Suspense: "Rope,"Strangers on a Train," and "Foreign Correspondent"

As seen in the previous six blogs, there are many ways in which Hitchcock creates and builds suspense in his films. This blog is going to examine how Hitchcock uses murder in the three films, Rope, Strangers on A Train, and Foreign Correspondent to build suspense.

Many of Hitchcock's films are created and shaped through a murder. For example, Hitchcock's film Rope is entirely about three classmates, Brandon, Phillip and David. Brandon and Phillip strangle David to death in their apartment with a rope. They wanted to prove that they could create the "perfect murder." The death of David drives the film forward. After the strangling of David, there is a suspense within the rest of the film. The audience keeps wondering how Brandon and Phillip are okay with murdering their friend and how they plan on keeping the murder a secret. Suspense is further created when Brandon and Phillip hide David's body in the wooden chest in their apartment. Brandon uses the wooden chest as a buffet table for the food.

Strangers on a Train is also another movie that has murder and that murder is what builds suspense throughout the film. After meeting psychopath Bruno on a train, Guy thinks nothing of his encounter other than a fallacy. However, Bruno takes the train conversation seriously and murder's Guy's wife Miriam. The murder itself is very suspenseful. After the murder of Miriam, there is suspense created when Bruno keeps returning in Guy's life. There are moments in this film where Guy is suspected for killing Miriam. The audience then wonders will Guy hold up his "bargain" and murder Bruno's father. They also wonder will Bruno be caught, will someone start suspecting something else, etc. The murder at the beginning of the film is what drives the film forward.

The image above is from the film where Bruno murders Miriam at the amusement park. Bruno follows up the murder when he meets Guy and gives him her glasses.

Similar to Rope and Strangers on a Train, Foreign Correspondent also has a murder that builds suspense throughout the film. When politician Van Meer is assassinated in front of a large crowd, the film becomes suspenseful. Following the assassination is a high speed car chase. Haverstock is following the assassin in his getaway car and eventually follows the assassin to a windmill in the country. The murder is suspenseful because Haverstock finds out that the real Van Meer is still alive and the Van Meer that was shot at the political conference was not the person everyone thought was. This builds suspense because the audience then wonders why someone was taking his place, what does it relate to the rest of the movie, what will happen next, etc. The murder later takes the audience on a journey during the film as Haverstock attempts to figure out the story of what really happened and why is it happening.

The image above is Van Meer being shot in the face after being assassinated in front of the crowd of people at a political conference. 

Overall, murder is very suspenseful since the act is illegal and anyone who commits the act will either be killed for their action or they will be spending the rest of their life in jail. There is also mystery when it comes to murder and mysteries can be very suspenseful.

Suspense: "The Birds," "Pyscho," and "Young & Innocent"

Throughout the semester, we have watched an abundance of Hitchcock films that have birds in them.The overarching conclusion is that Hitchcock is notorious for using birds.

This blog is going to focus on Hitchcock's three films: The Birds, Psycho, and
 Each of these three films use birds to help build suspense.

In the film Psycho, one of the main characters Norman Bates is a taxidermist. In several of the scenes, the birds he has taxidermied make an appearance in the film.

The image above was taken from the scene where Mariam is eating the sandwich and drinking the milk that Norman had prepared for her. During this scene, Norman comments on Mariam's eating habit "Mariam eats like a bird." In the corner of this image is an owl who has been stuffed with saw dust. The owl is very important in this scene. Owls are a bird species which are nocturnal and prey in the darkness. In this scene, a conclusion can be drawn that the owl is a metaphor for Norman. This owl builds suspense for the later scene because the audience can feel the tension and eeriness between Norman, the owl, and Mariam. When watching this film, I got an odd feeling about Norman and the stuffed owl. My feelings were later on proved to be true. Norman turns out to be a predator as he spies on Mariams, essentially hunts her and kills her in the shower. The audience then wonders what Norman is going to do later on in the film.

Towards the end of his film career, Hitchcock created the film The Birds. This film encapsulates everything about birds that we have learned and seen all semester. Time and time again, birds have made their reappearance. The Birds is a film that is entirely made up about the chaos, destruction and killing of birds, and death of birds. Birds themselves are mysterious creatures as there are many of them and they are chaotic and almost uncontrollable. Hitchcock uses birds throughout the entire film to create suspense and drive the film forward. The audience has no idea why the birds are attacking, who will die from the bird attacks, and when the next attack will be. The entire

This image comes from the film The Birds. Mid-way through the film, the birds attack the children at the school house. This image shows the damage and chaos of the birds flying around, attacking the children and Mariam. 

Another Hitchcock film that uses birds is Hitchcock's film Young and Innocent. When Robert Tisdall finds a washed up, dead body on the beach the camera shows sea gulls are flying in the air above the dead body on the  beach. The use of sea gulls in this film builds suspense. It builds suspense because the sea gulls flying around the beach are signaling death. This then leads to the audience questioning why is there a dead body on a beach, how did the body get there, who killed the woman and what are the importance of birds in this scene.

These films are only a few that use birds to build suspense.

Suspense: "Vertigo," "Rear Window," and "To Catch A Thief"

As seen throughout the previous blog posts, Hitchcock uses suspense to keep his audience interested and to help develop the film and the cinematic story.

One of the interesting ways in which Hitchcock creates suspense is through the human curiosity. Humans are constantly observing and watching. Similar to the other blogs, this one will examine three different movies and how Hitchcock uses and incorporates human curiosity in his films to build suspense.

Hitchcock's film Rear Window shows human nature and how humans interact with their environments. Human curiosity is a driving force to humans observing and watching other humans.

Throughout the film, the audience is constantly wondering, why Jeff spies on his neighbors to pass his time. The camera shots constantly switch back and forth between his different neighbors: Miss Lonelyhearts, the pianist, the several married couples and Thorwald, the traveling jewelry salesman. The questions that arise during the film is what is Thorwald doing, is Jeff right about the murder, who will believe him, why is he constantly watching outside of the window, why was the dog poisoned, what is planted in the flowers, etc. As Jeff watches his neighbors, the audience is watching them too. The audience sees the same thing as Jeff, the main character sees and the entire time, they are constantly questioning the events occurring in the film. Each time Jeff observes his neighbors, the film becomes more suspenseful.

Vertigo is another one of Hitchcock's films that evokes human curiosity. The film opens up with the rooftop scene which evokes suspense from the spectator. The audience has no idea why the beginning scene is important or how it builds up later in the film. The audience then learns that Scottie is a detective and he spies and follows people for a living. Similar to the character Jeff from Rear Window, Scottie also acts as an observer. He follows a woman named Madeleine around and observes her. Hitchcock uses "spying" to create suspense. Throughout the scenes where Jeff is spying, the audience is questioning where is she going next and what will happen next.

The image above comes from Vertigo. Scottie is spying on Madeleine who is staring at a portrait of Carlotta. This image is important because the audience has no idea as to why Scottie is following Madeleine, but they are curious and want to know more.

To Catch A Thief also uses spying as a form of suspicion. While trying to catch the new cat burglar that has taken his place, Robie spies on an estate at night, trying to catch and discover who the new burglar is. This specific scene creates a lot of suspense for the audience. They are wondering if he will get caught and if/when the burglar shows up. The scene becomes even more suspenseful when the attacker and Robie get into a fight and the man falls over a cliff.

This image from the film illustrates both suspense and the act of spying. 

These three movies are similar that the characters are spying to discover a mystery and to figure out the story which creates suspense in the film. 

Suspense: "Family Plot," "North by Northwest," and "The Lady Vanishes"

Fake psychics, family heirs, and $10,000, and a false identity are the motives and driving forces of Hitchcock's film Family Plot. Blanche, a fake psychic, and her boyfriend George attempt to the locate the nephew who for an elderly woman. The woman's nephew is the heir to a large estate and she is willing to pay Blanche and George if they find him. While searching for the missing nephew, Edward Shoebridge, they discover that his identity has changed to a successful jeweler Arthur Adamson. Hitchcock uses the identity change of Edward to build suspense within the movie. While searching for who they believe to be Edward, a hit-man named Maloney tries to kill them which leads the audience on an adventure has Blanche and George almost die due to a cut break line in their car.

The image below represents Blanche and George acting as spies as they do throughout the film to find the lost nephew and to solve the mystery behind his fake death after his adoption.

The missing character in Family Plot is used to build suspense and drive the film forward. This technique to create suspense is found in  Hitchcock's two films: The Lady Vanishes and North by Northwest.

The driving force in the film North by Northwest is the fake spy George Kaplan. The film begins with character Roger Thornhill who is mistaken for spy George Kaplan. Thornhill is kidnapped by two men who believe he is Kaplan. They try to kill Kaplan by forcing him to drink bourbon and attempt to kill him off by a drunk driving incident.

The profile of the fake spy sets up audience for an eventful, suspense-thrilling film. After Thornhill is almost killed by his avengers, he goes on an adventure of trying to figure out who George Kaplan really is and why the two men are after him. He goes to the Chicago hotel and sneaks onto the floor, pretending to be Kaplan. Throughout the film, the spy Kaplan is used to build suspense. For example, Eve Kendall, a woman Thornhill is infatuated with, lies to Thornhill and tells him she has arranged a meeting with him for Kaplan. Once Thornhill goes to the desolate location, a crop duster plan dives towards him and tries to kill him. Later on in the film, Thornhill pretends to be Kaplan to save Eve Kendall from the villains.

In comparison to Family Plot and North by Northwest, the film The Lady Vanishes also uses a missing character to build suspense. While staying at an inn, Iris meets a woman Miss Froy. The next morning, Iris and Miss Froy plan to take the same train. Right before boarding the train, Iris is hit on the head by a planter that fell out of the window. On the train, Iris sits next to Miss Froy in the same compartment and has tea with her in the dining car.

Iris sleeps in the train compartment and when she wakes up, Miss Froy is not there. While searching for Miss Froy, everyone on the train states they have never. The mystery of Miss Froy's disappearance and her whereabouts unknown to the people on the train build suspense for the audience. The audience does not know if Iris is imagining Miss Froy or if she is real for the first half of the film. Hitchcock uses the mystery to drive the film forward and to keep the audience wondering what happened and question what is going to happen next.

When Iris has team with Miss Froy, Froy writes her name on the window for her to see. Later in the film, this writing on the window returns. While the audience observe Iris, they too are trying to figure out if Miss Froy is real or not. The camera switches to this scene and this shot is an indicator that the writing on the train was real. This shot is used to build suspense within the film. 

These three movies use false human identities, fake spies, and "nonexistent" characters to build suspense for the audience.

Suspense: "Rebecca," "Sabotage," & "Secret Agent"

This blog is going to focus on suspense that is created through different types of scenes in the three films: Rebecca, Sabotage, and Secret Agent. Scenes are very important for films. Whether the scene takes place in a hotel, a room in a house, a theater, outside on the street, on the beach, or in a mode of transportation, the scene sets the tone and mood for the film. As a creator of suspense, Hitchcock creates specific scenes to help build the tension for the audience.

There are many different scenes used in the film Rebecca that build suspense. At the beginning of the film, Maxim is standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down into the pool of water. A woman whose name is never mentioned in the film yells for him not to jump. This is one of the early scenes that builds suspense and evokes curiosity out of the viewer. This leaves the audience wondering who is this man, does he want to die, why does he want to die, why is staring so deeply into the water. Another important scene is the film is the opening of the house. The house has an eerie feeling and it looks almost creepy. The dark, mysterious house provides suspense to the audience.

This image is taken from the film. It is Maxim's house. As one can see, the house is dark and framed to look eerie and mysterious.

Some of the other suspenseful scenes in this film are the following: Mrs. Winter walks the dog down the steps onto the beach towards a house with a strange man into it; Mrs. Winter first goes into Maxim's dead wife Rebecca's bedroom; the scenes where Mrs. Danvers appears and disappears; the scene where Rebecca's body is found; and one of the last scenes where the mansion catches on fire. Hitchcock uses these different scenes to evoke a response out of his audience.

Sabotage is another one of Hitchcock's great movies. Likewise to Rebecca, it also has great scenes that build suspense. The opening of this film is worth talking about. The audience first encounters a the loss of electricity in London where there is a blackout and then it flashes to the scene where the audience is demanding their money back. The audience then sees a man who seems to be suspicious and nobody knows why the blackout occurred or its importance to the rest of the movie. Towards the end of the movie is where the suspense really builds up in the scenes. There are different scenes that occur with a boy carrying a bomb. During each scene on the street, he gets caught up in sideshows. Hitchcock uses the scenes of the sideshows and the camera to build suspense. The camera switches between showing of the clock and boy out on the street with the bomb. He builds the suspense by having the boy having his teeth brushed, being caught up in the middle of a band and stopped by a police officer, and when he finally gets onto a bus he pets a puppy. Eventually the bomb blows up in route of travel.

The image above is from Sabotage. The boy is viewed stopped at the sideshow while he is carrying the package which is actually the bomb.

Secret Agent was another great film of Hitchcock's that can be analyzed as to how scenery builds suspense. Showing the agent Edgar read the newspaper with his fake obituary in the newspaper in secrecy for his job is one way to build suspense. An obituary signals that someone is dead and by having a false dead man, the audience then wonders why is the man dead, what is his purpose and what direction is this film heading towards. Another suspense heightening scene is when the Edgar finds the organist dead and he falls to the floor. In his hand, he has a button. Later on in the film, there is a scene out on the mountains. Mountains signal danger, private encounters and death. Between these scenes, Hitchcock switches the camera back and forth to a puppy laying by the door, crying to get into the room and the men out on the mountain. Between the camera switching, the audience then sees the mountaineer being pushed of the mountain, falling to his death.

Hitchcock uses scenes to help set the mood and tone of his film. By using a eerie house, a citywide blackout, and a mountain, he is able to build suspense and draw in the audience. Each background scene he uses has a specific purpose. He sets his scenes accordingly to the characters, the plots and the events.

Suspense: "Blackmail," "Juno and the Paycock" & "The 39 Steps"

Writer Michael Regina tweeted "Writing suspense is all about how tight you can make the rope before you break it and send your audience plunging."

The metaphor of suspense reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock. Aside from the reoccurring theme of ropes in his films, Hitchcock uses suspense as a type of rope. Each scene, each shot, each character--everything he does he does on purpose. With each scene, shot, character, etc, he is building suspense. As he builds suspense, the rope becomes tighter until the climax of the film where the rope breaks and the audience is plunging. In a sense, it almost becomes meta. The audience's anxiety, anxiousness, and tension breaks. The audience falls not only mentally but they seem to fall through the film. This climaxing moment is where the audience puts the film together and ties together all of those connections.

Hitchcock makes the rope tighter in his films The 39 Steps, Juno and the Paycock, and Blackmail. 

In my own personal opinion, I think The 39 Steps is one of Hitchcock's better suspenseful films. Suspense is a key component of this film. From the very first moment of the film, the audience experiences suspense. Nobody knows who shot the gun and after everyone floods from the building. Hannay, the main character, is an ordinary man who is put into an extraordinary situation. The entire film is filled with suspenseful moments. From the secrecy of Annabella and her mysterious murder; Hannay's voyage across the country to rightfully clear his name; the multiple police chases Hannay experiences; the Professor shoots Hannay and leaves him to die; the film climaxes with Mr. Memory telling what "the 39 Steps" are and he is shot. The entire film is built upon suspenseful moments.

The image above is an important component to the film. The dangerous, powerful, villainous character, the one Annabelle warned Hannay about lifts his hand up and says, "sure it wasn't this one?" This moment in the film really draws the audience in and heightens the suspense. When I was watching this film, I was questioning, is he the ultimate villain, what is he going to do with Hannay, and if Hannay dies, how will I find out what "the 39 steps are."

Like many of the other films, Juno and the Paycock also presents elements of suspense. Juno and the Paycock is similar to The Manxman. Suspense is developed more through the plot development and through the characters then the specific scenes, motifs, objects, landmarks, etc. In this film, there is a variety of characters that build suspense. There is the Captain who is referred to the paycock because he does not have a job and uses up all of the families finances and leaves his wife Juno to work hard and keep the family together. There is Mary, a woman who jumps between men and has an affair on her fiance Jerry and there is the son Johnny who has turned a military man killed by turning him into the police. Between the characters, suspense is created. Each character makes a selfish mistake that leads to another mistake that builds up the suspense and the plot within the film. By the end of the movie, Juno leaves with Mary and the two together try to rebuild a new life after they have lost everything.

The film cover is an important component to this film. It does a nice job demonstrating the multiple characters in this film and the different personalities that they have. Each character contributes to the suspense as there is not a lot occurring throughout the film where as The 39 Steps is a non-stop thriller. 

Blackmail is also another film that is created around suspense. At the beginning of the film, Alice murders Mr. Crewe after he attempts to rape her. Alice's boyfriend, detective Frank Webber tries to protect his girlfriend from being convicted of murder. After she is discovered by a blackmailer, the audience watches the film unfold.

There area many objects that  reoccur throughout the film that help build suspense between the audience and the film. Alice's black gloves, the knife, the jester canvas, the phone booth, etc. Another way in which Hitchcock creates suspense is by using famous landmarks/buildings. When the blackmailer is running from the cops, he runs into the British Museum. This scene specifically is very suspenseful. The camera shoots back and forth between Tracy and the police officers. As they chase him, the music in the background is shaping the mood and the tone of this scene. Finally, the suspense falls when Tracy falls to his death through the skylight on the roof of the museum.

As the blog progresses, you will notice the many ways in which suspense is used and incorporated into Hitchcock's films.

Suspense: "The Manxman" and "The Lodger"

Alfred Hitchcock's silent film The Manxman is the second silent film I have watched; the first one was The Lodger. Before the context of this class, I never took the idea of silent films or watching silent films seriously. I always dismissed these films because of the lack of language and dialogue. Due to the lack of words and dialogue, I was not engaged with the film. However, after watching these two films, my thinking has shifted. I have been quite intrigued with how silent films work and how to interpret them. Rather than trying to listen to what the characters are trying to say, I am able to visually understand what they are saying and am able to physically see how Hitchcock portrays these silent conversation into his films.

One of the many reasons why Hitchcock is so successful in both his early silent films and the films later in his career is due to his creation of suspense. Suspense is a reoccurring trend that I have seen in each one of his films. If a film is considered to be "Hitchcockian" then it must have a component of suspense.

The suspense Hitchcock creates stirs up the many emotions within his audience. Suspense causes the audience to feel anxious, excitement, tension, etc. These feelings of suspense continuously keep the audience drawn into film. Suspense is a pleasurable feeling. Therefore, suspense keeps the audience wanting more.

There are many ways in which Hitchcock incorporates suspense into his films. Some of the ways in which he does so is through the story/plot, placing an ordinary character into an extraordinary situation, the variety of characters he uses- sociopaths, psychopaths, villainous characters, the innocent character, etc., or in general, suspicious characters, the use of trains, silent scenes, the sounds used in the scenes,  and the camera shots. These are only a few of the ways in which he builds suspense.

The overarching theme of this blog is going to explore and examine the ways in which Hitchcock has used suspense in his films.

This first blog is going to start with his an analysis of his silent films.

The Manxman creates and builds suspense. One of the central ways is the plot. A man has a successful, wealthy best friend. The man who is not as successful wants to marry a woman of middle class. His father will not marry his daughter to a man who is penniless. In order to marry the love of his life, he agrees to get the daughter to wait for him while he goes to Africa to become wealthy enough to marry her. He asks his best friend to watch over her while he is gone. While the man is gone, his best friend and the woman fall in love. They want to get married. However, the man from Africa comes back successful and the woman's father wants the two to get married. The two get married, the man not knowing his love's affection for his best friend. While married, the woman is unhappy and has an affair with his best friend. She gets pregnant, has the child. Lies to her husband that the child his and then leaves him with the child. The woman tries to kill herself and is then placed on trial in a courtroom. The suspense between the main man, his best friend, Kate and Kate's father is heightened. The moment in the courtroom is climax where the story unfolds and both audiences, (watching the film and those in the courtroom) are aware of what has happened.

The image below is Kate in the courtroom waiting to be tried for her crime of suicide attempt.

Compared to many of Hitchcock's other films, The Manxman is not a very suspenseful film. It is more plot driven. Throughout the film, the audience keeps asking the question will the story unravel and the man find out that his wife is in love with another man and he is not the father of the child. That is what drives the suspense throughout the film.

The Lodger creates suspense in many different ways. At the beginning of the film, a murder happens and a stranger is seen dressed in a long trench coat, scarf, and a black top hat, similar attire to that of murderer. Suspense is built when a mysterious man appears out of the fog and stays with a family. The newspaper articles that keep reappearing with snippets of the murders throughout the film also draw in suspense. The mysterious actions of the man such as flipping over the portraits of the blonde woman over, having a photo of the first woman murdered in the crimes, and his map of the murders, similar to that of the police officers builds suspense and indicates that he could possibly be the murderer.

The photo above is the mysterious man stepping from outside of the fog into the lodge where he will be temporarily staying. The audience has no idea who this man is, which makes it even more suspenseful.

The films used in this blog are two examples of how suspense is incorporated into his films in different ways. Each film is different, therefore when suspense works for one film will not work for the other.