Essential Hitchcock, and A-Z

His most essential films, and a basic A-Z of what to look for. We all know Hitch, more or less. Me, no expert.

*Actors* (to be treated like cattle): Leo G Carroll, Cary Grant, James Stewart, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Joseph Cotten, Edmund Gwenn....
*Alma*: petite but "peppery" wife in long devoted marriage, 1926-80; editor/collaborator/assistant in career, with sharp eye for continuity flaws
*Anglo-American*: Hitch took American citizenship while keeping his British citizenship
*Art*: cinema as art deserving higher status as well as "piece of cake" entertainment. Hitch collected art.
*Artificial Sets*, e.g Rear Window, Rope, Marnie.... often rather than outdoor location realism, though memorable use of location in Vertigo
*Audience*: to be played with, 2 way process of projection, between film and spectator (projecction of emotions by latter)
*Bass, Saul*: title sequences, North by Northwest
*Battle of the sexes*
*Blondes*
*Bon viveur*; along with art collecting, Hitch enjoyed gourmet food, symphony halls.. and wrestling
*Burks, Robert* cinematographer
*Cahiers du Cinéma* French critics turned director, e.g Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, who successfully championed Hitch.
*Catholic guilt*
*Cinemagoers' habits*; Hitch insisted on Psycho being viewed from the start, when viewing films at any point then again from the beginning was commonplace
*Chaos v order*, the struggle to overcome cruel haphazard fate, re-establish calm after being caught up in events often barely understood
*Chase films*
*Close ups*, e.g shots of hands
*Cold War* eg North by Northwest, Torn Curtain, Topaz. Little doubt which side Hitch was on, as with Nazism
*Colour scheme* Vertigo, Marnie
*Dolly Zoom* Vertigo effect
*Draughtsman-designer* Hitch's background to and prominent influence on his films
*Emotion*: not only audience involvement but real feelings and pain. Marnie's heartfelt angst (her horse!), sympathy for Rains in Notorious
*English Eccentricity*: e.g The Lady Vanishes
*Entertainment*
*Expressionism*
*Fragrance*: the divine aroma of Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest
*Free French*: Bon Voyage, Aventure Malagache
*Gothic*: Rebecca, Psycho
*Grocer father*
*Head, Edith*, legend in costumes.
*Heights* and overhead shots
*Herrmann, Bernd* music, soundtracks- regular composer for Hitch from the mid 1950s
*Hitchcock*- as a brand, himself in cameos
*Identity issues*
*Influence* on many directors and films, e.g De Palma, Chabrol, Charade, Mirage, Frantic..
*Innuendo* e.g train enters tunnel in North by Northwest, purse in Marnie has been likened to a vagina!
*Inventiveness*
*Jaguarundi* (and learning to trust, in Marnie)
*Jesuit upbringing*
*Key* in Notorious (most nail-biting, heart-pounding moments in cinema)
*Kissing*; Hitch knew how to bring out the erotic and get the most from restrictions, e.g Notorious
*Lang, Fritz* influence
*The Last Laugh*: Hitch observed Murnau's film being made and admired it as pure cinema
*Lightbulb* illuminating the suspected milk in Suspicion
*Location shooting*; eg, unusually extensive in Saboteur for the time, memorable in Vertigo
*London*: birthplace, 1899
*Loneliness as a child*
*Long Take* in Rope
*M* is for Murder, Marnie, Madeleine, Melanie, Marion Crane, Madeleine Carroll..
*MacGuffin* Minor, largely irrelevant detail as central narrative device
*Master of Suspense*
*Matte shots*: The Birds
*Mental breakdown*
*Montage*- Psycho, influence of Eisenstein and Soviet silent cinema
*Mother*
*O*: number of best direction Oscars, Roger O Thornhill, David O Selznick
*Patricia*: Hitch's only daughter, born 1928
*Phobia*: Vertigo, Marnie
*Photography*: an interest that led him into films, first as designer.
*Police: fear of* (Hich's dad got the coppers to lock him up as a nipper)
*Prank player*
*Predator-Protector*: Vertigo, Marnie..
*Preparation, Preparation, Preparation*
*Psychiatry*
*"Queer"* undercurrents: North by Northwest, Strangers on a Train, Rope- homophobia?
*Real characters*: the O in R.O.T may mean nothing, but these are no Tarantino-esque cardboard cut-outs.
*Screams*
*Set Pieces*
*Sexy Sensuality*, Hitch's sexual obsession with women.
*Sound*, effects and clever cuts: Blackmail, 39 Steps, The Man who Knew Too Much..
*Spies*
*Storyboards*, preparing the visuals for each scene, a process of careful planning and control by Hitchcock
*Suave villains*
*Subjectivity*; enabling audience involvement and emotional identification
*Surrealism* Hitch was not a surrealist but there are dream-like moments, plenty of comic absurdity and a Dali sequence in Spellbound
*Thrillers*
*Trains*: 39 Steps, Lady Vanishes, Strangers on a Train, North by Northwest. Hitch loved trains and timetables when young
*TV*: Hitch was dismissive but his face and profile became even more famous through it
*Umbrellas*: Foreign Correspondent
*Unity of Space* (small spaces): Lifeboat, Rope, Rear Window
*Uranium* in Notorious, filmed before the Bomb
*Visualising* "a picture right down to the final cuts"
*Voyeurism*
*Wicked Humour*
*Wilde, Oscar*; Picture of Dorian Grey was a favourite book of Hitch's from youth, influence on films like Rope and Vertigo.
*Writers* admired by Hitch also included Nietzsche, Chesterton, Dickens, Poe, Flaubert
*Wrong Man/ wrongfully accused*
*Young and Innocent's overhead ballroom shot*- "zeroing in on the..murderer like a Scud missile"


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My favourites:
North by Northwest
Vertigo
Marnie
The 39 Steps
Rear Window
Notorious

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