The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Quiz

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

My midterm analyzing Hitchcock's British Film making era

Midterm

NAME: _Ida Z. 9/19/2016_ CINE 23A THE FILMS OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK QUIZ – UK HITCHCOCK Please answer each question with a minimum of one well developed paragraph. Download and use the MLA template posted on Insight which provides 1.5” spacing. Be sure to cite sources if you note details from either course textbook or PowerPoints. No outside sources should be needed to complete this quiz. A printed hard copy of this assignment is due at the beginning of class Monday September 19th, you are also required to submit a digital copy to turnitin.com. Enrollment info is printed on your syllabus, page 3.

1.Discuss Hitchcock’s innovative use of sound in Blackmail (1929) using 2 brief, yet specific, examples. (25 points) The morning after murdering her rapist, Alice wakes up to her caged bird chirping. It is the only soundtrack throughout the scene. The noise is extremely loud and shrill. There is one pause when Alice stops for a minute to look up at a photo of her detective boyfriend then there is the sound of her dropping and breaking her makeup container. It punctuates a feeling of guilt. Spoto describes Hitchcock’s sound as “lifelong correlative for chaos and disorder interrupting an apparently normal routine” (Spoto 23). He also says that birds are “the traditional symbol for danger from the medieval through Victorian art” (Spoto 23). The birds are used again in other films the same way as a foreboding of chaos (Johnston).

Alice used a knife to kill her rapist. In the morning during breakfast, a neighbor is talking about the stabbing murder. He wants us the audience to feel and hear from her point of view. The neighbor’s words are inaudible except for the word knife, which is repeated in a verbal stabbing way (Spoto 23). It is subjective sound/

2. Identify 3 elements of Hitchcock’s style by citing evidence of them in at least two of the following films: The Lodger (1927), Blackmail (1929), The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935). (50 points) Hitchcock explored the psychological aspect of why and how people behaved (Johnston). The Lodger (1927) shows a deeply disturbed and anxious person. He cannot have the portraits of blonde women in his room must be removed because they upset him. He also paces around his room. He does not have any peace of mind as he is haunted by his sister’s death. Others do not understand his psychological problems but once it is revealed at the end, his behavior makes sense.

In The Lodger (1927), there is the element of the mother’s power over the son (Johnston). The lodger’s mother created a pathological drive and quest for the London strangler named the Avenger. He vowed to his mother on her deathbed that he would bring the killer to justice. He was driven over the loss of his sister and his vow to his mother to not stop despite the danger and consequences.

Love versus duty (Spoto 24) is an element used in Blackmail (1929), Frank is Alice’s boyfriend and he is assigned to the murder Alice committed. He finds her glove at the murder scene and knows Alice is the killer. He decides to help her cover up the crime. He deflects the blame onto a blackmailer and has the police chase him to his death. Even when Alice tries to confess, Frank stops her. Spoto says her silence was effected by a passionate detective who places love above duty (Spoto 24).

3.What historical and aesthetic significance can we now see in two of Hitchcock’s final British films The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938)? Give at least one example per type of significance for each film. (25 points) Historical significance The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938)? are Hitchcock’s ‘travel/espionage’ films (Spoto 356). They delve into anxieties and secret terrors of pre-war English society (Johnston),

The British censors deliberately used censorship in 1937-8 “to maintain a steadfast neutrality about the events in Germany and about German expansion in Europe” (Spoto 72). There was an evolution of moralities in things that were done in the name of patriotism (Spoto 48). Specifically in The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) the theme shows the hunting down and killing of Anabelle, Mr. Memory and the attempted murder of Hannay. It is all done to justify a political end. Just as Hitler was justifying his political ends.

In The Lady Vanishes (1938)?, keeping a war message secret is worth the enemy kidnapping a woman in an attempt to murder her and trying to kill a box car of passengers on a train in a big shoot out. Murder used for patriotism.

Aesthetic significance An aesthetic of Hitchcock’s is taking the aesthetic of the British comedy to another level. He showed a connection between humor and horror (Johnston).

There is romance and comedy in The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) when Pamela and Hannay are in a bedroom handcuffed and they try to eat or take off her panty hose. It is funny and flirty. Yet they are hiding in this room after escaping two men that wanted to kill them and handcuffed them to stop them from escaping.

In The Lady Vanishes (1938)?, Iris and Gilbert are having laughing as they look through magic trunks in a train’s luggage room. They disappear in the trick cabinet and bunnies and birds are flying everywhere. Yet they are in the room to find a kidnapped victim and they soon will have a poisoning attempt on their lives.

The films have a bit of romance and comedy, but an underlying tone of horror.

4.Discuss something you have learned about Hitchcock’s filmmaking style or thematics that challenges ideas you had coming into this course. How have you been challenged? EXTRA CREDIT I did not know about Hitchcock’s filmmaking style was influenced by German Expressionism. The expressionist art wants to evoke feelings that may be strong and uncomfortable. In F.W. Murnau's Sunrise (1927) one feels the danger and suspense of a woman leading a man to murder his wife. Murnau was an influence of Hitchcock’s (Johnston).

Another element of German Expressionist film is extreme whiteness and darkness. In The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) I can now see there is great contrast of white and dark and the feelings that it emotes. The spy wears black and Hannay wears light colors. As she enters his brightly lit apartment, she keeps closing the blinds and making it darker and darker. She is darkening his life. When he exits his apartment the next day his life is changed and he is now wearing black.

Works Cited Spoto, Donald. The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures. NewYork: Anchor Books, 1992. Print.

Johnston, Denah.Cine-23A-501-74713 Films of Alfred Hitchcock, 2016. Internet resource. Date of access 9/19/2016. < https://insight.ccsf.edu/course/view.php?id=17359>.