Hitchcock

[Richard-dvd]

I have started studying films as part of my university course - what are people's thoughts on Alfred Hitchcock

[hello people]

He was alright. Psycho was good...dirty film. The Birds was good...someone should do a remake. He liked blonde women...struggled with sex I think because of his size. I dunno. He was a weird dude.

[XweAponX]

Don't Dis the Hitch

He was alright. Psycho was good...dirty film. The Birds was good...someone should do a remake. He liked blonde women...struggled with sex I think because of his size. I dunno. He was a weird dude.

That is a dismissive way to refer to one of the true geniuses of Film:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock

Hitchcock Pioneered a number of techniques that filmmakers still struggle with today. Did you know that Hitch never looked through the viewfinder? He never watched the Dailies? He put his trust in whatever DOP he had hired to film it the way he wanted, and I'd say he pretty much got what he was after.

Psycho has got nothing to do with sex, or "dirtiness" of any kind. Psycho, based on a book by prolific American Author Robert Bloch, Author of the Star Trek Original Series episode "Cat's Paw" - Is the true example of Hitchcock's "Macguffin" which he had been developing for most of his film career- Psycho has the best Macguffin of all Hitchcock Films.

To explain, He has you following the progress of Janet Leigh and a bundle of $40,000 and because of this, you think that the film is about Janet's stolen $40,000 which she had decided to give back after discussing it with Norman Bates.

Unfortunately, Leigh is murdered by what appears to be an old woman... And Norman Bates never even looks at the Newspaper with the 40k wrapped up inside, and our last look at the $40,000 Macguffin is when Bates picks it up and shoves it into her effects before he shoves her in the car and disposes of it.

I can imagine, the person who is viewing Psycho for the first time gets a swift kick in the head when Leigh is "Stabbed" - What is interesting there, is that the stabbing scene is a sexy scene, but the film on the whole has no sex other than Leigh and Gavin's scene at the very beginning of the film... And Sex is only Implied, not revealed. The famous shower scene is 78 separate pieces of film and at no time the knife touches Leigh.

An interesting thing about that shower scene is that it was re-created shot-by shot in the 1998 remake.

Perhaps there is an attraction between Bates and Leigh in the discussion scene prior to the shower scene, and maybe that could be seen as the trigger that set off "Mom"

After the "Production Code Breakdown" or the 60's - Hitch was freed up to make more profound statements, as in the film "Frenzy" which is about a creepy creep who ritualistically does away with as many whores as he can and allows a friend of his to get blamed for the murders- But that film by comparison to Psycho is VERY sexy, and about sex, and about a prevert who cannot get his jollies off except by murdering women with his necktie.

There is one disturbing scene where the creepoid had murdered a friend of the protagonist of the film, and she had managed to grab the creeps tie-pin! He had disposed of her in a potato sack in a potato truck, and he had to get in there with the corpse and break off all of her fingers so he could get his little Neck-tie pin back!

That whole scene was very disturbing!

Hitch had been innovative during the Silent Film era, and also during the "Talkie" era- He hit his stride in the late 50's where he gave us Rope, Rear Window, North by Northwest, and my personal favourite VERTIGO! Vertigo is a lovely film- And it has been recently remastered by Rhino, the Colours are beautiful and the music by Bernard Herrman is of the most ethereal of all Herrman Hitchcock Scores.

Hitch did a lot for Film and folks are still figuring out how he pulled off various things- It is quite unfair to say he was a sex fiend who had a fetish for Blonde Haired Women, as far as I have ever heard, that was just his preference and he was never untoward "toward" those women.

[locoeng]

I agree, Hitchcock was a mastermind and I own most of his movies on DVD. He has to be remembered as one of the greatest horror film producers of all time.

[rago88]

Hitch always created more with less.
He was a Master at making a scene tense.
I think he played with the audience in his films where as he knew how he would react so he went ahead and filmed a scene that way.

I don't think you ever saw more than a pint of blood in all of Hitch's film combined...
Wasn't needed... he scared us the old fashioned way.
" It's what you don't see that is scarey.."

[katzdvd]

Hitch always created more with less.
He was a Master at making a scene tense.
I think he played with the audience in his films where as he knew how he would react so he went ahead and filmed a scene that way.

I don't think you ever saw more than a pint of blood in all of Hitch's film combined...
Wasn't needed... he scared us the old fashioned way.
" It's what you don't see that is scarey.."

rago pretty much hit the nail on the head, at least for me & the way I feel about this genre. The older classics relied much more3 on your mind to fill in the horror, & you could imagine what you wanted.

Todays' films are just a slash 'em up free for all that delight in showing you every detail in close ups/different camera angles and all the Hollywood hoo-ha that goes with it.

I can't really enjoy much of anything (gore related) released, probably in the last 20 years. I suppose it is partially because I am more mature now

I would much rather listen to the audiobooks of the older radio shows;
That is where it is the true "Theater of the mind."

Suspense, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, The Shadow, Black Museum, etc.