Repositorium für die Medienwissenschaft Michael Walker Hitchcock's Motifs 2005 https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/4105 Veröffentlichungsversion / published version Buch / book Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Walker, Michael: Hitchcock's Motifs. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2005 (Film Culture in Transition). DOI: https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/4105. Erstmalig hier erschienen / Initial publication here: http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/35146 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer Creative Commons - This document is made available under a creative commons - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell 3.0/ Lizenz zur Verfügung Attribution - Non Commercial 3.0/ License. For more information gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu dieser Lizenz finden Sie hier: see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ * pb ‘Hitchcock’ 09-09-2005 13:17 Pagina 1 Among the abundant Alfred Hitchcock litera- ture, Hitchcock’s Motifs has found a fresh angle. Starting from recurring objects, settings, char- MOTIFS MICHAEL WALKER HITCHCOCK’S acter-types and events, Michael Walker tracks FILM FILM some forty motifs, themes and clusters across the whole of Hitchcock’s work, including not CULTURE CULTURE only all his 52 extant feature films but also IN TRANSITION IN TRANSITION representative episodes from his TV series. Con- nections and deeper inflections that Hitchcock fans may have long sensed or suspected can now be seen for what they are: an intricately spun web of cross-references which gives this Hitchcock’sHitchcock’s unique artist’s work the depth, consistency and resonance that justifies Hitchcock’s place as probably the best known film director ever. MotifsMotifs The book can be used as a mini-ency- MICHAELMICHAEL WALKER WALKER clopaedia of Hitchcock’s motifs, but the in- dividual entries give full attention also to the wider social contexts, hidden sources and sometimes unconscious meanings present in the work and solidly linking it to its time and place. Michael Walker is an independent writer. On the editorial board of Movie magazine, he has contributed to The Movie Book of Film Noir (1992) and The Movie Book of the Western (1996). ISBN 90-5356-772-0 9 789053 567722 AmsterdamAmsterdam UniversityUniversity PressPress Amsterdam University Press WWW.AUP.NL Hitchcock’s Motifs Hitchcock’s Motifs Michael Walker Cover illustration: (front) To Catch a Thief: Food motif. The picnic: Francie (Grace Kelly) and Robie (Cary Grant share a chicken. (back) poster for To Catch a Thief Cover design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam Layout: japes, Amsterdam isbn (paperback) isbn (hardcover) nur © Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or trans- mitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. For Robin Wood, not only a seminal Hitchcock critic, but also a friend Contents Acknowledgements 13 Introduction 15 Part I Hitchcock, Motifs and Melodrama Introduction 25 Three motifs 26 Home movies Cigarette case/lighter Milk Melodrama and Hitchcock’smotifs 30 An elaborated motif: the Bed Scene in Rebecca and Marnie 35 A melodramatic motif: hands 43 Diagrammatic representations 46 Overview of the key motifs 50 Part II The Key Motifs BED SCENE 57 Couples and beds Beds and the police BLONDES AND BRUNETTES 69 Blondes versus brunettes Blond allure/blond iconography Blondes, brunettes and violence Blondes, brunettes and the police 8 Hitchcock’s Motifs CAMEO APPEARANCES 87 Cameos and the police CHILDREN 98 Children’s cameos Family members Children and violence Children and the police CONFINED SPACES 111 Bathrooms and washrooms Confinement and concealment Cages and bars: fears of imprisonment Washrooms and the police THE CORPSE 123 The heroines The heroes The villains Corpses and the police DOGS AND CATS 142 Dogs and the police DOUBLES 146 Doubles and the police ENDINGS AND THE POLICE 154 ENTRY THROUGH A WINDOW 158 Entry through a window and the police EXHIBITIONISM / VOYEURISM / THE LOOK 164 EXHIBITIONISM / VOYEURISM SPY FILMS / THE LOOK Exhibitionism, voyeurism and the police FOOD AND MEALS 179 Food and marriage Food and sex Food and murder Contents 9 Food and guilt Chickens and eggs Table talk and fascism Food and the police GUILTAND CONFESSION 201 Catholic overtones Guilt and Hitchcock’s villains Transference of guilt Guilt, confession and the police HANDCUFFS AND BONDAGE 214 HANDS 220 Male hands/female hands Held wrists Damaged hands Holding hands Hands and the police HEIGHTS AND FALLING 238 Heights, falling and the police HOMOSEXUALITY 248 Critical positions Gay undercurrents Espionage and the look Ivor Novello Homosexuality and the police JEWELLERY 262 Greed Status Female desire Female beauty/male power Male murderousness Jewellery and the police KEYS AND HANDBAGS 269 KEYS Keys and handbags 10 Hitchcock’s Motifs HANDBAGS Handbags and keys Keys, handbags and the police LIGHT(S) 286 Vampires and blinding Murder and homosexuality Lights and the police THE MACGUFFIN 296 The MacGuffin and the police MOTHERS AND HOUSES 307 Mothers and the police PORTRAITS, PAINTINGS AND PAINTERS 319 PORTRAITS PAINTINGS Modern art PAINTERS Portraits, paintings and the police PUBLIC DISTURBANCES 335 Public disturbances and the police SPECTACLES 344 Spectacles and the police STAIRCASES 350 Hitchcockian levels Political variations Sinister staircases Freudian overtones Couples and staircases Staircases and the police TRAINS AND BOATS / PLANES AND BUSES 373 TRAINS BOATS PLANES BUSES Contents 11 Trains and boats and the police WATER AND RAIN 388 WATER RAIN Water and the police Appendix I: TV Episodes 401 BED SCENE CHILDREN CONFINED SPACES THE CORPSE DOUBLES FOOD AND MURDER / ENDINGS AND THE POLICE LIGHTS BOATS Appendix II: Articles on Hitchcock’smotifs 416 Appendix III: Definitions 418 Diegesis Point-of-view editing References 421 Filmography 431 List of illustrations 463 Index of Hitchcock’s films and their motifs 467 General Index 481 Acknowledgements Hitchcock’s Motifs has been researched and written over many years, expanding in the process from an essay to a book. I would like to thank first those who read drafts and sections during the early stages, and who provided helpful and encouraging feedback: the late Bob Baker, Charles Barr, Peter Evans, Ed Gallafent, Derek Owen, Neil Sinyard, Keith Withall and Robin Wood. As the project developed, Sheldon Hall, Ken Mogg, John Oliver and Victor Perkins all helped track down copies of the rarer films/TV episodes; Richard Lippe sup- plied some vital stills. Ken Mogg was also invaluable in answering factual ques- tions. I am especially indebted to Richard Chatten, who checked the filmogra- phy with great care, and Tony Brereton, who was an assiduous arbiter of my prose style. Thomas Elsaesser then provided encouragement and very useful feedback as the book neared completion. For more specific help, I would like to thank Stella Bruzzi, who tutored me on the nuances of hair colour and styling for ‘Blondes and brunettes’, Susan Smith, who sent me the chapter on ‘Hitchcock and Food’ from her PhD, Sarah Street, who supplied me with a copy of her article on ‘Hitchcockian Haberdashery’, and two of my sisters: Jenny Winter, who translated Hartmut Redottée’s article on Hitchcock’s motifs from the German, and Susie Wardell, who produced the book’s diagrams in a professional manner. Bob Quaif advised me on the subtle- ties of the soundtrack of Rear Window; my nephew Keith Winter provided unfailing technical support for any computer problems. I watched and discussed many of the films over the years with Stephen Blumenthal and Natasha Broad, and I am sure that some of their insights will have found their way into the text. Likewise, generations of students on the FEDAS Course at Hounslow Borough College (latterly West Thames College) and on the Media Arts Course at Royal Holloway, University of London, have contributed to my understanding of film in general and Hitchcock in particular. Finally, I am grateful above all to Leighton Grist. Not only have his ideas on Hitchcock helped shape my own, but he has read (almost) every word of the text, and been exacting in his criticism of anything that he felt was not as clear as it should be. Introduction A leitmotif can be understood not as literary technique, but as the expression of an obsession. (Klaus Theweleit: Male Fantasies Volume : ) This book examines Alfred Hitchcock’s work through his recurring motifs. Mo- tifs in general are a neglected area of Film Studies. Although the decade by decade multi-volume American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States (see Munden ; Krafsur ; Hanson , & ) includes a ‘Subject Index’ for each decade, and several film guides have either a ‘Category Index’ or a ‘General Subject Index’–all of which include motifs – these are no more than listings of the films in which a specific feature occurs. Actual discussions of motifs in the cinema are rare, and there is only one pub- lication in this area which I have found useful to this project and would like to acknowledge at the outset: Michel Cieutat’s two-volume Les grands thèmes du cinéma américain ( & ). Despite the title, Cieutat includes motifs as well as themes, and he looks at the ways in which recurring elements in Hollywood films reveal (sometimes hidden) aspects of the culture which produced them. Nevertheless – to anticipate one of my arguments – whenever Cieutat’s cate- gories overlap with those in Hitchcock’s films, there is a clash: Hitchcock’s motifs do not fit the general pattern: see, for example, Milk in Part I and STAIR- CASES in Part II. I have had a substantive interest in motifs in the cinema for many years. This book arose out of my research.