Sunday 22 May 2016

THE MASTER OF SUSPENSE - DIAL "M" FOR MURDER - ALFRED HITCHCOCK



The Master of Suspense - Dial “M” for Murder - Alfred Hitchcock
                


           
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was an English film director and producer, often referred to as "The Master of Suspense". He pioneered many elements of the suspense and psychological thriller genres.

Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was nicknamed the "Master of Suspense" for employing a kind of psychological suspense in his films, producing a distinct viewer experience.  His films depict suspense, excitement and emotion.

Alfred Hitchcock was a cultural icon.  His cameo appearances in his own films, as well as his interviews, film trailers and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-65), made him a cultural icon.
He made a live cameo appearance in all of his movies beginning with The Lady Vanishes (1938) a la Subash Ghai of Bollywood who used to have a live flash appearance in some scenes of his own directorial ventures.

Rope (1948) in which his "appearance" is as a neon version of his famous caricature on a billboard outside the window in a night scene and Family Plot (1976) in which his "appearance" is as a silhouette of someone standing on the other side of a frosted glass door.

Born in Essex, London, United Kingdom on August 13, 1899, Alfred Hitchcock worked for a short time in engineering before entering the film industry in 1920. He left for Hollywood in 1939, where his first American film, Rebecca, won an Academy Award for best picture. Hitchcock created more than 50 films, including the classics Rear Window, The 39 Steps and Psycho. Hitchcock received the AFI's Life Achievement Award in 1979. He died in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California, United States on April 29, 1980.

Director, producer and screenwriter Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in London, England and was raised by strict, Catholic parents. He described his childhood as lonely and sheltered, partly due to his obesity. He once said that he was sent by his father to the local police station with a note asking the officer to lock him away for 10 minutes as punishment for behaving badly. He also remarked that his mother would force him to stand at the foot of her bed for several hours as punishment (a scene alluded to in his film Psycho). This idea of being harshly treated or wrongfully accused would later be reflected in Hitchcock's films.

 

Hitchcock attended the Jesuit school St. Ignatius College before going on to attend the University of London, taking art courses. He eventually obtained a job as a draftsman and advertising designer for the cable company Henley's. It was while working at Henley's that he began to write, submitting short articles for the in-house publication. From his very first piece, he employed themes of false accusations, conflicted emotions and twist endings with impressive skill. In 1920, Hitchcock entered the film industry with a full-time position at the Famous Players-Lasky Company designing title cards for silent films. Within a few years, he was working as an assistant director.

In 1925, Hitchcock directed his first film and began making the "thrillers" for which he became known the world over. His 1929 film Blackmail is said to be the first British "talkie." In the 1930s, he directed such classic suspense films as The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The 39 Steps (1935).
In 1939, Hitchcock left England for Hollywood. The first film he made there, Rebecca (1940), won an Academy Award for best picture. Some of his most famous films include Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). His works became renowned for their depictions of violence, although many of his plots merely function as decoys meant to serve as a tool for understanding complex psychological characters.

 

Hitchcock directed more than 50 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 1979. One year later, on April 29, 1980, Hitchcock died peacefully in his sleep in Bel Air, California. He was survived by his lifetime partner, assistant director and closest collaborator, Alma Reville, also known as "Lady Hitchcock," who died in 1982.



 He was close friends with Albert R. Broccoli, well known as the producer of the James Bond - 007 Franchise. Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) was the influence for the helicopter scene in From Russia with Love (1963). Actors Sean Connery, Karin Dor, Louis Jourdan and Anthony Dawson have appeared in both a Hitchcock film and a Bond film.

He was voted the Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. The same magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Films of all time includes more films directed by Hitchcock than by any other director, with four. On the list were his masterworks Psycho (1960), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and Notorious (1946).




   San Francisco Symphony
He was at his heaviest in the late 1930s, when he weighed over 300 pounds. Although always overweight, he dieted and lost a considerable amount of weight in the early 1950s, with pictures from sets like To Catch a Thief (1955) showing a surprisingly thin Hitchcock. His weight continued to fluctuate throughout his life.  He had happened to have lost a considerable amount of weight from dieting around that time, so he was seen in both the "Before" and the "After" pictures.

Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, M. Night Shyamalan, Martin Scorsese, George A. Romero, Peter Bogdanovich, Dario Argento, William Friedkin, David Cronenberg and Quentin Tarantino have named him as an influence.

He was infamous with cast and crews for his practical jokes. While some inspired laughs, such as suddenly showing up in a dress, most were said to have been a bit more scar than funny. Usually, he found out about somebody's phobias, such as mice or spiders, and in turn sent them a box full of them.


Directed eight different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, Albert Bassermann, Michael Chekhov, Claude Rains, Ethel Barrymore and Janet Leigh. Fontaine won an Oscar for Suspicion (1941).


       







                         




A statistical survey he did among audiences revealed that according to moviegoers the most frightening noise in films was the siren of a police patrol-car, followed by the crash of a road accident, cracklings of a burning forest, far galloping horses, howling dogs, the scream of a stabbed woman and the steps of a lame person in the dark.

Walt Disney refused to allow him to film at Disneyland in the early 1960s because Hitchcock had made "that disgusting movie Psycho (1960)".

In addition to his fear of the police, Hitchcock possessed one other phobia: eggs.  If you watch his films closely noting the endings or portrayal of cops, you will see that if a cop is required to die, the death will be slow, gruesome or uncompromisingly grisly. If cops survive they are nearly always portrayed as baddies, though in reality they are the good guys. This is because Hitchcock had a life-long phobia of policemen.

In an interview he talked about his lifelong fear of eggs (“Ovophobia”).   I am frightened of eggs, worse than frightened, they revolt me.  That white round thing without any holes.  Have you ever seen anything more revolting than an egg yolk breaking and spilling its yellow liquid? Blood is jolly, red. But egg yolk is yellow, revolting. I've never tasted it.

As of the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider), Hitchcock is the most represented director, with 18 films. Included are his films Blackmail (1929), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), Rebecca (1940), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), The Wrong Man (1956), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), Marnie (1964) and Frenzy (1972).

Many of Hitchcock's films have one-word titles: Blackmail (1929), Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Saboteur (1942), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), Marnie (1964), Topaz (1969) and Frenzy (1972). He favored one-word titles because he felt that it was uncluttered, clean and easily remembered by the audience.

 

     





        


He deliberately shot much of the setups in Rear Window (1954) so they would appear voyeuristic.


He once confessed that he enjoys playing the audience like a piano.


 









He opined that Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints.


Ask Sir Alfred Hitchcock how to make a great film he would say you need three things - the script, the script and the script.

Filmography

 Alfred Hitchcock filmography





 I would like to present here under some of his film titles -


                                 

               
             
   
   

  
           










  










 





 


































































































      







Let us examine his biography in some more details by throwing light into some more interesting facts.











                





Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and Eileen Hitchcock (born 1892). Raised as a strict Catholic and attending Saint Ignatius College, a school run by Jesuits, Hitch had very much of a regular upbringing. His first job outside of the family business was in 1915 as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company. His interest in movies began at around this time, frequently visiting the cinema and reading US trade journals.


It was around 1920 when Hitchcock joined the film industry. He started off drawing the sets (he was a very skilled artist). It was there that he met Alma Reville, though they never really spoke to each other. It was only after the director for Always Tell Your Wife (1923) fell ill and Hitchcock was named director to complete the film that he and Reville began to collaborate. Hitchcock had his first real crack at directing a film, start to finish, in 1923 when he was hired to direct the film Number 13 (1922), though the production wasn't completed due to the studio's closure. Hitchcock didn't give up then. He directed a film called The Pleasure Garden (1925), a British/German production, which was very popular. Hitchcock made his first trademark film, The Lodger (1927). In the same year, on the 2nd of December, Hitchcock married Alma Reville. They had one child, Patricia Hitchcock, who was born on July 7th, 1928. His success followed when he made a number of films in Britain such as The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Jamaica Inn (1939), some of which also gained him fame in the USA.





In 1940, the Hitchcock family moved to Hollywood, where, David O. Selznick, an American producer at the time, hired him to direct an adaptation of 'Daphne du Maurier''s Rebecca (1940). It was after Saboteur (1942) was completed, as his fame as a director grew, that films companies began to refer to his films like Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot (1976), Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972). During the making of Frenzy (1972), Hitchcock's wife Alma suffered a paralyzing stroke which made her unable to walk very well at all. On March 7, 1979, Hitchcock was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award, where he said this famous quote: "I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat, and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen and their names are Alma Reville." By this time, he was quite ill with angina and his kidneys had already started to fail. He started to write a screenplay with Ernest Lehman called “The Short Night” but he fired Lehman and hired young writer David Freeman to rewrite the script. Due to Hitchcock's failing health the film was never made, but Freeman published the script after Hitchcock's death. In late 1979, Hitchcock was knighted, making him Sir Alfred Hitchcock. On the 29th April 1980, 9:17AM, he died peacefully in his sleep due to renal failure. His funeral was held in the Church of Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. Father Thomas Sullivan led the service with over 600 people attended the service, among them were Mel Brooks (director of High Anxiety (1977), a comedy tribute to Hitchcock and his films), Louis Jourdan, Karl Malden, Tippi Hedren, Janet Leigh and François Truffaut.



 






 
             

 


                              

“Grace Winter” Hitchcock’s house





               







          





He started of making silent films.  However, since he has now introduced dialogue into his films, has a distinctive directing style of allowing the audience relate with the characters, by using certain camera angles which copy a person’s view.

Usually, if he had a female role within his films, he would use a blond female character as these were seen as sex symbols in the late 1900’s.  He also used unique editing to show the point of view shots build up suspense and tension for the audience as he wanted them to be scared.

Finally, he usually had twisted ending with violence, crime and murder.


Sir Alfred Hitchcock, the "Birdman" is well renowned and known as the “Godfather of the thriller films” and is seen as the pioneer of many of distinctive elements that we see in Psychological thrillers today.  Over a career stretching over more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognizable directorial style.  He invented the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person’s gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism.

Altogether, he has directed more than 50 films and he has been given the award of the greatest ever film maker in 2007 by the Daily Telegraph and thus deserved a place in JOHNNY’S BLOG.   One of the best dozen films to be seen before you die belonged to Alfred Hitchcock.

Although the childhood traumas provoked him to have a penchant for horror and murder and has also experienced phobias, finally he ended up as one of the greatest filmmaker in psychological thriller genres.  

The Master of Suspense has sent out a chilling freeze in the adrenaline of the viewers across the globe.  





If you like chill, thrill and suspense surf online to watch an Alfred Hitchcock film.


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