Hitchcock's Objects as Subjects: The Significance of Things on ScreenAlfred Hitchcock's imperative was to charge the screen with emotion. Subject matter and acting were, for him, subordinate to "all of the technical aspects that made the audience scream." Focusing on onscreen objects in Hitchcock's films, this study examines staircases, eyeglasses, lamps, doors, candles, cigarettes, buildings, monuments, statues and dozens of other props that the director treated as subjective protagonists, their roles nearly equal to the actors'. Examining each of the director's 52 extant films, this book provides a comprehensive exploration of Hitchcock's treatment of objects as subjects. |
Contents
Preface | 1 |
Introduction | 2 |
The Pleasure Garden 1925 | 15 |
A Story of the London Fog 1927 | 17 |
Downhill 1927 | 26 |
Easy Virtue 1927 | 27 |
The Ring 1927 | 31 |
The Farmers Wife 1928 | 36 |
Shadow of a Doubt 1943 | 105 |
Lifeboat 1944 | 108 |
Spellbound 1945 | 110 |
Notorious 1946 | 113 |
The Paradine Case 1947 | 120 |
Rope 1948 | 123 |
Under Capricorn 1949 | 126 |
Stage Fright 1950 | 128 |
Champagne 1928 | 39 |
The Manxman 1929 | 41 |
Blackmail 1929 | 44 |
Juno and the Paycock 1930 | 47 |
Murder 1930 | 50 |
The Skin Game 1931 | 51 |
Rich and Strange 1932 | 53 |
Number Seventeen 1932 | 57 |
Waltzes from Vienna 1933 | 59 |
The Man Who Knew Too Much 1934 | 60 |
The 39 Steps 1935 | 66 |
Secret Agent 1936 | 69 |
Sabotage 1936 | 73 |
Young and Innocent 1937 | 78 |
The Lady Vanishes 1938 | 82 |
Jamaica Inn 1939 | 86 |
Rebecca 1940 | 88 |
Foreign Correspondent 1940 | 92 |
Mr and Mrs Smith 1941 | 96 |
Suspicion 1941 | 99 |
Saboteur 1942 | 103 |
Strangers on a Train 1951 | 131 |
I Confess 1952 | 134 |
Dial M for Murder 1954 | 137 |
Rear Window 1954 | 143 |
To Catch a Thief 1955 | 146 |
The Trouble with Harry 1955 | 149 |
The Man Who Knew Too Much 1956 | 151 |
The Wrong Man 1957 | 154 |
Vertigo 1958 | 156 |
North by Northwest 1959 | 161 |
Psycho 1960 | 164 |
The Birds 1963 | 168 |
Marnie 1964 | 171 |
Torn Curtain 1966 | 176 |
Topaz 1969 | 181 |
Frenzy 1972 | 184 |
Family Plot 1976 | 188 |
Conclusion | 190 |
| 191 | |
| 193 | |
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39 Steps actor actress Alicia angle Ashenden audience audio commentary Birds Blackmail body Brill candles Cary Grant character Charles cigarette cited in Gottlieb cock crowd dark Deutelbaum and Poague director door Drew Casper DVD audio commentary earlier extreme close-up extreme long shot eyes face feel film’s finally foreground frame glass Gromek’s hands Hitch Hitchcock cuts Hitchcock films Hitchcock shoots Hitchcock’s camera Hitchcockian huge human humorously Ingrid Bergman Jamaica Inn Jill Keane kiss Lady Vanishes lamps Larita later Lifeboat light literally Lodger look MacGuffin Madeleine man’s Manderley Marnie medium shot mirror moves movie murder North by Northwest Notorious objects Paradine picture played Pleasure Garden portrait protagonists Rebecca ring says scene Scottie screen left screen right Secret Agent shades shadows soundtrack Spellbound Spoto staircase stairs stand stare story subjects Torn Curtain train Trouble with Harry Vertigo visual walk wall wife Yacowar