Strangers on a Train (1951, Warner Brothers)

Strangers on a Train (1951, Warner Brothers)

Posters from various countries

Video interview. Strangers on a Train (1951, Warner Brothers)

Strangers on a Train (1951, Warner Brothers)

Patricia Hitchcock talks about Strangers on a Train . Click Here For Video

Link to a 90 page analysis on the film. Best analysis I've ever seen on any movie.

90 page powerpoint on every aspect of Strangers on a Train .Click here for Power Point

The only reference to an author name is T. Clark.

Notorious (1946, Selznick, RKO)

Notorious (1946, Selznick, RKO)

Describe your assessment/opinion for each category below. Do NOT write generalized statements without examples from film or examples without statements clarifying them

1). Screenplay/Storyline:

A man is convicted of being a traitor to the U.S. His daughter, Alicia, leaves the courtroom somber but goes on to have a party at night. At the party there is an American Intelligence Officer, Devlin, who is there with the purpose of asking her to be on a secret mission for the government. However, he does not disclose who he is and they both begin coy flirting with each other. The following day Devlin convinces Alicia to go to Rio de Janeiro on the secret mission. Before the assignment the two spend time together and during some sightseeing end up kissing. They are happy and going to enjoy a meal when Devlin returns from the embassy with the news that they want her to seduce a German and get information from him. There is an uncomfortable round about discussion of whether or not she should do it and what about them. Devlin chooses career over love. He is also testing her to see if she will accept the assignment which he later describes as a “love test.” Alicia marries the German and gets information for the U.S. She is discovered and is being poisoned to death. Devlin finally comes in to rescue her from death choosing love over duty.

2). Hitchcock‘s Direction/Style (use of editing/montage, composition of shots, camera angles):

The car speeding scene from the beginning is an interesting editing montage. In the first scene there is a view from the car hood toward the inside. It shows a close up of the two inside while they speak in the car seats. The next point of view is from the inside of the car capturing the swervy road. There is then a close up of Devlin’s hand almost grabbing the steering wheel inside the car. When a policeman stops in front of the car, there is first an interesting close up of the front hood ornament of the car. The police car is in front of it. The road is a back lit scene.

All the Rio street scenes including the café scene are backlit location shots. They aren’t filming in Rio at all.

3). Performances and Characterization (Minimum of 2):

T. R. Devlin / Cary Grant has the qualities needed for this role. He is a man who can charm a woman with just a look, stare and his half smile. He is good lucking enough to be a seducer. He is always in beautiful suits and looks professional. He could also be cold with just a change in his tone of voice and delivery of his monologue.

Alicia Huberman / Ingrid Bergman has the most camera time. It is a pleasure to look at her beautiful face and perfect skin. She does a convincing job as a woman who is a misunderstood woman who is supposedly a slut but she is a dignified elegant lady. She plays a range of a party girl to a dignified society woman.

Alexander Sebastian /Claude Rains plays an evil Nazi scientist. Yet, he is a short man who lives with his mommy. He is well cast as a dignified wealthy man. One feels sorry for him for his naivety and puppy love. He does turn into a cold character when he tells his wife, “Dear, why don’t you drink your coffee?” He doesn’t seem remorseful about killing her slowly.

4). Cinematography & Color Symbolism:

The film uses the black and white contrasts making a most spectacular black and white film. When Alicia begins her assignment at the Sebastian house she walks in with a beautiful white outfit and stoll. It’s as if she hasn’t been soiled by the Mata Hari process yet. After she is married to Alex, she sets him up at his own party for disclosure of his Nazi work. At this party, most of the women are wearing light colored outfits and she is wearing a long black gown. It works for clearly seeing her in the crowd and it is also a dark dress of betrayal and danger.

During the party there is a lot of suspense around the number of champagne bottles left over ice. The ice is looks bright white and almost glowing. It contrasts with the dark bottles and heightens the dramatic look as the large white ice area keeps expanding.

One of the most beautifully shot scenes is at the big party before Devlin comes in the door. Alicia is waiting for him with the stolen key to the wine cellar. Hitchcock used a huge crane so that every part of the large entry hall and staircase can be viewed. The shot starts at the top of grand staircase. The camera crawls slowly down the grand stair case down to a big close up of Alicia arm where she has a black long sleeve and a huge sparkling diamond ring on her finger. There is an extreme close up then as she opens her palm a bit to expose the secret key.

The lighting is beautiful in the final shots of the film. It is dark outside but there is a lot of light from in the house that it is cascading down the stairs making a carpet of light. There are also large black and white grated patterned outdoor lanterns along the walkways. The men back in the house are wearing tuxedos back lit also with light of the entry. The action of the scene happens right down the middle of this lit area. Devlin gets Alicia in the car and Alex is locked out. He turns around in horror at the men up the stairs in the bright light. He knows that he is walking up this flooded gauntlet of light up to his death. In the final shot a big black door is closed covering all the light and there is a clash of cymbals.

5). Film Score/Sound and/or Visual Effects:

The movie had about 50/50 soundtrack and no score. When there was sound it was mainly waltzy music or crescendo violin music. Sometimes there was a little Brazilian music as a location reminder.

I liked the first use of music at Alicia’s party which came from a record player. Once she has a hangover there is no music in the background which is fitting. After Alicia hears the recording of her patriotism there is waltzy music as he convinces her to take on her assignment. It is like the spirit of patriotism is romanticized. The work conversations in the embassy never have a sound track.

Once they are in Rio there is a lot more music as there is suspense. For example, when Alicia gets the keys and is snooping around there is violin music. The violin music heightens as she goes from lock to lock and heightens when she finds the one room to which she doesn’t have the key, the wine cellar.

There are two uses of camera angles effects to show Alicia in inebriated states. At the beginning of the movie she is hung over and the camera view is from her drunken eyes point of view where she sees him first upside down, then sideways as she rotates around on her bed to an upright position.

Towards the end of the movie, Alicia is poisoned and we also see things from her perspective as she sees things blurry and swaying in front of her. We see from this viewpoint as she fights to walk toward the staircase.

6). Hitchcockian Themes and Motifs: (Minimum of 4)

1) Domineering Mother to son relationships. “You've always been jealous of any woman I've ever shown any interest in!"

2) Use of a macguffin. There is something secret that the Germans are hiding. It is the uranium ore.

3) Suspense throughout Alicia’s spy scenes the night of the party and her retrieval from the house.

4) Love over duty. Similar to the detectives in Blackmail or Sabotage, Devlin at the end of the movie choose protecting the girl over the job.

5) War is a theme. The U.S. is fighting German misdoings in the U.S. and South America.

7). Influences evoked from or inspired (film/literature/art/political/social):

The of war during the time with Nazi’s against the U.S. Also in particular at this time Nazi’s had fled Germany to South America to escape or continue their work from there. The films centers around the fled Nazi’s in Brazil.

German expressionism is an influence with the stark contrast of whites and darks. Staircases were also used in German expressionist films. A scene that shows these two aspects well is when the drugged Alicia is being semi-dragged up the staircase. The long shot shows black and white marble tiles below and above. In the middle is a staircase with very white rails contrasting against very dark carpeting.

8). Overall impressions of film (positive/negative) and additional comments:

It is a beautiful visually suspenseful experience. I enjoyed how the manufacturer names the key being Unica which translates to the word unique or exceptional. The tracing of the key is all visually observed. Alicia has the key in her hand and her husband grabs her palm to kiss it, He luckily grabbed the wrong one and she throws her arms over him to stop him from opening up the other hand with the key. She drops the key on the floor and then kicks it under the table. We next see the key in a close up of her hand at the party. The betrayal is then shown with Alex finding the return of the key to his nightstand. It is all visual and suspenseful without words.

The wardrobe from Edith Head is amazing and Ingrid Bergman fits in all the clothes beautifully. They accentuate her beauty.

I enjoyed the comedy of the horrible mother-in-law having had one myself. She meets Alicia with suspicion right away and unsmiling. She turns out the lights and dismisses the servants for the return from their honeymoon. When Alex finally comes to his mother to tell her there is something very wrong regarding Alicia, she becomes so happy. “I have expected it. I knew, I knew!” Later as her daughter-in-law is in bed dying of poisoning (which she suggested), she complacently looks on at Alicia’s suffering from a chair as she does needlecraft.

The negative I found was in the drunk driving at the beginning of the film. It might have been a funny thing back then. I also didn’t like watching Devlin knock Alicia out with a punch in the same scene. These things were probably funny back then.

Images and film link to Notorious (1946, Selznick, RKO)

Images and film link to Notorious (1946, Selznick, RKO)

Film link to NotoriousClick Here for the Film

Lifeboat (1944, Twentieth Century Fox)

Lifeboat (1944, Twentieth Century Fox)

FILMS OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK Analysis & Review form

10/10/2016

Describe your assessment/opinion for each category below Do NOT write generalized statements without examples from film or examples without statements clarifying them

1). Screenplay/Storyline:

A freighter with civilian personnel is shelled by a Uboat. There are only a few survivors which end up on a lifeboat together. There are two wealthy people, four crew members, an American Red Cross nurse, a mother with a baby and the German Uboat captain. The human interactions make it a psychological and sociological class drama. One person commits suicide as her baby is dead and two people are murdered. The group fights the elements and friendly fire and is finally saved.

2). Hitchcock‘s Direction/Style (use of editing/montage, composition of shots, camera angles)

There are three pieces of the boat for being able to get close conversations. One is a close up of the front of the boat, another one is a close up of the back of the boat and one is full shot of the boat. It is a good way to edit the close and the group conversations.

A key part of the story is shown through a close up of Willy’s hand. In this close up, the camera stays on the compass in his hand. This is an important secret we know and the passengers do not.

The seating of the passengers tells a lot about social class in the movie. The two wealthy people are sitting and managing from the comfortable back of the boat. The working class is in the middle. The German is forced to sit at the front where everyone can watch him. In one scene he keeps moving his position towards the center of the boat. As if he is testing to see if he can change his status with them.

3). Performances and Characterization:

Tallulah Bankhead / Connie Porter does a lovely job as a celebrity journalist and Hitchcock cool blonde, even though she may not be blonde. She is also able to change as the character is stripped of her wealth and status. The beginning when she is sitting in the boat comfortable in a mink and snarls at a snare is a great comic relief. She did the understated comedy well.

John Hodiak/ John “Kovac” is a convincing dark street smart character. His character has some of the most truthful comments. In the beginning he is trying not to have people trust the German. He senses with his street smarts that you don’t trust this guy. He tells Connie in his way that she is an insensitive sensationalist. “You think this whole war is like a Broadway play for you to cover. If enough people die, maybe you’ll give it a 4 star rating.”

Hume Croyn/ Stanley ‘Sparks’ Garrett has a mild mannered face and he is likeable honest character. I would have cast someone a little more attractive for the romantic lead.

Henry Hull/ Charles S Rittenhouse has the face of someone who could be an arrogant millionaire. He overacts a little bit in his pompousness when he acts better than the crew handing out tasks or plays cards with Kovac. He does do a good job in the character shift from elite to “one of the mob.”

Mary Anderson/Alice Mackenzie is a beautiful female that has the warmth needed for a care worker. She makes a great change from the girl who says “I don’t know why people hurt each other.” To the girl who starts the mob kill at the end. She wasn’t that convincing as a killer though.

William Bendix/ Gus Smith played the half German amputee. He played the part of a gullible guy well. His face looked convincibly naïve.

Heather Angel/ Mrs Higgins did a good job as a traumatized woman dead behind the eyes. She had a good range of expressionless and hysterical.

Canada Lee/ George “Joe” Spencer had the face as a humble man. He played a humble if not subservient character well. He was also convincing as a spiritual man.

Walter Slezak/Willy could look both unthreatening with his chubby face and also fierce when he squinted his eyes. He was light haired but he wore black clothes giving him a confusing hue of good or evil. His character was completely responsible for the attack on the freighter and lifeboats. He didn’t have that menacing of a look, but showed his cold hearted character when he spoke about killing Gus.

4). Cinematography:

The beginning scene is of a large cylinder leaning to the side with black smoke and fire coming out of it. It keeps tipping over until it is submerged. This is a so simple but it tells that there was a whole ship that submerged without having to show the whole thing.

After the submersion we see the camera scanning the water with an American Red Cross crate, playing cards, A New Yorker Magazine and checkers. This without other dialogue shows that it was a not a military ship except for some Red Cross supplies but with plenty of passengers of leisure.

An amazing use of shadow was when at a key time, a mast slowly shadow’s the German’s face. We intuit from this that we don’t know if he is honest or has a dark side.

5). Film Score/Sound and/or Visual Effects:

There is no traditional soundtrack except for music in the beginning and ending scenes. The soundtrack is the splashing, crashing waves. There is also flute music and Willy singing.

The absence of sound during most of the movie felt very natural. I can’t imagine it any other way.

One great use of sound was when Kovac wanted to kill Willy after finding the compass on him. The passengers were all debating Willy’s life and that was when the peak storm and turbulence takes place with great storm and crashing wave sound effects.

After the storm peaks, Willy starts to yell in English to the passengers. This is a surprising sound effect also.

The maintained visual effect was having the waves and sky move while the passengers were on a stationary boat. The waves and sky were all visual effects.

In one of the later scenes, it appears that the lifeboat is in the middle of a warship battle and they are almost crushed by a Uboat. This was a wonderful visual effect knowing that this was all done in a studio.

6). Hitchcockian Themes and Motifs:

There is a cross section of society on the lifeboat. A Hitchcock theme is class differences in society. There are wealthy, pompous famous people. There are also variants of working class. There are also race issues with the German race and an African American.

Psychology is another theme. The stress of being cramped on a lifeboat with varied personalities and being unsure of the chance of survival pushes people into complete psychological make overs.

War is a Hitchcock theme. This is set during World War II on an unexpected aquatic battlefield. Throughout the film there are occurrences which bring up the senselessness of war and how no one wins.

Adulterous love affairs are a theme. Miss Mackenzie is dating a married man.

Connie is cool blond who is sophisticated and confident. She is a vixen and morally ambiguous.

7). Influences evoked from or inspired (film/literature/art/political/social):

The movie is inspired by the political times. It is a war movie during World War II.

Social class distinctions and their point of views are shown. There is a millionaire capitalist that owns ship yards but doesn’t know how to operate a ship. Alternately, Kovac is an extreme working class character. He’s worked in meat packing plants and risked his life laboring on merchant marine ships and is a dirty card player. Watching these two play cards in one scene is very interesting. The capitalist is about to win everything even though Kovac has marked the cards. The wealthy always seems to beat the poor. Yet, the wind comes and takes all the cards away. Nothing is guaranteed in this war climate when either can easily die regardless of class distinction.

The literature is taken from a small novella of John Steinbeck.

8). Overall impressions of film (positive/negative) and additional comments:

The symbolism and message I received from the film is that we are all human beings and not a “we” and “they”. At times both sides appear to be winning but the woman crying “my baby is dead” is the sickening reality. People die.

It is a powerful movie that I’m sure has many more meanings than the ones I found and I want to read a lot more on the messages that others have found.

The negative is what Steinbeck addressed in his letter to the studio. It was difficult to watch a black man marginalized and calling other people sir. Joe is surprised when people ask his opinion and he asks, “I have a vote?” It was indicative of the times, yet it would have been nice to see Steinbeck’s version of a black man in the picture.

Poster and Video extras from Lifeboat (1944, Twentieth Century Fox)

Poster and Video extras from Lifeboat (1944, Twentieth Century Fox)

Lifeboat Video Extras Click Here for Video Link

Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Universal)

Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Universal)

Essay assignment question: The notion that "the image doesn’t lie" is a traditional cultural platitude, but Hitchcock would probably argue that "the image is deceptive." Indeed, Hitchcock's films often explore a disjointed relationship between "image" or "appearance" and "truth." Offer a careful analysis (segmentation) of the dinner scene(s) in Shadow of a Doubt

Charming home-cooked dinners

In the following dinner scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s film Shadow of a Doubt we see that reality is not as it seems. Dinners are reunions of loved ones and they are meant to bring joy. The reality of these dinners is that they are not charming, but interactions of deception among personalities.

In Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Uncle Charlie has just moved from Philadelphia to live with his sister and her family in Santa Rosa. We learn further in the film that he is a murderer and knowing this on re-watching of the film one can see the faux reality that Uncle Charlie’s creates. We see in the first dinner scenes how he wants to be seen. At the dinner Uncle Charlie presents himself as a wealthy man who has travelled and lived on a yacht. The truth is that we saw him living in a seedy one room boarding house in Philadelphia and he is a bitter murderer.

He bestows gifts on the family that appear to be from a kind and generous uncle. The reality is that the items were purchased with money he stole from wealthy widows he seduced and killed. One present is even a ring engraved with a dead woman’s initials.

Instead of having happy Uncle Charlie that Niece Charlie dreamed of having and bringing happiness to her family, Uncle Charlie begins talking about how the world was a wonderful place then and is not now.

This pessimistic attitude is countered by Charlie’s ear to ear smiles that they are all happy now. They are happy now, but soon more dark shadows will come to the family via Uncle Charlie.

There is a second dinner scene. Between the first and second dinner scene Charlie was talked to by a detective. He starts to crumble her happy bubble as he informs her that her uncle is one of two men that they want to arrest. He does not specify the criminal activity. He has cast a shadow of a doubt that causes her to investigate her uncle. At the library she finds an article about the Merry Widow Murderer and sees one widows initials on the inside of Uncle Charlie gifted ring to her. She knows he is the killer.

Charlie’s attitude begins to darken and change as she has the weight on her shoulders of being the only one that knows that her uncle is an evil presence in the house.

The second dinner scene begins with Charlie snapping at her mother who is humming the merry widow tune. It is a sweet tune just as Uncle Charlie was supposed to bring happiness; the happy tune is now horrific as she knows her uncle is the Merry Widow Murderer.

Little Ann feels the undercurrent of something being wrong with her uncle when she asks to switch seats and not have to sit next to him. These are foreboding signs at the start of the second dinner. The truth is out and now Charlie has to sit at dinner with her family and uncle knowing that he is a murder but she can’t say or do anything about it. It is a kind of trapped nightmare.

Charlie’s first comment to her uncle in fact is about her dreaming ‘perfect nightmares’ about him. “I slept alright, and I kept dreaming perfect nightmares about you, Uncle Charlie...You were on a train, and I had a feeling you were running away from something. And, and I saw you on the train and I felt terribly happy...Well, he has to leave sometime. I mean, we all realize he has to leave sometime. We have to face the facts.”

This is Charlie’s first negative jab at her uncle. The second is when she tells him he can throw away the newspaper, “we don't need to play any games with it tonight." At this time he senses a change in her attitude as he looks down and thinks after this comment. She has changed and is darkening but he is smart conman and can pick up on things about people.

Her mother is giddy over Uncle Charlie bringing wine for dinner and that he promised to give a talk to the ladies in her club. This begins his diatribe against women. He says women here keep themselves busy but city women are different: “middle-aged widows, husbands dead.” He says the widows are left with a lot of money that their husbands worked for all their lives. The widows waste the money on the best hotels, on bridge and jewelry. They are “Horrible, faded, fat, greedy women.”

Charlie raises her voice and declares, "They're alive! They're human beings!" He nastily replies, "Are they? Are they Charlie? or are they fat wheezing animals, ?” She looks away from him, he is confirming to her what she already knows but hearing it from him disgusts and worries her.

As Charlie sits there tormented, her father and his friend talk about murders. Charlie finally loses her composure and yells at both of them, “Do you always have to talk about killing people?”

“Can’t we have a little peace and quiet here without dragging in poisons all the time?” The Charlie at the beginning of the film talking sweetly to her parents in her bedroom would never have talked to her family that way.

Charlie runs out of the house and her mother is worried that something is wrong with her. Uncle Charlie takes this chance to run after her to confront her about his suspicion that she suspects him. The scene concludes with him confessing to her but asking for her silence. She replies,” How could you do such things we thought you were the most wonderful man in the world.” She had illusions of who she wanted him to be but the reality she found was a nightmare.

There is in this film the obvious image of deception which is Uncle Charlie who is a murderer. The second deception is the image of the peaceful family at dinner. Every person has inner depth and tensions. They may be unexpressed tensions such as Ann wanting more attention for her reading prowess or Charlie wanting something more of her life than suburbia.

“For Alfred Hitchcock family relationships are a source of endless provocation. The family, in course of its natural and normal existence, produces the most oppressive of tensions and the calm matter-of-factness with which it does so is what it so is what makes it so frightening” (Deutelbaum 153). The reality is that there are no uncomplicated meals as humans we are too complex. Although unmeaning, there are deceptions we hold deep inside.

Works Cited

Deutelbaum, Marshall, and Leland A. Poague. A Hitchcock Reader. Chichester, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print.

Feedback from Denah. I agree with her assessment however to me it seemed to me like it was more of a story-driven question. It would have been an enormous paper if I included all the camera visuals and editing.

Your PAPER: B

"While your paper is perfectly written, it is not clear that you are talking about a film (it could be a play, a novel, etc.) - as your focus is on the story and what happens not so much HOW it is presented and constructed via editing, perspective or point of view and framing (the size of people or things in the image and what impact they have). Otherwise, nice work!"