Sir Alfred Hitchcock made over 50-odd movies, several of which are some of the best cinematic thrillers ever produced, either in the UK or Hollywood. Of all the different variations on the thrillers genre he succeeded at, one of the most satisfying for me were his films about, as he put in an interview, "The Man in A Spot".
The basic plot for this story is simple and existed long Hitchcock mastered it: an ordinary but intelligent fellow finds himself in over his head, usually accused of a murder or two he didn't commit, despite the fact that the circumstantial evidence indites him in the eyes of the police. To save himself, he must not only flee from the police inspectoprs who are dead set to hang him, but also find the real killer(s). Along the way, he meets a beautiful lady (usually a blond) who is convinced he's the killer. Through the circumstances of being thrown together--or literally handcuffed together, as in the case of Robert Donat and Madelaine Carroll in "The 39 Steps"--she discovers he's really an innocent man, and takes on the task of helping him stay out of jail and catch the real culprits.
He's a clip from "The 39 Steps" (1935), a film which has been adapted into a recent award-winning comic play that gained success on the West End and now on Broadway. Based on a John Buchan novella, this was the 35-year old director's first international success and established him as an "A"-list director.
In this scene, fugitive Richard Hannay (Donat) plays a nice Canadian ex-pat in London who helps a female stranger out with a chaste place to stay the night after she begs for his help at a local music hall. The poor chap. He wakes up the next morning to find his chivalry unrewarded: she's been murdered in his bedroom (through no fault of his own. ) He escapes via a train (The Highland Express) but a squad of policemen catch up to him on the railway.
Twenty-four years later: same situation almost, and another train scene. It's from "North By Northwest" (1959) . This time the wanted man is Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant). He manages to have a more successful tete-a-tete with a lady on a train than Hannay. I love the look on Grant's face in this scene when he realizes Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) is decidedly NOT playing hard to get on the 20th Century Limited.
Funny, but in all my youthful train trips in and around the States, I don't remember anything close to this type of personal service available on Amtrak. No brook trout. No cocktails. No blonds. *Sigh*
Finally, here's a bit more of the "man on the spot" sub-genre. It's from Hitchcock's 1942 version of this familar plot, a lesser known film called "Saboteur" with Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane and Norman Lloyd as the guy who framed Cummings character, Barry Kane, for a murder in a defense plant in California. The climax of he film takes place at a studio mock-up of the Statue of Liberty, fulfiling Hitchcock's fondness for placing scenes at the landmarks of American or British Power and Influence. There's always something a little sinister about these places after you've seen a film like this.
Something very similar happened to me many years ago on the 17.25 from Birmingham to Wolverhampton, but as the journey only takes 18 minutes with a stop at Dudley Port it was alas unrequited, but at least the police didn't get on. I had to wait until I got off to get arrested so I take your point about 'personal service' Doug. Things aren't what they used to be.
ReplyDeleteSomething very similar happened to me many years ago on the 17.25 from Birmingham to Wolverhampton, but as the journey only takes 18 minutes with a stop at Dudley Port it was alas unrequited, but at least the police didn't get on. I had to wait until I got off to get arrested so I take your point about 'personal service' Doug. Things aren't what they used to be.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been all those Sunday afternoons watching black and white TV films with my parents that gave me an abiding fear Kennebunkport Doug.
ReplyDeleteMaine has always seemed a dark and brooding state to me and that is why (I now realise) I had that nervous breakdown on the ferry from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to Bar Harbour.
It had nothing to do with Homeland Security after all!
Hitchcock has had a lasting effect on people of my generation. I know people who still get pale and clammy if there are more than 3 starlings on the phone wires....we have been collectively traumatised by that man.
ReplyDeleteIn the 60s his television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents was compulsive viewing, thanks for posting and bringing back all those memories.
Interesting what you say about your own youthful travels around America by train Doug....before Amtrak decimated inter-state passenger services which was a great mistake I think, to a lesser degree the same thing happened here. Under the notorious Beeching Plan Report of 1963. More than 4,000 miles of railway and 3,000 stations closed in the decade following the report, a reduction of 25 per cent of route miles and 50 per cent of stations across the UK.
Obama could address the economic crisis by announcing a massive expansion in the US rail network, it created the country in the first place...... it could help recreate it again I think.
If there's on thing worse than slow train service, AA, its getting there right on time with no delays; no wonder Noel Coward and David Lean called their little romantic train-station affair movie, "Brief Encounter".
ReplyDeleteAh, for the good old days of the postal coach.
Huge fan of his work. When you stop and look at the man he does not overly impress. He was a true mastermind. Thank you for the walk down memory lane.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about that. The state of Maine produced Stephen King so things dark and brooding must indeed lurk about that. Perhaps part of your distress came from the knowledge that the Bush Family Summer Compound was about to bring forth a Fool For All Seasons to be "Emperor of the West", as Gore Vidal once described the American Presidency.
ReplyDeleteThank you , AA, for posting that hilarious and droll introduction by Sir Alfred himself. A have a couple DVDs of his 50-early 60's television series, and some of the best entertainment in those little macabre episodes came in his witty introductions.
ReplyDeleteThe first Hitchcock movie I ever saw was "The Birds". Parents took me to see it at the drive-in. That business with the flocking on the wires and the kids playground equipment outside the elementary school was unforgettable, and quite disconcerting for me as a seven year old.
Living near the northern California coast, we got our share of seagull flocks, coming in when there was a storm. They would circle above the playground in the early mornings. I saw them on cloudy days as I walked toward the school. To say it was an ominous introduction to the coming day was an understatement.
That film had been shot about 80 miles up the coast from where I grew up in San Jose, in a fishing town called Bodega Bay. The symmetry between my school yard and that of the film gave heightened anxiety about the possibility of attack to many a fellow playmate's mind. "The Birds" were evoked even by kids whose parents hadn't let them see the film.
Even today I feel just what you describe when I see a bunch of birds on a wire.
Truly "Hitch" was a man who knew a great allegory when he saw it.
I have been writing so much, but I agree with this. And for some reason with time he has fell off the radar, but he was an amazingly intelligent man.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree ts high time Obama does indeed get the USA back to pre-1960's emphasis on mass transit. And add high-speed rail service between major urban hubs and medium-sized communiities. Passenger service , especially on the western slope of the States, has been decimated. Energy depenancy leads to wars and its better to put away the SUVs now to save petrol and blood. There appears to be some hope his Adminisration is thinking along those lines:
ReplyDeleteBy David Rogers, The Politico
WASHINGTON — Railroads made Chicago, and now a Chicago-rich White House wants to return the favor: remaking rail with a huge new federal investment in high-speed passenger trains.
The $787.2 billion economic recovery bill — to be signed by President Obama on Tuesday — dedicates $8 billion to high-speed rail, most of which was added in the final closed-door bargaining at the instigation of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
It's a sum that far surpasses anything before attempted in the United States — and more is coming. Administration officials told Politico that when Obama outlines his 2010 budget next week, it will ask for $1 billion more for high-speed rail in each of the next five years.
I think you touched upon a good point about Hitchcock's persona, Fred. Here is a man who looks like a mild-mannered banker, yet he traffiked in scenes of murder and mayhem and the fears that touch on the darker recesses of human behavior. The contrast was quite successsful.
ReplyDeleteThat he was. His personality may be off the public stage, but his influence ensures he will never be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI think he intentionally played up his mild manneredness, It added to the intrigue.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Charlotte Chandler, who wrote recent biography of Hitchcock, confirms that he had an entire wardrobe of identical charcoal suits, same color ties, same shoes, etc, for his studio work and public appearances. As much as he reputedly had a small opinion of actors, he played a role himself to sell his films. No film director today has that strong a personal identity with a wide audience.
ReplyDeleteAll the films you mentioned are excellent and I have them on DVD. They have tried to remake them but it simply didn't do it for me.
ReplyDeleteBefore the 39 Steps, Hitchcock had already made 18 to 20 silent films. I haven't seen any recordings of them. "The Birds" was scary in a different way, menacing... I suppose it's because Starlings do actually gather in a huge mass of blackness, brrrrrrrrrrr, sends shivers down my spine to think of it.
I was surprised to learn recently, that Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney were racists. I must say that shocked me!
Interesting write up and videos, Doug, thank you!
I meant to say, my inbox isn't working that well so I don't always see your postings straight away.
ReplyDeleteCassandra
Remaking "Hitchcock" seems like a recipe for disaster--at least for people familiar with his films. There was a shot by shot remake of "Psycho" by Gus Van Sant in the 1990s I never saw. (What would be the point?) Talk has been on-and-off for years of somebody remaking "The Birds". I suppose its a tribute in a way, but I am filled with ennui at the thought.
ReplyDeleteGood point about Hitchcock and the silents. Perhaps those arresting images could only come from someone who matured when the medium was more dependent on the visual way of story-telling.
I've only seen clips from a couple of his silents myself and the film of "The Lodger" from 1927. In interviews, Hitchcock always credited as a major influence the time he spent in Germany, where he got to see F. W. Mureau and other major expressionist directors in the mid-1920's. His mind was like a sponge I imagine.
As I recall from a documentary on "The Birds" I think the birds that fly down the chimney and into the little house where the main characters are trapped are starlings. Saw that as a youngster and I still get the chills even on the small screen from that moment.
That Hitchcock was a racist is surprising to me also Cassandra. (I knew about Walt Disney, the bitter anti-Semite. An unpleasant man in other ways, too.) One of the things I've always enjoyed about Hitchcock is that he concentrated on his strengths and avoided overt "message" films--except for the anti-fascist movies he made during WWII, which of course were also pro-democratic. It easy to forget for me that he was not only an great artist, but a product of his Cockney Edwardian background.
I have the same problem with my friends' posts.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a few of the silent films just to see what form they took. I imagine great lighting and long shadows.
ReplyDeleteI believe The 39 Steps was Hitchcock's first hit (I can't tell you how many times I have watched that) and it never fails to please me. Tippi Hendren, has very bad memories of "The Birds" and thought it traumatised her. I'm not surprised!
Maybe the fact that he was a racist, stemmed from that time he spent in Germany. I know aroundabout 1934, to when war broke out, many well known people sympathised with Hitler. I think it was only a passing thing fortunately.
I hated the inbox thing when I first came to Multi, but now I rely on it to alert me to friends blogs. If a contact who blogs, hasn't posted in a while I go searching. That is how I found your Hitchcock. * Smiles*
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot of that admiration of Hitler in America early on as well. Some thought a "dictator" was what America needed to get us out of the Deprtession.
ReplyDeleteOld Adolph was Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1938. (A choice the magazine publisher, Henry Luce, later partly rectified by putting Hitler's picture back on thecover and fashioning a large red "X" over the face.) William Randolph Hearst, another major publisher, also glowed about Hitler in the 1930's. I suppose they were so obsessed with fears of Soviet Russia that they were blinded to how nuts the Nazis were. One look at the film "Triumph of the Will" and its crazy megalomania at the annual Nuremberg Rally would have set me to worrying I think.
Me also. I saw it years ago at a local retrospective cinema where I lived. They showed "39 Steps" and another winner "The Lady Vanishes". I remember people applauded when both pictures ended, not bad for a couple of then 40-years-on films.
ReplyDeleteThe behind the camers story of Tippi Hedren, Hitchcock and "The Birds" is indeed a rather disturbing one. I think Hitchcock was obsessed by her, and the fact that he elevated her from a modeling career to a star of two of his films made him feel entitled to be a Svengali over her. I only know for certain that their realtionship did not end well after the second film, "Marnie", was made.
Oh yes, "The Lady Vanishes! What a brilliant a brilliant plot, the tea lable getting stuck on the window of the train for a brief moment, the menacing faces of the passengers in the carriage. I have the DVD so watch it sometimes if I get a rare blissfull night in. Well, if they applauded at the cinema, they must have enjoyed the films!
ReplyDeleteMarnie was a rather dark plot, I seem to remember. It was on television here a few months ago.
Thank you Doug.
I don't know why, but that really amused me, Hitler, Times man of the year! When he first came into power he did pull Germany together and gave the people hope in their future, so I can understand how he would be admired. However, there were so many signs later, that he had more in mind than his countries interests and he was going to expand Germany's territory. I must watch "Triumph of the Will", I'll see if I can get it. Yes, the Nuremberg rally, sends shivers down the spine just to see clips of it.
ReplyDeleteThanks again Doug, interesting.
Yes, a highly engrossing film. Thanks for reminding me of those details Cassandra.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to use a scene from that film for this blog, but I couldn't find a good clip. The scenes where Margaret Lockwood's character is trying to find one fellow passenger to remember the identity of the nice old lady who has vanished---is some of Hitchcock's best work, and very well written from start to finish. It's also a film that prefigures the conflict in Europe, and the musical tune as the key to the secret code was a beaut of a plot device!
Something about those old trains and mysteries go together so well.
Oh you are so right, the train, it's passengers all the little happenings on the journey. I always find the two eccentric English gentlemen amusing. How anyone would want to use the sugar after they had been fingering it, beggers belief. To them cricket was all that mattered. The war could start, countries, invaded but as long as cricket played on, life was wonderful. As for the musical code, I won my a team points in a pub quiz for remembering it.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I watch the film I pick up on some other detail I missed before. Yes indeed, a great early film. I'm sorry you couldn't find a suitable clip on utube. You certainly have to search to find what you want. I usually find the clip I have in mind, only to find the quality is appalling! Phfftt!
Thank you again, Doug.