Over the last several years, I have been efforting to watch all of Hitchcock’s classics.
That guy truly was one incredible director. He produced so many enjoyable films.
While he was a master at the big, dramatic moments, I think his greatest skill was his ability to creep you out with the little moments.
For example, in the film I saw last night, The Man Who Knew Too Much,
The scene where Jimmy Stewart is on the red herring trip to the taxidermist, and he hears the footsteps on the coblestone street behind him. Much like his trip, it turns out to be unrelated to the plot. With other directors, I’d say such a scene was padding. But Hitchcock made it one of the creepiest moments in the film. Even when the character was NOT being followed, you got a sense of paranoia.
also from that same film,
The scene where the would be assassin shows up at Stewart’s hotel and sees the spy he would later kill on the balconey just flat out gave me the creeps!
and perhaps the greatest one, from Strangers on a Train,
The scene at the tennis match, where everyone in the audience except the antagonist is following the ball with their heads. He has his eyes locked on our hero, with an EERIE grin on his face.
I know there are more. Anyone else have any little scenes that Hitchcock used?
Small things that gave you chills, not big moments in the plot that scared the living daylights out of everyone.
Please label and box your spoilers, even though the films are generations old.
From North by Northwestthe woman who plays James Mason’s (Van Damme’s) wife is creepy. Mousey, polite, but deadly. As often in Hitchcock, you can find echoes in other films, in this case the wife of the man with half his finger missing in The 39 Steps.
Hitchcock was concerned with those little touches. I heard him speak and met him once. He was talking about during the filming of PSYCHO, the scene were Martin Balsam (the detective) goes into the Bates house and up the stairs. He let Saul Bass (the wonderful title designer) direct that sequence for suspense, and Saul Bass shot Balsam’s foot on the stair, hand on the rail, full body going up a stair, foot on the next stair, etc.
Hitch said he rejected the footage, because having so many cuts made Balsam appear to be guilty of something – he becomes an invader, an outsider. Hitchcock wanted Balsam to be innocent and the object of audience sympathy (and to investigate what the audience wants him to investigate.) He reshot the sequence, leaving the camera static, and just watching Balsam go up the stairs … where, of course, Mother is waiting.
Interestingly enough, a few years after I heard him tell this anecdote, he made FRENZY. Towards the end, when Jon Finch has escaped from jail, has a steel bar in his hand, and is going up the stairs to murder the person who framed him… and it’s shot in many cuts: hand on railing, foot on stair, hand carrying steel bar, etc. Finch is, in fact, an invader, an intruder; he (and the audience) think that he’s going to do murder.
I loved his use of stairways – in many of his films, key scenes were shot with the actors on stairs. Few critics seem to notice it, but it is nearly as much a trademark as his cameos. Truffaut was the only person who commented on it, as asked Hitchcock about it. Hitch replied, “Stairs are very photogenic.”
Hitchcock played on that in Frenzy – he gives us a single shot of Bob’s mother and she says practically nothing, but it is clearly meant to be a suggestion of the basis for Bob’s behavior.
It’s a good old-fashioned romp. Wonderful build up - some great scenes. Only bit I don’t care much for is the bit on Mt Rushmore. Too predictable and no suspense. And her shoes! Product placement, I suppose. But the dialogue on the train is, well, first-class!
In terms of subtle touches: in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, on the first viewing you don’t understand how/why these guys pick up Cary Grant, mistaking him for the U.S. agent (whose name escapes me, roger). On careful viewing, the pieces are all there. The bad guys are seen in the background giving money to a bellboy; the bellboy walks around the lobby calling, “Mr Kaplan! Mr Kaplan!” Cary Grant coincidentally thinks he needs to call his mother, so waves to the bellboy; the watching bad guys think he’s responding the page.All very subtle, not overt.
Also, of course, during that sequence, the band at the restaurant is playing “It’s a Most Unusual Day.”
I don’t know if it’s “subtle” or “pivotal” (or both, if that’s possible), but one of my favorite moments in any Hitchcock movie is in Rear Window, when Lisa is breaking into Thorwald’s apartment.
There’s a shot where it cuts back to Jimmy Stewart’s character watching the whole thing, and without dialogue, you can see the whole shift in their relationship take place. Just using his facial expression, you can see that he’s stopped thinking of her as the beautiful girl he’s dating and gone to being really in love with her.
Actually, I believe that is in there. I missed them paying off the bellboy, that is something you would have to see it again for I guess, but I remember them saying Kaplan and realizing that this is where the mistaken identity starts.
I even guessed that the bellboy was in cahoots with them as he quickly disappeared when the two heavies moved in on our hero. He seemed to be in on it.
[spoiler]As the movie progresses, we see the intensity of Uncle Charlie’s hatred of women revealed not only in his dinner speech to his niece, but every time he speaks to a woman. He’s creepy from the get-go, but only as time goes by do we see why. He really hates women, and itches to murder them.
BTW, during his venomous dinner speech, he turns to speak to his niece Charlie, but Hitchcock uses the device of having Joseph Cotten look directly into the camera as he talks. This rivets your attention on him and what he’s saying. They used this device a lot in Silence of the Lambs, I noticed, and it’s an effective creeping-out technique.
[/spoiler]
I saw in a documentary about Hitchcock that Raymond Massey in Rear View Window was made up to look like David O. Selznick with whom Hitch was feuding at the time.
I didn’t notice her shoes (who notices shoes?).
A more blatant product placement is in *Rear Window * when Jimmy Stewart asks Grace Kelly what she has and she holds it up and says, “Mark Cross overnight bag” almost as if she’s doing a commercial.
Another good one from Read Window at the very end. She’s wearing jeans and reading Outdoor Life magazine (I know that’s the wrong magazine but I can’t remember exactly which one it was - something along those lines). Proving that she’s willing to adjust to his lifestyle…but then she glanes over to see he isn’t looking and switches to Vogue - she’s changed for him, but not that much.