Notions of the Gothic in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock. CLARK, Dawn Karen

Notions of the Gothic in the films of Alfred Hitchcock. CLARK, Dawn Karen. Available from Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19471/ This document is the author deposited version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. Published version CLARK, Dawn Karen. (2004). Notions of the Gothic in the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Masters, Sheffield Hallam University (United Kingdom).. Copyright and re-use policy See http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive http://shura.shu.ac.uk Sheffield Hallam University Learning and IT Services Adsetts Centre City Campus Sheffield S1 1WB Return to Learning Centre of issue Fines are charged at 50p per hour REFERENCE ProQuest Number: 10694352 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10694352 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Notions of the Gothic in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock Dawn Karen Clark A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Master of Philosophy July 2004 Abstract The films of Alfred Hitchcock were made within the confines of the commercial film industries in Britain and the USA and related to popular cultural traditions such as the thriller and the spy story. However, many of the films possess characteristics associated with ’high' culture. Part of the interest in his work lies in the ways in which such traditions intersect with and accommodate each other and how they relate to the other determining contexts of the director's work. This thesis focuses upon the cultural and literary tradition of the 'Gothic' and the German Expressionist cinema of the 1920s as key influences upon Hitchcock's work in general and on some of his films in particular. Part of the work consists of an overview of Gothic literature in its many forms with specific attention to the classic English Gothic. A definition is provided, based upon the identification of the main elements and motifs of the tradition. There is also a study of the German Expressionist film which identifies its main features, locates it in the history of silent cinema and relates it to the tradition of the Gothic. The main part of the work is a detailed study of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, relating them to the cultural tradition of the Gothic and to its specific manifestation in the German Expressionist film. This involves consideration of the concept of'influence' and the extent to which Hitchcock's films derive from such traditions; an analysis of the films which identifies Gothic and Expressionist features; an assessment of the ways in which such traditions were mixed with others, including classical narrative structure and style, generic traditions of suspense and romance, to produce the distinctive form and content of the Hitchcock film; and a consideration of the ways in which such traditions played a role in much of Hitchcock's output, regardless of the different genres in which he worked. Research has included primary sources: Gothic novels (from 1764 to the present day) and the films of both Hitchcock and the German Expressionist directors; and secondary sources and critical studies of the Gothic texts ap4 the films. There has been much written on the Gothic tradition although many critics fail to explain the term or to identify what the genre actually represents. Similarly, though much has been written on the subject of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, the topic of Gothic has only really been referred to briefly and no one has addressed it in any detail. Contents 1. Introduction p.4 2. Gothic Literature p.6 3. German Expressionism and Early Gothic Film p.40 4. Silent Hitchcock p.69 5. The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog p. 85 6. Hitchcock's British Sound Films p.96 7. Blackmail p. 121 8. Hitchcock's Early American Films p. 127 9. Rebecca p. 161 10. The Classic Period p. 169 11. Psycho p. 182 12. Later Hitchcock p. 196 13. Frenzy p.209 14. Conclusion p.220 15. Bibliography p.223 16. Filmography p.230 3 1. Introduction Alfred Hitchcock was bom in London in 1899, just two years after the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula: a novel marking, for many, the end of the most popular period of traditional Gothic novels. Hitchcock’s career as a director (1925- 1976) spanned a period of significant social and political change. We must also consider that he made films on both sides of the Atlantic and take into account any cultural or ideological implications of this. Furthermore, although film techniques did develop quickly, Hitchcock was still working with a relatively new medium and this afforded opportunity for experimentation. Although the main focus of this study is the notion of Gothic in the directorial output of Alfred Hitchcock, it is necessary to define and contextualise Gothic itself and to address the distinction between Gothic and other similar genres and types. It is also necessary to show that whilst some films demonstrate some similarities with written Gothic texts there are added visual (and aural) elements. In order to show this there is a focus on German Expressionism as an example of Gothic on film. The directors who made these films used and adapted many of the features of traditional Gothic novels and a combination of presentational and stylistic features that can be seen to have incited similar audience reaction to that of Gothic writing. The social and political contexts of these films can also be directly compared with those of the traditional Gothic period. With regard to the films directed by Hitchcock it is also necessary to acknowledge that people other than Hitchcock were involved in the making of them. Many of the films were adapted from existing novels or plays (some with very few changes to the plot and / or characters) and these adaptations (as well as the original screenplays of other films) were not written by Hitchcock himself. Along with this must be considered the on screen presence of particular actors (the casting of whom was also often out of Hitchcock’s control) as well as the controlling influence of studios and producers (such as David O Selznick), particularly early on in Hitchcock’s career. Notwithstanding all of this, there is still a quite unmistakeable quality about Hitchcock’s work, much of which can be seen in the effect on the audience. 4 Though Hitchcock is commonly regarded as The master of suspense’, it must be remembered that not all of Hitchcock’s films are suspense thrillers. It could be assumed, then, that not all of Hitchcock’s films will demonstrate Gothic features. Whilst this study covers the entire fifty-year period of Hitchcock’s career, there has been a necessity to focus on certain films in particularly and to regard others (to a certain extent) as largely irrelevant to this topic. There is also a case study of a particular film from each period that demonstrates more of these features than most of the other films. Notions of influence must also be considered when approaching this kind of study. It could be argued that Hitchcock was directly influenced both by Gothic novelists and German Expressionist filmmakers but it might also be argued that any similarities between these works might largely be due to contextual (or even biographical) factors. The notion of Hitchcock’s own influence on the work of other directors (both contemporary and more recent) might also be considered. 5 2. Gothic Literature The Gothic genre consists of a variety of features and elements that also appear in works of other genres and this can make it difficult to formulate a distinct definition. However, certain features of the form are usually alluded to in reference works. The Oxford Reference Dictionary defines the Gothic novel as ‘an English genre of fiction, popular in the eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries, characterised by an atmosphere of mystery and horror and with a pseudo-medieval (‘Gothic’) setting.’1 The Cambridge Guide To Literature in English defines the Gothic novel in more detail as: A type of romance popular in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. ‘Gothic’ had come to mean ‘wild’, ‘barbarous’ and ‘crude’, qualities which writers cultivated in reaction against the neoclassicism of earlier eighteenth century culture. Gothic novels were usually set in the past (most often in the Middle Ages) and in foreign countries (particularly the Catholic countries of southern Europe). Monasteries, castles, dungeons and mountainous landscapes were made settings for plots which hinged on suspense or mystery and flirted with the fantastic or supernatural.2 In its infancy Gothic literature was seen in rather negative or unpleasant terms. Julian Petley explains: In Britain, as far back as the first half of the eighteenth century, the term ‘Gothic’ had already acquired distinctly negative connotations. As Fred Botting explains, it had become ‘a general and derogatory term for the Middle Ages which conjured up ideas of barbarous customs and practices, of superstition, ignorance, extravagant fancies and natural wildness’ (1996: 22). In other words, exactly the opposite of the then highly valued ideals of the Enlightenment, with its stress on harmony, order, rationality, symmetry, proportion and classical, rule-governed artistic forms.3 It was not all negative, however, as Petley goes on to say: 6 It does not need to be stressed from the outset, however, that the reception of the Gothic novel was by no means uniformly negative.

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