Themes and plot devices in Hitchcock films: Difference between revisions

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Line 52: == Trains == In Hitchcock's films, trains are often used as a sexual [[euphemism]]. Extended sequences on trains feature in a number of Hitchcock films, including ''[[Number Seventeen]]~~'',~~ ''Shadow of a Doubt'', ''The 39 Steps'', ''The Lady Vanishes'', ''Strangers on a Train''~~, and~~ ''North by Northwest''. In ''The 39 Steps'' and ''North by Northwest'', the limitations imposed by train travel on characters' movements enhances the suspense as the lead character is pursued for a crime he did not commit. Hitchcock's most-extended train sequence is in ''The Lady Vanishes'', where the inability to exit the train except at stations forces the two lead characters to accept that the lady for whom they are searching must still be aboard. The vertiginous excitement of moving around the outside of a moving train is exploited in ''Number Seventeen'' and ''The Lady Vanishes''. ==Transference of guilt== As related in articles by [[Francois Truffaut]], [[Claude Chabrol]], [[Eric Rohmer]] and others in the French film magazine ''[[Cahiers du Cinema]]'' -- and in Chabrol and Rohmer's book ''Hitchcock'' (Paris: Editions Universaire, 1957) -- Hitchcock often sets up a villain/antagonist who has a dark secret. In the course of the film, Hitchcock, through the screenplay and the filming, makes it clear that the hero/protagonist somehow shares in this secret or guilt. Examples include: ''Suspicion'' (1941): Lina ([[Joan Fontaine]]) suspects her husband ([[Cary Grant]]) as a murderer, and allows this suspicion to ruin their life, even when he is revealed to be innocent. ''Shadow of a Doubt'' (1943): after Uncle Charlie ([[Joseph Cotten]]) is revealed as a murderer, his niece, Young Charlie ([[Teresa Wright]]) says she will kill him if he doesn't leave the household. ''[[Lifeboat (film)\|Lifeboat]]'' (1944): the Allied shipwreck victims attack the German captain ([[Walter Slezak]]) after several days, in what amounts to a lynching. ''Strangers on a Train'' (1951): Guy ([[Farley Granger]]) goes along with Bruno ([[Robert Hudson Walker\|Robert Walker]]) because Guy does want to kill his wife. *''Rear Window'' (1954): Jeffries ([[James Stewart (actor)\|James Stewart]]) spies on his neighbors, hoping to catch a murderer ([[Raymond Burr]]), leading to dubious tactics to catch the criminal == Mothers ==