IT’S A HITCHCOCKIAN WORLD
& we’re just living in it.
Alfred Hitchcock has become one of the most renowned filmmakers in the history of film and television. No other motion picture artist has had as much influence on the industry as Hitchcock, who has had more books, movies, and articles written about him than any other filmmaker. His influence on the film and entertainment industry as a whole has persisted in keeping his legacy alive and well even after his tragic passing in 1980. He continues to be the subject of films, has essays written about him, and classes taught about him to this day regarding both his work and his life. So what made this seemingly simple English Catholic man one of the greatest filmmakers of all time? Well, some film scholars might argue that it was his experimental camera work and editing, while others claim that it was his mastery over the suspense and thriller genre of film. However, what incorporates both of these elements and takes them over the edge is his perfectly detailed yet exploratory skills in worldbuilding to propel a story. Alfred Hitchcock’s expert use of travel throughout his films to create long-lasting, memorable sets, scenes, and plot points has made him one of the greatest storytellers throughout film history.
Alfred Hitchcock on the set of his hit 1960 film Pyscho.
Alfred Hitchcock was raised with his siblings in an Irish Catholic family in a small neighborhood in London. Because Catholicism was not England's preeminent faith in the early 1900s, the Hitchcocks—and Alfred in particular—felt alienated. His family came from relatively humble beginnings and was classified as lower middle class. The social standing of his family would give Hitchcock a special set of abilities later in his career, enabling him to see the value of pleasing both an audience and critics. Hitchcock's modest upbringing also left him with a strong yearning for knowledge and a desire to broaden his cultural and intellectual horizons. He attended Saint Ignatius College, a Jesuit Catholic preparatory school, during his teenage years; however, his father’s death propelled him into the workforce early and he never attended university. Hitchcock got his first job with an electric cable company performing technical assignments and designing advertisements. In 1921 and 1922, Hitchcock submitted title cards to Famous-Players Lasky, a motion picture and distribution company, which landed him in an assistant position to many well-known German directors.
Through such experiences, Alfred Hitchcock observed artistic styles that he had never seen before. His itch for cultural expansion was finally being scratched and he yearned for more. The fact that Hitchcock had a penchant for exploring even as a young child is what made him such a master of world-building and storytelling. If he couldn't travel everywhere physically, he would do it symbolically through his movies. Hitchcock took these knowledge-driven steps forward early in his career by engaging in experimental activities like joining the cine club, where movie enthusiasts would watch avant-garde productions that frequently incorporated surrealist and German expressionist stylistic choices, and by consuming artistic media, such as various novels and theater, to help satiate his intellectual curiosity. Through these hobbies, he developed stylistic skills that would carry over into his work throughout the years.
Hitchcock’s use of German expressionist techniques in his 1958 hit thriller film Vertigo.
In the film industry, Alfred Hitchcock's movies frequently had recurring themes and motifs that have come to be recognized as Hitchcockian staples. One of his most well-known themes is the use of transportation—typically a train—to represent the unstable journey the protagonist will undertake. His movies frequently featured trains as recurring themes; examples include The 39 Steps (1935), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Strangers on a Train (1951), and North by Northwest (1959). The railway setting in his early films from the 1930s was primarily a budgetary decision because it required fewer resources and funding to produce because the entire movie would take place in one area, on one set piece. However, the train eventually came to represent much more in Hitchcock's works, like the unpredictability of traveling in such a vehicle and the predetermined timeframe of this mode of transportation, which only intensifies the excitement and thrill of the movie. Many of the main characters of his films were often forced to travel in the story in order to solve a mystery or find a resolution to a problem. The entirety of The Lady Vanishes' narrative takes place aboard a train as the young protagonist Iris is tasked with discovering what happened to Mrs. Froy, the kind, elderly companion she recently made. Iris is aware that she has a limited amount of time and resources available to find Mrs.Froy before she reaches her destination. As the individuals on the train are untrustworthy witnesses and she can only rely on the things she knows to be true as well as the passengers, the audience is made aware of how inconvenient this location is for solving this missing person case throughout the entire movie.
A scene from The Lady Vanishes (1938)
A similar sense of unease and instability while traveling via train can be observed in the film Strangers on a Train. While the train is not the primary setting of the film, for the main protagonist Guy, the train represents the start of his dreadful journey to come, as it is the place where he first meets the antagonist of the film, Bruno. The representation of the train stays the same in terms of instability, however, rather than this being more literal the symbolization is more figurative. Guy’s unpredictable and dangerous journey starts with this uneasy meeting with Bruno, and the train from this point on indicates a sensitive area for Guy that is associated with being cautious and vigilant.
A scene from Strangers on a Train (1951)
In films such as The 39 Steps and North by Northwest, the train motif is still present, but the idea of travel is further expanded on. The main male heroes in both of these movies are accused of crimes they did not commit and are forced to undertake difficult journeys to various locations in order to prove their innocence. While the trains in these films do serve as a mode of transportation to various locations, they also serve as the protagonists' resting and hiding spots as well as the sites where they first encounter their love interests. In North by Northwest, desire and travel work in tandem to advance the plot. This association is further emphasized by the enclosed spaces on the train, as well as the implied sexual encounter between Roger Thornhill and Eve Kendall that takes place overnight on the train and captures Hitchcock's inner desire for adventure and travel. The various places Hitchcock leads his protagonists in these two films are another representation of his desire for exploration. Richard Hannay, who is from Canada but is on vacation in London in The 39 Steps, must take a train from London to Scotland in order to clear his record. Given that Hitchcock is from London and that Hannay's voyage starts there, this may be a tribute to Hitchcock's early desire to travel. In North by Northwest, Hitchcock told the writers of the movie that he wanted a fight scene on Mount Rushmore, thus the famous, thrilling scene on Mount Rushmore between Thornhill and the antagonists takes place. Hitchcock had big ambitions for this film, as the main character, Roger Thornhill, travels from New York to Chicago to South Dakota. The immense amount of traveling in this film also represents Hitchcock’s desire to travel around the United States at both his young age, as well as his current age in the 1950s with him getting older and increasing health risks preventing him from traveling as much.
A scene from North by Northwest (1959)
Above all, Alfred Hitchcock was a cinematic technician. He had perfected the skill of creating a compelling environment with complex characters, ingenious camera angles, and ethereal landscapes. In an article titled "Hitch-Hiking in Dreamscapes," Kerry Brougher, the director of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, explains how Alfred Hitchcock's skill at crafting intense, compelling dreamscapes made him a successful and well-regarded director. He was able to occupy the liminal zone between reality and fiction, transporting viewers to idyllic, surreal locations while simultaneously giving them a sense of familiarity. Hitchcock was a modernist as well, not hesitant to try out new aesthetic approaches while imagining new worlds and settings for his films. In the article, Brougher points out that people have always been fascinated by traveling and experiencing locations beyond their wildest fantasies, and that one of the main ways people have learned to appease these aspirations is through the medium of cinema.
Hitchcock’s collaboration with Salvadore Dali in his film Spellbound (1945)
In his works like Spellbound (1945) and Rear Window (1954), Hitchcock demonstrates some of his most renowned and accomplished world- and story-building work. Hitchcock used his innovative methods to produce vivid, intricate landscapes and settings in both of these films. In Spellbound, the main protagonist Dr.Constance Peterson goes on a journey to prove that her new patient and lover, John, is innocent of murder. The film, while not directly linked with travel, still takes the viewer on a visual journey with its avant-garde set pieces and design. Salvador Dali, a surrealist artist, and Hitchcock collaborated on this project to produce an enigmatic dream sequence with a very avant-garde set design. This movie exemplified Hitchcock’s yearning to explore not only the world but different ways of expression. This was many viewers' first exposure to surrealism in the media at the time, which only broadened their minds to additional intellectual and aesthetic understanding. By utilizing varied sets and landscapes, Dr. Peterson and John Ballentine took the audience on a journey through various memories, emotions, and experiences.
In Hitchcock’s successful Paramount film Rear Window, the audience travels inside different people’s lives all from one location, the main protagonist, L.B. Jeffries, apartment window. The unstable travel motif is still present in this film, it is just presented through the point of view and mind of Jeffries. This was one of Paramount's largest and most expensive sets at the time, but it paid off because it gave viewers the opportunity to indulge in their guilty voyeuristic desires from the comfort of a surprisingly familiar setting. By focusing on mental travel rather than physical travel, Hitchcock was able to gratify the universal human drive for observation through this production. Hitchcock continues to exemplify the connection between desire and travel through Jeffries' strong desire to get back out into the world and experience some sort of excitement or stimulation. Francois Truffaut, a French cinema director, claimed in his 1967 book "Hitchcock/Truffaut" that Alfred Hitchcock was able to provide "the most intense presentation of dramatic events possible," and he achieved this through the power of investigation and vivid world construction.
A scene from Rear Window (1954)
Alfred Hitchcock always wanted to create, travel, and broaden his cultural and artistic horizons, from his childhood until his old age. He didn't have the means or experience necessary to make the expertly crafted, adventurous films he wanted to as a young filmmaker. As he got older, health threats as well as his own insecurities ceased Hitchcock from traveling to the various places he wanted to go to as well as truly being the person, both physically and mentally, that he wanted to be. The only true extension of himself that allowed him to achieve everything he desired was through his cinematic works. The incorporation of the train motif and traveling was always an integral part of Hitchcock’s storytelling process as well as in cinema as a whole. Throughout cinematic history, the train has represented various meanings such as signifying that adventure is coming, a sense of thrill, the sensation of action, a feeling of suspense, and the indication of romance . All of these components can be found in the Hitchcock films that were previously stated, as the train in these works whets the audience's appetite for the amazing tale to follow with the aforementioned symbolism as well as the auditory and visual thrilling aspects of the wondrous vehicle. Hitchcock’s incredible stories have left a long-lasting impact on viewers even in the smallest of scenes. While he may have initially created the Hitchcockian world to satisfy his own desires, the narratives and unique landscapes Alfred Hitchcock has shared with the world has provided viewers a way to escape their daily lives, even just for a few hours, and explore their wildest dreams.
