Hitchcock Noir (Fall 2018)  Class ID: 2685

Study Leader:  Lloyd Stires (lstires@auxmail.iup.edu)

Osher Ambassador:  Roz Goorin

Articles available on the internet:

Miller, M. C. (1980). In memoriam: Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980). https://newrepublic.com/article/114279/alfred-hitchcocks-hidden-genius-greatest-artist-century

Wilson, B. (2012). Alfred Hitchcock: From silent film director to inventor of modern horror.  https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jun/15/alfred-hitchcock-inventor-modern-horror

Bays, J. M. (20014). How to turn your boring screenplay into a Hitchcock thriller. http://borgus.com/hitch/hitch2011.htm

Driscoll, P. A. (2014). “The Hitchcock touch”: Visual techniques in the work of Alfred Hitchcock.  https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=irj

Chilton, M. (2006). Alfred Hitchcock: A sadistic prankster. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2016/04/29/alfred-hitchcock-a-sadistic-prankster/

Matthews, P. (2012). Vertigo rises: The greatest film of all time?https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/polls-surveys/greatest-films-all-time/vertigo-hitchcock-new-number-one

Schrader, P. (1972). Notes on film noir. https://filmgenre.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/notes-of-film-noir.pdf

Place, J., & Peterson, L. (1974). Some visual motifs of film noir. http://www.surfacenoise.info/neu/film101/readings/VisualMotifsPlacePeterson.pdf

Videos available on the internet:

Hitchcock, A. (1964). Alfred Hitchcock on three theories of film editing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJQE7Kv-9JU&t=18s

Take Me to Your Cinema. (2016). Alfred Hitchcock: Dialogue vs. pure cinema. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQQgI9jNCuw

Edwards, C. (1984). Alfred Hitchcock on dead bodies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qspOvrVArjI&t=37s

Terrell, J. (2018).  Strangers on a Train: The doubles motif. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW-IWM5CoQ4

Jack’s Movie Reviews. (2016). Defining film noir.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K77aPil7btM

Filmmaker IQ. (2013). Origins of film noir.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i2CsU2ldQA&t=38s

Filmmaker IQ. (2013). The basics of lighting for film noir. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsmVL7SDp5Y

Suggestions for further reading:

Truffaut, F. (1967). Hitchcock. New York: Simon & Schuster.  Francois Truffaut’s book-length interview of Hitchcock.  This book is the basis for Kent Jones’s 2015 documentary film Hitchcock/Truffaut.

Wood, R. (1989). Hitchcock’s films revisited, rev. ed. New York: Columbia University Press.  Reprints Wood’s Hitchcock’s films (1989), along with several additional chapters.

Spoto, D. (1992). The art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty years of his motion pictures, rev. ed. New York: Doubleday.  A chapter on each film.

Spoto, D. (1999).The dark side of genius: The life of Alfred Hitchcock, rev. ed. New York: Da Capo Press.  A biography that is critical of Hitchcock’s personal life.

McGilligan, P. (2003). Alfred Hitchcock: A life in darkness and light. New York: HarperCollins.  A more balanced Hitchcock biography.

Barr, C. (2012). Vertigo, 2nd ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan.  Part of the British Film Institute’s Film Classics series.

Rebello, S. (1990). Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Silver, A., Ward, E., Ursini, J., & Porfirio, R., Eds. (2010). Film noir: The encyclopedia. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press.  The most recent edition of a basic reference book first published in 1979,

Silver, A., & Ursini, J., Eds. (1996). Film noir reader.  The first of four volumes in this series.  The most important articles are in this volume.

Other resources

Audio recordings of Hitchcock’s week-long conversation with Francois Truffaut are available on You Tube.  Type “Hitchcock,” “Truffaut,” and the name of the film in the search box and you will be led to the correct episode.  There are usually two films per episode, so you may have to start in the middle of the file.

Most of Hitchcock’s American films and a few of his British films are available through the Carnegie Library system.

October 31–Shadow of a Doubt

What is film noir?

Film noir literally means “black film,” but “dark film” is a better translation. It refers to any of about 300 black and white crime films released in the U. S. between 1940 and 1959. Pre-noirs are similar films released before 1940. Neo-noirs are from after 1959 and are usually in color.

Film noir as a genre can be defined by its setting, plot, characters, mood and visual style (to be considered later):

• The setting is the contemporary world, usually a city at night. The environment is corrupt.
• The plot: A protagonist commits a crime, usually a murder. An investigation ensues which involves the protagonist in a web of misadventures, typically ending unhappily.
• The characters usually include a protagonist, a femme fatale and an investigator. (A character may play more than one of these roles.) Others may be a conventional wife or girlfriend, police, criminals, corrupt politicians, a psychiatrist, etc.
• The mood of films noir is pessimistic and cynical. Two typical characteristics of a film noir protagonist are alienation from society and obsession with a goal (which may be the femme fatale).

Cognitive categories, such as film genres, can be represented by a circle with vague boundaries, and with a few prototypes, or perfect examples, at the center.  Damico (1978) has described the following film noir prototype:

Either because he is fated to do so by chance, or because he has been hired for a job specifically associated with her, a man whose experience of life has left him sanguine and often bitter meets a not-innocent woman of similar outlook to whom he is sexually and fatally attracted. Through this attraction, either because the woman induces him to it or because it is the natural result of their relationship, the man comes to cheat, attempt to murder, or actually murder a second man to whom the woman is unhappily or unwillingly attached (generally he is her husband or lover), an act which brings about the sometimes metaphoric but usually literal destruction of the woman, the man to whom she is attached, and frequently the protagonist himself.

Very few films noir fit the prototype. (This is a good thing, since watching the same story repeatedly would be boring.) The question then becomes: How far can a film deviate from the prototype and still be classified as a film noir? Some argue that film noir is not a genre, that its plots and characters are so diverse that its only defining characteristics are mood and visual style.

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)

Hitchcock’s childhood

A word of caution: Information about Hitchcock’s early life is sketchy. There is a temptation to cherry-pick facts that are consistent with what we know about his later career.

Hitchcock grew up in a lower middle class family in London. His father was a green grocer, a hard worker and a strict disciplinarian who died at age 52. He had two siblings, a brother eight years older, and a sister seven years older.

His early life was dominated by his Catholicism. He attended a strict Jesuit school (St. Ignatius), where he learned about good and evil, with a heavy emphasis on guilt followed by corporal punishment for those who went astray. Each night, Hitchcock was required to stand at the foot of his mother’s bed and recount his daily activities, an arrangement that resembled a daily confession.

Hitchcock often told this anecdote: When he was 5 or 6 years old, he misbehaved. He father sent him to the local police station with a note. The officer on duty read the note and locked him in a cell for a short time, saying, “This is what we do to naughty boys.” Hitchcock claimed this gave him a lifelong fear of authority figures, and of confinement.

One of the family hobbies was reading and talking about about crimes, especially murders, a popular subject of London tabloids. The family also enjoyed entertainment—music halls, plays, and eventually movies. Hitchcock was a good student and an avid reader, particularly of crime fiction.

As a child, Hitchcock was shy and spent a lot of time by himself. He tended to be an observer rather than a participant in childhood activities. (He didn’t participate in sports because he was fat.) One biographer described him as the “consummate watcher.”

Hitchcock theme #1: Doubling

A common theme in Victorian literature is that the self is divided into good and evil aspects of the personality, which struggle for control of behavior, i.e., Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Hitchcock seemed to regard this as an actual principle of psychology.

Related to this is the notion that each person has a double, or doppelganger, with each individual representing the opposite side of the other—one good, one evil. Because one’s double is actually a part of oneself, when the evil member of the duo misbehaves, some of the guilt is transferred to the other person.

The film

Shadow of a Doubt originated with a story idea by British crime novelist Gordon McDonnell. It was loosely based on an actual Merry Widow Murderer from the 1920s, Earle Leonard Nelson. Hitchcock hired Thornton Wilder, author of the play Our Town, to write the screenplay, because he wanted an authentic portrayal of small town American life. There was additional dialogue by Sally Benson, Alma Reville (Hitchcock’s wife) and Hitchcock himself.

Most of the film was shot on location in Santa Rosa, CA, a town of 13,000 in Sonoma County, 50 miles north of San Francisco. Although it was his fifth American film, it was Hitchcock’s first attempt to portray an American family and community. It stood in sharp contrast with the typical Hollywood film of the 1940s, which celebrated the virtues of small town life.

Hitchcock sometimes said that Shadow of a Doubt was his favorite film. His daughter Pat explained, “He loved the idea of bringing menace into this small town.”

Joseph Cotten (1905-1994)

Joseph Cotton was a successful leading man of the 1940s. He came to prominence on Broadway and on the radio as a member of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre company. Welles cast him in Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) and Journey into Fear (1943). He also appeared in the Western Duel in the Sun (1946) and opposite Welles in the British film noir, The Third Man (1949).

He and Hitchcock remained friends. He starred in Under Capricorn (1949) and several episodes of Hitchcock’s TV series. His career declined in the 1950s, but he remained active in films until his career ended in 1981, when he suffered a stroke.

Teresa Wright (1918-2005)

Like Cotton, Teresa Wright began her career on the stage and enjoyed her greatest success in the 1940s. She was nominated for best supporting actress in The Little Foxes (1941) and Mrs. Miniver (1942), for which she won the award. She was nominated for best actress for Pride of the Yankees (1943). She also appeared in two films about the problems of returning veterans, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and The Men (1950). Her 1950s films were not very successful, and after 1955, she appeared mostly on stage or on television.

Doubling

Hitchcock presents the doubling theme visually by introducing both Charlies with the same sequence of shots, ending with each one lying on a bed facing right. The theme is introduced in the dialogue several times: Young Charlie was named after her uncle and he was her favorite. She believed there was a telepathic connection between them when his telegram arrived just as she had decided to invite him. After she began to suspect him, Uncle Charlie argued that they are like twins, and that the same blood flowed through their veins.

The film implies a transfer of guilt from Uncle Charlie to young Charlie. (Don’t we all feel some guilt upon learning that someone to whom we are close has behaved badly?) She is morally compromised. To protect her parents, she is willing to let him leave town and presumably go on killing. In the end, when she does kill him by accident and in self-defense, the fact that she had threatened to kill him suggests that she had willed it. Hitchcock biographer Donald Spoto argues that the film’s title refers not only to Charlie’s suspicions about her uncle, but also to the shadow that the story casts over her own goodness.

Spoto suggests that the two Charlies are “a spiritual summary of the light and dark sides of Hitchcock’s own adult nature.” Hitchcock is believed to have written Uncle Charlie’s two bitter, self-justifying monologues: At the table, where he describes widows as “fat wheezing animals. . .useless women, drinking the money, eating the money, smelling of money,” and in the bar, where he opines that, “The world is a foul sty; if you ripped the fronts off houses, you’d find swine.”

A subplot

Joe and his neighbor Herb’s preoccupation with murder mysteries is hilarious since the most wanted murderer in the country is sitting a few feet away. This is one of several Hitchcock films that implies that interest in murder is a form of voyeurism. More of this later.

Shadow of a doubt as a film noir

Hitchcock uses the high contrast lighting typical of German expressionism in some scenes, especially the two nighttime conversations on the porch between the two Charlies. When Uncle Charlie comes to Santa Rosa on the train, an ominous cloud of black smoke descends over the town. In his interview of Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut suggested that this meant that “the devil has come to town.”

Although not set in the city, Shadow of a Doubt is usually classified as a film noir. Compared to most films noir, the genders are reversed. Young Charlie is the noir protagonist and Uncle Charlie can be viewed as the “femme fatale.” As a result of her investigations, Charlie’s optimistic world view is replaced by a more pessimistic and cynical one. The film could be said to be about her moral education.

While Uncle Charlie’s death implies a happy ending, the ending is at best ambiguous. It has been suggested that the final scene between Charlie and Jack Graham implies that they will not live happily ever after. When Truffaut raised this issue, Hitchcock’s reply was, “(T)he girl will be in love with her Uncle Charlie for the rest of her life.”

Aftermath

The film received favorable reviews and was financially successful, although not a blockbuster. It was nominated for only one Academy Award—best original story by Gordon McDonnell. Like many of Hitchcock’s films, its reputation has grown over the years.

November 7–Notorious

Hitchcock’s early career

At age 14, Alfred Hitchcock enrolled in the London School of Engineering and Navigation to study engineering. He took his first job at age 15 with Henley’s Telegraph Works, an electric company. He moved from engineering into the advertising department and took night courses in art. While there, he edited a company magazine, The Henley Telegraph. He wrote short stories with surprise twist endings.

For a time, he moonlighted at Famous Players-Lasky, London’s largest film studio. At age 22, he took a job there writing and drawing the titles for silent films. He was very ambitious and moved up to art director and assistant director. He worked long hours, voluntarily taking on various jobs that made him familiar with almost every aspect of the filmmaking process.

There he met his future wife, Alma Reville, who was a script girl and an editor. They married in 1926. Throughout his career, Alma was a constant collaborator on his screenplays, sometimes credited, sometimes not.

In 1923, he took a job with producer Michael Balcon in what became Gainsborough Pictures. Balcon entered into a co-production deal with UFA (Universum Film Aktien Gesellschaft), Germany’s largest and the world’s most acclaimed film company from 1919-1931, where he learned the basics of expressionist filmmaking. He directed his first two films in Germany in 1925 (released in 1927).

German Expressionism

One way of classifying schools of filmmaking is realism vs. expressionism. Realism is an attempt to capture the subject objectively, while expressionism focuses on the power of directors to manipulate reality. German expressionism was characterized by high contrast lighting; distorted sets, sometimes hand-painted to represent lights, shadows and objects; tilted camera angles; and heavy use of symbolism to represent dream content or ideas such as psychological disturbance.

Hitchcock’s most important silent film was The Lodger (1927), set in London at the time of Jack the Ripper. The lodger was a foreign-born man who rented a room with a middle class family and came under suspicion of being the killer. The film is filled with expressionist images.

Hitchcock’s first “talkie” was Blackmail (1929). Among his other successful British films were The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938). He moved to the US (he said) because American studios possessed superior technical facilities.

Hitchcock Themes:

#1 The McGuffin

A McGuffin is some object that is sought after by the participants in a drama, such as a jewel or the plans for a secret weapon. It has value because the characters think it has value. The McGuffin in Notorious is an exception to the general rule because it was meaningful to 1946 audiences.

#2 Surprise vs. suspense

Hitchcock believed it was relatively easy to create surprise, i.e., an exploding bomb. However, the effect on audiences is short-lived. Hitchcock preferred susponse, i.e., tell the audience is bomb will explode in 15 minutes and let them worry about the fate of the characters. The suspense is created by giving the audience information the characters don’t have.

In Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock preferred suspense over mystery. He told the audience that Uncle Charlie was the Merry Widow Murderer at the outset, to create suspense over the fate of young Charlie when she found out. Mystery is an intellectual process, while suspense is an emotional process.

The film

The original source was “The Song of the Dragon” by John Taintor Foote, a serial in the Saturday Evening Post, about a woman who had been an American spy during World War I. Very little of the original story was kept. The screenplay was written by Ben Hecht.

Ben Hecht (1894-1964)

Hecht was a journalist turned playwright (he co-authored The Front Page) who became Hollywood’s most successful screenwriter. The number of screenplays he wrote is unknown, since many were uncredited, but it was over 100. He was nominated for Six Academy Awards and won twice (Underworld, 1927 and The Scoundrel, 1935). This was his second Hitchcock screenplay, after Spellbound (1945). He made uncredited contributions to at least five other Hitchcock films, and wrote several other films noir.

Cary Grant (1904-1986)

Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England. He began performing in a stage troupe at age six. He did stage work and vaudeville, moving to the US in the 1920s, and to Hollywood in 1931. He acted in 76 films.

He initially appeared in crime films and serious dramas, but was best known for romantic comedies such as The Awful Truth (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938) and The Philadelphia Story (1940). He was nominated for best actor in Penny Serenade (1941) and None But the Lonely Heart (1944). He starred in three other Hitchcock films: Suspicion (1941), To Catch a Thief (1955), and North By Northwest (1959).

He lived in a beach house (“Bachelor Hall”) with his friend Randolph Scott for 12 years. He was married five times. He retired in 1966 saying he was too old to play leading men.

Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982)

Bergman in Stockholm and started her career in Sweden, where she made about a dozen films. She was brought to the US by David O. Selznick to star in Intermezzo (1939), and had a string of hits in the 1940s, the most popular being Casablanca (1943). She starred for Hitchcock in Spellbound (1945) and Under Capricorn (1949).

She married Peter Lindstrom, a dentist, in 1937. In 1950, she had a well-publicized affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini. This harmed her career since American audiences were shocked by her infidelity and the studios disapproved of Rossellini, a pioneer of neorealism, because he was a socialist. She married and did five films with Rossellini.

She was nominated for seven Academy Awards, six for best actress and one for best supporting actress. She won three times: Gaslight (1944), Anastasia (1956) and (for supporting actress) Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Her final Oscar nomination was for Autumn Sonata (1978), a Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman (no relation).

Claude Rains (1889-1967)

Born in London, he started out as a stage actor in London and on Broadway. His first film was The Invisible Man (1933), and he starred in two other Universal horror films, The Wolf Man (1941) and Phantom of the Opera (1943).

Disadvantage by his height (5’6”), he played mostly supporting roles. He was nominated for best supporting actor four times: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Casablanca (1943), Mr. Skeffington (1944), and Notorious (1946). He continued to work almost until his death.

The plot

Considered within the context of 1946 Hollywood, the first question becomes, “How did Hitchcock get away with it?” He said, “I wanted to make this film about a man who forces a woman to go to bed with another man because it’s his professional duty.” This was not only sexually controversial but immediately after World War II, a time of patriotism, it questioned the ethics of the US government, which was sending a woman to prostitute herself for the country.

Hitchcock believed—apparently correctly—that if he didn’t talk directly about what was going on, the censors might not notice. Maybe they were too busy timing the kisses (which were limted to 3 seconds each) and missed the greater significance of the plot.

As a love story, the theme of Notorious could be said to be lack of trust. In the scene in which Devlin gives Alicia her assignment, he is presumably thinking, “If she loves me, she won’t do it,” while she is thinking, “If he loves me, he won’t let me do it.” Each wants the other to speak up first, with the result that both are silent.

The McGuffin

The McGuffin, uranium, hidden in order to make an atomic bomb, turned out to be quite timely. In 1944, when the script was written, the bomb existed only as a rumor. After Hitchcock and Hecht visited a nuclear physicist at Cal Tech to ask him questions about the bomb, Hitchcock claims he was followed by the FBI for 3 months. By the time the film was released in 1946, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been bombed and the McGuffin sounded like a real threat.

Technique

The film illustrates Hitchcock’s use of montage (editing) to make the characters’ thought processes visible; for example, when Alex figures out what Alicia and Devlin were doing in the wine cellar, and when Alicia realizes she is being poisoned. This is done by alternating shots of the actors’ faces with what they are presumably thinking about.

When Alex realizes that he has been betrayed, he goes to his mother’s bedroom and confesses—shades of Hitchcock’s own childhood. Leopoldine Konstantin, in the role of Alex’s mother, delivers the film’s great line: “We are protected by the enormity of your stupidity.”

Notorious as a film noir

In Shadow of a Doubt the usual gender roles in films noir were reversed: Young Charlie was the noir protagonist and Uncle Charlie a sort of femme fatale. In Notorious, the standard gender roles apply: Devlin is the noir protagonist and Alicia the femme fatale. However, Devlin errs by trusting her too little rather than too much. At the same time, Alicia is clearly a femme fatale for Alex. He makes the more typical mistake of trusting her too much.

The ending

Our response to the “happy ending” is undermined by the sympathy that we feel for the villain, Alex. The nominal hero and heroine have pulled off one of the screen’s great betrayals. However, if anyone feels sorry for Alex, Hitchcock can remind them that (1) Alex is an escaped Nazi living in South America, and (2) he’s not just hiding out; he’s planning to build a nuclear weapon to restart the war.

Aftermath

Notorious received favorable reviews and was a hit. The film cost $2M and grossed $8M. But it received only two Academy Award nominations: Ben Hecht (screenplay) and Claude Rains (supporting actor). Neither of them won.

November 14–Strangers on a Train

Hitchcock’s career (cont.)

Hitchcock came to the US under contract to David O. Selznick, at the time America’s most successful producer. Although this had advantages, both in salary and technical facilities, it also had significant drawbacks. Selznick was a very “hands on” producer, who intervened in Hitchcock’s work in ways that he didn’t appreciate. In his seven years with Selznick, Hitchcock made ten films, only three of which were produced by Selznick. In the others, Hitchcock’s services were loaned to other companies for a fee, which was usually a lot more than he paid Hitchcock. Hitchcock seethed.

Hitchcock was initially shocked by how much the American press ridiculed his weight and his mannerisms—something the British press tactfully refrained from doing. Eventually he learned to turn this to his advantage by making fun of himself.

Hitchcock the Technician

Hitchcock was famous within the film industry for his fastidious direction. Everything was carefully planned. He drew up story boards for every scene, specifying the content of the shot, camera angle, lens, etc. Crew members were amazed at the depth of his knowledge of every aspect of filmmaking. Even when he was seated far from the camera, he knew exactly what lens to use and what would be in the shot.

Hitchcock visualized his films as a series of scenes, and he relied on screenwriters to supply a plot and dialogue which would connect these pictures to one another. He hated what he called “scenes of people talking.” His training making silent films (which he called “pure cinema”) allowed him to tell stories with a minimum of dialogue.

He complained to Truffaut about the “plausibles and logicians” who found holes in his plots. He felt the audience didn’t really care about them as long as they were emotionally involved in the story.

With his emphasis on planning, he said that the actual shooting of the film was an anti-climax that he didn’t really enjoy.

He was often quoted as saying that actors are like cattle. This is an exaggeration; there were some actors he liked a great deal. However, actors were not allowed to deviate from his instructions.

He particularly disliked “method” actors who bothered him with questions about their character’s motivation.

The cinematic code

Hitchcock made exttensiove and skillful use of the cinematic code.

The cinematic code: Two ways of communicating meaning on film.

1. Mise-en-scene = literally, putting-in-the-scene, or that part of the cinematic process that takes place on the set; the shot itself; placement of cameras relative to subject matter.
2. Montage = literally, putting together, or that part of the cinematic process that takes place in the editing room; the arrangement of successive shots.

Some rules about mise-en-scene

1. Shot duration and size: The more time a character spends on camera and the more space (within the frame) the character’s image occupies, the greater is the tendency of the viewer to see that person’s behavior as the cause of the events that are taking place.
2. A downward camera angle enhances the power of the audience relative to the subject; an upward camera angle enhances the power of the subject relative to the audience.
3. When the camera adopts the point-of-view of a character, this encourages the audience to identify with that character.

Some rules about montage

1. The closer two shots are in time, the stronger the association between the objects and events depicted in the shots. A montage can suggest associations between people, events and ideas that do not exist in reality (a visual argument).
2. Adjacent shots A and B combine to produce new meaning, C, e.g., man + peacock = vain man. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The Kulashov effect: When the same shot of a person’s face is juxtaposed with different scenes, the audience interprets the person as experiencing different emotions. Hitchcock used the Kulashov effect to make the characters’ thought processes visible.

The film

After his last film with Selznick, Hitchcock’s next three films as an independent producer [Rope (1948), Under Capricorn (1949) and Stage Fright (1950)] were financially unsuccessful. Strangers on a Train was what Hitchcock called a “run for cover” film—a return to themes that had been successful for him in the past.

Fortunately, he found a novel that was in tune with his own ideas—derived from Victorian literature and his own religious upbringing—that good and evil live side by side in the same person, and that somewhere in the world, each person has an exact opposite waiting to cause serious problems for him or her.

Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995)

One of America’s best mystery writers, she published 22 novels and many short stories. Strangers on a Train (1950) was her first novel, which allowed Hitchcock to purchase the screen rights cheaply ($7,500).

She wrote five novels about Tom Ripley, a man who killed people and assumed their identity. The first, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) was filmed by Rene Clement as Plein soleil/Purple Noon (1960). Several of her other novels were made into motion pictures, mostly in Europe.

Highsmith was a lesbian. Her novel The Price of Salt (1952), about a lesbian relationship, was published under the alias Claire Morgan. It was made into the 2015 film Carol by Todd Haynes.

Hitchcock hired Raymond Chandler to write the screenplay—a seemingly good idea that didn’t work out. They did not get along professionally or personally, and Hitchcock did not use his ideas. Both agreed that he should not be credited as a screenwriter, but the studio insisted on using Chandler’s name. The screenplay was written mostly by Czenzi Ormonde, a former assistant to Ben Hecht.

Farley Granger (1925-2011)

Granger’s film career started when he was noticed in a Hollywood stage play and was given a contract by Samuel Goldwyn. Granger was gay and made no effort to conceal it. His two films with Hitchcock—Rope (1948) and this one—had homosexual overtones.

He also made two significant films noir: They Live By Night (1948) and Side Street (1950). He began working in Italy in Senso (1954) by Luchino Visconti. Later in his career, he appeared on stage, in Italian films, and even on TV soap operas.

Robert Walker (1918-1951)

Born in Utah, Walker attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1937, where he met and married fellow student Phyllis Isely (later renamed Jennifer Jones). His wife was discovered by David O. Selznick, who also arranged an MGM contract for Walker. He played mostly light, boy-next-door roles and soldiers in WWII combat films. Jennifer Jones left him to marry Selznick, which increased his tendencies toward alcoholism and neurosis.

Stranges on a Train was his next-to-last film role. He died while making his final film, My Son John (1952). The circumstances of his death suggest medical malpractice. On the night of his death, he was drinking, he became emotionally upset, and his psychiatrist was called in. The psychiatrist gave him a sedative (amobarbital) that interacted with the alcohol. He fell into a coma and died.

Robert Burks (1909-1968)

Burks was the director of photography on 55 films of all genres. He worked with Hitchcock on all his films from Strangers on a Train (1951) through Marnie (1964). He was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Strangers on a Train and Rear Window (1954). He won the award for To Catch a Thief (1955).

Doubling

Doubling, leading to guilt by association, is a recurrent Hitchcock theme. The video “The Doubles Motif” has an almost exhaustive list of the doubles, pairs and crossings in both the visuals and the dialogue. It is likely that almost all of these were intentional.

• The parallel shots of their shoes in the opening, as in the parallel opening shots of the two Charlies lying in bed in Shadow of a Doubt.
• The intersecting train tracks and the repeated use of “criss cross” and double-crossing.
• The crossed tennis racquets on the lighter.
• The visual identification between Miriam and Barbara.
• The cut from “I could strangle her” to Bruno’s hands.
• Hitchcock’s appearance carrying a double bass, etc.

Donald Spoto, in The Dark Side of Genius, argues that Guy and Bruno represent not only two complementary aspects of human nature, but also two sides of Hitchcock’s own personality:

The extremes of conduct—the unleashing of anarchic impulses while pursuing a stereotypical image of public respectability—characterized his own state of soul just as they characterized Walker and Granger in the film.

Transfer of guilt

Guy can be seen as at least partially responsible for Miriam’s death:

• His rebuff of Bruno is weak enough to imply a certain consent.  He responds to Bruno as one would a mental patient: “Great idea! So long!”
• The murder serves his purpose of marrying Anne and starting a political career.
• At one point he says of Miriam, “I could strangle her.”
• His subsequent actions are motivated by a desire to stay out of trouble rather than bring Bruno to justice.

This is typical of films noir in which the noir protagonist makes a relatively small error in judgment and subsequent events spin out of control. It also fits with the doubling idea: That Bruno and Guy are opposite sides of the same personality.

Audience sympathies

While Bruno is a psychopath, he can also be seen as a victim. After honoring his part of what he thinks is a bargain, he is betrayed by Guy. In one notable scene in which Bruno drops Guy’s lighter, Hitchcock tricks the audience into sympathizing with Bruno. When Truffaut asked Hitchcock whether he preferred Bruno to Guy, he replied, “Of course. No doubt about it.”

The gay subtext

The homosexual courtship of Guy by Bruno was quite clear in Highsmith’s novel. Hitchcock and Walker worked out an elaborate set of gestures that would imply Bruno’s homosexuality, but not so obviously as to alert the censors. Opinions differ on whether there was any implied homosexuality in Granger’s performance. Hitchcock may have delighted in the irony of a straight actor pretending to be gay, while a gay actor pretended to be straight.

Memorable scenes

Hitchcock put a lot of time and effort into Miriam’s murder. He constructed a large concave lens and photographed the murder as reflected on the lens at a 90 degree angle. This was projected onto a lens of Miriam’s eyeglasses.

The final scene at the amusement park is a combination of a real merry-go-round, back projection, and a model for the crash. The old man crawling under the carousel was real. Hitchcock told Truffaut, “My hands still sweat when I think of that scene today. If he’d raised his head by an inch, he’d have been killed.”

In the scene, a cop stupidly fires into a moving merry-go-round, apparently killing an innocent bystander. Hitchcock was known for his disdain for the police.

Changes from the novel

Guy’s occupation was changed from architect to tennis pro because tennis was more cinematic. The tennis match was choreographed by a tennis pro, Jack Cushingham, who played Guy’s opponent.

In the novel, Guy actually kills Bruno’s father. Bruno is killed in a boating accident and Guy is arrested. Hitchcock didn’t think audiences would accept Guy as a murderer.

Aftermath

The film received mixed reviews, but was successful at the box office, allowing Hithcock to break his slump. However, it received only one Academy Award nomination—to Robert Burks for his black-and-white cinematography. He did not win.

November 28–Rear Window

Hitchcock’s career (cont.)

Hitchcock’s period of greatest success was the 12 films he made between 1951 (Strangers on a Train) and 1963 (The Birds). All but The Trouble With Harry (1955) and The Wrong Man (1956) turned a profit.

During the mid-50s, Hitchcock began to take control of his image and turn himself into a celebrity. In 1955, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, a monthly collection of short stories by noted mystery writers, began publication. Hitchcock had no input into the editing.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents was an anthology TV series of mysteries, usually with a surprise twist ending. It consisted of 267 25-min episodes broadcast between 1955-1962. As the Alfred Hitchcock Hour, another 93 50-min episodes were shown between 1962-1965. Hitchcock himself directed 17 episodes, four in the first season and one or two per year thereafter.

One of the highlights of the program was Hitchcock’s scripted introductions and conclusions—funny comments about the episode. He also poked fun at sponsors. At its peak in the 1956-57 season, it was the sixth most popular program on TV.

At about that time, Hitchcock began to take an active role in promoting his films, usually appearing in the trailers. But he was still regarded as, at best, a popular entertainer. It was only in the ’60s, when his cause was taken up by French film critics, that he began to be respected as an artist.

Weight and health

Hitchcock’s weight varied between 200 and 350 pounds. He was a classic example of the “yo-yo dieting” effect: With each weight gain, the body’s metabolism changes, making it progressively more difficult to lose weight and easier to put it back on. He loved food and wine, going on prodigious eating binges, and smoked expensive cigars.

He had an enlarged heart, eventually requiring a pacemaker, and an abdominal hernia that required surgery. He suffered from severe arthritis, made more painful by his weight. But he lived to be 80, dying of renal failure.

Money and politics

Hitchcock was known as a one of the shrewdest businessmen in the film industry. He was this country’s highest paid director, and one of the first to form his own production company, so that his money would be taxed as capital gains rather than personal income. He invested in real estate, oil wells, and cattle, and had a large stock portfolio.

He alternated between frugality and flamboyance. When hiring actors and crew members, he negotiated minimal salaries, arguing that their careers would benefit from their association with him.  However, if the actor were a box office star, he was willing to pay top dollar. He was also very generous with his friends, throwing lavish parties and giving expensive gifts, such as food, wine and flowers. The net effect was upward redistribution of wealth.

While Hitchcock went from rags to riches, he identified more with the social class to which he aspired than with his class of origin. He claimed that his films were free of politics, and in some of his espionage films, it’s not clear what organization or government the villains represent. However, there are exceptions: Not surprisingly, his films strongly supported America’s entry into World War II. In the late ’60s, two of his films were anti-Communist in a way that appeared dated at the time. His Catholicism was evident in I Confess and The Wrong Man.

Hitchcock’s personality

Hitchcock had a number of fears which were represented in his films.

1. His fear of the police and authority originated in childhood and continued throughout his life. Of all his films, this is most evident in The Wrong Man.
2. He saw the world as a dangerous place, and feared violence, chaos and disorder. His protagonists were often unexpectedly thrown into dangerous situations and exposed to terrifying experiences, i.e., dangling from high places. His extreme neatness and cleanliness may have been an attempt to compensate for this fear of disorder.

He was known, particularly in his early years, as a prankster and a practical joker. Some of his jokes were tinged with cruelty. For example,The 39 Steps co-stars Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll were left handcuffed from 8:30 a.m. until late afternoon when Hitchcock pretended to lose the key and left the set. Several of his pranks involved giving people laxatives with their knowledge.

Hitchcock entertained people on the set with stories and jokes, often involving sexual innuendo or toilet humor. He made fun of himself, including his weight and his sexuality, perhaps as a way of denying that he was actually sexually aggressive. His favorite introduction to new friends: “Call me Hitch. That’s without the cock.”

The Film

Cornell Woolrich (1903-1968)

Woolrich was a very prolific writer of hard-boiled crime and mystery stories. He wrote 27 novels and 16 collections of short stories. At least 36 films were based on his novels and stories, many of them films noir. Rear Window was based on his 1942 short story “It Had to Be Murder.”

The screenplay was written by John Michael Hayes, who also worked with Hitchcock on To Catch a Thief (1955), The Trouble With Harry (1955), and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). Hitchcock and Hayes made several changes to the story. Jeff’s occupation was changed from sportswriter to photojournalist. His manservant was replaced by a nurse. The number of neighbors was increased and their stories were told in more depth. Most importantly, they gave him a girlfriend, Lisa.

James Stewart (1908-1997)

James Stewart was born and raised in Indiana, PA. He became interested in drama as a student at Princeton. He performed in summer stock and on Broadway. In 1935, he followed the lead of his close friend Henry Fonda and went to Hollywood. Although he struggled at first, his career breakthrough came in Frank Capra’s comedy You Can’t Take It With You (1938).

He appeared in 92 films of almost all genres between 1935 and 1991. Although his early successes were in comedies, he remade his image to that of a serious actor in the 1950s. He was nominated for five best actor Academy Awards, winning for The Philadelphia Story (1940). The others were Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Harvey (1950) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959).

He made four films with Hitchcock: Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and Vertigo (1958). Hitchcock made use of Stewart’s popularity. He believed that, because Stewart was so likable, audiences might accept behavior from him that they would reject from other actors; for example, his voyeurism in Rear Window and his misogyny in Vertigo.

Grace Kelly (1929-1982)

Grace Kelly came from a wealthy, politically connected Philadelphia family. She was a model and appeared in several TV plays before signing a movie contract. She appeared in 11 films, three directed by Hitchcock: Dial M For Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954) and To Catch a Thief (1955). She won the best actress Academy Award for The Country Girl (1954).

She retired from films to marry Prince Ranier of Monaco in 1956. She died when she suffered a mild stroke while driving and her car plunged over a cliff.

The set

Paramount constructed a large indoor set that was an exact replica of an apartment building at 125 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. It contained 31 apartments, 12 of which were furnished. The set was lit for both day and nighttime scenes.

The film opens with the first of several pans across the courtyard, plus the interior of Jeff’s apartment. It is an example of pure cinema—information conveyed without dialogue.

Critical interpretation of the film tends to focus on two issues.

The Jeff-Lisa Romance

There is a conflict between her moneyed elegance and his working class values. Jeff is reluctant to give up a life of adventure in order to take photos of rich people. He is most attracted to her when she joins in his adventure.

The film is carefully structured to comment on their relationship at multiple levels. Each of several neighbors represents a possible future for Jeff or Lisa depending on whether they do or don’t marry.  There are many examples of doubling, especially between Jeff and Lisa and the Thorvalds.

Voyeurism

Hitchcock commented on voyeurism (looking through windows) and an unhealthy interest in murder in several of his films, but never more clearly than in Rear Window. Jeff uses binoculars and high-powered telephoto camera lenses. All three of Jeff’s co-stars criticize his behavior, i.e., “We’ve become a nation of peeping toms.”

Hitchcock himself has been accused of being a voyeur (“the consummate watcher.”) Rear Window may have been his attempt to deal with his own guilt. Hitchcock implicates the audience in Stewart’s voyeurism. (The only alternative would be to stop watching the movie.) The audience was expected to feel uncomfortable when Thorvald looked directly into the camera.

One critic called Rear Window a film about a voyeuristic man, filmed by a voyeuristic director for a voyeuristic audience. However, Hitchcock holds all the cards: Jeff is exonerated in the end. His belief that Thorvald murdered his wife turns out to be true, thereby justifying his voyeurism.

Trivia

The Jeff-Lisa relationship is based in part on the relationship between Ingrid Bergman and the famous photojournalist Robert Capa. They had an affair, but Capa refused to give up his job for her.

Lars Thorvald, played by Raymond Burr, was made to look like the person in Hollywood that Hitchcock most hated—David O. Selznick. Burr’s hair was died white, and his glasses, hat, cigar smoking, even his way of holding a telephone, were modeled after Selznick.

Aftermath

The film was well-received by most critics and earned $37 million at the box office after an initial cost of $1 million. It was nominated for, but did not win, four Academy Awards: Best director, screenplay, cinematography (Robert Burks), and sound editing. The sound editing is particularly impressive, as when sounds from outside Jeff’s apartment are heard inside, changing the audience’s focus of attention.

December 5–Vertigo

The film

Vertigo was adapted from D’Entre les Morts (From Among the Dead) a 1954 novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. They were the authors of Les Diaboliques, the basis of a 1955 film by Henri-Georges Clouzot that Hitchcock admired. They also wrote the screenplay for Les Yeux Sans Visage (Eyes Without a Face), a 1960 horror film by Georges Franju.

Three writers worked on the screenplay, but the contributions of the first two were not used and exclusive credit should probably have gone to Samuel Taylor, who worked in very close consultation with Hitchcock. They made some important changes from the book. For example, in the novel Scottie murders Judy when he discovers her treachery.

Kim Novak (1933 – )

Kim Novak was a beauty contest winner who became a movie extra and eventually signed with Columbia Pictures in 1954. She made two films noir: Pushover (1954) and Five Against the House (1955). Her breakthrough film was Picnic (1955). Her career began to tail off in the 1960s and she “retired” in 1966. She worked sporadically until 1981.

She was not Hitchcock’s first choice as Madeleine/Judy. He intended the role for Vera Miles, but she became pregnant. He told Truffaut that the casting of Novak was the main thing that he regretted about the film. He spent a lot of time coaching her and they argued frequently, particularly about her wardrobe. (She initially refused to wear gray because it clashed with her bleached blonde hair.) Some have argued that although she was not a good actress, her lack of acting skill made her more credible in the role of Judy.

Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975)

Herrmann wrote the musical scores for about 50 films, beginning with Citizen Kane (1941) and ending with Taxi Driver (1976). He was nominated for the Academy Award five times, and won once for The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941). Herrmann wrote the scores for seven Hitchcock films—The Trouble with Harry (1955) through Marnie (1964), excluding The Birds (1963), which had no score.

Saul Bass (1920-1996)

Bass was a graphic designer who became an innovator in the creation of movie title sequences. He designed the titles of about 50 films. He also worked with Hitchcock on North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960). His image of a spiral recurs throughout the film. It might be said that the ecology of San Francisco itself produces vertigo.

Sexual politics

In 2012, Vertigo was named as the best film of all time in a survey of international film critics conducted by Sight and Sound magazine. One reason for its popularity is that, whether Hitchcock intended it or not, the film anticipates feminist arguments about the male treatment of women.

Scottie’s obsession with transforming Judy into Madeleine can be seen as a male fantasy of control over women. (“I will accept you only if you change.”) It exemplifies male objectification of women, a symptom of male dominance in which women are evaluated in almost all aspects of life according to how well they meet the expectations and wishes of men.

Gavin Elster tells Scottie that he longs for the good old days of male “power and freedom.” The bookseller tells Scottie and Midge that it was because of her husband’s “power and freedom” that Carlotta Valdes had such an unhappy life, ultimately committing suicide.

Although she resisted, Judy ultimately accepted Scottie’s dominance. In his interview with Truffaut, Hitchcock called attention to the scene right after she pins up her hair, saying, “That’s when she took her knickers off.”

Vertigo is sometimes said to be Hitchcock’s most personal film. Many of the things Gavin Elster and Scottie did to Judy can be seen to parallel Hitchcock’s behavior toward his leading ladies throughout his career—controlling not only their clothing and hairstyle but miccromanaging their behavior through extensive rehearsal.

However, Hitchcock holds all the cards. We don’t like Judy as much as we liked Madeleine, especially after we learn of her part in the murder plot. Therefore, it has been argued that we are complicit in Scottie’s attempt to transform her. If so, are we sympathizing with men’s attempts to control women’s lives?

The flashback

Hitchcock reveals the solution to the mystery 45 min before the end of the film, rather than letting the audience discover it along with Scottie. This decision is said to be typical of Hitchcock, privileging suspense over surprise. (How will Scottie react when he finds out?) It also has the advantage of giving the audience ample opportunity to reevaluate Judy’s behavior. (While she was posing as Madeleine, was her attraction to Scottie scripted or sincere?)

Hitchcock claimed he resisted pressure to eliminate the flashback. However Charles Barr reports interviews with several people suggesting that Hitchcock did not want the flashback, and it was forced on him by the producer and the studio. Stewart’s agent is also said to have been involved. They anticipated a negative audience reaction to Scottie’s cruel behavior toward Judy. However, with the flashback, Judy can be seen to “deserve” the treatment she receives.

Regardless of what Hitchcock wanted, the flashback makes the latter third of the film as much about Judy as Scottie. Will she continue to cooperate with Scottie’s makeover, knowing that if she continues, he is likely to unravel the plot? Did she wear Carlotta’s necklace accidentally or deliberately?

Technique

The scenes simulating vertigo were done with a model of the stairwell. The camera was positioned directly above the model and a camera was built (called a “dolly zoom”) that did two things simultaneously. The lens zoomed in, while the entire camera tracked backwards. These two actions had opposite effects on the image, but not exactly opposite, creating the wobbly visual effect.

The “plausibles”

There are a number of implausible aspects of the plot of Vertigo. How did Scottie get down from the gutter at the beginning of the film? How did Madeleine disappear from the McKittrick Hotel? (Was the hotel manager an accomplice of Elster’s?) Most improbable of all is that Scottie, an ex-cop, would flee after Madeleine’s death rather than checking to see if she might be alive. How could Elster have been certain he would do that?

The ending

How was Scottie able to climb the tower at the end in spite of his vertigo? The “pop psychology” explanation of vertigo is that it is caused by a conflict between fear of falling and a desire to fall to one’s death. If one of those components is gone, so is the vertigo. Scottie was able to climb the tower because he no longer wanted to live.

Was Judy’s death an accident, murder or suicide? It could be argued that all three were involved. In light of Hitchcock’s personal history, it is probably significant that the most immediate cause of Judy’s fall was that she was frightened by a nun!

Aftermath

Vertigo opened to mixed reviews. Some found it clever, but others labeled it “farfetched nonsense.” Although it broke about even financially, it was not a hit, and received no award nominations. There is probably no other film in the history of cinema that has undergone such an extreme reevaluation.

December 12–Psycho

Hitchcock’s career (cont.)

The auteur theory vs. the genius of the system

The auteur theory, associated with French film critics of the 1950s and 1960s, is the view that one person, the director, is primarily responsible for the style and treatment of a film. “Auteur” is French for “author.” Auteur theorists analyze the major themes found in the body of work of a director. The main criticism of the auteur theory is that very few directors have creative control over their films.

“The genius of the system” (Andre Bazin) refers to the claim that Hollywood studios operated like an assembly line with dozens of people contributing to each film. The producer has ultimate control over the end product. At a time when most people went to the movies often, the studio system created an environment of stability and a captive market for the product. It established a system of censorship that assured that filmmakers didn’t deviate from the moral and political consensus of the time.

Hitchcock was a favorite director of auteur theorists since he had more creative control that any other director working in Hollywood between 1940 and 1965. But even Hitchcock lacked complete freedom, and often complained of studio interference. Some would argue that Hitchcock benefited from the fact that he lacked complete freedom. It is said that Hitchcock had a deeply disturbing imagination. If he had been left to his own devices, his films might have exceeded the bounds of popular taste and might not have been as successful.

During the 1950s, Hitchcock’s reputation was that of a talented entertainer. But some French film critics—later to be directors—began writing (in Cahiers du Cinema) about him as an important, serious filmaker. Hitchcock was the perfect subject of the auteur theory since he had more creative control than most other directors. Francois Truffaut’s book-length interview of Hitchcock, conducted in 1962, added to his reputation as a master craftsman. Several American critics (Andrew Sarris) and directors (Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese) took up the cause.

Hitchcock and his actresses

Hitchcock had a long and difficult history of relationships with his female leads. He admitted to a preference for slender, blonde women who are reserved in their behavior (“icy blondes”). He often spent time alone with his leading ladies, coaching them on their dress and performance. He was known to give them expensive gifts, and there are suggestions that he also attempted to control their off-screen behavior. He became unhappy when some of these women turned down offers to make additional films, especially if they did so in order to get married, i.e., Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Vera Miles.

These problems were most apparent in his relationship with Tippi Hedren, leading lady in The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Hedren was a model whom Hitchcock discovered and signed to a personal contract. Hitchcock spent large amounts of time with her and she has reported sexual misconduct (an “overt sexual proposition” that she turned down). During filming of Marnie, communication between them broke down in a way that was noticeable to others on the set. Hedren says he took his revenge by destroying her career. If these allegations had been raised in the current “me too” era, Hitchcock’s career might have been seriously damaged in 1964 (if not before).

The film

Robert Bloch (1917-1994)

The novel, Psycho, by Robert Bloch, was loosely based on the real life case of Ed Gein, a Wisconsin hermit whose neighbors considered him strange but harmless, but who turned out to be a serial killer. Gein died in a mental institution. Bloch made up a story about one of his victims. Almost nothing in the novel was true.

Advance copies of the book, published in 1959, were sent to several film studios. Hitchcock’s studio, Paramount, rejected it as “too repulsive for filming.” Bloch’s agent received a blind bid for the screen rights, for which Hitchcock paid only $9,000. However, Bloch was rewarded with a long, successful career in which he wrote over 30 novels, hundreds of short stories and several screenplays—all in the horror genre.

The screenplay was written by a young screenwriter, Joseph Stefano, who shared Hitchcock’s twisted sense of humor. The back story of the production is presented in Sasha Gervasi’s 2012 film Hitchcock, based on Stephen Rebello’s book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho (1990).

After being turned down by the studio, Hitchcock produced Psycho himself. Paramount agreed to distribute it when he deferred his director’s salary in exchange for 60% ownership of the film—a risk that turned out to be the wisest financial decision he ever made. He filmed it with a low budget of $800,000 on a 36-day shooting schedule using a crew from his TV show. It was by far his most successful film, grossing in excess of $40 million. The profits from this film alone made him a multimillionaire.

Anthony Perkins (1932-1992)

Tony Perkins was the son of the Broadway actor Osgood Perkins, who died when he was five. He was the lead of the hit Broadway play Tea and Sympathy (1954) and made several successful films, i.e., Friendly Persuasion (1956), Fear Strikes Out (1957), prior to Psycho. He complained of being typecast as Norman Bates, but he made dozens of films and continued to work until his death. Although he married and had two children, he was bisexual and died of AIDS.

The novel described Norman Bates as a middle-aged, overweight alcoholic. It was Hitchcock’s idea to make Norman Bates younger, more handsome, and more likeable. Perkins had a good working relationship with Hitchcock, who accepted several of his suggestions about the portrayal.

Janet Leigh (1927-2004)

Like many actresses of the 1940s and 1950s, she was signed to an MGM contract in 1947 merely because of her physical attractiveness. She appeared in comedies and adventure films, often co-starring with her husband Tony Curtis. She made two other important films noir: Touch of Evil (1958) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962). She got along well with Hitchcock and there was no hint of misconduct.

Although he tried to keep his budget low, Hitchcock did hire two important veterans. Saul Bass did the credits and story-boarded the two murder scenes. Bernard Herrman was responsible for the music. However, he replaced his usual director of photography, Robert Burks, with John L. Russell.

Publicity

Hitchcock took an active role in marketing the film with trailers written by James Allardice, who write the humorous introductions to Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Hitchcock was concerned that some of his plot surprises would leak to potential audiences. Theatre owners were instructed that no one was to be seated after the start of the film. The trailers urged audiences not to reveal the plot.

Censorship

Hitchcock managed to sneak in a number of firsts: Janet Leigh filmed in only a bra, Tony Perkins cross-dressing, and the sight of a toilet on camera. The shower scene is a classic example of montage—putting together short clips to give the illusion of movement, while still maintaining precise control of the shot. It took a week and 70 camera setups to shoot 45 seconds of film. However, there were some casualties to censorship: Dialogue referring to an incestuous relationship between Norman and his mother, and a poignant ceiling shot of Janet Leigh’s naked body.

Narrative structure

The film was surprising to audiences because it violated existing norms of narrative structure. Most films follow the story of a single protagonist (or a small group of protagonists), and the plot follows a pattern of equilibrium—disruption—re-equilibrium. The film ends with closure.

Psycho leads us to believe it is a fairly conventional story about a sympathetic noir protagonist who commits a crime and runs away. Even if you see Marion’s death as punishment for her crime, it occurs unexpectedly early, and it doesn’t emerge from the story, but is a almost random event. The perspective then shifts to Norman and to the investigations of Lila, Sam and the detective Arbogast. The only narrative convention that is respected is closure at the end.

Hitchcockian motifs

The film contains several typical Hitchcockian motifs.

• Good and evil coexisting within the same person. The doubling is literally within a single person, since Norman suffers from a dual personality.
• Voyeurism
• Fear of police, authority
• Mirrors everywhere, signifying divisions of personality
• Bird imagery (menace)
• Identification with villains, both Marion and Norman (the car sinking slowly in the swamp)
• Expressive use of lighting; night-for-night photography

One Hitchcock tradition was violated in Psycho was his usual preference for suspense over surprise.

Aftermath

Psycho was a huge success, earning $15 million in the US in its first year (second only to Ben-Hur). Reviews were initially hostile, but its box office success led some reviewers to reconsider. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, but did not win any: Hitchcock—best director; Janet Leigh—best supporting actress; John L. Russell—cinematography; and three crew members for art direction/set decoration.

Psycho is sometimes said to be the first modern horror film. Prior to Psycho the source of horror was usually some supernatural being (vampire, werewolf) or creation (Frankenstein’s monster), which stands outside the natural world as we know it. In Psycho, the “monster” is an emotionally disturbed but real human being.

It could be one of the most imitated films of all time. In Europe, it gave birth to the giallo—a series of highly stylized, violent murder mysteries (largely unknown in this country). In the US, it was followed by a series of “mad slasher” franchises, such as Halloween (1978), Friday the 13^th (1980), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). (For Halloween, director John Carpenter chose Jamie Lee Curtis [Janet Leigh’s daughter] as his young woman in distress.) One could argue that Psycho started a trend which made it possible for a film like Silence of the Lambs (1991) to receive a best picture Academy Award.

There are 47 other Hitchcock films that I didn’t show, and most of his American films, at least, are widely available. Two directors who were influenced by Hitchcock are Brian de Palma, a self-acknowledged Hitchcock imitator, and Claude Chabrol, sometimes called the French Hitchcock.

Appendix–The Wrong Man

The film

Although The Wrong Man is a true story, the situation in which a man is wrongly accused of a crime is a theme of several of Hitchcock’s fictional films. The idea came from a 1953 Life magazine article about the Manny Balestrero case. Hitchcock saw this as a chance to do something different—a film using a semi-documentary approach with a minimum of cinematic embellishment.

The screenplay was written by playwright Maxwell Anderson and screenwriter Angus MacPhail. They interviewed Manny Balestrero and the other principals in the case. Whenever possible, Hitchcock filmed in the exact locations where the real events took place.

Henry Fonda (1905-1982)

Like many of his generation, he started on Broadway and moved to Hollywood in 1935 with The Farmer Takes a Wife. He appeared in slightly under 100 films of all genres, including Fritz Lang’s important early film noir, You Only Live Once (1937). He made six films with director John Ford.

Unlike most of his friends, Fonda was a liberal, and intermittently appeared in “message” pictures such as The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), Twelve Angry Men (1957), and Fail Safe (1964). His career took an unexpected turn when he starred in two of Sergio Leone’s Italian Westerns, Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and My Name is Nobody (1973).

He was nominated as best actor for The Grapes of Wrath, but lost. He won the award for his final film, On Golden Pond (1981). Fonda was a friend of Hitchcock’s who was chosen because he could be depended on not to overact in the low-key role of Manny Balestrero.

Vera Miles (1929 – )

Vera Miles was a beauty contest winner who moved to LA, started in small roles and moved up to more important films. She was signed by Hitchcock to a five year personal development contract. He introduced her as “the new Grace Kelly.” During filming of The Wrong Man, Hitchcock spent a lot of time coaching her on her performance. He intended her to star in Vertigo (1958), but she became pregnant before shooting began. She was one of the principals in Psycho (1960).

Her only other important film roles were in two Westerns directed by John Ford—The Searchers (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

The Wrong Man as a film noir

Of all Hitchcock’s films, The Wrong Man is the most typical of film noir visual style.

In a typical noir, the protagonist (a) lives in a social environment in which the deck is stacked against him, and (b) makes an error in judgment which causes his own misfortune. The error in judgment is often minor when compared to its consequences. But this is one of the few films noir in which the protagonist is completely innocent. For this reason, some would say it’s not a real film noir.

The Wrong Man featured the familiar Hitchcock and film noir theme of transfer of guilt, as when Rose blamed herself because Manny had gone to the insurance company to borrow money for her dental work.

Hitchcock’s technique

In the scenes in the jail cell:

• The spinning effect was created by mounting a small camera on a device that looked like a ferris wheel.

• Hitchcock wanted to photograph the cell through the slot in the door. This required a wide angle lens, which made the cell appear larger than it actually was. So they built a smaller cell, 5.5′ wide rather than the cell’s actual size of 9′, which appeared the right size on camera.

Hitchcock’s reaction shots often reveal what the characters are thinking. During their second interview, the attorney Frank O’Connor noticed the difference in Rose’s behavior, while Manny seemed unaware. Maybe Manny didn’t notice it because for him the change was gradual.

The ending

There are two issues associated with the ending of the film.

1.    The scene in which Manny prays and the actual robber is simultaneously caught is a visual argument: When two shots are adjacent to one another, the audience will assume a causal connection between them–in this case, that Manny’s prayer was answered. Hitchcock told Truffaut that this was his favorite scene in the film, even though he admitted that it deviated from his intention of filming the story in a completely realistic manner.

This scene is also contrary to the spirit of film noir. The genre—and perhaps all of narrative fiction—becomes meaningless if authors and audiences accept the premise that, whenever a situation becomes difficult, all the protagonist has to do is ask, and the problem will be solved by divine intervention.

2.    The written epilogue was added by the studio over Hitchcock’s strong objections. It’s not true. The Balestreros moved to Florida, but Rose never recovered her mental health. Manny Balestrero sued the insurance company and the city of New York for $500,000 for false arrest. The court awarded him only $7,000. Hitchcock paid him $22,000 for the screen rights. The $29,000 was barely enough to pay their debts from Rose’s institutionalization.

Aftermath

The film received mixed reviews, favorable from “highbrow” publications, but negative from the popular press, who called it boring and told readers not to expect an entertaining film. It was one of Hitchcock’s biggest box office failures.

Eyewitness identification

For the last 25 years, the Innocence Project has been finding and exonerating innocent people, primarily using DNA evidence. They estimate that between 2% and 5% of people in US prisons are actually innocent. This amounts to between 40,000 and 100,000 people. They find that 70% of wrongful convictions are due to mistaken eyewitness identifications.

Social psychologists have done studies addressing two questions:

1. How accurate are eyewitness identifications?
2. Are third parties (i.e., jurors) able to accurately judge the reliability of eyewitness identifications?

Many studies have been done of the accuracy of identifications using fair lineups under ideal conditions. A fair lineup is one in which all the people in the lineup resemble the description of the suspect, and in which the police do not use suggestive procedures. These results have been summarized using a statistical technique called meta-analysis.

In target-present lineups, innocent foils are identified about 20% of the time. Almost one-third of eyewitnesses who identify someone identify the wrong man even though the right man is present.

In target-absent lineups, any identification is a mistake. False identifications occur between 30% and 60% of the time, or on average, slightly under half the time. Participants tend to identify the person who they think most resembles the perpetrator.

For a lineup to be fair, police should never tell witnesses that they think they have the perpetrator. Ideally, the officer administering the lineup should not know which one is the suspect.  Some procedures in the Balestrero case are ridiculously unfair, such as allowing communication between eyewitnesses or allowing one eyewitness to observe while another is being tested.

A factor in the Balestrero case was probably source misattribution. Manny had visited the insurance company office several times. The clerks correctly identified him as someone they had seen before, but they misattributed his familiarity to the robberies rather than to his innocent visits.

Evidence strongly suggests that third parties overestimate the accuracy of their own and others’ eyewitness identifications. Jurors are not able to discriminate between correct and incorrect identifications. In one study, while 50% of eyewitnesses made a correct identification, 65% of mock jurors thought their identifications were correct. The main reason for this error is that jurors tend to rely on the eyewitness’s expressions of confidence, which tend to be high regardless of the actual accuracy of their identifications.

While a great deal is known about how to design procedures that would lead to more accurate eyewitness identifications, both the police and the courts have been reluctant to institute reforms. The police incorrectly equate procedures that would reduce misidentifications with changes that would allow guilty people to go free.

The Supreme Court dealt a severe blow to eyewitness researchers in Perry v. New Hampshire (2012). They refused to disallow evidence produced by suggestive identification procedures unless it was a result of deliberate police misconduct. In this single decision, they threw out 50 years of eyewitness identification research.