An essay on the visual style, narrative and themes of two Hitchcock films

The following is an edited version of an essay I wrote for my Film Studies degree.

'Examine the visual style, narrative form and thematic concerns of two of Hitchcock’s British thrillers (1927-38)'

During the period of 1927 – 1938, Alfred Hitchcock made a number of films in Britain including The Thirty Nine Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938) which are part of his classic thriller sextet. Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol believe the sextet constitute a new cinematic genre; “This new genre – ‘le feuilleton d’espionage intelligent’ – produces a type of film characterisable in terms of an abundance of action, chases and journeys, a variety of locales, gloomy and macabre plots.”

The visual style of Hitchcock’s British thrillers is very realistic. Everyday locales such as the crofter’s cabin in The Thirty Nine Steps; a detailed depiction of a lower middle class setting, and the inn in The Lady Vanishes, are very authentic. Tom Ryall states that “Hitchcock’s early training as a set designer undoubtedly contributes to such a detailed use of the mise en scene to achieve surface realism.”

Hitchcock also uses innovative sound and editing techniques to add to the effect of the visuals. In The Thirty Nine Steps, there is a shot of the landlady’s screaming face and the sound of a train whistle, then the scene cuts to an actual train: the source of the whistle. Bordwell and Thomson believe this nonfaithful sound has a serious function; “Though the whistle is not a faithful sound for an image of a screaming person, it provides a dramatic transition. Fidelity of sound to source is a strong convention of classical cinema and here Hitchcock deviates from it in order to provide a ‘striking transition’ between two disparate images.”

There are also memorable visuals from the film The Lady Vanishes. The ‘stain’ – a type of Hitchcockian prop where everything is proceeding normally until someone notices something that isn’t right – is present here. In this film it is the packaging of Miss Froy’s herbal tea, which is thrown out from the train with the rubbish and blows against the window in front of Gilbert for a few seconds, before blowing away. This convinces Gilbert that Iris was telling the truth about Miss Froy. Another clever visual used is the word ‘FROY’ written on the window, it is visible throughout the scene where Iris sits with Gilbert until she notices it, and then it disappears.

Both The Thirty Nine Steps and The Lady Vanishes are full of Hitchcock motifs; the long knife used in the fight sequence with the illusionist, the birds that are let loose in the luggage compartment and cause chaos, the long corridors, trains, public buildings like the music hall and the London Palladium, etc. Elisabeth Weis discusses the links between the images and sounds in Hitchcock’s films; “his soundtrack is also distinctively contrapuntal to the visuals. That is to say, the sounds and images rarely duplicate and often contrast with each other. During a Hitchcock film we are typically looking at one thing or person while listening to another.” There is an example of this in The Thirty Nine Steps where we hear the crofter saying a blessing before supper but what we see is his wife anxiously looking at the newspaper headline and then at Hannay.

In Hitchcock’s films, elements of the mise en scene are often used to great effect in order to further the narrative. In The Thirty Nine Steps, the crofter’s wife gives Hannay her husband’s coat to wear to disguise himself when he runs away from the police. This saves his life later in the film when he is shot by the professor at the country house. He is saved by the Bible the crofter kept in the coat’s breast pocket. In The Lady Vanishes it is the herbal tea packet that convinces Gilbert that Iris is telling the truth about Miss Froy.

A difference in the narrative form is the episodic structure of The Thirty Nine Steps which has lots of different locations; the music hall, Hannay’s apartment, the train, the Scottish Highlands, the crofter’s cabin, the country house, the town hall, the sheriff’s office, the inn, the London Palladium. In The Lady Vanishes there are much fewer locations, there is a clear divide between the beginning of the film, the middle, and the end; these are set in the inn, the train, and the government offices.

Tom Ryall notes another difference between these two films; “In The Thirty Nine Steps, the initial emphasis is on the male character (Hannay) with the woman (Pamela) a sceptical and unwilling partner in the adventures until the later stages of the film. The Lady Vanishes reverses this pattern with the woman (Iris Henderson) in the central position to begin with and the man (Gilbert) playing the sceptical and unwilling partner for part of the film.”

Although some of the films in Hitchcock’s classic sextet deviated from the spy thriller genre, the final film in the sextet, The Lady Vanishes saw a return to it. The Thirty Nine Steps and The Lady Vanishes have similar themes in that they are both espionage films with some comic and romantic elements, and they both deal with a conspiracy.

In both of the films, the role of the ‘hero’ is occupied by individuals who have been involved in the espionage situation by accident. Both of the protagonists are ‘ordinary people’ who have been drawn into the world of espionage by accident and they are somewhat forced to occupy these heroic roles because the real spies are unable to do so.

A major theme in The Thirty Nine Steps is that of the falsely accused hero. Hannay is an innocent man who has been accused of murdering a young woman and has gone on the run from the police. This theme is also present in The Lady Vanishes as Iris is accused of lying or possible madness by many of the passengers on the train as they don’t believe she’s telling the truth about Miss Froy. The hero’s purpose in both of the films is to try to prove they are telling the truth.

Overall, Hitchcock’s classic British thrillers of this period all offer the spectator an adventurous and intriguing story. The films provide an innovative visual style, an interesting narrative and a number of themes that became indicative of Hitchcock’s work. Audiences flocked to see ‘the new Hitchcock movie’ because they knew they wouldn’t be disappointed.

Bibliography

• Bordwell, D. and Thompson, K., Film Art: An Introduction, 6th ed., New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001
• Rohmer, E. and Chabrol, C., Hitchcock, Frederick Ungar Publishing, New York, 1979
• Ryall, T., Alfred Hitchcock and the British Cinema, The Athlone Press Ltd, London, 1996
• Weis, E., ‘The Sound of One Wing Flapping’, Film Comment, vol. 14, no. 5, 1978

Filmography

• The Lady Vanishes (1938) Alfred Hitchcock
• The Thirty Nine Steps (1935) Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock is the subject of Director's Chair #11 over at The LAMB

An essay on the homophobia and misogyny present in Alfred Hitchcock's films

The following is an edited version of an essay I wrote during my Film Studies degree course.

'It has been argued that Hitchcock’s films imply male spectatorship and a worldview which is both homophobic and misogynistic. Discuss this statement applying theoretical models studied on the module to specific examples of Hitchcock films.'
 

Alfred Hitchcock’s films often tend to divide audiences in terms of their message concerning the treatment of women and homosexuals. Many feminist critics believe that his films include misogynism; for example, Laura Mulvey says that “Hitchcock is seen as a director who turned women into passive objects of male voyeurism and sadistic impulses.”

In her essay, entitled ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’, Mulvey presents her theory on it. She suggests there are two distinct pleasures that we as spectators experience when we watch films at the cinema. One is scopophilia; where we sit in the dark and look in on someone else’s world, the other is narcissism; where we identify with what is on the screen. Mulvey believes that women are presented as the image and men as the bearer of the look, that pleasure in looking is male dominated. She also believes that males are active because they further the narrative through their POV shots and looks. However, females are passive because they are arranged as an icon to be looked at and they don’t tend to further the narrative.

Hitchcock’s films often include examples of the mistreatment of women, with them either being killed, or controlled by men; like in Marnie, Vertigo, North by Northwest, etc.

In Vertigo, when the spectator sees Madeleine for the first time, it is through the eyes of James Stewart’s character, Scottie. The camera repeatedly cuts between shots of him and his POV shots of Madeleine as he sits and watches her. According to Mulvey’s theory, Scottie is controlling events, the audience sees everything through his eyes, and Madeleine is the object of his and our gaze. Mulvey states that “we, the audience, vicariously enjoy the pleasure in looking through scopophilia and identifying with the male gaze”.

Scottie treatment of Judy later in the film is also questionable. He controls Judy; even though she doesn’t want the suit he picks out for her, he forces her into it. She caves in under his pressure, saying: “I’ll wear the darned clothes if you want me to...if you’ll just like me.”
Scottie still isn’t satisfied though, he says to her: “The colour of your hair.” Then: “Judy, please. It can’t matter to you.” His choice of words suggests Judy doesn’t care about her appearance, that he can just choose to change everything about her and she won’t mind. Judy passively says to him: “If I let you change me, will that do it? If I do what you tell me...will you love me?”

There are also examples of male voyeurism and misogyny in Psycho. The policeman who walks up to Marion’s car is a menacing-looking authority figure whose watchful eyes are disguised behind his large, dark sunglasses. As he peers in through the window a POV shot shows Marion asleep on the front seat. This is very voyeuristic as sleeping is considered private and he, a stranger, is looking in on her without her knowing.

Later, when Norman is in his parlour, there is a shot of him looking through a small hole in the wall. His room is in darkness, the light through the hole illuminates just his eye as he peers through it. There is a cut to his POV shot; he is watching Marion in her room undressing. A cut to an extreme close-up of Norman’s eye as he spies on Marion is very voyeuristic. Marion is unknowingly the object of his and the spectator’s gaze.

Along with criticism from feminist critics for being misogynistic, Hitchcock’s films have also been accused of being homophobic. Gay criticism focuses on the covert gay representation of characters and the fact that these characters are seen as deviant.

In Rope it is Brandon and Philip’s relationship which is coded as gay. When asked where the telephone is, Brandon says it is in the bedroom. The woman then replies “how cosy”. This implies there is only one bedroom, which the two men share. Philip relies on Brandon a lot throughout the film. Brandon seems to be the one who is more in control. They are both deviant characters, Brandon more so than Philip as he seems to become mentally unstable towards the end of the film.

In North by Northwest, there are suggestions that sinister right-hand man Leonard may be gay. When he is first introduced, Vandamm says to him “Ah Leonard, have you met our distinguished guest?” to which Leonard replies “He’s a well-tailored one, isn’t he?” It’s strange that when Vandamm asks Leonard’s opinion of Roger Thornhill, all he remarks upon is his fashionable wardrobe. Later in the scene, Leonard doesn’t get involved in the struggle with Thornhill, he leaves that to the two other men, who seem more ‘macho’.

In a conversation together, Leonard says to Vandamm: “Call it my ‘woman’s intuition’ if you will, but I’ve never trusted neatness.” This suggests a feminine side to his personality. Vandamm then says to him: “You know what I think? I think you’re jealous. No, I mean it. I’m very touched.” He never wanted Vandamm to get involved with Eve; throughout the film he seems to dislike their relationship, which backs up a theory of jealousy.

Although there is evidence that supports the idea that Hitchcock’s films are homophobic and misogynistic, there is also some evidence to the contrary. It is true that women are mistreated in some of Hitchcock’s films (in The Birds, Marnie, and Vertigo, amongst others) but that isn’t to say that the men get off easily. There are male deaths and men are mistreated in films such as Rear Window (broken leg) and Vertigo (acrophobic).

Hitchcock has many supporters who challenge the criticism he receives. In Robin Wood’s book, Hitchcock films revisited, he attempts to minimise the misogyny in them and to analyze both Rear Window and Vertigo as exposes of the twisted logic of patriarchy, relatively untroubled by ambivalence or contradiction.

David Spoto attempted to link Hitchcock’s representation of gays with his own life and his ambivalence towards homosexuality but suggested that it was not undertaken in a particularly obvious way. This shows that Hitchcock wasn’t personally homophobic, which suggests his films wouldn’t purposefully imply that homosexuals were deviant.

Tania Modleski writes: “what I want to argue is neither that Hitchcock is utterly misogynistic nor that he is largely sympathetic to women and their plight in patriarchy.” I tend to agree with this, because even though the women in Hitchcock’s films seem to get a raw deal on occasions, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes they are the heroines of the film, like in The Lady Vanishes. Sometimes they are strong-willed and confident, like in The Birds. Whilst some of Hitchcock’s films do seem to imply a homophobic and misogynistic worldview, I don’t believe these implications are intentional as there are also many instances to the contrary.


Bibliography

• Modleski, Tania, The Women Who Knew Too Much, London, Methuen, 1988
• Mulvey, Laura, ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ in Screen, vol 16 no 3, 1975
• Spoto, David, The Life of Alfred Hitchcock: The Dark Side of Genius, London, Collins, 1983
• Wood, Robin, Hitchcock films revisited, London, Tantivy press, 1985

Filmography

• North by Northwest (1959) Alfred Hitchcock
• Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
• Rope (1948) Alfred Hitchcock
• Vertigo (1958) Alfred Hitchcock

Head over to The LAMB for Director's Chair #11 for more on Alfred Hitchcock