Alfred

Hitchcock:
A Legacy of Suspense
Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho began a
long line of dark horror and mystery films
that audiences are still fascinated with today.
His creative thinking and dark directing will
impact the horror genre forever.
Some of Hitchcock’s famous directing
attributes:
1. Frequent use of subjective Top 10 SCARIEST
camera to reveal a character’s Movies since
vision (Norman Bates looking Psycho:
through peep-hole in Psycho) 1. The Exorcist
2. Belief in the supreme 2. The Haunting
superiority in suspense over 3. Jacob’s
surprise. Ladder
3. Skill with montage that 4. Poltergeist
allowed him to create 5. The Sixth
breathtaking sequencing. Sense
These attributes can be seen all over 6. Rosemary’s
horror films today. For example, in the movie Baby
Prom Night, when Donna is hiding under the 7. The Omen
bed, the camera shows her view of the 8. The
killer’s feet right beside her. Shots like these Innocents
help influence suspense and will allow Alfred 9. Psycho
Hitchcock’s 10. The
legacy to live Shining
on and on.

Article
By: Allison
Duncan and
Mattie Elliott
“For me, the cinema is not a slice
of life, but a piece of cake.”
-Alfred Hitchcock
 Where’s
Alfred??
?
Alfred Hitchcock is
well known for making
cameos in all his works as
well as works of others. We
put our investigative skills
to the test to find just where
good ol’ Al has been hiding.
Here’s his hottest haunts…

The Birds:
Leaving the pet shop with two white
terriers as Tippi
Hedren enters.
 Strangers on A Train:
Boarding a train with a double bass
fiddle as
Farley Granger gets off in his
hometown, early in the film.

Psycho:
Four minutes in, through Janet
Leigh’s window as she returns
to her
office. He
is wearing
a cowboy
hat.

Vertigo:
In a gray suit walking in the street,
eleven minutes in.
Marnie:
Entering from the left of the hotel
corridor after Tippi
Hedren passes by, five minutes in.

Rear
Window:
Winding the
clock in the
songwriter’s
apartment, a
half
hour into the
movie.

Dial M for Murder:

On the left side of the class-reunion
photo, North By
thirteen minutes into the film. Northwest:
 Missing a bus during the opening
credits.

We’ve done our work in finding

Alfred in these hit titles; now try
your hand next time you watch that
classic Hitchcock film you have
hidden away.

http://www.imdb.com/,
http://www.hitchcock.tv/cam/came
os.html,
Portable radios were used a lot back
then.
Hamburger joints became popular.

Back
then people use to wear plaid and
they also had nice cars.
 Plot Summary:
New York advertising escapes, but must find
executive Roger Thornhill Kaplan in order to clear
is kidnapped by a gang of himself of a murder it is
spies led by Philip believed he committed.
Vandamm, who believe Following Kaplan to
Thornhill is CIA agent
George Kaplan. Thornhill

Chicago as a fugitive
from justice, Thornhill is
helped by beautiful Eve
Kendall. In Chicago, she
delivers a message to
Kaplan that almost costs
Thornhill his life when he is
chased across a cornfield by
a crop-dusting plane.
 Now you listen to me, I'm an
advertising man, not a red
herring. I've got a job, a
secretary, a mother, two ex-
wives and several bartenders
that depend upon me, and I
don't intend to disappoint them
all by getting myself "slightly"
killed.
 No. No, Mother, I have
not been drinking. No.
No. These two men, they
poured a whole bottle of
bourbon into me. No,
they didn't give me a
chaser.

I didn't realize
In the world of you were an art
collector. I
advertising, there's no thought you just
such thing as a lie. collected
There's only expedient corpses.
exaggeration.
Release Date:
Sep. 17, 1959

Genre:
Action, Adventure,
Drama, Mystery,
Romance, Thriller

Cinematography:
The screenshots
shows suspense because of
the
angle
of
the
camera and
how it shows the plane
coming towards him.
 movie and its
cinematography.

Awards:
Nominated for 3
Oscars and another 4
Why is this movie wins.
memorable?
Director:
This movie is memorable Alfred Hitchcock
because of the famous
director in this time and User Rating: 8.5 of 10
because it was an unique
 Psycho’s
Avid
History

By Branden Waner
With today’s films
June 1960, The main following the same road,
Alfred Hitchcock reasons for the box (Cloverfield,
released his newest hit office smash would not Quarantine, Paranormal
giving the audience an only be it’s incredible Activity) it’s a relief to
experience unlike one story line but also the get a burst of fresh air
ever felt before, Psycho. skill of the camera from a film such as this.
usage. The film makes
Under modern work of light and dark Following its
circumstances the film and contrasts them release it became the
would be a total flop. together to engage the “bar” in film production.
But back in the 1960s, it audience as if it were This may have been
was the top of the game. actually happening. where Hitchcock failed.
Due to the edgy horrific While this major success
nature of the film it brought the attention of
received many diverse audiences to his other
reviews. However, due films, this quickly
to the incredible became the reference
numbers at the box unto them.
office, it received a re-
review, where it later If you are
went on for four looking for the possible
Academy Awards. start of horror as we
know it or even just a
film to pass the time,
watch Alfred
Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Plot Summary - Kyle Stevens

 In the movie Psycho, Marion Craine
steals forty thousand dollars from her
employer to run off and get married with
Sam Loomis. During her escape, she
decides to camp out at Bates Motel. She is
then reported missing a few days and
detective Milton Arbogast left to find the
trail of clues. As the mystery begins to
unfold a trail of clues leads back to
Norman Bates (proprietor of the Bates
Motel) as truth comes to light it Bates’
sanity is put into question.
Cinematography
Psycho
was shot
entirely on
50mm lenses
which are
close to
human vision. That involves the audience even
more, as if they were eavesdropping on the story
thus increasing suspense.
 Review by Brad Hensley

At the top of Alfred Hitchcock’s career, he released the 1958 motion

picture Vertigo. Police detective John “Scottie” Ferguson is a retired San

Francisco detective with a case of acrophobia—the fear of heights—and

Madeleine is the lady who leads him to high places.

Galvin Elster, and old college acquaintance, asks Scottie to follow his

beautiful wife, Madeleine. He fears she is going insane, maybe even

contemplating suicide, because she believes she is possessed by a dead ancestor.

Scottie follows her and rescues her from an apparent suicide attempt when

she jumps into the San Francisco Bay. He gets to know her and they fall in love

with each other. When they try to get married she jumps to her death, he is

haunted by this for the fact that he could not save her because of his acrophobia.
Vertigo
Vertigo (medically)

In the film Vertigo by Alfred

Hitchcock the title vertigo City of Heights

refers to the medical condition
San Francisco, even in the
of vertigo. The condition of
twenties was riddled with tall
vertigo is a dizzy motion
buildings and skyscrapers. The
sickness sensation caused by
big city is also full of crime and
the inner ear. The main
people. These aspects correlate
character in the film Scottie has
to Hitchcock’s film Vertigo
a fear of heights which brings
where Scottie the protagonist
up a case of vertigo every time
retired crime fighter battles
he gets in a tall situation. In the
with acrophobia and suicidal
film he has to confront his fear
women.
to save the love of his life

Madeline. Although he

conquers his fear, Madeline

falls to her death because she is

scared of a shadow she sees on

the wall. The movie focuses on By Kyle Ritchhart Jalen Henchey Brad Hensley.

the conquering and harnessing

of fear.
 The suspicion of a
crime in the apartments
across a courtyard, and
a mystery of a life time
that will keep you on
the edge of your seat.
Spying on your
neighbors, sexy and
seductive women, and
intense investigations.
Alfred Hitchcock’s
“Rear Window” is all
of this and more. In
“Rear Window” a
photographer named
Jeff Jefferies hurts his
leg in a photography
accident, in his extreme photography job. He is stuck in his
apartment room with a wrapped up leg, and crippled to a
wheel chair. When his boredom makes him come up with
creative things to do, he grabs his camera and uses it as
binoculars and he uses them to look at the neighbors across
the way. Then Jeff stumbles upon some suspicious
activities among the neighbor, Thorwald and his wife. After
seeing Thorwald cleaning a large knife and a handsaw,
after seeing him carry a large package down the stairs and
out of the apartment, and figuring out his wife is missing,
Jeff and his women conclude that Thorwald has murdered
his wife.
Winning Plots Weekly
Starring in order of appearance:
James Stewart as L.B “Jeff” Jeffries.

Grace Kelly as Lisa Carol Fremont, Jeff’s

affectionate girlfriend.

Wendell Corey as Det. Lt. Thomas J. Doyle, an

old buddy of Jeff’s from the Army Air Corps.

Thelma Ritter as Stella, the adoring nurse.

Raymond Burr as Lars Thorwald, Jeff’s

neighbor, a salesmen.

Judith Evelyn as Miss Lonelyhearts, a middle

aged woman who lives alone who dwells in her
romantic fantasies.
Ross Bagdasarian as the… Eccentric song
writer.

Georgine Darcy as Miss Torso, a young

seductive dancer who practices in her
underwear.

Sara Berner as the wife living above Thorwalds.

Frank Cady as husband living above Thorwalds

Also Appearing:

Jessyln Fax as Sculptor neighbor with hearing

aid.

Rand Harper as Newlywed man.

 By Alex Kostas and Harold Foster

1. He was born August 13,1899 in London England

2. He put his daughter Caroline in the movie Psycho as a co
worker
3. In addition to his fear of the police, Hitchcock possessed
one other phobia: eggs.
4. Walt Disney refused him to go to Disneyland in the early
1960’s because Disney was not a fan of the movie Psycho.
5. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. It was
eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery.
6. He loved the number 7 and often placed numbers that
added up to 7 in his movie
7. He would find out somebody’s phobias, such as mice or
spiders, and would send them a box full of them.
8. When finishing a cup of tea while on the set, he would
toss the cup and saucer over his shoulder, letting it fall and
break on the floor.
9. His mission in life was “to simply scare the hell out of
people”.
10. His birthday was the day before his wife died.
 Real Window was completely shot in
Paramount Studio’s.

Hitchcock used famed designer Edith Head for designing costumes

in all of his Paramount films.

Although veteran Hollywood composer Franz Waxman is credited

with the score for the film, his contributions were limited to the opening
and closing titles and the piano tune played by one of the neighbors during
the film. This was Waxman's final score for Hitchcock. Alfred used
primarily "natural" sounds throughout the film.

Rear Window is considered to be one of Alfred

Hitchcock’s best pictures. It was nominated and won
4Academy Awards; it also gained honors in being choose to
join United States Nation Film Registry and rank #48 on
AFI’s top 100 movies.

Hitchcock used eastmancolor and careful placed

sounds throughout the movie.
Themes:
• Suspense-tells or shows things to the audience which the characters in the
film do not know, then builds tension around what will happen when the
characters finally learn the truth about the characters or the scene.
• Sexuality-often deals with perverse and taboo behaviors. Sexual feelings are often
strongly associated with violent behavior. Some of the behaviors lead to more.
• Blonde Women-Hitchcock had a dramatic preference for blonde women, stating
that the audience would have suspicion on a brunette. Many blondes were perfect, ice
goddesses, who also have a hidden red-hot inner fire.
• Silent scenes- Hitchcock strongly preferred to convey narrative with images
rather than dialogue.

Symbols-
 Birds- In most of Hitchcock's films there are a countless numbers of birds.

 Trains- In Hitchcock's films, trains are often used as a sexual euphemism. The
limitation imposed by train travel on characters’ movements enhances the suspense as
the lead character is blamed for a crime he did not commit.
 Number 13-Hitchcock has many scenes which shows the people's responses to the
number 13. The number shows up several times in his movies as an apartment
number, room number or house number.
 The perfect murder- Several of Alfred Hitchcock's movies feature characters
who are deeply fascinated with the craft of murder. Murder is often treated as a
puzzle, and several Hitchcock characters seek to establish a perfect murder.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themes_and_plot_devices_in_the_fil
ms_of_Alfred_Hitchcock#Number_13Themes:
http://redfordtheatre.com/movie/pictures/psycho-1c.jpg

Tanya Butts
Cynthia Middaugh
Courtney Casper
January 26,2010
High heels were worn a lot
back then, and they are still
worn
these days. Coca Cola was
a popular drink back then.
People used to smoke a lot
then.
Method Approach to Acting?
When film producers want to
When actors use the method incorporate the method approach to
approach to acting, they merely speak acting in their movies, they will
and gesture in a manner they would choose an actor that relates to the
use in real life rather than apply the character they are trying to portray.
traditional manners of stage
conventions. Acting teacher and
theorist, Lee Strasberg (1899-1982)
claimed that the most effective actors
were those who did not act. He
explained, “They try not to act but to be
themselves, to respond or react.”
________________________________

Top Five Extreme Method Actors Today

1. Daniel Day Lewis
Films: The Crucible, The Boxer, Gangs of New York

 Lewis is known for his constant devotion to and

research of his roles. He usually keeps his own
personality for the entire duration of the film.

2. Robert De Niro
Films: Deer Hunter, The Godfather

De Niro is usually seen in mob roles, or seen as a deviant

character (for example, a crazed murderer in Cape Fear, and
Al Capone in The Untouchables). When filming The King of
Comedy, DeNiro admitted, “I forgot the cameras were there…
I was going for Bobby’s throat.”
 3. Christian Bale
Films: American Psycho, Batman Begins,
The Machinist

 “I kind of like movies where I just get to just be dirty and

crawling in the mud . . .”

4. Forest Whitaker
Films: The Color of Money, Panic Room, Vantage Point

 He again immersed himself in his character's world

—he studied Eastern philosophy and meditated for
long hours “to hone his inner spiritual hit man.”

5. Adrian Brody
Films: The Village, The Pianist, The Darjeeling Limited

 Brody has been compared to Al Pacino for his unique

looks and method acting.

_______________________________________

Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock did NOT tolerate the approach method
to acting. He believed that actors should only focus
on their performances and leave the work on script
and character to the directors and screenwriters.
He stated, “The method actor is OK in the theatre
because he has a free space to move about. But
when it comes to cutting the face and what he sees
and so forth, there must be some discipline.”

Jenna Pulliam, R3 http://www.moderntimes.com/palace/method.htm

 “Always make
the audience
suffer as much
as possible.”

“In films murders

are always very
clean. I show how
difficult it is and
what a messy
thing it is to kill a
man.”
“This paperback is very
interesting but I find it
“If it’s a good movie will never replace a
the sound could go hardcover book it
off and the audience makes a very poor
would still have a doorstop.”
perfectly clear idea of
what was going on.” “The length of a film
should be directly
related to the
endurance of the
human bladder.”

“I never
said all
actors are
cattle, what
I said was
“Television all actors
has brought should be
back murder treated like
into the cattle.”
home –
where it
belongs.”
 “I never
said all
actors are
cattle, what
I said was
all actors
should be
treated like
cattle.”

Alfred Hitchcock’s
quotes
“The length of the the climax. Movies
film should be directly should get to the
related to the point.
endurance of the Solarnavigator.net
human bladder.” Brainyquote.com
Alfred Hitchcock
believes movies that
you make should not
be drawn out and
takes forever to get to
 that books are suspense scary
better left behind. films to have fun.

Sarah Boyd
Mackenzie Shaw

“This paperback is
very interesting
but I find it will
never replace a
hardcover book it
makes a very poor
doorstop.”
Alfred Hitchcock
thinks
By JuHee Hyun it’sKeller
and John more
Communication Artists
respectable to
27 Jan. 2010
express yourself
through film and
7 pm
“Television has Saturday
brought back
murder into the
home – where it
belongs.”
Alfred Hitchcock
knew that people
were drawn to a
darkened theatre
and enjoyed high

What makes a
film a Hitchcock
Film?
Hitchcock Shot or “dolly zoom”
was used in his film Vertigo.
The camera zooms in on the main
character.
A MacGuffin( sometimes
McGuffin) is a very popular plot
element that lures the viewer into the
movie. This technique is found in
Hitchcock’s film The Lodger, which
is about an innocent man wrongly The Lodger(1926)
accused of a crime.

Reporter: What is the deepest logic of your films?

Hitchcock: To put the audience through them
 Blackmail (1929)

Hitchcock also created a technique

“subjective sound.” In his
movie Murder, the woman stabs
an artist to death but omits the word
“knife” in the neighbor's dialogue the
morning after the murder. This
creates an ominous atmosphere for
the film.
All in all, Hitchcock's movies are
diverse and unpredictable. The plot,
the conversations of the characters,
and the odd angles in which the film
is shot makes up the genuine
Hitchcock film.

"To me Psycho was a big comedy. Had to be."-A.H.

Auteur “author” theory in
filmmaking is when the director is WHAT IS
viewed as the major force of the film.
Since the 1950s, however, it has
created much controversy. Questions
AUTEUR
who might be
such as “ THEORY?
considered as, or who
might claim to be, the
'author' of a film?” are
frequently asked. But the real
question is, is authorship necessary
for a film?
Another way to view auteur
theory is to consider it an “art.” In
this way, the film needs an author,
more specifically, an artist.
Authorship signifies identification of

"Drama
the artist and filmmaker... and shows
their individuality and status. Auteur
theory, whether many film critics
agree or not, relates to many jobs. As

is life
painting and drawing have shown
one artist, novels and poems have

w
shown a writer and a poet.

it
The real controversy arises when the
actors overshadow the writer of the h th e
script and are considered the main
d

stars. But think of this thought:

u ll bits left out"

without the writer's idea, the film

and actors in the film wouldn't exist.
“A composer may be the
undisputed author of a musical
score, but what about music in
performance?”
.H. -A

HITCHCOCK
TRADEMARKS:
Suspense and humor
play an important role in
Hitchcock’s films. Hitchcock
uses comic relief in North
by Northwest, his most
comical, colored film
consisting of inside jokes,
witty symbolism, and well-
crafted suspense.

In contrast to many of his

other films, Hitchcock's
Trouble With Harry (1955)
filmreference.com/encyclopedia/styl
is a black comedy. e/rs
wikipedia.com
hitchcocktv.com
turnerclassicmovies.com
No

To a woman who complained that the shower scene so

frightened her daughter that the girl would no longer
shower: "Then Madam I suggest you have her dry
cleaned."

s.o.u.r.c.e.s:
 Plot Summary:
The young
Melanie
Daniels has a
Run Time: 119 minutes
penchant for
birds and
Starring: Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor,
goes into a
Jessica Tandy, and Suzanne Pleshette
local pet shop
to look at the
birds. When
she goes into
the store she
sees Mitch
…And remember,
Brenner and
he asks for
the next scream you
assistant
from her.
hear could be your
She then buys him 2 love birds for his
younger sister. She goes to the nearby
own!
town of Bodega Bay where Mitch and his
little sister along with there mom lives.
Her since of security was wiped away
once she went there. An innocent sea gull
pecking on Melanie’s head User Rating:
turned into a bird
terrorizing epidemic. No Director:
Alfred Hitchcock
real logical explanation
for this bird attacking Release Date:
March 28, 1963
outbreak, but once it
started it didn’t stop for Genre:
Horror, Romance, Thriller
anything.
Tagline:
Suspense and shock beyond
anything you have ever seen
before!
Scary Movies through the
Decades
Alfred Hitchcock has left a lasting effect on horror filmmaking since
the 1950’s. Here’s a look at how films have used his directing
attributes to grow over the decades.

-1950’s: The Birth of Horror Films

1. Creature Features: Frankenstein, Godzilla and The Blob

2. Stranded at the Drive-In Teen Flicks: I Was a Teenage

Frankenstein
3. Outer Space Visitors: Flying Saucers

-1960’s: Bad Girls and Greedy Blood Villains

Ex: Psycho and Rosemary’s Baby

-1970’s: Nightmare Decade; Don’t show this to the children

Ex: The Exorcist and Texas Chainsaw Massacre

-1980’s: Inside Out; Special Effects and Body Horror

Ex: Nightmare on Elm Street and Evil Dead

-1990’s: Psycho Killers

Ex: Silence of the Lambs, Jacob’s Ladder and Scream

-2000’s: Global Converge

Ex: Day After Tomorrow and Final Destination

Article By: Allison Duncan & Mattie Elliott

Dial M for Murder!!!

 This film tells a tale of a professional
tennis athlete, Tony Wendice, who
puts his career on hold to spend more
time with his seemingly devote wife,
Margot, only to discover that she has
had an affair! Outraged by this he plots
to have his cheater of a wife killed.
Wendice blackmails a detective, C. J.
Swann, to do his dirty work. This
movie will engulf your emotion as you are taken through the twists and turns of the plot.
Dial M for Murder has a unique balance of suspense, corruption and murder! For the
technical side of Dial M for Murder it’s a typical Hitchcock film including a
claustrophobic theme in the camera angles and a collection of “bird’s eye view” camera
angles. This movie is filled with a colorful cast including:
 Have you ever
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Film Comments
“This is a technical triumph that Mr. Hitchcock has achieved -the tensing of interest and
excitement with just a handful of people in a room.”
-Bosley Crowther
“DIAL M FOR MURDER is a fabulous murder mystery that makes you think twice about
cheating on your spouse.”
-unknown
“Dial M for Murder is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest works”
-Michaela Platt