Alfred Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense

Alfred Hitchcock greatly influenced film techniques and form within the suspense and thriller genres through his mastery and eventual evolvement of the craft. Hitchcock relied on visuals for much of his storytelling, utilizing props (which often worked as motifs), editing, and shot selection or assemblage to build and heighten suspense within the plot. He believed that film, as a visual medium, should rely mainly on visuals to tell the story. This philosophy shaped his personal film grammar, and in turn shaped the grammar of the suspense genre itself.

Many writers are familiar with the old adage; “Show, don’t tell,” when crafting an effective story. Hitchcock took this concept and applied it to film, as an important element of his technique was his unique utilization of images, rather than a reliance on dialogue, when conveying his stories. This often involves implication, which leads the viewer to see and quickly make inferences on what is occurring in the story, whether it is explicit or implicit in the plot. An example of this can be seen in Hitchcock’s 1955 film, “To Catch a Thief”. Characters John Robie and Frances Stevens are driving together, with John in the passenger’s seat and Frances in the driver’s seat. Frances is speeding, swerving, and otherwise driving recklessly, which makes John nervous. These emotions are conveyed without dialogue and shown through the character’s physicality instead. The camera pans to Frances’s hands on the wheel, which are relaxed and graceful in their movements, before shifting to John’s hands, while he grasps his knees with stiff, uncertain movements. This visual contrast between the two characters’ comportment reveals what they are feeling in that moment; Frances is calm and confident here, whereas John is anxious and unsettled. This visual display more effectively convinces the audience of the character’s feelings then if Hitchcock had relied on dialogue in this instance and had John simply say something like, “Slow down! You’re making me nervous.” Hitchcock’s visual display of feeling is a much more powerful tool, as it allows the audience to observe these visual cues and decipher their meaning themselves.

Hitchcock’s use of props is another important characteristic in his development of film language. Close ups of keys, knives, guns, (and birds in his 1960 film, “The Birds”) are frequently used as recurring motifs and symbols meant to indicate important information to the audience. Hitchcock would also sometimes blur the background of these images to further emphasize the single object to the audience. In his 1946 film, “Notorious”, Hitchcock places this special focus on the key to the wine cellar. Character Alicia Huberman, an American agent, believes that her husband, Alexander Sebastian, is hiding something in the cellar relating to his Nazi involvement. Huberman tries entering this door before being told that it is locked. The camera zooms in on the name of the lock, which is recalled by the audience in a later scene when Huberman finds her husband’s set of keys unattended and she sees the same name, “UNICA” etched into one of the keys. The use of a close up here is crucial so that the audience can clearly make the connection between the key and the lock of the same name. The close up and zoom in on the set of keys also provides a more intimate portrayal of Huberman’s perspective. The audience sees and feels her focus, since the camera in this moment mimics her eyes, creating the illusion that the audience is seeing from her point of view. The use of props and visual storytelling is also seen in the opening scene of Hitchcock’s 1954 film, “Rear Window.” The audience is introduced to a sleeping L.B. Jefferies, as the camera pans down his body and stops at his broken leg in a cast (a signature on the cast relays the protagonist’s name to the audience). The camera then pans around the room, stopping on a broken camera, a picture of a car crash as well as various other photos of cars and explosions before falling on a picture of a woman. The audience is given the impression that the main character is a photographer, who has been in an accident, likely involving his photography. This method of utilizing props allowed Hitchcock to avoid expositional dialogue, which comes across as forced and inauthentic to the way people talk, often causing viewers to struggle to suspend their disbelief. However, the use of props was sufficient in giving the audience background knowledge on the main character’s situation. The close up also signifies importance to the audience, so they know that what they’re looking at will likely show up again, as it could pertain heavily to the following action.

Editing and shot selection act as another important feature of Hitchcock’s signature style, as these elements were frequently used to increase tension. This can be seen again in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 film “Notorious”, when T. R. Devlin and Alicia Huberman are attempting to investigate Alexander Sebastian’s locked wine cellar, as they have reason to believe that the Nazis may be hiding something in there. The scene begins by building suspense with intercutting, switching from a view of Devlin searching the cellar, to Huberman as she anxiously keeps watch, then finally to the footman/butler upstairs who is serving champagne at the party. The footman is quickly running out of wine, which indicates to the audience that he and Sebastian will be coming downstairs to the cellar for more champagne soon. This intercutting remains throughout the scene, the pace quickening at the rate of the desperation of Devlin and Huberman’s plight. Within this scene, there is another build up, created by the intercutting between Devlin reading a form on the wall, to a wine bottle that he is gradually bumping further and further towards the edge of the table, until it finally falls and crashes to the floor. The intercutting and choices of focus (the quickly disappearing champagne, Huberman appearing nervous, Devlin knocking over a wine bottle, Sebastian and the butler slowly making their way downstairs) all effectively serve to incrementally build suspense.

Hitchcock’s utilization of the visual served to intensify and heighten the suspense of his films, and in turn his methods became staples of the suspense genre that he had pioneered. His utilization of props, editing, and shot selection all served to create tension through implication. Alfred Hitchcock wrote an article on film production in the 14th edition of the encyclopedia Britannica, making the following statement on suspense and dialogue: “The alternative is interminable dialogue, which must inevitably send a cinema audience to sleep. The most powerful means of gripping attention is suspense. It can be either the suspense inherent in a situation or the suspense that has the audience asking, “What will happen next?” It is indeed vital that they should ask themselves this question. Suspense is created by the process of giving the audience information that the character in the scene does not have,” (Hitchcock). Hitchcock’s belief in relying on visuals created a need for indication as opposed to telegraphing or relying on dialogue to carry the narrative along. This helped to not only build suspense, but to strengthen the over-all quality of storytelling of the genre.

 Works Cited

Hitchcock, Alfred. "Alfred Hitchcock on film production". Encyclopedia Britannica, 4 Aug. 2014, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Alfred-Hitchcock-on-film-production-1989444. Accessed 9 June 2021.

Hitchcock, Alfred. Rear Window. Paramount Pictures, 1954.

Hitchcock, Alfred. To Catch a Thief. Paramount Pictures, 1955.

Hitchcock, Alfred. Notorious. Paramount Pictures, 1946