Special

By: Maniac E
Date: August 13, 2013

Master of Suspense

Today marks the day of the 114th birthday of Alfred Hitchcock and with this writing I want to celebrate this. Hitchcock was one of the founders of suspense and film making in general. A man who dedicated his life to film making till the end of his own. Hitchcock is a film maker that touched all factors of film making and let this be the start of this story.

For the ones that aren't familiar with Hitchcock's work, he made the following classics as: Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho and the Birds. Hitchcock made more than 50 feature length movies between the 1920s and the 1970s. But it wasn't all glitter and glamour for him because his first projects were either not produced thanks to financial reasons or downright commercial flops. His first success came from his first thriller in 1926 named: The Lodger: A story of the London fog. He started to be noticed the UK getting praise for his work on the movie. After a few more productions he got the nickname "Alfred the Great" which brought his reputation towards Hollywood. Alfred Hitchcock

His Hollywood breakthrough came in 1934 when he made the movie: "The man who knew too much", giving him the glory and fame throughout the UK and the States. While he made movie hit after movie hit I guess the ones that truly are the movies must see came around the 1960s with Psycho and Birds. For our readers of Slashingthrough.com this is where the true love and combining horror aspects came to Hitchcock while these aren't Hitchcock greatest movies, they are the ones that made the way free for other directors to start with blockbuster horror/thriller movies. Hitchcock also really had something with blonde actresses to play the main roles in his movies. He found that blond has a certain innocence surrounding the actresses and wanted to utilize this to the fullest potential.

Alfred Hitchcock

In the end his style of working, his way of building up suspense, his way of portraying the fear of authority really came together in a lot of his movies. He had some major cast members to work with for instance: Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint, and Tippi Hedron. Where the last actress was ill-treated when filming the movie Birds. She got attacked by real birds and Hitchcock really acted like a sexual predator on her. This is are more the dark sides of the brilliant film maker. And this also transcended towards his own daughter. His daughter ended up hating her father for being a complete idiot towards her and her mother. But his wife nuanced things around the time of his death by saying he was a kind and loving family man. And never had the intention to truly upset his daughter. She was also stating he did what he did to get the stress of him and the family.

Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock is not only remembered as a good director but also as a prankster, one that liked to amuse mostly himself. His wife and daughter being the victims most of the time. Hitchcock was a guy that wanted to know the fears of the actresses he worked with and wanted to see if they were real. Elsie Randolph openly said her fear was fire so Hitchcock locked a door and made at technician pull smoke through a telephone box. Which made her panic completely, but all in good fun Hitchcock probably thought. There is a lot to this man that most people wouldn't see and couldn't see because his pranking was a way to get out of busy life and hectic ways. To use the words of Hitchcock himself as he called it "Humor for the macabre". Putting his education to work since he studied Psychology of fear.

Alfred Hitchcock

As most people know Hitchcock died because of kidney and heart failure this is mostly happened because of his frequent alcohol usage. He was very well known for the fact he liked a drink or two. The man died on the 29th of 1980 and left us with more than just his movies. He left behind a legacy which one can only dream of. He created a new way of film making and his way of storytelling combined with way he wanted the images to match the things in his head, is one that no-one will have in the same way as he did. His expertise went beyond common film making. Let's keep his legacy a live and let's keep being inspired by his way of looking at film making. And let it be noted that there can be only one: "Master of Suspense"!

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