BLOGGER’S NOTE: To talk about these amazing films, I need to explore some of the great twists, shocks and surprises contained therein. I beg you: If you haven’t seen “Psycho”, “Rear Window” and “The Birds”, please don’t read this post! See the movies. They are genuine classics. Not boring “old movies” but eternally entertaining. TLDR: Spoiler Alert!
Psycho
Tom Cassidy. “Psycho” is loaded with wonderfully drawn characters who add color and, in this case at least, humor to the film. Cassidy (Frank Albertson) is the rowdy, slightly hammered businessman who is spending time at the real estate office where Marion (Janet Leigh) works. Cassidy flirts with Marion and tosses around some of his philosophy of life:
“I do declare!” “I don’t. That’s how I get to keep it.”
Of course, Cassidy is more than just an entertaining side character. He’s the big bang of the movie, bringing $40,000 in cash to pay for his daughter’s new home–which Marion is supposed to take to the bank…
Silence Is Golden. I mentioned in Part One of this series that my love for Hitchcock was brought on by a college course in the master of suspense. Before the first session of that class, the only Hitchcock films I had seen were “The Birds” and “Psycho” (in another film class). But in the Hitchcock class, our professor went deep–we saw most of the iconic classics but we also saw a great deal of British Hitchcock productions including silent films like “The Lodger.”
Hitchcock continued to see the value of silent cinema long after Al Jolson broke the sound barrier with “The Jazz Singer.” In “Psycho”, for example, there are long, wordless sequences that develop tension and interest. For example, when Marion takes the $40,000 home instead of to the bank:
There are also tremendous “silent” scenes with Norman Bates, watching the wheels turn in his head as a car approaches or, my personal favorite, the moment when Marion’s car appears not to go completely under the surface of the swamp. Hitchcock had a way of making you feel sorry for the villain, if only for a fleeting moment. More on that to come.
Astynomiaphobia. Also known as “irrational fear of the police.” Alfred Hitchcock had it for life after, at the age of 5, his father dropped him off at a local jail with an note to hold him a few minutes, as some kind of lesson. In “Psycho” Hitchcock gives us a police officer who would scare anybody, regardless of their pre-teen jail time record. Played by Mort Mills, the highway patrolman’s imposing figure and sober manner is hard to forget.
Ar-Bo-Gast. (Alternate title for this one: “Let’s all talk about Marion, shall we?”) Martin Balsam was a marvelous actor. His performance of Private Detective Arbogast is so good, and the character is so good, you really feel disappointed when he’s killed. But Arbogast’s disappearance is essential to accelerate the story, and get Marion’s sister and boyfriend to the Bates Motel.
One note of trivial foolishness: Balsam pronounces his character’s name “Ar-buh-gahst.” All of the other characters say “Ar-buh-gassed.” EXCEPT! The Sheriff, who….well, watch:
My friend Dangerous Dave and I are both huge Hitchcock fans, and if the discussion comes around to “Psycho” it won’t take long for one of us to say “Ar-bo-gast.”
“You Think I’m Fruity?” The climax of the film, with Norman charging into the old house and Marion’s sister Lila crouching under a staircase, is hard to forget. Mrs. Bates, we have seen by this time, was brought down to the fruit cellar by her concerned son. But when Lila steps down there, the grim reality is exposed–and seconds later, in comes Norman dressed in shawl and wig, knife in hand….it’s a double-shock, and no matter how many times you’ve seen it, that skeleton is creepy as hell! The light bulb swinging back and forth over it….yikes! (I also like that at the very end of the movie, with Mrs. Bates in jail, she insists “I wouldn’t harm a fly!” But as the camera zooms in there is an almost subliminal dissolve to the real Mrs. Bates’ skeleton…
Norman Bates. Great actor (Anthony Perkins) meets great character. Every time Norman Bates is on screen, you can’t take your eyes off him. His friendly nature turns to rage on a dime when Marion suggests hospitalizing his mother. He loses control, stuttering under questioning from Arbogast. By the time Lila and Marion’s boyfriend show up, he is no longer able to hide his weary exhaustion with all the visitors and prying questions.
JOHN GAVIN: We dont like the look of that sky…looks like a bad day coming doesn’t it?
NORMAN: Okay.
Rear Window
One Set! As mentioned in part one, Hitchcock hated location shooting. So for “Rear Window” an enormous set was erected at Paramount Studios depicting several apartments in a group of buildings, with just a tiny peek of the outside world. As huge a set as it was, the entire movie being set in that one environment gives the viewer the same trapped feeling that photojournalist L.B. Jeffries (Jimmy Stewart) feels due to his broken leg. Jeffries begins staring out the window to combat severe boredom; from the beginning of the film certain residents have earned nicknames (Miss Broken Heart, Miss Torso). But the ominous goings-on in the Thorwald apartment turn Jeffries’ window-watching into something more serious.
Thelma Ritter. She’s a delight in “Rear Window” as Jeffries’ nurse. She doesn’t approve of Jeffries’ spying, and says something bad is coming…and she has experience with this sort of thing:
Grace Kelly. Enchanting.
Sam Drucker and Dave Seville! A couple of interesting casting choices in the film…first, Frank Cady plays half of a husband and wife duo who sleep out on the fire escape during a hot New York City summer. Their big moment in the film, when it starts to rain and they have difficulty moving the bedding indoors, was orchestrated by Hitchcock. He gave one set of instructions to Cady and a completely different set to Sara Berner, who played the wife. Frank Cady is best known as Hooterville storekeeper Sam Drucker. Cady achieved some small piece of television notoriety by playing Sam Drucker on three different series: “Petticoat Junction”, “Green Acres” and several guest appearances on “Beverly Hillbillies.” Also in this category: Kelsey Grammer, who played Frasier Crane on “Cheers”, “Frasier” and “Wings”.
Another interesting casting selection: Ross Bagdasarian as “Songwriter”. Which is typecasting, because Ross Bagdasarian was a songwriter! He became well known a few years later under the stage name David Seville, working as manager for a trio of singing rodents.
Thorwald Sees Us! Hitchcock is called the Master Of Suspense. Suspense is not “jump scares” (although “Psycho” has a couple of those); suspense is a story that gets you hooked and just keeps you hanging, waiting for something to happen. The finale of “Rear Window” is classic Hitchcock suspense. It starts when Lisa (Grace Kelly) crawls through a window to get into Thorwald’s apartment and search for evidence. Thorwald returns, sees Lisa and begins to get violent. Jeffries calls the police. We sweat out their arrival with Jeffries, who of course is stuck in his apartment.
The police arrive and again, Hitchcock manages to make us feel sorry for the villain, as Thorwald sheepishly tries to explain the situation to the cops. As this is going on, Lisa flashes her hand towards the open window to show Jeffries that she found Mrs. Thorwald’s wedding ring. But Mr. Thorwald (a pre- “Perry Mason” Raymond Burr) sees it and slowly turns to the window until he is looking at us, the viewer, directly in the eye. It’s incredibly effective because never, in a dramatic film, do you have that direct look from a character. It works so well here because the viewer is taking the position of Jeffries, watching it al unfold.
Now that Thorwald has seen Jeffries, things get serious. Jeffries’ phone rings…he picks it up, begins talking and the line goes dead. Jeffries now knows that Thorwald is coming for him…and if he didn’t, the clomp-clomp-clomp of Thorwald’s feet on the stairs would do the trick. Jeffries snaps flashbulbs in Thorwald’s face which works for a moment or two, but eventually Thorwald and Jeffries face off.
A Happy Sort Of Ending. In the final scene of the film, Jeffries is back in his apartment, back in his wheelchair-now dealing with two broken legs after his confrontation with Thorwald and resulting fall. Jeffries is napping as we pan over to Lisa, who is dressed in blue jeans and a flannel shirt with a copy of a woodsy outdoorsy type book in her hands. But once she decides Jeffries is sound asleep, she trades out the book for the current issue of Harper’s Bazaar.
The Birds
Friday Night Frights. That’s the name of a scary movie show which used to run on one of our local TV stations back home when I was 12 years old or thereabouts. I saw such classics as “Burnt Offerings” and “This Island Earth” through this series…and also an unending parade of British dramas that, in the grand BBC tradition, were shot on videotape except for the exteriors which were on film. Those things were unfailingly heinous, at least to a 12-year-old. But it was on “Friday Night Frights”, with my pal Wayne Dale staying over, that we saw my first Hitchcock movie: The Birds. It freaked us out!
“I Don’t Think You Should Leave Those Birds In The Hall.”
“Shut Up, Mel.”
One of my favorite little surprises in this movie is the appearance of Richard Deacon, best known as follically-challenged producer Mel Cooley on “The Dick Van Dyke Show”. His very brief part in “The Birds” features Deacon–with a moustache!–as a fellow who lives in the same apartment building as Mitch Brenner, the attorney Melanie Daniels gets to know better as the film rolls on.
This Movie Scares The Bejeezus Out Of Me. Okay, so words that come to mind describing Hitchcock movies: suspenseful, thrilling, mysterious, and so forth. But scary? Okay, “Psycho” is creepy as all get out, especially on first viewing. But “The Birds”….pardon my French, but this movie scares the shit out of me! I am sure there’s some kind of psychological explanation here…but the idea of being bit on the hand by an angry gull scares me 100% more than being fatally stabbed by a psychopath dressed as his own mother. This is probably because birds are everywhere, and we have no idea what they’re gonna do. Whereas most citizens, in my experience, have never been stabbed. The shot of the little kid at the birthday party slumped over and being pecked at unmercifully by a crow…the insane gulls feasting on the hand flesh of Rod Taylor…and, of course, the ghastly conclusion with Tippi Hedren being smacked left and right with birds.
It probably is easier to be terrified by the bird attack scenes when you know the behind-the-scenes story. Sez Wikipedia:
Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character’s motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, “Because I tell you to.” She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens, and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week’s rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying nobody but her was left to film. The doctor’s reply was, “Are you trying to kill her?” She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director.
I’ll say this without a hint of shame: There are mornings when I walk to work and happen to see a string of birds on a telephone line, and think…just for a second…”Well, this is it. End times. Ah, I had a good run.”
“It’s The End Of The World!” Another reason “The Birds” is scary as heck: There’s no explanation for why this is happening. The birds just all-of-the-sudden decide to start settling peoples’ hash. The closest we get to an explanation is a fantastic scene in the Bodega Bay restaurant where townsfolk, and eventually Mitch and Melanie, try to grapple with the question of the bird attacks. Mrs. Bundy, bird expert, insists the whole thing is nonsense. A drunk man keeps yelling “It’s the end of the world!” (In the very next scene his world certainly comes to an end.) And a very anxious mother (played wonderfully by Doreen Lang) asks, not in Maude Flanders’ exact words, “Won’t someone please think of the children!?” It’s a great scene and a perfect set-up for…
The Gas Station Scene. Another fine example of Hitchcock’s love of silent cinema. A minutes-long sequence with virtually no dialogue, and quick, punchy close-ups of Hedren’s stunned reactions.
The Eyes… Oh boy. This is the scene that had my pal Wayne and me freaking out. Honestly I’m shocked it was on TV, even if the movie did start at 11:30pm. Every move Hitchcock makes is brilliant. In the scene of the first bird attack in the Brenner house, Hitch lingers on Mrs. Brenner’s chagrined response to broken plates and cups. In this scene, which features Mrs. Brenner visiting a neighbor farmer to see if his chickens are eating the feed, she walks in the door and sees–broken cups. There’s a swift dolly into the shelf to boost the impact. Eventually we see more destruction, and dead birds, until finally…the dead farmer. Wide shot BOOM medium shot BOOM close-up. Still potent nearly sixty years later.
I should point out one more thing. “The Birds” is unique among Hitchcock movies of this era in that it contains no score. And that was the right move I think. It contributes to the uncertainly, the nervous energy. And it sometimes means that sound effects play the role of score, as in this scene when Mrs. Brenner, after seeing the dead farmer, runs out to her truck and drives home. The truck’s squealing engine sounds like a scream.
And there you have it! My six favorite moments from my six favorite Hitchcock movies. I dedicate these articles to the memory of Mama Mary, who was a Hitchcock fan long before I was. She left us on Halloween, 2015. I spent that Halloween night handing out candy at stately Wentworth Manor, and keeping the annual record of how many kids we had show up for tricks and treats. She always made Halloween, and every holiday, special for the Wook, Joey Bean and me.