Notions of the Gothic in the films of Alfred Hitchcock.

236 Pages·2017·8.69 MB·English

Notions of the Gothic in the films of Alfred Hitchcock.
CLARK, Dawn Karen.
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Notions of the Gothic in the Films of Alfred
Hitchcock
Dawn Karen Clark
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of
the requirements of Sheffield Hallam
University for the degree of Master of
Philosophy
July 2004
Abstract
The films of Alfred Hitchcock were made within the confines of the commercial
film industries in Britain and the USA and related to popular cultural traditions such as
the thriller and the spy story. However, many of the films possess characteristics
associated with ’high' culture. Part of the interest in his work lies in the ways in which
such traditions intersect with and accommodate each other and how they relate to the
other determining contexts of the director's work. This thesis focuses upon the cultural
and literary tradition of the 'Gothic' and the German Expressionist cinema of the 1920s
as key influences upon Hitchcock's work in general and on some of his films in
particular.
Part of the work consists of an overview of Gothic literature in its many forms
with specific attention to the classic English Gothic. A definition is provided, based
upon the identification of the main elements and motifs of the tradition. There is also a
study of the German Expressionist film which identifies its main features, locates it in
the history of silent cinema and relates it to the tradition of the Gothic.
The main part of the work is a detailed study of the films of Alfred Hitchcock,
relating them to the cultural tradition of the Gothic and to its specific manifestation in
the German Expressionist film. This involves consideration of the concept of'influence'
and the extent to which Hitchcock's films derive from such traditions; an analysis of the
films which identifies Gothic and Expressionist features; an assessment of the ways in
which such traditions were mixed with others, including classical narrative structure and
style, generic traditions of suspense and romance, to produce the distinctive form and
content of the Hitchcock film; and a consideration of the ways in which such traditions
played a role in much of Hitchcock's output, regardless of the different genres in which
he worked.
Research has included primary sources: Gothic novels (from 1764 to the present
day) and the films of both Hitchcock and the German Expressionist directors; and
secondary sources and critical studies of the Gothic texts ap4 the films. There has been
much written on the Gothic tradition although many critics fail to explain the term or to
identify what the genre actually represents. Similarly, though much has been written on
the subject of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, the topic of Gothic has only really been referred
to briefly and no one has addressed it in any detail.
Contents
1. Introduction p.4
2. Gothic Literature p.6
3. German Expressionism and Early Gothic Film p.40
4. Silent Hitchcock p.69
5. The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog p. 85
6. Hitchcock's British Sound Films p.96
7. Blackmail p. 121
8. Hitchcock's Early American Films p. 127
9. Rebecca p. 161
10. The Classic Period p. 169
11. Psycho p. 182
12. Later Hitchcock p. 196
13. Frenzy p.209
14. Conclusion p.220
15. Bibliography p.223
16. Filmography p.230
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1. Introduction
Alfred Hitchcock was bom in London in 1899, just two years after the
publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula: a novel marking, for many, the end of the most
popular period of traditional Gothic novels. Hitchcock’s career as a director (1925-
1976) spanned a period of significant social and political change. We must also
consider that he made films on both sides of the Atlantic and take into account any
cultural or ideological implications of this. Furthermore, although film techniques did
develop quickly, Hitchcock was still working with a relatively new medium and this
afforded opportunity for experimentation.
Although the main focus of this study is the notion of Gothic in the directorial
output of Alfred Hitchcock, it is necessary to define and contextualise Gothic itself and
to address the distinction between Gothic and other similar genres and types. It is also
necessary to show that whilst some films demonstrate some similarities with written
Gothic texts there are added visual (and aural) elements. In order to show this there is a
focus on German Expressionism as an example of Gothic on film. The directors who
made these films used and adapted many of the features of traditional Gothic novels
and a combination of presentational and stylistic features that can be seen to have
incited similar audience reaction to that of Gothic writing. The social and political
contexts of these films can also be directly compared with those of the traditional
Gothic period.
With regard to the films directed by Hitchcock it is also necessary to
acknowledge that people other than Hitchcock were involved in the making of them.
Many of the films were adapted from existing novels or plays (some with very few
changes to the plot and / or characters) and these adaptations (as well as the original
screenplays of other films) were not written by Hitchcock himself. Along with this
must be considered the on screen presence of particular actors (the casting of whom
was also often out of Hitchcock’s control) as well as the controlling influence of studios
and producers (such as David O Selznick), particularly early on in Hitchcock’s career.
Notwithstanding all of this, there is still a quite unmistakeable quality about
Hitchcock’s work, much of which can be seen in the effect on the audience.
4
Though Hitchcock is commonly regarded as The master of suspense’, it must be
remembered that not all of Hitchcock’s films are suspense thrillers. It could be
assumed, then, that not all of Hitchcock’s films will demonstrate Gothic features.
Whilst this study covers the entire fifty-year period of Hitchcock’s career, there has
been a necessity to focus on certain films in particularly and to regard others (to a
certain extent) as largely irrelevant to this topic. There is also a case study of a
particular film from each period that demonstrates more of these features than most of
the other films.
Notions of influence must also be considered when approaching this kind of
study. It could be argued that Hitchcock was directly influenced both by Gothic
novelists and German Expressionist filmmakers but it might also be argued that any
similarities between these works might largely be due to contextual (or even
biographical) factors. The notion of Hitchcock’s own influence on the work of other
directors (both contemporary and more recent) might also be considered.
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2. Gothic Literature
The Gothic genre consists of a variety of features and elements that also appear
in works of other genres and this can make it difficult to formulate a distinct definition.
However, certain features of the form are usually alluded to in reference works. The
Oxford Reference Dictionary defines the Gothic novel as ‘an English genre of fiction,
popular in the eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries, characterised by an atmosphere
of mystery and horror and with a pseudo-medieval (‘Gothic’) setting.’1 The Cambridge
Guide To Literature in English defines the Gothic novel in more detail as:
A type of romance popular in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
‘Gothic’ had come to mean ‘wild’, ‘barbarous’ and ‘crude’, qualities which
writers cultivated in reaction against the neoclassicism of earlier eighteenth
century culture. Gothic novels were usually set in the past (most often in the
Middle Ages) and in foreign countries (particularly the Catholic countries of
southern Europe). Monasteries, castles, dungeons and mountainous landscapes
were made settings for plots which hinged on suspense or mystery and flirted
with the fantastic or supernatural.2
In its infancy Gothic literature was seen in rather negative or unpleasant terms.
Julian Petley explains:
In Britain, as far back as the first half of the eighteenth century, the term
‘Gothic’ had already acquired distinctly negative connotations. As Fred Botting
explains, it had become ‘a general and derogatory term for the Middle Ages
which conjured up ideas of barbarous customs and practices, of superstition,
ignorance, extravagant fancies and natural wildness’ (1996: 22). In other words,
exactly the opposite of the then highly valued ideals of the Enlightenment, with
its stress on harmony, order, rationality, symmetry, proportion and classical,
rule-governed artistic forms.3
It was not all negative, however, as Petley goes on to say:
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