Hitchcock, the Master of Thrillers

Any discussion related to the thrillers can hardly be complete, without referring to the magnanimous contribution of Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock. This outstanding director of thriller movies was born in 1899 in England. In his 60 years’ career, he has directed over 50 films, both in UK and then in Hollywood.

Rearing a keenness for photography, he started his career as a title-designer in Paramount Pictures. His career as a director started after 5 years and by the end of 1930’s, he established his reign over Hollywood. After making a few movies in Germany, he forrayed into the thriller genre with The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, a runaway success in UK. His first British talkie was Blackmail. The 39 Steps is considered to be the best film in his early times. The trend of “gallows humor” started to be brandised by his films to follow.

David O. Selznick bonded Hitchcock in a seven-year contract, which proved to be somewhat unproductive for him as the former was more interested to “mortgage” hitchcock to other producers, usurp into his activities and could not provide for the best infrastructures as the American studios could and this made Hitchcock to lean more towards Hollywood. His soft spot for his native land led Hitchcock to depict it in Frenzy. His first American film was Rebecca, a Selznick production, which got the Academy Best Picture Award in 1940.

From the 1940’s, Hitchcock’s films started to show diversity, ranging from romantic comedy like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, to the courtroom drama of The Paradine Case. To have the freedom of making his films himself, Hitchcock procured the 200-acre Cornwall Ranch in northern California, to use the coastline in Suspicion, his first venture as a producer. Shadow of a Doubt , Hitchcock’s most favourite of all his movies, projected entwined characters, dialogue, and close shots and offered for ideal scope for psychoanalysis. He came back to England to direct two short movies in French (his only French venture) in late 1943, those bore the typical Hitchcockian marks. His Spellbound was followed by Notorious, which is notable for putting the director under the hawk-eyes of the FBI, for his depiction of formulating an atom-bomb.

Rope, in 1948, was his first colour film, in which he experimented with exceptionally long shots, even stretching upto 10 minutes. After Under Capricorn, he switched back to black and white movies and to his own production for the rest of his life.

His career reached its most flourishing stage from 1950’s. during this period, he made Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief. His Vertigo did not receive critical approval, though it is termed a classic today. His best films, North by Northwest, Psycho and The Birds were all made in this period.

Towards the end of 1950’s, his health started to show the signs of Achilles’ heel and at that time, he made two spy thrillers, Torn Curtain and Topaz, with limited success.

He returned to London to shoot Frenzy, which was based on his early film The Lodger. In his Strangers on a Train, he, for the first time experimented with making the victim and the baddie as twins and used nudity and sacrilegious lingo, once forbidden in his films. Family Plot (1976) was his last movie. He also penned a script for the film The Short Night, which never went to the floor.

His films predominantly used to focus on some emblematic cinematic techniques, such as trepidation, voyuerism and psychological intricacies. Harsh treatment from his parents in childhood was reflected in many of his Psychological suspense thrillers, especially in Psycho. His films were also distinct for his cameo appearances. His camera technique in the film Rope, “Hitchcock zoom”, has inspired a number of future directors to use it repetitively. The frequent use of complicated relationships of the protagonists with their mothers, is also a notable feature in Hitchcock’s films, as the North by Northwest , The Birds, Frenzy, Notorious and Psycho suggest.

This phenomenal director was offered to introduce a series of short-story books on himself by various authors, like Alfred Hitchcock’s Anthology, Alfred Hitchcock’s Monster Museum and Alfred Hitchcock’s Haunted Houseful. Along with winning the prestigious Oscar for Psycho, Rebecca, Lifeboat, Spellbound and Rear Window, under the category of Best Director and other awards, Hitchcock was also nominated for the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1980.