

in England has always been the division of classes and the awareness of belonging to

such a class. And the members of high class in England could only very rarely be seen

going to a cinema to watch a movie. ―No well-bred English person would be seen going

into a cinema; it simply wasn't done‖ (Hitchcock 124). This situation changed when

Paramount opened a branch in London and few upper class businessmen began to go to

movie theatres which encouraged more people to start appreciating British film making.

The development was a very important topic for British movie industry because the

standard of its production was rather low. It was around 1925-26 when certain young

university students, mostly from Cambridge, began to take an interest in cinema and out

of this was born the London Film Society. ―Their enthusiasm, somehow, didn't project

them into the creative end, but they were film fans, particularly in respect to foreign

22
films‖ (Truffaut, Hitchcock 124). Hitchcock described general attitude to film making in

England as insular. He claimed that there was much wider and more universal concept

of life outside of Great Britain and that British humor was very superficial and rather

limited. For example Psycho was exposed to significant amount of criticism on British

Isles due to the violation that was exploited in the film. ―There was hardly a critic who

had any sense of humor about the picture‖ (Truffaut, Hitchcock 124). Hitchcock never

denied that American cinema as well as culture had always been closer to him and that

he would eventually make that important move oversees.

It never occurred to me to go and offer my services to a British

company, yet, as soon as I read that an American company was

going to open a studio, I said to myself, "I want to do their titles."

So I went to work there; the American actors and writers came in

and I learned from them. You might say I had an American

training. (Truffaut, Hitchcock 125)

Despite Hitchcock´s obvious and uncovered appreciation of United States, its

cinema and culture, he also encountered problems with reception of his films in United

States. The general public very much adored him and he made full use of this

commercial potential but film critics often gave negative reviews to Hitchcock´s films.

―Americans (In 1960´s) are surprised that European cinephiles and the French in

particular regard Alfred Hitchcock as a film author, in the sense that the term is applied

to Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Luis Bunuel, or Jean-Luc Godard‖ (Truffaut,

Hitchcock 18). In particular prior to the end of the 1960´s film critics did not take

Hitchcock´s work very seriously. He was viewed as a strictly commercial director

whose films were excellent from the perspective of craftsmanship and overall attention

23
to detail but they were criticized for lack of true substance and because form seemed to

be superior to content. ―Audiences might not have understood, for example, that Rear

Window was not so much about a peeping Tom as it was about their own secret guilt;

they did not see North by Northwest or The Birds as studies of their own anxieties; they

did not view Vertigo as a metaphor for the romantic fallacy, the agony of artistic

creation, or the fear of alienation‖ (King 56). Hitchcock himself almost seemed to

support his American critics who criticized the supposed lack of true content in the films

of the director: ―I'm not interested in content. It's the same as a painter not worrying

about the apples he's painting. It's his style, that's where the emotion comes from‖

(Schickel 74). According to Hitchcock it was not acting that was the basis of films but

rather: ―Photography, editing, all the technical ingredients that make the audience

scream‖ (Schickel 75). This disregard of artistic value in Hitchcock´s films by American

film critics is in stark contrast to European critics who praised Hitchcock for being a

director that highlights the idea of a true auteur who is in complete creative control of

his films, someone who creates lasting artistic value in his work. In fact, the entire

situation with Hitchcock and his appreciation and reception seemed to be completely

reversed in America. In Europe Hitchcock was largely praised by film critics who

appreciated his distinctive style and his creativity which emphasized the approach of a

director who truly is a creative force behind his films. However, the general public

audience was very often more conservative when it came to acceptance of Hitchcock´s

films and especially violence in his films was taken as a very controversial topic. On the

other hand, in United States, the situation was the opposite. American critics often

ridiculed Hitchcock´s film output as works of pure mainstream that offer little true

artistic value and meaning which is also reflected by the fact that Hitchcock never

24
received an Oscar in the category for best director. In 1940, Rebecca won him Oscar for

best picture but Hitchcock himself never won an Academy Award. However, his

position at general American public was completely different. ―He first developed an

appreciation for the tastes and personality of the American film audience. Following his

deepened awareness of this democratic audience, moviegoers who went to see what

they wanted to see, and saw what their tastes had dictated to the studios, Hitchcock

tailored his working methods to address the people in America‖ (King 56).

Americans recognized the British director as on one of the very best and his

statute was almost indestructible.

A few years back, cinematographic audacity, eroticism, violence,

politics came from European productions. Today, American

cinema has gone way beyond Europe in terms of insolence and

freedom of expression. (Truffaut, Hitchcock 115)

25
4. Hitchcock and Auteur Theory, Unifying Elements in Hitchcock´s Films

When Francois Truffaut introduced the phrase la politique des Auteurs in his

1954 essay Une Certaine Tendance du Cinéma Français (A Certain Tendency in French

Cinema) he controversially proclaimed that even the best movie by Jean Delannoy

would always be less interesting and would carry less artistic value than the worst film

from the production of Jean Rennoir (―Certain Tendency‖ 227). Truffaut´s problem with

films from Jean Dealannoy was the way how Truffaut, who subsequently influenced a

large number of directors and film critics by his theory, approached film making.

Truffaut was a representative of French New Wave cinema which was one of many film

movements that emerged as an opposition to Hollywood´s world dominance in popular

films. Truffaut and other cinema enthusiasts who circled around Cahiers du Cinema

coined the Auteur Theory (however the theory would receive its official name some

time later from Andrew Sarris) which argued that film mirrors the director´s personal

creative vision. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith summed up the auteur theory as it is presented

today:

The defining characteristics of an author’s work are not

necessarily those which are most apparent. The subject of

criticism thus should be things which are not superficial

but the film’s hard core basics. (Wollen 79)

The auteur theory was exposed to a significant amount of criticism in the later

years as its critics dismissed its main ideas due to the fact that modern film making

cannot truly have one auteur, it is always a result of the work of an entire team but

―auteurism represented one of the first coherent attempts to construct a theoretical

26
framework within which to categorize the previously undifferentiated masses of

Hollywood production‖ (Maltby 501). The director´s personal style should push through

the layers of industrial processes which movies at the time had already become and be

able to assert control over the film and not merely follow the script and thus just

transform the written script into an audiovisual form. Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray,

Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks or Jean Renoir are all highly successful directors but

their significance lies not only in the success of their films. For the supporters of the

Auteur theory it lies mainly in the fact that these directors are famous for being the

―complete and absolute auteurs of their movies‖ (Wollen 81). The idea was to approach

director as any other kind of artist, such as painter, who adds his own personality to his

work and directors should be encouraged to do the same and express their creative

abilities. This involves a conscious decision to value and look at films in a certain way.

One might see it as the policy of treating any director that uses a personal style or a

unique world view as an Auteur.

I do not believe in the peaceful co-existence of the Tradition

of Quality and the cinema of auteurs. At base, Yves Allegret

and Jean Delannoy are but caricatures of Henri-Georges

Clouzot or Robert Bresson. It’s not the desire to cause a

scandal that leads me to deprecate a cinema so praised

elsewhere. I remained convinced that the unduly prolonged

existence of psychological realism is the cause of the public’s

incomprehension when confronted by works as new in

concept. (Truffaut, ―Certain Tendency‖ 235)

27
 The targets of criticism of Cahiers du Cinema were in particular big production

films. The Tradition of Quality refers to films that lack originality, films that are rather

scenarist movies and directors add no artistic value to them. This results in films that are

routine, mundane and boring. According to Truffaut, this means that the director is only

a ―metteur en scene, a stager‖ (―Certain Tendency‖ 236). This tradition suggests that the

screenwriter hands the script to the director and the director simply adds the performers

and pictures. Truffaut provocatively said: ―There are no good and bad movies, only

good and bad directors‖ (―Certain Tendency‖ 237). Therefore it is obvious why Francois

Truffaut and the entire Cahiers du Cinema movement appreciated directors with

distinctive visual style such as Alfred Hitchcock who is known to being a big influence

on Truffaut and the entire movement. Hitchcock was a true auteur, throughout his career

he cooperated with the same team of people very often and his films and his entire style

were always very distinctive. Hitchcock always seemed to be in complete control of his

films and he always had a clear vision of what the final product should look like. The

fact that Hitchcock was willing to give the same actors roles in multiple films created a

unique consistency in his works which was something that was missing from a lot of

other filmmakers´ productions. James Stewart, Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Ingrid

Bergman are few of famous actors that cooperated with Hitchcock for as long as

multiple decades but it were not only actors that helped to carry Hitchcock´s signature

style over time, cinematographer Leonard J. South worked with Hitchcock on 14

movies and Bernard Herrmann, American music composer is famous for working on

perhaps the most acclaimed films of the director´s career, Psycho, North by Northwest

and Vertigo. Hitchcock carried his team from studio to studio and thus kept the

consistency and style in his works for decades. ―If brash individualism and

28
obsessiveness are prerequisites of auteur status, than Hitchcock has a substantial claim‖

(Fordham). The ability to improvise and deliver a film which is truly a work of the

author and not merely follows pre-scripted plan is one of the most important features of

a creative director, the type of director who mostly relies on production rather than pre-

production as he has more instruments to change the film and shape it into the form he

likes. This is the type of director that auteur theorists look for. In this sense Hitchcock

was, unsurprisingly, very much acknowledged by the entire Cahiers du Cinema

movement.

Numerous film critics have established Hitchcock as a rather rigid director who

did not like to change his original ideas. It was probably the British director himself

who created this myth because he often said his films were story boarded which meant

that they were displayed in the form of pictures coordinated in sequences in order to

pre-visualize the film before the actual shooting (McGilligan 386). The reason why this

idea was and still is believed is because Hitchcock was an art designer before he became

film director, however to generally and rigidly accept it would mean to rob Hitchcock of

his ability to improvise and change the look and sometimes even content of his films on

the go. He was flexible and reactive enough to make significant alterations despite being

known for his meticulous preparation. From the perspective of Auteur Theory these

themes and cinematic techniques are a manifestation of Hitchcock´s unique style which

makes him an example of an auteur exerting complete control over his work of art.

If we approach Hitchcock from the perspective of post structuralism, these

recurring themes may become a rather unintended and inadvertent reflection of

Hitchcock´s thinking - poststructuralists tend to focus on exploration of hidden

meanings in author´s work. But with all the mentioned common elements in the films of

29
Alfred Hitchcock in mind, we must keep in mind that Alfred Hitchcock was first and

foremost a commercial filmmaker, who wanted (and frequently achieved) box-office

success. David Sterritt argues that Hitchcock was driven by a ―near compulsive desire

for financial security and career stability, and he was always happy to exploit his auteur

status as a marketing device (through his TV series no less than his movies)‖ (15) while

Richard Maltby suggests to accept ―Hollywood’s commercial aesthetic, since movies,

polyvalence, their indeterminacy, their malleability, their capacity to absorb

interpretation unscathed are properties of their commodity status‖ (501).

Both auteurists and their structuralist successors draw on

similar evidence to support their propositions. The key

difference between them is that the auteurist sees the

recurrent themes as the product of directorial intent; the

structuralists as inadvertent and unintended. (Fordham)

If we apply poststructuralist approach and cine-psychoanalysis to Hitchcock´s

movies rather than the idea of auterism it is then possible to interpret Hitchcock´s films

and their recurring themes, plot motifs and stylistic traits as ―symptoms of deep-seated

anxiety and neurosis made manifest unknowingly in the organization of movie

aesthetics. There are some important consequences of these approaches which it is

crucial to understand, particularly if we are to explain Hitchcock´s continuing attraction

for theorists of all persuasions‖ (Wood 210). Robin Wood argues that it is sexuality

rather than suspense which is the key to Hitchcock´s films and ―sexual relationships in

his work are inevitably based on power, the obsession with power and the dread of

impotence being as central to his method as to his thematic‖ (155). If we continue in the

poststructuralist approach we then discover the hidden meanings which go beyond the

30
director´s intended features of his films. With this approach the numerous layers of

themes and motifs in Hitchcock´s (and everyone else´s films) do not constitute the

author´s reflection of control over his work but they rather reflect unconscious decisions

by which the director unknowingly flags movies from his production. However,

according to Richard Maltby, to apply the poststructuralist approach to a film and it´s

author means that

an endless variety of meanings can be generated from a film and

in large part they are critical practices themselves since a film

text (no less than a poem or novel) cannot be understood in

isolation from the act of its interpretation. (502)

What results from the application of poststructuralist approach to Hitchcock´s

films is therefore an interpretation which can significantly differ depending on

individual values, historical setting within which the poststructuralist interpretation is

made and variety of ―group characteristics of Hitchcock movies offer fertile grounds for

exploring all of these strands‖ (Maltby 502). Hitchcock´s films are suitable for and can

be explored from the perspective of psycho-analytical and cine-analysis problems as a

large number of Hitchcock´s films work and show directly their characters’

psychological problems, examples of such movies include Vertigo, Psycho and Marnie.

The presence of dream sequences and flashbacks feature can be found and explored in

Spellbound and a number of other films. Richard Maltby argues that ―Hitchcock’s

recurrent themes invite psychoanalytic examination‖ (502). Robin Wood is one of many

critics who discovers signs and clues of Hitchcock’s Catholic upbringing ―as

undercurrents in his films‖ (231). Oedipal themes and problematic relationships of

important protagonists with their mothers also seem to repeat in certain films, for

31
example in North by North West, Frenzy but most notably in Psycho. In North by

Northwest Roger Thornhill is ridiculed by his mother who does not believe his version

of story and throughout majority of the film she appears to be a negative character.

Bruno from Strangers on a Train hates his father and wants to murder him but his

mother is extremely important to him. The main protagonist in Birds struggles to get out

of influence of his mother and there is, of course, Norman Bates in Psycho and his

complicated relationship with his mother whom he murdered and developed a double

personality as a consequence. The mother-son relationships are also important from the

perspective of Hitchcock and Freud compatibility, respectively Hitchcock and

psychoanalysis. As Patrick McGilligan notes, ―the director was not unfamiliar with

Freud’s writings, having first browsed them in the 1920s’ and indeed was more than

capable of expounding on symbols and artifacts‖ (755).

A number of critics have identified misogynistic subtexts in Hitchcock´s films.

Robin Wood frequently emphasizes the importance of struggle of power and strength

which frequently characterizes sexual relationships in Hitchcock movies. This is

reflected in The 39 Steps and in Frenzy where the murderer is a misogynist, yet he

clearly loves his mother and is willing to protect her at all costs and idolizes her very

strongly. The struggle of power and strength is also heavily present and dominates in

Vertigo where Scottie desires to completely control and seize over Madeleine, and also

in Marnie where Mark rapes his new wife who is frigid as a result of a traumatic

experience from childhood. Frequent motif in Hitchcock´s films is the notion of

performance and theatricality which is manifested in particular in The 39 Steps, The

Man Who Knew Too Much and Torn Curtain which are all movies that include

―characteristic set-piece tableaux in theatres or concert halls‖ (Wood 144). ―Hitchcock´s

32
obsession with performance, the cinema itself, and the relationship between

performance and audience offers obvious attractions for those seeking to explore the

notion of the spectator‖ (Fordham). Rear Window has been frequently interpreted as ―an

allegory of the film-going experience, with Jefferies displaying the voyeuristic curiosity

that lies at the heart of spectating‖ (Sinyard 84). Leitch understands the relationship

between director and spectators as at the heart of Hitchcock films and he observes them

as a series of ―elaborate games - a Hitchcock movie is a two-person non-zero sum

game‖ (Find the Director 18). Hitchcock´s techniques for building up suspense mean

that ―the audience often has to supply meaning (for example what is behind the door

that leads to Norman Bates´ mother´s room in Psycho)‖ (Fordham). Simultaneously,

Hitchcock is a spectator in his own movies. ―He dismissed his cameo roles as gags, but

they do exert an alienating effect, in the manner of a Brechtian narrator, making it clear

that the eyes of the father are always on his characters‖ (Steritt 14). Hitchcock made 53

major films throughout his career and made a cameo appearance in 41 of them. Whether

we look at the rather funny scene when Hitchcock cannot make it into the bus in North

by Northwest, his mere walk on pavement where he cannot even be recognized in Rope

or the scene where he is taking care of a small child in Torn Curtain, the director always

seemed to leave a personal mark on his movies. ―Hitchcock´s cameos are a well-known

feature of his work. They playfully draw attention to Hitchcock, the director, as a

presence behind the work, by inscribing that presence, not as a character in his films but

as the flesh-and-blood director himself who populates his own films as an extra‖ (Allen

46).

The themes of disguise, illusion and mistaken identity can be found in The 39

Steps as well as in The Secret Agent. In The 39 Steps and also in The Lady Vanishes

33
Hitchcock shows how he combines elements of romantic comedy and suspense thriller.

In the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps and in North by North

West Hitchcock explores the ambiguity of guilt and innocence. ―But the common

characteristics extend beyond the thematic, and include those cinematic devices and

techniques deployed in many of his films and which constitute his cinematic signature‖

(Fordham). The recurring themes and images in Hitchcock films can also be identified

as examples of binary oppositions, in particular the notion of guilt and innocence can be

found in almost every single Hitchcock´s film, including the most notable cases - North

by Northwest and The Wrong Man. If we examine Vertigo and Psycho we shall find a

prominent feature which also reoccurs frequently - the difference (impossibility to

differentiate) between reality and illusion (appearance) and between suspicion and trust.

MacGuffins, famous icy blondes and Hitchcock´s signature cameos can perhaps be

labeled as the most common and well known to general public. ―We have a name in the

studio, and we call it the MacGuffin. It is the mechanical element that usually crops up

in any story. In crook stories it is almost always the necklace and in spy stories it is most

always the papers‖ (McGilligan 198). MacGuffin is a plot device frequently used by

Hitchcock to introduce motivation for the protagonist often with very little explanation

to why it is so important. Hitchcock was not the first director who utilized this technique

but it was he who greatly popularized both the term and the technique of usage. While

looking for unifying themes and features of Hitchcock films we should not forget about

the important presence of femme fatale, in particular the ―icy blonde― – beautiful,

seductive and cold woman who always plays a major role in the given story. Hitchcock

explained the use of blonde protagonists in criminal and suspense stories as ―They make

the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints and also

34
we're after the drawing-room type, the real ladies, who become whores once they're in

the bedroom‖ (Allen 13). We can see that Hitchcock´s film contain a complex network

of themes that seem to rotate and reappear over and over again but simultaneously, they

offer large variety. Lesley Brill points out that

Hitchcock´s films are much more varied than most people

realize and they are knit together by a remarkable coherence

within their variety. They may be seen as a series of rich

rotations and re-combinations of relatively few central

themes and aesthetic preoccupations. (4)

There is a tendency in the works of Alfred Hitchcock towards recurring themes

and plot devices that are recycled and restructured to create a new framework for the

next movie which frequently shares the same foundations with the previous one. If we

look at North by Northwest for example, then we can discover the actions of loss, search

and recovery (Roger Thornhill basically loses his identity when he is mistaken for a non

existing secret agent, he then starts a search to clean his name and to recover his lost life

which he manages in the end). Lesley Brill comments on this structure in North by

Northwest and links it to other Hitchcock films: ―The deep structure of loss, search and

recovery in North by Northwest underlies all Hitchcock´s films, albeit sometimes

chiefly as dreadfully disappointed and mocked possibilities‖ (4). When we look closer

at other films from Hitchcock´s repertoire then we find that Lesley Brill´s observation

regarding the unifying chain in Hitchcock´s films is right. The Wrong Man, which once

again features a man who is mistaken for a criminal, also shares the deep structure of

loss, search and recovery. The framework is almost completely identical to that of North

35
by Northwest. But not only ―wrong man‖ movies share this structure, in Vertigo, Scotty,

the main protagonist, experiences the same journey. When the love of his life dies

(apparently), he desperately searches for a replacement which he eventually finds. Little

does he know that the replacement is not really a replacement and that he was deceived

and manipulated. Another possible topic contained in Hitchcock´s movie environment is

the plausibility of certain scenes in his movies. Throughout his career Hitchcock was

criticized for the lack of plausibility in a number of his films. In North by Northwest, for

example, the viewer of the film has the right to ask the question: ―Why does the plane

crash into the gasoline truck? Why did the killers use gun after first failed attempt to

assassinate Thornhill? And why did they use the plane at all?‖ Lesley Brill offers

explanation: ―One can answer such questions by pointing out that they are largely

irrelevant. Phrased as logical questions, they have little to do with the sort of film North

by Northwest is and trying to explain them away obscures more than it clarifies.‖ (12)

The correct question rather seems to be why questions like those mentioned above do

fail to lead to relevant answers and why they actually miss the point. Answer to these

questions can then provide us with valuable information regarding Hitchcock´s films.

Lesley Brill continues:

For the whole of Hitchcock´s career, I believe, can be understood

in terms of the themes, underlying assumptions and techniques that

shape the central meanings of North by Northwest. Along with The

Lady Vanishes, it comes closest to compendiating its director´s

career. (Brill 4)

We should restrict inquiries searching for the explanation of the plausibility in

Hitchcock´s films despite the apparent disruption of realism that is evidently present in

36
them because even though the description of lack of realistic credibility is accurate and

correct ―the complaint is unjust‖ (Brill 4). We should rather understand this as an

expression of a sense of romanticism in Hitchcock´s films which always contain large

amounts of irony but romance is actually one of strong and ever present unifying

features in them. Lesley Brill describes this as ―a dominating mode of many

Hitchcock´s films and an important element in all of them.‖ (5) In romantic

environment the nature of particular laws, their causes and consequences does not bear

significant importance and the occasional twist in realism and plausibility thus

necessarily occur:

In the world of romance, whether in film or in other

narrative media, the ordinary constraints of natural law

are loosened. As in dreams and nightmares, reality mixes

with projections of desire and anxiety. (Brill 6)

If we accept the idea that Alfred Hitchcock displayed significant inclination to

romance and abide by the rules established by him we will realize and understand that

such way of portrayal of certain events in Hitchcock´s films goes hand in hand with the

classical romantic tradition where realism is of minor significance as the objectives of

such works are far from delivering it, the key to the story is the romantic element. We

do not mind when the Green Knight picks up his decapitated head, walks away and

awaits Gawain to deliver him the fatal blow in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and we

do not mind that count Dracula is a vampire – nocturnal creature that feeds on human

blood. These unrealistic elements do not damage the essence of the romantic message, it

is the opposite – these elements help to build the sense of romanticism in a work of

37
literature or a movie. ―Folk tales swarm with talking plants and animals(...) brave

heroes, evil magicians and wicked stepmothers(...) the plot of romance leads to

adventure‖ (Brill 6). Of course, Hitchcock´s films do not contain such ―extreme‖

elements and they are far more realistic, nevertheless the world of Alfred Hitchcock is

romantic.

38
5. Suspense

5. 1 Suspense

It can be argued that utilization of suspense is the single most connecting element in the

films of Alfred Hitchcock. ―Suspense is a dramaturgy technique that plays of the

difference in knowledge between the audience and the characters on the screen‖ (Allen

32). Hoffman and Fahr define suspense as: ―Suspense can be conceptualized as an

enjoyable experience between hope and fear that relies on certain cognitive mechanisms

and often goes along with autonomic, physiological arousal‖ (2). It often revolves

around subjects such as: will the hero reach the right place and save the heroine before it

is too late? Will the bomb expert defuse the in time? Will the detective see the murderer

lurking in the alley? Suspense can be understood and defined as an intense feeling that

spectators experience during waiting for outcome of certain events. The most common

source of suspense in movies is the genre of thrillers and horrors which naturally rely on

intensive anxious feelings in order to maximally exploit their potential. The history of

suspense is closely connected to thrillers - a movie genre that is most strongly

associated with suspense. History of thrillers dates back to 1920´s and 1930´s, thus all

the way back to the era of silent films. One of the first important thrillers that shaped

this genre for more than a decade was Hitchcock´s first successful thriller film The

Lodger in 1926. If we look closer at the stage where suspense films originated from,

then the most common denominator is Alfred Hitchcock who truly was at the very

beginnings of the entire genre along with Fritz Lang, an Austrian filmmaker, whose

movie Spies is also considered as one of the first suspense movies. British directors such

as Walter Forde or George A. Cooper were also one of the first major directors who

developed the genre of thrillers in its first stages. The early stages of thrillers evolution

39
clearly became an English matter during the decade of 1930´s when a large number of

suspense films were released, in particular by Hitchcock, who would continue this trend

also in the next decade and many years further. However, suspense is by no means

limited to thrillers and horrors and it can be found and employed in any given film if

there is an opportunity to exploit dramatic tensions. In his work Theorizing the Movie

Image, Noel Carroll explains that ―races, chases, rescues and escapes are staples of the

genre‖ (102) and David Howard claims that suspense can literally be employed and

discovered in almost any given situation:

The promise of a kiss, a pay rise, drawing a queen on an

inside straight, a loose bolt in the airplane´s wheels –

anything that potentially causes a positive or negative future

change in the life of at least one character. (206)

The basis of suspense seemingly always revolves around the fact that the film

audience is constantly anticipating what may happen next in a given narrative situation

and by this anticipation the spectators can be manipulated in such a way to generate

suspense. ―We do not know what will happen but we do know might happen and

therefore feel tension about those possibilities‖ (Howard 52). When audience is

repeatedly reminded of the possibility that a certain event may occur, this fact allows to

build suspense and also, importantly, to maintain the tension throughout the narrative in

such a way that the identification of the audience with a relevant story does not

decrease. ―If we are not being allowed to care, then the storyteller has not informed us

what may or not may happen in the near future of the story. Both failures are deadly to

drama‖ (Howard 52). There is a number of ways how story teller (director) can align

40
audience with a film protagonist and allow him to identify with the character.

Identification and caring for a character does not necessarily mean that we have to

morally support the given protagonist. What is needed to generate suspense in such

situation is to eliminate any lack of interest in the outcome of a narrative situation from

the perspective of the audience. Once the connection between the spectator and any

relevant protagonist is established, whether the spectator likes or dislikes the

protagonist, suspense can be generated as the spectator cares about narrative outcome of

the story. The protagonist may wish that a certain character lives or perhaps dies but the

particular desire and motivation is almost irrelevant as almost any type of character can

create a narrative situation that is exploitable from this perspective. Linda Cowgill

explains ―that creating a connection with audience can be done by introducing universal

emotions such as fear, love, hate, injustice or embarrassment‖ (61) while Ray Frensham

suggests ―finding a way to make a character familiar, likeable or intriguing to the

audience‖ (58). In order to bring the audience closer and connect it with the reality of a

narrative, film makers use various film techniques, in particular close up shots and point

of view shots which highlight and emphasize facial expressions and reactions of

protagonists. Thomas Sipos explains that close-ups can create suspense because they put

the characters closer to an imagined threat: ―Unseen and unknown threats lurk off-

screen, waiting to pounce upon the characters, and because they are close to the frame

line, they're close to any threats lurking off-screen‖ (87). Further techniques that help to

build up suspense in important scenes are cutaways, high camera angles which create a

sense of fragility and vulnerability of characters and vice versa low camera angles

which are frequently used to introduce movie villains in order to make them look big

and ominous. Editing, lighting and sounds are also important for the task to generate

41
and maintain suspense throughout narratives.

The previously mentioned narrative and shooting techniques that are defining

features of suspense have in common the fact that they were employed by Alfred

Hitchcock to a large degree and in fact it was Hitchcock that pioneered many of them,

nevertheless there are many other famous directors who implemented suspense in their

films. Roman Polanski, Dario Argento, Brian de Palma or a more recent representative

Manoj Shyamalan are also famous for making films that are able to create intensive

emotions. However, ―he (Hitchcock) had in the ―golden era‖ of his career (from the mid

1950´s to the late 1960´s) developed a template for implementing suspense that worked

so well that it is still revered as the best examples of the use of suspense‖ (Sinyard 147).

The director himself gave a description what suspense was and how he approached it:

In suspense situation, the audience in is placed in a superior

position of knowledge to characters, knowing something that

the characters do not. For example, there is a bomb about to

explode under the table where they are sitting. This may create

a sense of vicarious identification with the character, but it

also yields a sense of distance from their fate, with the

spectator sharing with the narrator a sense of toying with and

controlling the destiny of his characters. (Allen 14)

Exploitation of suspense is one of major factors of Hitchcock´s work but Lesley

Brill argues that ―Hitchcock´s suspense is one of the techniques appropriate to the

working out of many of the variations of his central story, but it is far from omnipresent

or uniquely important‖ (18). It would be a mistake to view Hitchcock´s films as an

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implementation of constant tension despite the fact that suspense is a motif that most

often collocates with Hitchcock´s directorial style. Nevertheless, it is only one of

projected features of Hitchcock´s polymorphous cinematic landscape. If one generalizes

so widely the corpus of the director´s films then it is useful for obtaining general

understanding of the reoccurring principles that connect them but one should never take

it as a genesis principle behind all his films.

The films themselves, in their broadest shapes and smallest details,

constitute Hitchcock´s artistic world. The unifying tendencies that we

can extract from them must arise from our own experience as their

audience. These tendencies did not precede the making of the

movies, nor can they precede our understanding. (Brill 5)

Brill´s approach to suspense as being important but not ever present is in

contrast to Francois Truffaut who placed strong emphasis on the feature of suspense in

Hitchcock´s films. The scenes of suspense are ―privileged moments‖ (Hitchcock 15) and

Hitchcock wants ―each and every scene to be a privileged moment.‖ (Hitchcock 15)

This interpretation is very close to the observation of Richard Allen who claims that the

―idiom of suspense is the primary vehicle for Hitchcock´s romantic irony‖ (38). Despite

the frequent presence of suspense and seemingly opposing opinions on this matter by

several scholars, it would be too much of a simplification and dilution of Hitchcock´s

style to understand suspense as the primary driving force behind his movies. Even

Truffaut later admits that ―suspense sequences are by no means the only cues to

Hitchcock's authorship,‖ (Hitchcock 19) nevertheless suspense if one of the primary

unifying and identifying factors in the repertoire of the director. Hitchcock preferred the

use of suspense over surprise in his films as he believed that introduction of a surprise in

43
a narrative is never as effective as suspense created by a carefully structured scene. ―In

Hitchcock´s definition of suspense, suspense is defined in contrast to surprise‖ (Allen

46). The used surprise can be effective and shock the audience but its effect cannot be

maintained on a long term basis because once a surprise is discovered it has only a very

limited ―life span‖ in the eyes of the film spectators. In Hitchcock the idea of suspense

stretches far beyond the typical description of suspense narrative and it can be seen as

the central mode through which the narration flows but at the same time suspense

should not be automatically equaled with the core of Hitchcock´s films. Hitchcock´s

utilization of suspense is unique in the way that it is used to create romantic irony but

the sheer nature of it remains the same, it still is ―a channeling of emotions so that one is

entirely taken up with what is going to happen next‖ (Allen 38). Employment of

suspense circles around working with narrative information and it´s control in such

manner that allows the author to manipulate audience into a position which allows

introduction of intense emotions. When audience is manipulated into a position where

the director plays with narrative information, it creates emotional situations when the

audience is forced to ―entertain the prospect of a narrative outcome which is contrary to

the one that is desired‖ (Allen 38). However, the elements that precisely create suspense

are not always clear cut. While Hitchcock claimed that ―in the usual form of suspense it

is indispensable that the public be made perfectly aware of all of the facts involved,‖

(Truffaut, Hitchcock 72) other scholars argue that ―suspense relies upon the audience’s

strong sense of uncertainty about how events will play out,‖ (Knight, McKnight 108)

which emphasizes the fact that a part of narrative information must always be withheld

from the audience in order to intensify a given situation while the fact that the audience

is left in a superior knowledge position remains intact.

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 Suspense is composed of three things: ―fear, hope, and the cognitive state of

uncertainty‖ (Ortony, Clore, and Collins 131). Aaron Smutts defines fear as ―a feeling of

displeasure about the prospect of an undesirable event, and hope as a feeling of pleasure

about the prospect of a desirable event‖ (285). Spectators feel suspense when they are

afraid of a possible undesirable outcome of a certain situation. ―The intensity of our

feelings of suspense seems to rely on two features of an event’s outcome: its uncertainty

and the significance of what is at stake‖ (Smutts 281). However, if we overemphasize

the role of uncertainty, then we run into a problem of ―paradox of suspense‖. ―If

uncertainty is integral to the creation of suspense, then how is it that some films can still

be suspenseful on repeated viewings?‖ (Smutts 282) It can be argued that human beings

are capable of experiencing suspense despite knowing the outcome beforehand because

―evolution has not equipped humans with the ability to recall known outcomes to

repeated events, since there are no exactly repeated events in nature‖ (Smutts 282). As a

result, people can feel suspense and fear even when they face the same source of these

feelings, in our case, a certain movie. The spectators can fear the outcome of a situation

despite the fact that they know it. When we watch Rear Window for the first time, we

fear that Lisa will get caught by Thorwald, the murderer, in his apartment. If we watch

the film for the second time, there will still be a significant amount of suspense

generated by this scene even though we know not only that Lisa will survive this scene

but the entire film will have a happy ending. Therefore the idea that suspense requires

uncertainty and lack of information is not profoundly correct as there are many

situations where suspense is created without uncertainty being present in the film. ―The

tendency to think of suspense as intimately related to surprise, for which uncertainty is

required, may be one reason why many people think suspense requires the same.

45
Surprise is clearly not involved in all or even most cases of suspense‖ (Smutts 284). If

we think about suspense in the classical sense then we will inevitably encounter the

paradox of suspense. Aaron Smutts introduces his ―desire-frustration theory‖ which

allows us to not run into the paradox of suspense by focusing on the aspect of frustration

during suspenseful scenes in films.

On the desire-frustration theory, there is no paradox of

suspense, since it does not propose uncertainty as a

necessary condition for suspense. Regardless of our

knowledge of the outcome, we can be frustrated in our

attempts to affect the outcome of a narrative event. (289)

In their essay Reexperiencing Suspense and Surprise: Processes of Repeated

Exposure to Narrative Fiction, Hoffman and Fahr explore the reasons behind the fact

that even multiple exposures to the same source of suspense lead to similar effects.

Despite the fact that suspense or mystery movies heavily rely on their specific content to

generate the desire effect they should be (at least theoretically) not as suitable for

repeated exposure as other genres. However, a research by Hoffman and Fahr from

2006 showed that people opted to see films such as The Sixth Sense or Psycho more

often than other even though these particular films rely on their (surprise) point but this

fact does not prevent the audiences from re-watching them again and having the same or

near the same experience. ―One way to conceptualize repeated exposure to

communication is to conceive of it as an autotelic activity. Hence, recipients reuse

narrative media not only because of the above mentioned reasons, but also because they

enjoy and therefore seek the re-experience per se‖ (Hoffman, and Fahr 8). Multiple

exposures to suspense and surprise allow the viewer to shift his attention and cognitive

46
functions ―to a movie’s aspects other than the course of events‖ (Hoffman and Fahr 13).

This results in a situation where the viewer can concentrate on dialogues, specific

scenes and meanings and overall content in the film which he may have missed on first

viewing. When watching a movie for the first time, viewers tend to just follow the

course of events, whereas during repeated exposure they concentrate on favorite details,

with many viewers being keen on discovering new things. These elements can

subsequently enable the film to generate suspense to almost identical degree as during

the first experience. Another explanation to this phenomenon is the presence of

anticipation. As the viewer knows the outcome of a certain event in a particular film he

has already seen, the suspense in the film may now arise simply from the anticipation of

the oncoming suspense. It is suspense arising from proximity of suspense. The

anticipation of such event, which may or may not come, leads to build up of suspense.

The audience knows that something is going to happen and mentally prepares for the

event.

Most viewers enjoy the pleasant anticipation of certain scenes

or phrases when re-experiencing a narrative movie. Even in

cases of more extreme responses, e.g. to a horror movie,

anticipation of future events can also enhance emotional

reactions. (Hoffman, and Fahr 19)

Therefore the notion that lack of information and resulting uncertainty are the

core of suspense cannot be generally applied to each and every case and examples such

as Psycho or Rear Window demonstrate that certainty rather than uncertainty can

frequently make experience more suspenseful. ―The reason why the office scene in

Psycho can be more suspenseful on subsequent viewings is the fact that it is more

47
suspenseful because they know with certainty that Marion Crane will soon be murdered,

they do not want it to happen, and they cannot do anything about it‖ (Smutts 289). This

example shows us that it is not just the fact that we know more than the character that

generates tension and suspense but it is in particular the fact that we cannot provide help

despite knowledge of information that creates suspenseful situations. The spectators

literally worry about the possible undesired outcome of a specific situation and it is this

worry of a ―bad ending‖ that subsequently creates tension and suspense. This fact,

whether knowingly or unknowingly is exploited by Hitchcock:

Hitchcock exploits suspense in order to foster in the spectator an

allegiance to those forces that actually run counter to the resolution

of the story that is ostensibly desired. In this way, Hitchcock turns

the idiom of the thriller into a playfully perverse challenge to, and

manipulation of, our customary moral responses. (Smith 150)

The entire employment of suspense constantly revolves around anxiety

originating from uncertainty about what is going to happen next and how this fact will

affect the final outcome of the narrative situation factoring in also our inability to

change such outcome. In this sense we are speaking about the so called classical

suspense where ―the question what happens next? is dramatized through the

representation of two alternate narrative outcomes of a specific kind: one is desirable

and hence wished for but unlikely, the other is undesirable hence feared but more

likely‖ (Carroll 101). However, Aaron Smuts argues that the superior position of

knowledge does not guarantee a suspenseful situation, it is the presence of something

through which we can help a certain character that creates suspense: ―Merely knowing

more than a character does not create suspense, but when we know something that could

48
help a character that we care about stay alive, and we are unable to relay the

information, we feel suspense‖ (285). Ergo suspense is also a result of our inability to

act and actively participate in an event whose outcome can possibly be negative and

dangerous. It is the frustration resulting from having limited or no power on the

outcome and also course of a situation that creates suspense. ―Our inability to affect

narratives is often something we are aware of and something that masters of suspense

frequently exploit‖ (Smutts 285). Example of this hypothesis can be found in Rear

Window, where the most suspenseful situation is established by Hitchcock when Lisa

Fremont breaks into the apartment of the supposed killer, Lars Thorwald. The scene is

entirely taken from the perspective of L.B. Jefferies who is watching the whole scene

bound to his chair. He is absolutely powerless to help his lover escape from the

extremely dangerous situation. We do not see the situation from Lisa´s perspective,

rather than that, it is Jefferies who literally becomes the spectator with absolute

knowledge of the situation. He is placed in superior position to that of Lisa, the active

participator, having complete knowledge of the situation but just like the movie

audience he lacks crucial information – the outcome of the situation. With only

binoculars in his hands he cannot change the outcome of the narrative. He is a

protagonist in a film but he also becomes a spectator that comes to watch a movie in a

cinema. This is an example of what Aaron Smuts means be frustration from the inability

to influence narrative. ―The nature of non interactive narratives precludes the

satisfaction of our desire to warn any and every character. The most important reason

why these scenes are so suspenseful is that they are highly effective at frustrating the

audience’s ability to satisfy its desire to make manifest a particular outcome‖ (285).

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5. 2 Subjective Suspense and Exploitation of Spatial Setting

Hitchcock described suspense as objective suspense and labeled his employment

of suspense as an introduction of a ―subjective factor‖ which in fact has two

manifestations. One definition of the subjective factor is ―letting the audience

experience it through the mind or the eyes of one of the characters‖ (Allen 40). This

technique contrasts to the employment of objective suspense, or shall we say the

classical suspense:

In classical suspense, the temporal deadline created by a sense of an

imminent catastrophe creates a ratio of probability in which, as the

time passes, the likelihood of a bad outcome increases relative to the

likelihood of a good outcome. (Carroll 106)

The use of subjective camera which allows the audience to share something with the

film character is typical for Hitchcock in order to create subjective suspense. We

observe a given situation through the eyes and from the perspective of affected

character. Susan Smith calls this employment of suspense as ―vicarious suspense‖ (57)

as the audience is forced to feel suspense in the place of the character. The feeling of

suspense in the place of a character is demonstrated in Psycho when sister of murdered

Marion Crane, Lila, goes to the house where the murderer lives and wants to speak with

an old woman, who at the time is suspected by the viewers to be the killer. Therefore

Lila is in significant danger and the audience fears for her life. ―We feel excruciating

tension and fear on behalf of the character as she approaches the mansion. Hitchcock´s

practice is an intensification of aspects of vicarious suspense‖ (Smith 65). Another

example of this technique is in Birds. Melanie Daniels, the main heroine, is sitting,

50
smoking and waiting for children, unaware of the fact that a large number of birds has

been gathering behind her. ―This classic rendition of vicarious suspense is accompanies

by a mesmerizing repetition of the children´s song that serves to mark out the passing of

time‖ (Allen 47). When Melanie discovers what has been happening behind her back

Hitchcock quickly cuts to her face to show her reaction and thus levels her knowledge

of a dangerous situation with the knowledge of the spectators. These techniques give the

spectators chance to identify with the character and get drawn into the scene which

subsequently strengthens and emphasizes the experience the spectators get from

watching the film. Hitchcock always tried to make the camera more than just a camera.

The spectator should never feel like watching a film but he should feel like actually

being in the frame while still feeling frustrating limitations imposed by methods that can

be executed to influence the narrative. This Hitchcock´s obsession with camera had

roots in the silent film era when the only storytelling tool of the directors was the

camera. Without sound, directors had to rely upon utilization of the correct camera

angles in order to convey the desired meaning and message of a particular scene. An

example of a subjective camera used in order to generate subjective suspense is point of

view shot sequence where the audience is presented with close up shots of the

character´s reactions or directly with his point of view.

The difference between the subjective and objective suspense seems to be the

distinction whether the suspense and tension is streamed through the eyes of a character

or not. But despite this explanation being logical and inherently right, it was not the idea

behind the employment of subjective suspense by Hitchcock. What the director rather

wanted was not to contrast the objective suspense by giving the spectator an alternative

by offering him the point of view of a character but presenting the audience with limited

51
knowledge of the situation which subsequently results in ―making the audience suffer‖

(Allen 41). But the employment of this technique does not mean that Hitchcock

completely rejected the idea of using the objective suspense in his films.

Hitchcock´s camerawork alternates between the highly

subjective (as Bordwell says, reinforcing the narrative’s stress

on a single character’s point of view) and the omniscient,

concealing information as a way of building up suspense. (Allen

195)

Rather than restricting utilization of suspense to subjective view, Hitchcock

introduces another feature to allow the audience to identify with a certain character and

experience dramatic situation more intensively. ―Hitchcock´s interest in subjective

suspense consists, in part, in intensifying the kind of character identification that is

present in classical suspense, often by restricting us to the narrative point of in the view

of a single character under duress‖ (Allen 42). If we return to the scene in North by

Northwest when the crop dusting plane attacks Roger Thornhill on the seemingly

abandoned road in Illinois, the narrative is almost exclusively employed from the point

of view of Roger Thornhill, who fights for his life. ―In this kind of ―shared suspense‖

the character himself is placed in the position of experiencing anxiety and the audience

is aligned with him‖ (Allen 43). Hitchcock also uses establishing shots, or we can use

the term omniscient shots, in North by Northwest in order to establish an overview of

the upcoming scene. It is this combination of these big establishing shots and close ups

of Roger Thornhill that creates this famous scene where Thornhill fights for his life.

North by Northwest is therefore an ideal example of how Hitchcock did not only rely on

subjective suspense but rather combined these two techniques. First, the audience is

52
presented with an overview of the scene which clearly shows that environment is rather

empty and plain which later serves for generating of helplessness and danger as

Thornhillt has almost nowhere to hide from the attacking crop dusting plane. By using

subjective camera Hitchcock then puts the spectators in Thornhill´s shoes as he tries to

outsmart his killers. This utilization of subjective suspense works very well in this

particular scene. What North by Northwest also shows is the way Hitchcock utilized

space in his movies. Hitchcock was extremely successful in exploiting the dramatic

potential of space. He correctly discovered that it is inevitable for us to experience the

most intense feelings of fear and danger when located in a tight spatial surrounding.

This can serve as an explanation to why Hitchcock set so many of the most important

scenes from his films to rather tight and small compartments such as passenger train car

in North by Northwest or the meeting scene between Guy and Bruno in Strangers on a

Train. Tight spatial settings were not only restricted to scenes but also to entire films. In

Lifeboat the story takes place on a lifeboat where a group of people await their fate on

an open ocean. In Rear Window, the main protagonist is confined to a chair for several

weeks because he broke his leg and is unable to walk. Almost the entire film is shot in

the protagonist´s apartment, an unusually small space given the fact that the film is

basically a detective romantic thriller. The idea is to limit the protagonist´s options to

escape from situations of danger. The technique is effective but also demanding to

properly execute as the setting quite often does not allow enough maneuverability for

the director.

Rear Window is concentrated in a single set of neighboring buildings which

allows for development of the story, it allows unfolding of the narrative. In fact, it is the

spatial setting that allows existence of Rear Window as the entire film and climax of

53
major scenes depend on it. ―The spatial setting of the film creates anxieties regarding

privacy and surveillance which are mobilized by the design of the set‖ (Coon 60). The

underlying tension which runs throughout the film and the fear of getting caught while

spying combined with tight space where Jefferies finds himself in ―make him visually

vulnerable to the gazes of others, reminding the audience of the implications of privacy

invasion (Coon 60). The example of Rear Window shows us that the spatial boundaries

between private and public life are very thin and can lead to severe consequences.

Hitchcock uses this situation to generate suspense by putting the spectators into

Jefferies´ perspective which means that they never know more than him. Just like Jeff,

the spectators are restricted in their view and knowledge which intensifies suspense.

By telling the story almost exclusively from Jeff’s visual

perspective, and by confining Jeff to the immediate visual

and aural space around him, Hitchcock allows the audience

to see only those moments that can also be seen by the

protagonist within the film. (Coon 61)

By revealing only certain part of space of Jefferies´ neighbors Hitchcock creates

on screen and off screen space which demonstrates the withdrawal of information that

the audience, where Jefferies also belongs, has to experience. This technique intensifies

curiosity and generates suspense as we do not know what is happening off the screen

despite the fact that Jefferies´ binoculars may actually be literally only a few inches

away from important events. ―The situation turns suspenseful after Jeff suspects

Thorwald of killing his wife. During the time that Jeff is spying on him, Thorwald

occasionally chooses to pull his blinds, preventing Jeff from knowing the full story of

what’s going on inside Thorwald’s apartment‖ (Coon 62). The environment where

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Jefferies moves in Rear Window displays only such amount of information which

enables to make him as well as the film audience suspicious of a potential crime but at

the same time it conceals and withdraws important pieces of information that provide

answers to his questions regarding the potentially dangerous neighbor. The anxiety and

suspense gradually increase. ―Hitchcock never allows the camera to invade anyone’s

privacy any more than the onscreen characters are able to‖ (Coon 63). The suppression

of vital information through the use of space is most notably visible in the scene where

Lisa delivers a message to Thorwald. She is standing in front of Thorwald´s apartment

and she and Thorwald are both visible. ―Throughout the sequence, the design of the

space, coupled with the angle from which it is shot, conceals vital information (each

other’s location) from the main characters while revealing that same information to the

audience‖ (Coon 63). The design and structure of this scene shows characters in

proximity to each other even though they may actually be separated by a wall or door.

The characters are unaware that they are so close to a potential danger while the movie

spectators, and in this case also Jefferries, know it which increases the sense of danger

which only the audience understands. Another example of a situation when characters

lack information regarding a nearby approaching danger can be found at the end of the

film when Thorwald goes to Jefferies´ apartment in order to get rid of him. Jeff is

unaware that Thorwald is approaching his apartment and he is in lethal danger. The

audience is also unaware of this fact for a brief moment until Hitchcock uses sounds of

approaching Thorwald on staircase to draw attention to this fact.

Rear Window offers a long slow build in narrative tension,

originating in anxiety but developing into suspense and terror.

The design of the courtyard creates a space where the bounds

55
 of privacy are very weak. Both Jeff and the audience initially

cross these boundaries only visually, creating a sense of

unease about the social violation involved. (Coon 64)

Hitchcock´s exploitation of spatial setting is heavily present in Psycho as well.

Here the director introduces something which may be designated as spatial duality. At

the beginning of the film we see a skyline of Phoenix city, a place with a large

concentration of population, where Marion Crane decides to steal money and

subsequently run away. Ironically, when Marion leaves the city to hide in an isolated

motel, it is a fatal decision as the isolated space which should have provided her

protection from police is more dangerous than Phoenix. Hitchcock establishes two

major locations in the first half of the film, each representing something different.

―Separation replaces concentration, distance supplants proximity, and the highway and

the automobile supersede the street and the pedestrian‖ (Dimendberg 177). The isolated

setting of the Bates motel introduces ―additional sources of tension,‖ (Coon 63) and

stimulates viewer´s discomfort. Additional contrasting places which create sense of

duality are the house where Bates´ mother (supposedly) lives and the motel itself. In

fact, the entire film is based on duality as we know that Norman Bates´ mind is

occupied by two distinctive personalities and this fact is reflected in the division

between the motel and the house. The motel represents Norman and the house is the

central space of his mother. Just like the main protagonists who are kept away from the

house by Bates, so are the spectators of the film kept away from the house by Hitchcock

who limits their knowledge of the situation.

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 The house and the motel stand as two distinct spaces, defined by

their appearance, their function, and their inhabitants. For those

who find comfort in clearly drawn boundaries, the two buildings

may initially seem to reinforce the rigidity of the various binaries

that they represent. (Coon 64)

Generation of suspense in Psycho comes from the duality of the house and the

motel when Hitchcock establishes boundaries whose crossing is potentially lethal. This

is demonstrated by the character of Arbogast who sneaks into the Bates residence and is

killed. By withholding vital information from the characters in the film as well as from

spectators, Hitchcock is able to exploit the spatial setting of the film to maintain

suspense throughout it. ―In addition to establishing an underlying sense of tension, the

built environment of Psycho contributes to the suspense of specific scenes, as Hitchcock

maneuvers characters through the built spaces of the set‖ (Coon 65). The spatial setting

in Psycho is vitally important for creation of suspense similarly to Rear Window where

only the nature of the set allows to exploit its potential to the fullest.

However, Hitchcock did not limit his suspense scenes solely to tight rooms,

dangerous houses and compartments. In fact, probably one of the most famous scenes

where Hitchcock was able to put the protagonist of his film to a dangerous situation and

build suspense was in already mentioned North by Northwest where Roger Thornhill

fights a crop dusting plane whose pilot wants to kill him in one of the most unusual and

spectacular ways. This particular scene is far from being set in a tight space where the

protagonist has nowhere to go, it is exactly the opposite. Cary Grant, who plays Roger

Thrornhill, has acres of space to move to but despite this fact the scene works well. By

57
using subjective camera view, Hitchcock is able to align the spectators with Roger

Thornhill, thus allowing viewers´ identification with the character and suspense can be

successfully created and maintained throughout the entire scene. Unlike in Rear

Window, the crop dusting scene in North by Northwest is very simple and easy to orient

in– no information withdrawal is employed by Hitchcock in this case but he is

nevertheless able to create suspense by closely following a character that fights for his

life.

Hitchcock´s suspense also differs from classical suspense ―because it involves

narrative suppression rather than narrative omniscience‖ (Allen 45). But this kind of

interpretation was strictly denied by Hitchcock who claimed that ―mystery is seldom

suspenseful, in a whodunnit for example, there is no suspense, but a sort of intellectual

puzzle‖ (Truffaut, Hitchcock 147). However, the suppression of narrative information

does not only equal to whodunnit examples. In Vertigo, basically the entire narrative

structure circles around mysterious alleged presence of a ghost of long deceased

Carlotta Valdez who is supposed to be controlling Madeleine, the main female

protagonist. The mystery fuels a general uncertainty and possible danger that is present

in the film and it shows that mystery and surprise can actually co-exist very efficiently,

generating intense atmosphere. ―The mysterious situation is the one that does engender

concern about the future on the part of the audience in the form of the anxious

anticipation that characterizes suspense‖ (Allen 56). Gavin Elster´s plot to murder his

wife in Vertigo is withheld from both the spectators and Scottie, the main protagonist. In

this particular example, we share the mystery of alleged ghost possession of a young

lady. ―His and our preoccupation with understanding this mystery only serves to conceal

more completely the deeper secret that comes as a total surprise: the woman faked her

58
possession‖ (Allen 47).

The employment of suspense by using narrative suppression, i.e. withholding of

crucial information from the audience as well as movie characters, is almost ever

present in Hitchcock films because it significantly facilitates the creation of suspense

through implementation of emotion. ―It is typically fostered by aligning the audience

with the restricted viewpoint of a character who anxiously desires and fears the

resolution of a mystery‖ (Allen 54). During his documented interviews with Hitchcock,

Truffaut told the director that suspense in the form of Alfred Hitchcock involved the

―stretching out of an anticipation in connection with a hidden danger‖ (Truffaut,

Hitchcock 72). An example can be found in Psycho few moments before Marion Crane

is brutally stabbed to death by Norman Bates. Hitchcock sets the scene in such a way

that the spectator´s viewpoint is from behind the curtain and it is possible to see dark

figure sneaking in. The suspicion is that the figure is Norman Bates´ mother, however it

is impossible to be sure about the identity of the murderer. ―Our perception of this figure

gives us knowledge that is superior to the character, and thus we worry on her behalf,

but it does so only to alert us to a mystery‖ (Allen 71). This example demonstrates the

relationship between omniscience with limited knowledge of the film character. The

goal in this case is to put the spectator into a position where his knowledge of a situation

is superior to the knowledge of a character. In Sabotage the protagonist, Stevie, has to

deliver a parcel to a destination point, the issue is that he is unaware that the parcel

contains a bomb which will explode at 1:45 pm. By using this clearly defined deadline

Hitchcock establishes a situation of suspense when he audience knows about the

imminent danger. The effect of this scene is being strengthened by numerous delays

when he gets lost in crowded market place and he is even delayed by a street peddler.

59
Hitchcock also periodically reminds the audience about the ticking bomb by close up

shots of the explosive device whose imminent explosion gets closer with every second

that passes. Stevie is still unaware of the deadly danger and the scene continues. The

time goes by and everyone, except for Stevie, awaits the explosion. Then, Hitchcock

rapidly cuts to 1:45, he shows three shots of the bomb in fast succession and then the

explosion.

In many ways this is a tour-de-force of classical suspense.

All the cues given to the spectator conspire to make us

worry on the boy´s behalf that an imminent catastrophe is

about to occur, and our anxiety is progressively ratcheted up

by the orchestration of narrative elements. (Allen 50)

It can be argued that as a result of this approach the spectators of Hitchcock´s

films are exposed to two contrasting directions at one time. They have a lot of sympathy

for the protagonist, in the previous case for Stevie, and at the same time they ―are aware

of the hand of the director who relishes the orchestration of imminent catastrophe‖

(Allen 50). The entire scene is also exciting for audience not only due to suspenseful

situation but also due to its result, in Sabotage, Stevie, an innocent participator in the

grand scheme of the plot, is killed. First, the spectators emotionally identified with

Stevie only to be surprised by his death. This was something that violated the rules and

basic convention of the genre. ―The boy was involved in a situation that got him too

much sympathy from the audience, so that when the bomb exploded and he was killed

the public was resentful‖ (Carroll 78).

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5.3 Shared Suspense and Morality of Suspense

The example from Sabotage demonstrated suspense situation when audience is

in a much superior knowledge position than the protagonist but Hitchcock also

employed the structure which may be labeled as shared suspense which is a situation

when both the protagonist and the spectator know about imminent danger. In The Man

Who Knew Too Much Jo Mckenna tries to save her kidnapped son. In this example the

protagonist has almost as much information as the spectator. An interesting example of

this technique applied by Hitchcock in many of his movies can also be found in one of

his later films, Marnie. In the particular scene the main protagonist, Marnie, steals

money from her employer´s strongbox. While she is carrying the money out of the

office she must evade a cleaning lady. We are put into Marnie´s point of view as she

slowly sneaks past the unknowing cleaning lady but we also know something which

Marnie does not. One of her shoes, which she took off and put into her pocket in order

to prevent any sound, is about to fall from the pocket and thus compromise Marnie´s

escape. The shoe eventually falls off and makes a loud noise. However, the cleaning

lady does not notice anything. Hitchcock withheld an important piece of information

from Marnie and from the spectators as well: the cleaning lady is deaf. This particular

scene shows how shared suspense creates identification with a character and by the final

point, the cleaning lady´s deafness, the director shows that lack of single piece of

information can build, carry and maintain suspense throughout the entire scene.

Shared suspense is the driving force behind already mentioned Rear Window

which is shot in such a way that establishes shared suspense from the start until the end.

In the film, Hitchcock almost never gives spectators more information than what is at

disposal of the main protagonists. We only see what the protagonists can see and

61
therefore we are not only invited to share the suspense with the characters, we are force

to it by the nature of the film.

Hitchcock also uses the structure of shared suspense to create situation which

allows us not only to share suspense with hero but also with the villain, therefore a

situation which seemingly goes contrary to the desired narrative outcome. When

Norman Bates tries to dispose of the body of the murdered Marion Crane in Psycho, he

stops for a second before the car with the dead body finally sinks into the swamp. When

the car stops for a moment a situation of shared suspense with the villain is created by

Hitchcock. ―Through shared suspense we are invited to wish for the body of Marion

Crane, with whom we have strongly identified until her untimely death, to disappear for

good, although this wish runs utterly counter to the moral outcome of the story‖ (Allen

80). In this particular scene Hitchcock plays with the spectators by confusing them with

the true identity of the killer. He creates ―sympathy for the devil‖ by giving Norman

Bates rather sympathetic traits and characteristics which allow the spectators to identify

with him and share suspense situations.

We do not simply sympathize with the character and therefore feel

suspense, we are also made to feel anxiety on behalf of the character by

being placed in his narrative situation and therefore sympathize with

him. It is not simply that Hitchcock in this scene creates a sympathetic

devil whose point of view we can then share, he creates sympathy for the

devil by inviting us to share the devil´s point of view. (Allen 53)

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 Hitchcock claimed that suspense was not generally tied to moral. ―If audience

knew there is a bomb ticking under a conference table waiting to explode, while Hitler

was sitting at the table unaware, the audience would still feel suspense regardless of

how they felt about the character‖ (Truffaut, Hitchcock 73). Hitchcock´s films and

suspense situations in them seem to be examples of the fact that the spectators do not

necessarily have to be morally aligned to a certain character in order to feel suspense

and identify with him. In the previous examples such as in Rear Window, the spectator

could morally align with the main protagonist because the protagonist was in right and it

was morally correct to support him. But Hitchcock also forces the spectator to feel for

and support a character that should be viewed as the complete opposite. Therefore the

scene from Psycho demonstrates that moral outcomes of certain situation can be largely

irrelevant from the perspective of identification and feeling suspense together with a

protagonist. Hitchcock´s creation of suspense illustrates that human response to being

in a character´s situation is ―a more primitive or hardwired response which our moral

responses may support or counteract but that is not reducible to them‖ (Allen 53). Our

ability to identify with a movie protagonist is not limited to ―good guys‖ and Hitchcock

cleverly exploits this because he is able to manipulate the audience into identification

with point of view of someone who objectively does not deserve it. Thus even if we

watch Psycho for second time and we know that Norman Bates is the killer, we still

identify with him and feel suspense on his behalf when he disposes of Marion Crane´s

dead body.

Identification is usually associated with the feelings of sympathy

we may have for a character that is rooted in our evaluation of

that character´s moral worth. However, films may align the

63
 audience with the point of view of a character in the sense of

encouraging us to see a narrative situation from their perspective.

(Allen 54)

Despite a significant distance between true sympathies and wishes for moral and

narrative outcome of a given story, spectators can be manipulated into shared suspense

situation with an antagonist and momentarily support his actions even though moments

later they once again ―root‖ for the hero of the story. ―Suspense situation thus

contributes to sympathy for the devil by severing our emotional responses to character

from their customary moral anchor‖ (Allen 59). The alignment with Norman Bates in

Psycho is also possible due to the fact which was already mentioned, his character

possesses generally positive character traits, at least until his true identity is revealed.

But Hitchcock is able to align spectators with completely negative and unsympathetic

characters such as Rober Husk in Frenzy. This protagonist is a serial killer and in a

particular scene he tries to get hold of a tiepin which is a clue that can lead police to the

identity of the killer – to him. In this case Hitchcock applies an interesting strategy in

order to establish identification and positive feelings towards generally negative and

unlikable character. He contrasts Rusk with negative properties of the main hero,

Richard Blaney, an upper class, egoistical coward. Rusk is portrayed as a victim of

society and unlucky circumstances. When he tries to find the tiepin, the scene is shot

from the point of view that creates sympathy for otherwise despicable character. The

audience can align and share suspense with Rusk in this scene, once again manipulated

by Hitchcock into this situation at least for a short and limited space in time.

Nevertheless, Hitchcock´s employment of suspense in connection with morality

was not only utilized in order to manipulate audience into sympathizing, at least

64
temporarily, with a villain.

It is a critical commonplace about Hitchcock´s work that he works

almost wholly within the genre of thriller, a narrative idiom that

usually involves, among other things, the articulation of clear-cut

moral coordinates that discriminate the good guys from the bad

through the commission of a criminal action that usually involves

murder. (Allen 73)

Suspense in Hitchcock´s movies generally circles around the issues of morality

and the sense of loyalty that these topics create in the spectator. An example can be

found in The 39 Steps where the main protagonist, Richard Hannay, is framed for

murder which he did not commit. Similar situation is present in Notorious where Alicia

Huberman is designated to execute a dangerous mission to infiltrate a German spy ring

which is working on a nuclear bomb in Brazil. Third example can be taken from

Strangers on a Train where Guy Haines is caught up in a diabolical plot in which the

villain, Bruno Anthony kills his wife and threatens to frame him for the murder unless

Guy kills Bruno´s father. The obstacles that the hero has to overcome in these narratives

place him in the ―wrong man‖ situation. Hitchcock thus frequently creates a situation

where we can witness conflict between morality and injustice as the hero tries to clear

his name and reveal the truth. In these films, Hitchcock utilizes the general principles of

morality to connect the spectators with the main protagonists who are in danger. What

also revolves around suspense that is generated in Hitchcock´s films around plot which

involves a conflict between hero and villain is a link to suspense which is created by

romantic elements. The situation where the hero must overcome an overwhelmingly

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difficult situation possesses intrinsically romantic elements. Hitchcock described this

phenomenon as: ―Suspense is as much a feature of the romance as it is of the pure

thriller, although the emotional emphasis of romantic suspense is different‖ (Knight, and

McKnight 108). If we look at suspense from the perspective of a thriller then our

concern lies ―with the threat posed by the agents of evil and we fear for the hero´s

safety‖ (Allen 73) whereas the focus of romantic comedy is placed ―in our wish for a

happy outcome and the way in which that wish is frustrated by obstacles placed in the

way of the romance‖ (Allen 75). If we combine these two elements than we can

significantly strengthen the ―emotional investment‖ in the outcome of the plot.

Hitchcock used this combination very frequently in his films as he introduced romantic

elements into thrillers which helped the spectators to be emotionally involved in the

film.

5.4 Sexuality, Voyeurism, Humor and Suspense

Hitchcock partially employs suspense in his films by connecting suspense with

human sexuality. Hitchcock ―provides an incentive to enjoy suspense by trading upon

the allure of human perversity‖ (Allen 68). He usually treats human sexuality as

something which is intrinsically perverse and is often linked to violence. The scenes of

suspense in Hitchcock´s films often contain sexual content, sometimes directly and

other times in a more subdued and indirect form. ―Hitchcock´s aestheticism

characteristically involves at once invoking human perversity and holding it at bay as a

kind of visual pun or darkly comic double-entendre – a masculine form‖ (Bauso 238).

André Bazin said that Hitchcock complained to him about the ―necessity of renouncing

adult, masculine humor in order to satisfy American producers‖ (Bazin 65). If we look

66
at this masculine feature from the perspective of suspense, we can discover that

Hitchcock shapes the ingredients of classical suspense so he can demonstrate and

present perversity of male protagonists. By examining one of the oldest major films

made by Hitchcock during the era of silent movies, The Lodger, we will see that the

main idea of the films circles around the question whether the main protagonist of the

film, a mysterious stranger, is a dangerous and wanted murderer. The stranger is also in

love with the main heroine therefore suspense situations arise from the possible close

proximity of lethal danger to the heroine. Hitchcock cleverly obscures everything that

the stranger does with ambiguity so that it is never clear what the stranger is up to and

whether he really is the dangerous, perverse killer. ―Is he approaching the bathroom to

apologize for giving her a gift or to attack her? Is his look the look for love or

annihilation? Is he reaching for the poker to put out the fire or to strike the heroine?‖

(Allen 90). These confusing and ambiguous scenes create suspense in the classical sense

as we fear of what might happen to the female protagonist if the stranger truly is the

wanted murderer. Hitchcock plays with the audience by hinting at the possible sexual

deviation of Ivor Novello´s (Stranger) character.

The rationale of the suspense here seems to be that while the

audience is invited to root for the heroine and fear on her behalf, we

are also invited to enjoy the portrayal of a desire that is perverse and

potentially deadly. The conventional moral coordinates of suspense

are undermined by the invitation to enjoy the threat posed by the

hero and the sexual tension it evokes. (Allen 80)

Similar example can be found in Strangers on a Train where Bruno, who is

insane, is tailing Miriam, a rather unsympathetic character. We cannot identify with

67
Miriam as we feel little sympathy for her. Hitchcock creates suspense around sexual

tension combined with the fact that even though we do care little for Miriam we do not

know what Bruno is really going to do and we nervously expect what is going to

happen. The entire feel of the chase scene is very sexual as Miriam flirts with various

men and even seems to give a flirty look to Bruno just seconds before he murders her.

Hitchcock once again puts us into the viewpoint of Bruno, therefore into a position of a

deranged man who is about to kill an innocent woman during a rather ―sexualized‖

scene. ―Hitchcock align us with Bruno and evokes, with extraordinary formal dexterity,

the thrill of the sexual chase, laced with the aura of deadliness‖ (Bauso 236).

Closely related to build up of suspense through depiction of sexuality and

perversity is employment of voyeurism in Hitchcock´s films. The best example of this

relation of voyeurism and sexuality as driving forces to create suspense can be found in

Rear Window. Here Hitchcock allows the spectator to identify himself with the main

character as the main protagonist is a spectator himself. Just like a movie audience, L.B.

Jefferies watches the world around him due to his temporary disability to walk.

―Hitchcock playfully exploits the distinction between character and spectator, as well as

their possible alignment‖ (Allen 90). In Rear Window Hitchcock exploits the notion of

perversity of voyeurism but ironically, it is the voyeurism that allows Jefferies to

identify and subsequently even catch a murderer. Hitchcock suggests numerous times

throughout the film that spying is immoral and perverse but at the same time he mocks

this moral assessment by allowing Jefferies to use this perversity to catch a dangerous

wife killer. The instance of spying on other and the notion of voyeurism ―is endowed in

an aura of perversity in spite of the ostensible innocence of the character involved‖

(Allen 92). The entire film thus feels at times as a black comedy. Despite the uneasy

68
feeling that a possible murderer lives just a few meters away from the apartment of the

main hero, we cannot resist a strange feeling that we are literally voyeurs eavesdropping

on another voyeur.

Hitchcock constructs in Rear Window a condition of acute

anxiety and apparent concern, L.B. Jefferies looks upon Lisa

Fremont under assault but the Spectator is invited to

perversely relish this scene in a way that the character

ostensibly does not. (Allen 100)

We can safely watch L.B. Jefferies watch but at the same time this scenario

successfully creates suspense as we, just like Jefferies, cannot influence what is

happening on the screen and we cannot help Lisa Fremont escape from Thorwald´s

apartment. The idea of morality and its connection to suspense and perversity and

voyeurism can also be detected in Rear Window. The idea is represented by Stella who

criticizes Jefferies for spying on his neighbors. ―We've become a race of Peeping Toms.

What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change. Yes sir.

How's that for a bit of homespun philosophy?‖ But once again Hitchcock mocks this

―moral lesson‖ - Stella soon joins Jefferies and Lisa in their investigation and she is

willing to spy on others as well.

Rear Window is not the only example of voyeurism in Hitchcock´s films as a

mean to generate suspense. In Vertigo Scottie follows Madeleine and then eventually

becomes totally obsessed with her. Scottie´s following of Madeleine becomes perverse

as we know that he clearly becomes more and more obsessed with her and it is actually

he who basically leads Madeleine to her death.

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 Hitchcock´s mastery of suspense consists in being an

aesthete of suspense, and this involves, at once, giving

perverse sexual content to the anticipated outcome in a

suspenseful situation (often disguised) and prolonging the

outcome through the self-conscious play of style. (Smith

85)

Hitchcock frequently restores to use of black humor in his films in order to

lighten the tension which results from a given situation which the audience is exposed

to. Examples of this technique are present in number of Hitchcock´s films and even the

most serious topics and situations are often relieved of pressure by Hitchcock in

subsequent scenes. In North by Northwest such scene occurs when Roger Thornhill

steps into an elevator with his mother and with his pursuers. The situation that Thornhill

finds himself in is potentially very dangerous as he knows that the men who are chasing

him already tried to kill him. Hitchcock eases the intense moments by introducing a

joke when Thornhill´s mother asks the killers: ―You gentleman aren´t really trying to

kill my son, are you?‖ Seconds later the men start laughing and the entire elevator

follows. Hitchcock completely diverts attention from the dangerous situation and

instead shows how ridiculous the entire situation seems. In Rear Window, nurse Stella

often provides comic relief in suspense moments and the entire relation triangle

between Jeff, Stella and Lisa offers numerous comic situations, in particular when Jeff

and Lisa argue about their relationship only moments after the suspicious neighbor

seem seems to be carrying a dead body in a suitcase out from his apartment. By using

black humor, Hitchcock diffuses negative emotions that arise during situations which

70
are inherently not funny and dissolves suspense situations in order to continue in the

narrative in a less serious way.

Black humor often occurs in situations which are distinctive for the presence of

inverted morality in suspense. As I already mentioned, Hitchcock frequently aligns

audience with a character that is morally wrong, such as killer or a thief and

manipulates the spectators to temporarily support the given character. Example of

connection between humor and identification with a morally stained character can be

seen in Rope where two men kill their victim as an intellectual exercise. In one

particular scene one of the culprits cynically tells jokes which are pointing at the fact

that murdered victim might be close. The situation is funny and Hitchcock sets the

scene in such a way that we are identified with the killers by using black humor.

We may be appalled by Brandon´s warped sense of

humor but since we can´t help getting the morbid jokes

(…) We are thus continually being forced to identify

with the killers, an identification that is, paradoxical

and tension-charged. (Bauso 233)

As we can see, humor can facilitate ―subversion of our customary narrative

allegiances in situations of suspense‖ (Allen 63). Moments that contain elements of

humor often encourage the viewers to watch morally despicable actions such as getting

rid of a dead body. Humor facilitates the connection between viewers and the film and

relives the spectators during tense situations and helps to facilitate this ―guilty

pleasure‖. In Frenzy Hitchcock introduces black comedy elements to facilitate

identification with Rusk when the killer must retrieve tiepin from a dead body.

71
Hitchcock softens the entire situation by creating a number of obstacles that prevent

Rusk from getting to the tiepin. When he finally discovers it, he cannot release it from

the corpse and he eventually ends up with his head in between the corpse´s legs, hinting

at necrophilia. ―The way Hitchcock invites us to root for Rusk during his ordeal is an

extreme instance of black comedy combining suspense to elicit sympathy with the

devil‖ (Allen 84). The dark humor that is introduced by Hitchcock very often in the

most ironic and cynical ways is a strong driving force behind the suspense itself

because even though it relieves the tension and generally lightens the tone of the

narrative it offers Hitchcock the opportunity to later re-introduce the suspense in a

different way and thus invite the viewers to experience the suspense situation again.

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6. Conclusion

Alfred Hitchcock ventured into many film genres during his career and elements

of thrillers, horrors, black comedies, romances and drama can be observed in his films.

One of the most recurring unifying elements in his works are problematic relationships

of characters with their mother with the most prominent example being Norman Bates

from Psycho. The themes of mistaken identities and innocent protagonists who are

framed for a crime are present in North by Northwest or The Wrong Man. Presence of a

femme fatale in the form of an ―icy blonde‖ is also extremely frequent in Hitchcock´s

films, most particularly in North by Northwest or Birds and of course one of the most

unifying elements is suspense. All the above mentioned recurring themes and motifs

listed in the relevant chapter of this thesis seem to appear in repeating structure of

Hitchcock´s films which is the structure of loss, search and recovery. This general frame

is present in majority of films, in particular in the films that feature a ―wrong man‖ who

fights against false accusations.

The common topics and ideas in the films of Alfred Hitchcock point at a certain

consistency in his films which according to the proponents of auteur theory

demonstrates Hitchcock´s auteur status. Francois Truffaut was one of the major

believers in the notion of the auteur and saw Hitchcock as a perfect example of an artist

who is fully in control of his work and projects his creative ability into films which

allows creation of a distinctive and easily recognizable style of the director. The ideas of

the film maker should not be lost during the process of film making and the final

product should be a reflection of director´s intent, not a mere transformation of a written

script to film. Since Hitchcock was known for having a clear picture of his films and he

was able to express his style in such a way that movies from his repertoire have always

73
been distinctive, it is no surprise that he is viewed as a strong film maker whose status

resulting from repeated success allowed him to frequently outmaneuver requirements of

film producers which would eventually cause dilution of his signature style.

In the peak of his career which came when Hitchcock was already a well

established film maker in United States, he became a popular cultural icon which was a

manifestation of his ability to exploit his status beyond the sphere of film industry.

Hitchcock was involved in number of projects which were more or less related to his

position in film industry in order to export his popularity and subsequently generate

further income which was a motivation that he never denied. Along with his significant

popularity in mainstream media came a situation when Hitchcock was often denied

appreciation of artistic value of his films particularly by American film critics who

accused him of sacrificing value and content for form and success. On the other hand

European critics, in particular French critics, defended Hitchcock´s credibility as a

creative force and stood by their favorite auteur in defense against frequent American

criticism.

From the numerous related and recurring themes in Hitchcock films, suspense

seems to be often the most unifying element in almost all of them. Various film critics

approach suspense in Hitchcock´s films as a major driving force but at the same time it

is important to not omit other important features in Hitchcock´s movies and see

suspense as an overwhelming and ever present motivation for which other important

elements were sacrificed for. The basic concept of employment of suspense by

Hitchcock is the idea of subjective suspense which differs from objective, or we can say

classical suspense, by introduction of a subjective element, which streams the

suspenseful scene through the eyes of a given character which allows the director to

74
align the protagonist with the audience. Once the audience makes an emotional

investment into any given situation or any character it can be manipulated in such a way

that suspense can be generated.

On the examples of North by Northwest, Psycho and Rear Window, this thesis

shows how Hitchcock used spatial setting as a major force for generation of suspense.

By cleverly manipulating environment, Hitchcock was able to create situations where

the characters were restricted in their options to prevent danger. In particular the setting

of Rear Window is an example of how movie environment plays an overwhelming role

in implementation of suspense. This thesis further analyzed the problems of morality

and its connection to suspense. On the examples of Psycho or Frenzy, it was

demonstrated that alignment with a protagonist, which is one of the key elements in

employment of subjective suspense, can be completely independent on the nature of the

character because the director can manipulate audience in such manner that it shares

suspense with any given character, at least temporarily. In the final chapter which

focuses on suspense, the connection between sexuality, humor, voyeurism and suspense

is examined by demonstration of examples from Lodger, Strangers on a Train or Rope.

The examples show how Hitchcock linked human sexuality and perversity with

suspense by making the audience identify with an ambiguous character who is

potentially a killer (Lodger) by streaming the narrative through his eyes, thus exposing

the audience to the potential sexual deviation of the protagonist. Voyeurism is most

notably employed in Rear Window where Hitchcock simultaneously exposes voyeurism

to critique but he also mocks it by making it an important part of discovering a

dangerous killer. Finally, the connection between suspense and humor is described on

the example from Rope and Frenzy where Hitchcock establishes identification with

75
characters through humor scenes which places the spectators into the situation of a

shared suspense with a character.

Overall, it can be said that Hitchcock used numerous techniques in achieving

building up of suspense and even though the idea of subjective suspense is associated

with Hitchcock the most, the fact is that he did not solely employed subjectivity in

relation to suspense and the notion of classical, objective suspense is also heavily

present in his films. Hitchcock said many times that the superiority of knowledge of

film audience is the key to suspense but he also successfully employed shared

knowledge, a situation where both the spectators and film protagonist share the same

amount of information which is most obvious in Rear Window and this film is an

example that this technique works very efficiently. It is the combination of objective and

subjective suspense, superior knowledge and shared knowledge, Hitchcock´s ability to

align spectator with any character and also cinematic techniques that made him so

successful in exploiting the potential of suspense.

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Czech Abstract

Tato práce se zaměřuje na dílo Alfreda Hitchcocka, zejména pak na způsob,

jakým tento režisér budoval a používal napětí ve svých filmech. Práce také poskytuje

stručný náhled na osobu Alfreda Hitchcocka z pohledu auteurské teorie a z kulturního

hlediska.

Práce je rozdělena do 6 kapitol. V úvodní kapitole je představena tato práce, její

cíle a obsah. Kapitola druhá se zabývá stručným životopisem Alfreda Hitchcocka, jsou

představeny jeho filmy a některé události ze soukromého života.

Kapitola třetí se zabývá Hitchcockem z pohledu kulturního, je nastíněno, jak se

tento režisér vypořádal se svojí popularitou, která dalece přesahovala z filmového

průmyslu. Jeho přijetí a vnímání americkou a britskou optikou je také součástí této

kapitoly.

V následující kapitole je představen Hitchock z pohledu auteurské teorie, je

vysvětleno proč byl u zastánců této teorie tak oblíbený a také se práce v této své části

zabývá opakujícími se tématy v Hitchcockových filmech, cílem je poukázat na prvky,

které se promítaly v řadě Hitchcockových děl a tvořily jakýsi řetězec, který jednotlivé

filmy spojoval.

Kapitola zabývající se napětím je rozdělena do čtyř podkapitol. V této části práce

se autor zabývá nejdřív napětím obecně, definuje, co napětí vlastně je a jak vzniká. V

jednotlivých podkapitolách jsou poté představeny techniky, které Hitchcock využíval při

vytváření napětí ve svých filmech, a jak se tyto techniky promítaly v jednotlivých

filmech.

V závěrečné kapitole jsou všechny informace poskytnuté v této práci stručně

shrnuty.

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English Abstract

This thesis focuses on the works of Alfred Hitchcock and in particular on the

manner which Hitchcock used to create and use suspense in his films. The thesis also

provides general overview of Alfred Hitchcock from the perspective of auteur theory

and from cultural perspective.

The thesis is divided into 6 chapters. The thesis, its goal and content is

introduced in the first chapter. Second chapter focuses on Hitchcock´s biography, his

films are introduced as well as certain events from his personal life.

Chapter number three focuses on Hitchcock from cultural perspective, the way

how Hitchcock used his popularity, which stretched beyond film industry, is described.

The chapter also provides overview of the director´s reception and viewing using

American and British optics.

The following chapter introduces Hitchcock from the perspective of auteur

theory and the reasons why Hitchcock was supported by supporters of this theory are

explained. This chapter also analyzes recurring themes in Hitchcock´s films, the goal is

to point out elements which were manifested in a number of Hitchcock´s movies and

which created a chain that connected individual films.

The chapter that analyzes suspense is divided into four sub chapters. In this part

of the thesis the author describes suspense in general, he defines what it is and how it is

created. The techniques that Hitchcock used to create suspense are introduced in

individual sub chapters and also the way how these techniques were employed in

relevant movies is analyzed.

All information presented in this thesis is summarized in the final chapter.

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