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Alfred Hitchcock PHILOSOPHICAL FILMMAKERS Series editor: Costica Bradatan is a Professor of Humanities at Texas Tech University, USA, and an Honorary Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is the author of Dying for Ideas: The Dangerous Lives of the Philosophers (Bloomsbury, 2015), among other books. Films can ask big questions about human existence: what it means to be alive, to be afraid, to be moral, to be loved. The Philosophical Filmmakers series examines the work of influential directors, through the writing of thinkers wanting to grapple with the rocky territory where film and philosophy touch borders. Each book involves a philosopher engaging with an individual filmmaker’s work, revealing how it has inspired the author’s own philosophical perspectives and how critical engagement with those films can expand our intellectual horizons. Other titles in the series: Eric Rohmer, Vittorio Hösle Werner Herzog, Richard Eldridge Terrence Malick, Robert Sinnerbrink Kenneth Lonergan, Todd May Shyam Benegal, Samir Chopra Douglas Sirk, Robert B. Pippin Lucasfilm, Cyrus R. K. Patell Christopher Nolan, Robbie B. H. Goh Other titles forthcoming: Leni Riefenstahl, Jakob Lothe Jane Campion, Bernadette Wegenstein Alfred Hitchcock Filmmaker and Philosopher Mark William Roche BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2022 Copyright © Mark William Roche, 2022 Mark William Roche has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on p. xi constitute an extension of this copyright page. Cover image: Notorious (1946) (dir. Alfred Hitchcock), (© RKO Radio Pictures Inc./Photofest) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-2131-3 PB: 978-1-4742-2130-6 ePDF: 978-1-4742-2132-0 eBook: 978-1-4742-2133-7 Series: Philosophical Filmmakers Typeset by Newgen KnowledgeWorks Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, India To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. For Susan, Jason, and Michael vi Contents List of Figures ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1 Hitchcock’s Philosophical Universe 9 2 Hitchcock as a Master of Form 71 3 Ambiguities in Shadow of a Doubt 119 4 Hitchcock’s Real and Apparent Gaps 159 5 Hitchcock and Beyond 165 Notes 171 Credits 181 Works Cited 183 Index 193 viii Figures 1 The mocking, accusatory jester in Blackmail 18 2 Arnie, toy gun in hand, standing over Harry’s corpse in The Trouble with Harry 31 3 Woman onlooker in I Confess eating an apple 55 4 Lap dissolve of Roger Thornhill and Mt. Rushmore in North by Northwest 60 5 Fr. Logan listening to Keller’s confession in I Confess 64 6 Lap dissolve of the rosary and courtroom in The Wrong Man 73 7 A self-conscious nod to the iris in Rear Window 77 8 Dan Fawcett’s pecked-out eyes in The Birds 77 9 Aerial shot of the anxious couple in the second The Man Who Knew Too Much 80 10 Long shot of five silhouetted figures in The Trouble with Harry 82 11 Alicia and Devlin early in Notorious, with crosses in the background 86 12 Close-up of Eve’s face at the end of Stage Fright 94 13 The conflict of divine and secular justice in I Confess 100 14 Lap dissolve of Manny and his double in The Wrong Man 113 15 Uncle Charlie and Charlie, the two surrogate directors of Shadow of a Doubt 125 16 Charlie and her threatening shadow in Shadow of a Doubt 126