Alfred Hitchcock: Double Take

Paper by Michelle Christensen. Viewed on DVD.

Hitchcock is in every sense of the word a true auteur. He is innovative, creative, consumed with the details and cinematic directions of his films, and every Hitchcock film is unmistakably his. Hitchcock uses a range of cinematic techniques to influence the audience, as well as to subtly inform them. He attempts to blur the line between the audience and the film, to make the audience connect as much as possible; to move them. “Good directing, Hitchcock explained to Truffaut, is neither about providing actors with motivation, nor generating a living sense of the event on set. The director, instead, directs the audience, exercising a temporary but unlimited right to unimpeded, unreciprocated intimacy with the endless rows of anonymous seated bodies that make up his mass audience.” (Schaffer 3) Hitchcock uses doubles in his films as an engine to conceptualize the ideas of good versus evil, guilt transfer, and duplicitous identities. In the two films I will be analyzing, Psycho (1960) and Strangers on a Train (1951), there is a common theme of doubles. In Strangers on a Train this theme is symbolic of the universal concepts of good versus evil, chaos versus order, and guilt transfer. The double in Psycho is quite literally a double identity.

From the very beginning scene of Strangers on a Train, Hitchcock uses the theme of doubles. The double pair of feet, the double train tracks, the double drinks Bruno (Robert Walker) orders. Hitchcock even makes his cameo getting on the train with a double bass. The alternating shot of the two men’s shoes walking to the train station is brilliant because it works on two levels. The scene symbolizes doubles, but also lends itself to the notion of them being “strangers”, because only showing their feet keeps them anonymous until you see them meet on the train. It also indicates that they are opposites. Bruno’s shoes are ostentatious black and white loafers, while Guy’s (Farley Granger) shoes are unassuming leather walking shoes.

Hitchcock excellently developed the idea of Bruno and Guy being two sides of one coin, with his inventive camera shots and editing. When Guy is on the phone in Metcalf talking to Anne (Ruth Roman), he yells, “I could strangle her!” The next scene is Bruno making a strangling motion with his hands. Bruno and Guy are polar opposites, but at the same time they seem almost connected. From their chance meeting on the train, they stay intertwined throughout the whole film. Guy embodies the clean-cut, reserved, “good” role, and Bruno represents the chaotic, brash, and deranged side of a person. Bruno could even be described as embodying Guy’s secret inner desire to kill his conniving and promiscuous wife Miriam (Laura Elliot), something he would never consciously think about on the surface. (“Strangers on a Train”)

Hitchcock is well known for his visual storytelling. The dark and light theme can be observed throughout the entire film. Guy’s clean cute white tennis outfits are in stark contrast with Bruno’s family’s dark gothic mansion. (“Strangers on a Train”) The black and white photography in the film at times is very symbolic of good versus evil. When Bruno goes to Guy’s apartment to tell him about murdering Miriam, they hide in the alley when they see a police car. Bruno is on the left side of the screen, obscured in the shadows, while Guy is standing in the light, the voice of reason. (“Strangers on a Train”)

Like all of his films, Hitchcock meticulously arranged each detail of production. Strangers on a Train was adapted from a novel written by a first time author, Patricia Highsmith. Hitchcock decided to add in the theme of doubles while him and his team was writing the script. “Dictated in rapid and inspired profusion to Czenzi Ormonde and Barbara Keon during the last days of script preparation. It undergirds the whole film because it finally serves to associate the world of light, order, and vitality with the world of darkness, chaos, lunacy and death.” (“Strangers on a Train”)

Hitchcock searched high and low to find the perfect director of photography, to give the film the impactful dark versus light visuals he was striving for. He found his man in Robert Burks, who continued working with Hitchcock for the next fourteen years. The most memorable and absolutely genius shot from the film was Bruno strangling Miriam at the fair, reflected in Miriam’s glasses that were knocked to the ground. This was a groundbreaking scene; no one had accomplished anything like it before. The scene was technically very complicated. The actors and the glasses had to be filmed separately and double printed onto one another to give it a realistic, seamless look. I couldn’t tear my eyes away during this scene. The murder is very surreal; it unfolds slowly and gracefully, almost like a dance. It is terrifying and beautiful all at once. This kind of innovation in film is what made Hitchcock a remarkable director. (“Strangers on a Train”)

Psycho (1960) is undeniably Hitchcock’s most legendary, and analyzed, and feared film. The film is an unmistakable Hitchcockian blend of murder, voyeurism, and suspense. Although Technicolor was available at the time, the film was shot in black in white to stay under Paramount Studios $1 million budget for the project, but to also keep the visuals from being too gruesome. (Nesbit) In my opinion, the black and white was a perfect choice because it alludes to the dark and light continuum that Hitchcock is known so well for, and which he perfected in Strangers on a Train. Psycho has many Hitchcockian themes such as murder in a common family, out of control women being punished, and double identities. The theme of doubles is only obvious in the final climax scenes of the film, although the significance is so powerful; it leaves a chilling lasting impression. Even the opening credits of the film allude to doubles and opposites with black and white stripes dividing the screen. The split lines foreshadow Norman’s split personality.

Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) houses two personalities, his and his mother’s. The audience isn’t aware of this until the final climactic scene in the basement. When the audience does find out that Norman has been the killer the whole movie, not his mother, it is absolutely horrifying simply because we have been utterly fooled the entire time. Both of the plot twists, Marion (Janet Leigh) getting murdered in the shower halfway through the film and Norman’s reveal, are what make Psycho so powerful. They come out of nowhere and turn us on our heads. “It is my claim that the methods Hitchcock employs to cut the flow in Psycho at once exemplify the cinematic principles which allow classical films to cohere-within themselves as individual films and as a form-and constitute an absolute exception in the history of film, a cinematic invention without parallel.” (Schaffer 2) Hitchcock took such care to guard the plot twists that before the film debuted, he wouldn’t even let the actors do interviews for fear they would inadvertently reveal the plot twists and cheapen the reveal.

From the first time Norman appears, you can tell something is off about him, you just aren’t sure of what. A little later in the film when Marion and Norman are talking in the office, you feel like you finally have him figured out. He seems like a sad, neurotic, mama’s boy that despite being strange and socially awkward (taxidermy isn’t the best topic of conversation when you are trying to impress a beautiful woman) is harmless. Although Norman seems a little disturbed during this scene, his true psychotic character is foreshadowed when he says, “we all go a little mad sometimes”.

The stark contrast between Norman’s passive personality and his mother’s domineering, murderous persona are what makes his double identity so creepy. While talking to Marion in the office, Norman confesses that he sometimes feels like he is trapped. It is obvious that he resents his mother greatly, but doesn’t know any other way to live. Hearing Norman open up sets the stage for the disturbing scene later when Norman is revealed to be Mother Bates. At this point in the film, the audience thinks they have seen his true personality, the audience even feels a little sorry for him. After Marion is stabbed in the shower, Norman runs down from the house to clean up the mess and dispose of the evidence, which we think is to protect his mother. His reaction upon viewing Marion’s corpse is genuinely disgusted and repulsed, which is eerie considering that he committed the murder. Throughout the film, you hear Mother Bates yelling at Norman, degrading him and trying to control him. All of this dialogue in retrospect is disturbing, because by the end of the film we realize Norman has actually been talking to himself the entire time. He is so mentally ill that he even created a voice for his mother persona. He is truly psychotic.

Norman/mother Bates and Guy and Bruno are comparable characters because they both represent good and bad, the dark and the light, order and chaos. Norman and Guy represent the rational and public sides of most people’s personalities. Mother Bates and Bruno represent the dark, disturbed side that most people push down so deep into themselves they never realize it exists. The theme of doubles in both films are essential to the stories, but also convey a greater message beyond the plot, the universal concept of good versus evil.

Hitchcock’s films are so powerful because they play on people’s emotions. He was a master filmmaker because he knew how to captivate an audience. He utilized an array of cinematic techniques that made viewing his films an experience. His twisted storytelling also played a pivotal role in his successful career. He perfected the suspenseful thriller, and made films that still fascinate and horrify viewers to this very day.

Works Cited

Nesbit, John. “Old School Reviews: Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho.” Old School Reviews: Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho. Old School Reviews, 2006. Web. July 1, 2012. .

Schaffer, Bill. “Cutting the Flow: Thinking Psycho” Senses of Cinema, 2000.

“Strangers on a Train (film)”. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., June 27, 2012. Web. July 1, 2012. .