Aspects of a Thriller: Alfred Hitchcock's North By North West

Today we looked at aspects of a thriller that Alfred Hitchcock made to become aspects of thriller films as we know it today.

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on August 13th 1899. he was a English filmmaker and producer. he was behind many techniques in suspense which appear in psychological thrillers still today. After his great success in The UK in both silent films and the early talkies, he moved to the Sates and worked in Hollywood. Over a long career spanning over 50 years, Hitchcock he fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognizable directorial style.

Hitchcock believed that the only way to get rid his fear was to make films about them. Here are some of his quotes:

"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."

"If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on."

"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible."

Hitchcock was a master of suspense who's films came to become the benchmark for psychological thrillers. He used different techniques to achieve this. 

Maguffin

A maguffin ( Mcguffin or Macguffin ) is a plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story of the film, but as little significance to the actually film itself. A classic example would be in the film Psycho. When  Marion Crane was giving the money, this drove her to run away with it , leading her to stop at the hotel where she was murdered.

Enigmas

A enigma is a puzzle, mystery, inexplicable event or a difficult problem that needs solving. In thrillers this is commonly something which the protagonist has to try to find out or solve before the narrative is resolved and the film finishes. 

In Hitchcock's films, one of these enigmas is in the film North By North West, where Roger O. Thornhill is mistaken for Mr Kaplan. This then leads us to think, who is Mr Kaplan and the theme runs throughout the film.

The moment that Roger O. Thornhill is mistaken for Mr Kaplan, a classic enigma.

Red Herring

A red herring is the name given to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance. A red herring can be used with other devices such as a enigma to create suspense. A example would be the persona of a George Kaplan in North By North West. In the film the bad guys are convinced that some one by the name of Kaplan is a spy for the government who has infiltrated there system. In reality, there is no Kaplan and it is a red herring used by the government to throw the criminals away form the rule spy, combined with the enigma of Roger Thornhill's mistaken identity is used by Hitchcock to creates suspense.