The Master of Suspense – Alfred Hitchcock
The master of suspense is an excellent study for any future filmmaker, not because of his famed cinematography or his technical achievements but because of his ability to tell a story using images.
The art of visual storytelling is something we seem to lose more and more in today’s entertainment industry. From the first films, it was the visual element that brought the audience together. A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words, and yet today’s films have a tendency to cram as many words in as possible.
Hitchcock was a expert at communicating in pictures. In The Lady Vanishes, Miss Froy’s name on the window and the spinning train wheels are perfect examples. The popping flash bulb in Rear Window and the shot of Arbogast falling down the stairs after being attacked by mother in 1960s Psycho are all equally terrifying images.
Hitch (as he was affectionately known by most everyone) began his career in Europe first, and later moved to America with his wife Alma, who he met when she played the part of continuity supervisor on his early projects. Of the films he produced during his European phase, which include The 39 Steps and Jamaica Inn, the most toned example of the coming renaissance he would create was a picture based on Ethel Whites novel, The Wheel Spins.
This film was basically an invention, though the plot was loosely based on the novel, and showcases some of his most intricate emotional work. The picture cuts fast: faster, in fact, than many European films of the day. There is a ton of information available for the viewer to take in here, most notably the great secret on which the wheels of the film spin.
To Hitchcock, a Maguffin was that unattainable and unimportant detail that allows the audience to move through the story. It is something that’s important to the characters, but makes no difference at all to the viewer, except for the fact that it exists. The story of its invention as a literary device goes like this: Two men meet on a train traveling through Europe. The first sees that the second is carrying a strange device. When he asks after its use, he is told it is a Maguffin. Curious, he inquires further, and the man responds that it is a device for trapping lions in the Scottish highlands. This puzzles the second man, who makes his disbelief known: I do not believe there are any lions in the Scottish highlands. The first man only smiles and says “Then there is no Macguffin.”
This and many other minor tricks would Hitchcock use to create his stories. Hitch was a master at using these ideas to make the audience believe in the raw emotion of what they were seeing.
