Hitchcock’s Objects as Subjects

Alfred Hitchcock’s imperative was to charge the screen with emotion. Subject matter and acting were, for him, subordinate to “all of the technical aspects that made the audience scream.” Focusing on onscreen objects in Hitchcock’s films, this study examines staircases, eyeglasses, lamps, doors, candles, cigarettes, buildings, monuments, statues and dozens of other props that the director treated as subjective protagonists, their roles nearly equal to the actors’. Examining each of the director’s 52 extant films, this book provides a comprehensive exploration of Hitchcock’s treatment of objects as subjects.

Marc Raymond Strauss is a professor emeritus of theater and dance from Southeast Missouri State University.

Marc Raymond Strauss
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 204
Bibliographic Info: bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2016
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4308-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2248-4
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Preface 1
Introduction 2
The Pleasure Garden (1925) 15
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) 17
Downhill (1927) 26
Easy Virtue (1927) 27
The Ring (1927) 31
The Farmer’s Wife (1928) 36
Champagne (1928) 39
The Manxman (1929) 41
Blackmail (1929) 44
Juno and the Paycock (1930) 47
Murder! (1930) 50
The Skin Game (1931) 51
Rich and Strange (1932) 53
Number Seventeen (1932) 57
Waltzes from Vienna (1933) 59
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) 60
The 39 Steps (1935) 66
Secret Agent (1936) 69
Sabotage (1936) 73
Young and Innocent (1937) 78
The Lady Vanishes (1938) 82
Jamaica Inn (1939) 86
Rebecca (1940) 88
Foreign Correspondent (1940) 92
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) 96
Suspicion (1941) 99
Saboteur (1942) 103
Shadow of a Doubt (1943) 105
Lifeboat (1944) 108
Spellbound (1945) 110
Notorious (1946) 113
The Paradine Case (1947) 120
Rope (1948) 123
Under Capricorn (1949) 126
Stage Fright (1950) 128
Strangers on a Train (1951) 131
I Confess (1952) 134
Dial M for Murder (1954) 137
Rear Window (1954) 143
To Catch a Thief (1955) 146
The Trouble with Harry (1955) 149
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) 151
The Wrong Man (1957) 154
Vertigo (1958) 156
North by Northwest (1959) 161
Psycho (1960) 164
The Birds (1963) 168
Marnie (1964) 171
Torn Curtain (1966) 176
Topaz (1969) 181
Frenzy (1972) 184
Family Plot (1976) 188
Conclusion 190
Bibliography 191
Index 193

“an exhaustive study of all 52 of Alfred Hitchcock’s films”—Journal of American Studies Association of Texas.