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.