hitchcock

A detailed Summary of hitchcock


In Alfred Hitchcock's final film Family Plot he incorporates all of his ideas that he had previously used in his other films into one film. In Family Plot he used all the basic Hitchcock motifs along with some that were more directed to one movie. This film brings Hitchcock in full circle starting from his first film, a black and white silent film called The Lodger all the way to his finale full sound and color film that was called Family Plot.

Many of the concepts that were used in the Lodger were carried all the way through to Family Plot. The most notable was that the lead female heroine or actress had short blond hair in each of the films. This was in Hitchcock's movies because he seemed to have affection to these types of women. This was how Hitchcock was perhaps trying to form his version of a perfect woman. An interesting side note to Family Plot was that the female villain was wearing a blond wig the first time the viewer sees her. When she is first seen, she is finishing a ransom trade for a kidnapped person. After she perfectly executes her section of the trade, she leads the villains to being able to get away with out difficulty. Once she is in the getaway car she takes off the wig to reveal a dark natural hair color.


An interesting method Hitchcock used was to have the paths of two important characters cross in the very beginning of the movie before there is any idea of the importance of the two. He does this in his final film but it is most apparent in his film Strangers on a Train. In the beginning of this film you follow the feet of two people until the sets of feet cross inches from each other while entering a set of doors at the train station. The crossing is also shown in the beginning of the film when two sets of train tracks intersect as the camera shows this at an angle that makes the viewer feel as though it is the head of the train and again later in the film the viewer sees the crossing when the hero has a lighter that has two tennis rackets with the handles crossed on it. Another idea that Hitchcock had when it came to the beginning of films was to have the camera start out a very high angle and come down slowly until the viewer is right in the middle of everything. He did thi!

Similar to most of Hitchcock's films this movie has an innocent man or small time criminal getting caught up in something much bigger than they intended to. The innocent man concept can be derived from Hitchcock's belief that everyone regardless how pure is guilty of original sin. This can be traced to his upbringing, which is that of a Catholic background. In Family Plot the couple gets involved in trying to find the lost nephew of a very rich women. The women from the couple used telepathic means to find his location, but the viewer is led to believe that it is a hoax and her boyfriend actually gets all of the information for her by doing research on who they are trying to find. The man (Shoebridge) that they are looking for had murdered his parents and changed his name was running a jewelry business and was performing the kidnappings on the side for the extra money. When they find the man the women is about to be killed by the duo but the cab driver saves her. This is not t!

So Hitchcock used his ingenious trickery to make the viewer think that there was actually a blond villain in one of his films. Of course everyone is surprised, but there is a sense of relief !

e viewer actually feels sorry and nervous that they may get caught, but right after the lack of any remorse from the villain is seen and all of the pity goes away. This happened in two other films that were rather popular. The first occurs in Frenzy, there is a body in a potato sack that is being transported and the murderer knows that it has a piece of evidence that could be very incriminating to him so he has to go and retrieve it. So the viewer goes on the ride as well as he looks through the sacks trying to find the one that has the pin he needs. When he finally gets to the women the stiffening of the body has already set in and he needs to break the fingers to get it out. Again the viewer is nervous and feels a sense of pity for him until immediately after when there seems to be the crazed look in the killer's eyes again. This also is seen in Psycho when the young man who you think has a crazy mother is disposing of a body and drives the car into a swamp. As the car is si!

he only happening that reflects Hitchcock's religious background.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2164
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

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