Alfred Hitchcock, The Pawnbroker, The Exorcist, and More: Classic Film Analysis

Posted on Jan 9, 2025 in Arts and Humanities

Alfred Hitchcock: Master of Suspense

British, 1899-1980
Directed 50 films over six decades
Stylistic Trademarks:
- Camera movement mimicking a person’s gaze, creating voyeurism (e.g., shower scene in “Psycho”)
- Framing shots to maximize anxiety, fear, or empathy
- Innovative film editing
- Often featured fugitives on the run alongside “icy blonde” female characters
- Twist endings
Came to Hollywood in 1939, signed by Selznick to a seven-year contract
Worked within the studio system but maintained creative control
More productive than Orson Welles, able to “manipulate the studio system to his best advantage”
“Rebecca” (1940), starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, was his first US picture and won the Academy Award for Best Picture
Nominated for Best Director five times but never won
Bernard Herrmann composed for Hitchcock in the 1950s, becoming an integral part of his films

Plot: A man is mistaken for another man, a plot line used in “The 39 Steps”
Added a touch of comedy to most of his films in the 1950s
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, an attempt to outdo his other action movies
Cary Grant as the main actor, playing Thornhill
Thornhill is mistaken for a spy; in the final scene, he saves Eve and escapes henchmen
Hitchcock bought the story of a man in Lincoln’s nose from a journalist for $10,000
Ernest Lehman was the screenwriter
Robert Burks was the cinematographer
Robert F. Boyle was the production designer
The spy turns out to be a character created by the CIA
Eve, also a CIA agent, attempts to take Thornhill’s life

Sol Nazerman manages a pawnshop in Harlem, providing for his sister-in-law’s family and a colleague’s widow
He is emotionless due to his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp
Events in Harlem remind him of the concentration camp
He used to be a professor
Hires Jesus Ortiz, who has a criminal background; Marilyn Birchfield wants to get close to him
Earns a significant portion of his money laundering for a gangster named Rodriguez
Released at the end of the studio era, following the breakup of theater chains in 1948
First American film to deal with the Holocaust from a survivor’s perspective
Among the first American movies to show nudity, leading to the demise of the Production Code and the start of movie ratings
Rod Steiger also starred in:
- “On the Waterfront” as Brando’s brother
- “Oklahoma!” as Judd Fry
- “Dr. Zhivago”
- Won Best Actor for “In the Heat of the Night”
- Turned down the lead role in “Patton”

Joanna returns home with Black doctor John Prentice
Matt and Christina are her parents
Matt refuses to approve the wedding due to the prejudice the couple will face
His concern is more about the difficulties the couple will face rather than personal prejudice against Black people
Sidney Poitier plays Dr. John Prentice, and Katharine Houghton plays Joanna
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy play Joanna’s parents

Dorothy Dandridge: First African American nominated for Best Actress (for “Carmen Jones”), died of an accidental overdose at 42, appeared in about 35 films, 1999 biopic starring Halle Berry
Ella Fitzgerald: “First Lady of Song,” 13 Grammy Awards, known for scat singing, appeared in four films
Sammy Davis Jr.: 37 films, member of The Rat Pack
Hattie McDaniel: Played Mammy in “Gone with the Wind,” the first African American to win an Oscar (1939), appeared in over 300 films (credited in about 80), first Black Oscar winner honored with a US postage stamp
Sidney Poitier: Born in the Bahamas in 1927, first Black male to win a Best Actor Oscar (for “Lilies of the Field”)