Sunset Boulevard: Hitchcock Part I

In an effort to cure those of you with the Summer Blockbuster Blahs, I decided to do a three part series on Alfred Hitchcock. Perhaps it will inspire you to forgo I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry for more exciting, if older fare.

And so, Sunset Boulevard Presents...Alfred Hitchcock. Part I.

Unquestionably one of cinema’s greatest auteurs, Alfred Hitchcock began his career in a small and somewhat lifeless British film industry. He started out as a title creator for Famous Players Lasky’s British division, and thus was, to some degree, undeniably rooted in the ideologies and conventions of Hollywood. Yet, he was not to move to Hollywood until much later in his career, and the time he spent in Great Britain had a huge influence on what would later develop into a distinctive style. As a filmmaker, his technical know-how, creative vision, and willingness to take risks distinguished him from other directors and before long, he was undoubtedly the leading director in the country. He lingered in this environment, a “big fish in a little pond” notes biographer John Russell Taylor. However there inevitably came a point in Hitchcock’s career and life at which he had to move on. There was little room to grow in Britain for he had already reached its proverbial sky, and the only way for Hitchcock to continue his forward momentum was to move from a modest and somewhat lackluster British film industry to the most powerful and dominant industry in the world. Hitchcock began to realize that staying in Britain would be akin to creative stalemate, and when the studio he worked for went under, he signed a contract with producer David O. Selznick and moved to Hollywood to begin a new era in his artistic development.

This period of transition between his British beginnings and his later period of artistic mastery is marked by experimentation with various generic models, thematic structures, and production methods. However, as he began taking full advantage of all that Hollywood had to offer, the seeds of genius he had already planted in England began to grow and develop. Hollywood gave him the tools to realize his potential, and during this period we see a unique merger of the influence of his European past and his American future.

Considered by many to be his greatest British production and his first true “masterpiece”, The 39 Steps was the synthesis of his British and European experience with filmmaking. As the story follows a man wrongly accused of murder and unwittingly implicated in a spy ring he knows nothing about, Hitchcock establishes himself for the first time, a true “master of suspense” using both his own stylistic innovation as well as techniques appropriated mostly from German and Soviet filmmakers of the time. Moreover, The 39 Steps shows Hitchcock’s affinity for unusual situations or adventures set in ordinary and safe locales as well as a deep desire to explore the psychology of his characters. He begins to establish his view of the world as consisting not of black and white but rather of varying shades of gray. Each of his characters is richly layered with strengths and flaws and embodies an ambiguity not usually scene in cinema during this time period. Hollywood helped him add yet more depth and richness to these characters and their circumstances by providing the tools and resources to take his work to another level.

Upon his arrival in Hollywood, Taylor notes, Hitchcock was immediately taken by the “sheer efficacy of the Hollywood studio machine. There was virtually nothing you could not do, no supplies too esoteric, no skills that could not be bought somewhere in the city. And there was the money to buy them.” With higher budgets, bigger crews, superior technology, and the “studio machine” backing him up, Hitchcock had the freedom to move forward like never before. He was finally in an environment worthy of his talent.

Many critics call Shadow of a Doubt Hitchcock’s first truly American film. Although he made five films in America before this one, they often used British cast, crew, or locations and thematically were more universal in relevance.  Set in a real small town in California, Shadow of a Doubt follows a young girl, Charlie, as she confronts the the truth that her favorite uncle, also named Charlie, is a wanted murderer. It is, as all Hitchcock films are, a generic hybrid. Simultaneously embracing and subverting the ideologies and conventions of Hollywood Classicism, it is both a psychological noir thriller and a Capra-esque domestic melodrama. It takes a definitively “American” town and throws it into chaos, making a statement about suburban family life in general, but also specifically as it existed in America.

Hitchcock loved to play the extraordinary or frightening in a safe and ordinary environment to create dramatic tension and suspense – a technique pioneered by Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s. The greater the contrast, theory holds, the greater the tension. He actually appropriates the work of Capra in both films, but to much greater effect in Shadow of a Doubt.  Capra films were warm and comforting and were, in both effect and perception, very “American”. However, by juxtaposing thematic and formal elements taken from Capra with the more sinister shadows and psychological noir undertones, Hitchcock creates a dynamic contrast which heightens suspense and also casts a satirical spin on American domestic life – something he could never have fully accomplished while still living in Britain. Interestingly, he continues to use elements of Capra’s style to his advantage. Because of audience familiarity with the Capra romantic comedies and melodramas, it was a wonderful way to really set up that ordinary safe environment he could later sabotage.

In the same way that Hitchcock subverts these ordinary, safe environments, he also often toys with audience’s expectations in character – creating tension by playing established actors against their nice guy images. However, in Britain there were few actors who were well-known enough for this technique to work. Here again, Hollywood helps Hitchcock, putting at his disposal so many stars like Joseph Cotton, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart – who, interestingly enough, was in many Capra movies.

Also in Shadow of a Doubt, we see the real development of the “doppleganger”, again using the Soviet concept of juxtaposition as well as the idea of the alter-ego from German expressionism. This concept, too, brings in elements of Freudian psychoanalysis, another structuring theme that begins to shape his American works. While The 39 Steps begins to explore this idea, Shadow of a Doubt stretches this concept further, employing so many instances of this duality of good and bad, right and wrong, love and hate – that the concept of twos or doubles becomes a structuring motif. We have two Charlies sitting down at the ‘Til Two diner having double shots of brandy. Even narratively, Hitchcock throws Classical conventions aside and we have, essentially, the convergence of two separate narratives, following two separate centers of power (the two Charlies).

Another way that the money and talent in Hollywood helped Hitchcock’s thematic and formal progression was in sound design. While Hitchcock made truly revolutionary use of sound in many of his British films like the sound bridge that transitions from the screaming woman to the whistling train in The 39 Steps, it was not until his work in America that began to develop the rich musical scores that so effectively underscore his themes and emotions. In Shadow of a Doubt, sound is both a structural and a dramatic element. Using the repetition of Dmitri Tiomkin’s “Merry Widow Walz” Hitchcock creates a coherence and also a mystery and tension solely by use of sound.

In so many different ways, Hollywood gave Hitchcock the means to and end he was already destined for. In hindsight we can see that the themes and structures he employs in his later films stem directly from his early period as a filmmaker and Hollywood was the catalyst that brought him from conception to reality in terms of his mastery of style and form. Had he remained in the failing British film industry, he may have gone down in history as a great director. However, by taking advantage of the money, resources, and talent here in America, he will be forever remembered as one of cinema’s best.

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Alex M., Movie Correspondent

Alex's column, Sunset Boulevard, published every Friday to Gather Essentials: Movies, is a weekly summary of the movie industry's biggest stories.

Alex is a film school grad working at a production company in Hollywood. She's been passionate about movies since she knew what they were and always has an opinion (for better or worse).

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