The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Hitchcock’s Horrors

In the course of directing over 50 films, hosting a respected television series and his refinement of one of the world’s most recognizable personalities, Hitchcock planted fear in the hearts of viewers from generation to generation in a style all his own.

In the hands of Hitchcock, everyday events become terrifying experiences, and often what went unseen and unsaid was much scarier than what the audience ever saw. And all of it often done with Hitchcock’s devilish humor and irony.

And unlike many of his contemporaries, Hitchcock’s works are still seen as extremely relevant and still some of the most suspenseful movies ever made.

That lasting impact and influence can be seen in two quite different ways this Halloween season. In print, a Marquette professor has chronicled the life and times of the MacGuffin Man in a recently released book. And on Halloween, one of Hitchcock’s earliest films will be displayed at the Milwaukee Art Museum, complete with orchestral backup.

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Whether in books, art museums or a myriad of other manners, Hitchcock still pervades the culture of today.

Digging up the past

For a man whose profile became an international symbol, there were still many unknown elements in the life of Hitchcock, as Marquette film professor Patrick McGilligan discovered.

McGilligan is the author of “Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light,” which was released earlier this month. The extensive 750-page biography traces the director’s entire life, from his boyhood in London to his death in 1980. While there are a handful of biographies already written about Hitchcock, McGilligan aimed to discover more about his early life.

McGilligan’s first focus — and most time — was on Hitchcock’s childhood.

“I always start at the beginning, going to the birthplace, London,” McGilligan said. “I have hunches and inklings, and go to work on the flaws and gaps of previous books … more time and money was expended on the first 21 years of Hitchcock’s life, before he entered film, than any other part of the book.”

That digging led to a few new insights about Hitchcock.

“I found stories nobody ever knew he had written. I found rare photographs. I found a man who rode the train to Jesuit school with him as a boy,” McGilligan said.

It was also in Hitchcock’s childhood that many of the themes that would populate the director’s films came into play.

“He had a brush with a notorious murderess who was convicted and executed, but most people consider her innocent; therefore she was a ‘wrong woman,’ influencing the many wronged men — and women — in his films,” McGilligan said. “And he had another brush with an IRA assassin, who was perfectly guilty of his crime, and was also executed.

“You can divide the bulk of his films into domestic murder and political murder and he had these experiences before he turned 21.”

For all his sophisticated and advanced techniques, the ability of Hitchcock to strike at the most understandable of human experiences made his films so understandable, McGilligan said.

“Hitchcock had a thing about using clichés and ideas that would be instantly identifiable to ordinary people and then he would tweak or play with the clichés,” McGilligan said. “This gave him a grounding with ordinary people. Of course he considered himself an ordinary person as well, and was always imagining himself into the situations that he put his characters.”

“Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light” follows Hitchcock’s story to the bitter end, where McGilligan said the director was a different man. McGilligan interviewed Hitchcock on the set of “Family Plot,” Hitchcock’s last film, and the jovial, ominous presence of the director had faded.

“The Hitchcock of the last 15 years of his life was vastly different from the younger, buoyant, triumphant Hitchcock,” McGilligan said. “His health was failing, his inner circle had left him, he had a series of setbacks and his wife was very ill.”

The silent gets loud

A more interactive tribute to Hitchcock is being performed Friday at the Milwaukee Art Museum. “Hitchcock Halloween” is a screening of Hitchcock’s 1926 silent film “The Lodger,” complete with the first American performance of the movie’s score, which has been rewritten by British composer Joby Talbot. There will be two performances, one at 6:30 and one at 9 p.m. at the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Grand Reception Hall, 700 N. Art Museum Dr.

The screening is being put on by Present Music in conjunction with the Milwaukee Art Museum, and also serves as the official start to the Milwaukee International Film Festival.

This conglomeration speaks to the intent of the event, said Kevin Stalheim, artistic director for Present Music.

“Our typical thing is to do collaborations and concerts in interesting spaces,” Stalheim said.

The decision to go with Hitchcock’s “The Lodger” as the movie for this event was made because of the direction the music could take the silent film.

“We decided (‘The Lodger’) was a cool movie and music adds a lot of spice and tension,” Stalheim said.

Stalheim was also drawn to “The Lodger” because of its lack of exposure.

The film “is very unknown because it is so early in Hitchcock’s career,” Stalheim said. “Most films have music and talk already in them.”

The 1926 film features many early examples of Hitchcockian themes, with some restraints of early cinema.

“All of Hitchcock’s early success flowed from ‘The Lodger,'” McGilligan said.

A lasting presence

A full century after his birth and 20 years after his death, Hitchcock still casts a looming shadow over the world of entertainment and public recognition.

“Every once in a while you see a Hitchcockian film that works: last year ‘Phone Booth,’ which started out as a Hitchcock project, and ‘Identity,'” McGilligan said. “But they are never quite Hitchcockian, and that is because his films were so personal, always integrated into his personality and character and ideas.

“You can replicate the film shot by shot — as with the remake of ‘Psycho’— and still miss the mark.”

The range of the director has also provided longevity for his career.

“It’s not always terror (for Hitchcock),” McGilligan said. “Sometimes it’s merely suspense, sometimes it’s romance, sometimes it’s comedy so hectic it seems screwball comedy, like in ’39 Steps’ or ‘North by Northwest.'”

Comedy and terror, highly recognizable and quite private, Hitchcock remains one of entertainment’s most enigmatic and fascinating personalities. No matter how much movie technology or film remakes happen, he seems quite likely to have another century of influence.,”Matthew T. Olson”