Rich and Strange (1931) - Alfred Hitchcock

One of the exercises that carry less the stamp of its author, one of the less Hitchcockian films that has seen who writes, in which practically all the guidelines or main edges of his cinema are absent. No doubt it was the time when Hitchcock was still polishing and purifying his particular style, in search of his big subject, the suspense, more than one unusual picture produced during those years, being then the first talkies in which Hitchcock was discovering and experiencing. There are things that in the British never change, however, as is the circumstance of adapting literary works to the big screen, and this time the chosen work is authored by Dale Collins, adapted by the filmmaker himself, as he often did throughout his career. For this opportunity, prints the director one of the simplest stories that he ever did, when a marriage, sick and tired of his routine and daily existences, one good day receives an inheritance of a relative, an ideal way to escape from that suffocating reality; they embark on a cruise trip, but they will find themselves with more than one surprise on that trip. The film is far from the best exercises that the great englishman could produce, but for the avid of his cinema, at least one vision will demand.

                

The film places us in a factory, where Fred Hill (Henry Kendall) works, with many other, then he arrives at home with his wife, Emily (Joan Barry); in the behavior of Fred it is noticed some discomfort. While they talk about certain dissatisfactions in their lives, he suddenly receives a notification, a wealthy relative has given him an inheritance, a large amount of money to fulfill his dream of traveling around the world. Immediately they collect their new capital, and immediately begin to spend it, going to sumptuous shows, and then already making the long-awaited international trip on a luxurious cruise. They travel through the most exotic and attractive locations in the world, and soon Emily meets an individual, Commander Gordon (Percy Marmont), with whom adultery soon materializes, while Fred passes it dizzy in his cabin. Fred himself, when feeling better, also knows a female, who seems to be distinguished and of good lineage, a foreign Princess (Betty Amann), with whom, although going slow, finally also have an idyll. After experiencing each one disappointments in their adventures, and after almost sinking the cruise and being rescued by Chinese pirates, rediscover their love, they realize the genuineness of their feelings, and stay happily together the Hill marriage.

     

If there is something recognizable on the present and irregular picture, among the few Hitchcockian elements we find, there is the traditional beginning of the film, with images fast-chained, expressing a lot and without words, they print to us in seconds the world in which unfolds the unsatisfied Fred, the suffocating and enslaving system. The first thing we see is a pencil and an accounting book, characteristic business elements, then a zoom out of the camera will show us the complete picture, with a large human mass working, formed with great precision in rows, arranged in endless rows of desks, everyone at a distance, but the picture frame shows us closer to a clock. Then the employees leave in endless rows, board the train to home, all shown in frenetic rhythm, a typical beginning for a Hitchcockian movie, all of which configures the suffocating and enslaving capitalist world, the office routine of which there is no escape, a world where individuality is reduced to nothing, where everybody is part of the same mass. Hitch does not stop, he is a master, in the midst of that frenzy of images, which almost suffocate as the same they represent, inserts the image of a text in a newspaper, which reads the question "are you happy with your current circumstances?" with which Hitch unequivocally reinforces the idea of ​​tiredness, of being tired of that routine, of those circumstances, which extend beyond his work, to his life itself, the discontent and boredom of man are thus made evident. And Hitch continues, with his well-known narrative economy, promptly shows us the detail of the notification, soon and without wasting time, and without further explanation, we already know that the inheritance has arrived, that their world has changed. And so the whole feature, brief and succinct, shows just the necesary, few characters, few scenarios, minimal spaces, almost just the cruiser, economy of resources. It is undoubtedly one of the movies of this period of Hitchcock, the British period, and you can see it, features in which his definitive style, the suspense, was not yet defined at all, pictures that are moving a little far -or much in this case-, of the slopes where the cinema of the best Hitch flows.

The person who knows only the masterpieces of the britanish, will find the works of this stage as unrecognizable, and certainly are atypical, the tone of the movie is noticed from the beginning, there is an almost total absence of his artistic norms, knowing what Hitch later produced. However, the picture is identifiable in this period of Hitchcock, in which they seems to have many other topics the English, it feels particularly close, in many, to Champagne (1928), with the obvious detail of the lavish cruiser, luxuries and the frivolities of the affluent class, their whims, lightheartedness, the situations that border the absurd, the themes that he had already approached in Skin Game (1931), where the aristocracy is portrayed, but from a more fatalistic perspective, always presenting, though, the human relations, his defects, his complexes; apparently it is a subject that attracted Hitchcock for those years, always setting a detail of moral teaching, as later would nottice and claim the great Truffaut. Is thus moralizing the movie, they looked outside for a satisfaction that end up discovering there was, between themselves. As well, it seems as if Hitch almost misses some elements of the silent cinema, as you can see in the various text frames that appear during the film, documenting the journey, their destinations, the stopovers they make in their long international journey. This way, it feels a flat feature, without breaking the linearity of the film, although certainly the story did not invite much to it, but Hitch in similar movies always managed to find, where there seemed not to be, opportunities to insert audiovisual experiments, something to which in the present work did not encouraged to do. Among the few visual adventures in the making of the picture, we see some overlaying of frames, to portray Fred's dizziness, but as said, are scarce, somewhat regrettable. Appreciable, yes, are some metaphors, the wife soon meets a gentleman, confessing some of their marriage difficulties, while Fred rests in his cabin, dizzy, as if the hardships of his life extend even on the high seas, as if he remained dizzy, with stupor of his life.

Likewise, as she falls into the charms of Commander Gordon, she also longs to free herself from her routine, in which she feels trapped, wants to be free from those chains that have her tied, like those chains that appear while they are looking for a location more suitable for his affair. Finally their love will triumph, although perhaps that happy outcome has obeyed more the canons of the time than the taste of Hitch himself, this because then was unthinkable and unacceptable that the pair would have finished broken, each with their respective lovers, with the false princess who walks coolly on the ship, even talking to Emily, with remarkable cynicism. We see that the film is a brief study of human relations, weariness, tediousness, boredom ahead an existence that absorbs, subjugates, eliminates with its routine the taste for living, where frustrations, passions, libidine are printed, but finally, true love that triumphs. We also appreciate the metaphor of sinking, for the sumptuous transatlantic, in spite of its luxury and security, sinks, like their adventure itself; it fails, as the ephemeral idylls they had; is false, like the artificial lineage of the princess; is extinguished, like the life of the Chinese drowned. But their union resurfaces, reborns, as the newborn son, their love grows, it is incredible that those last ten minutes contain so much, more than the rest of the film. And the element of the Chinese pirates is crucial, symbolically save the marriage from the falsehood of their initial and apparent happiness on the cruise, they, despite their astonishing coldness, letting drown impassively one of his comrades (with them, the Hills eat extravagant food with their hands), or attending evenly the birth of a baby, a new life is born, as a new existence for the Hills is born as well. Nevertheless, in this type of avatars, human dramas framed in stories that are actually innocuous, which feel harmless, loses the filmmaker all the effectiveness and forcefulness of which we know is possessor when he prints his suspense; but you must have patience and understanding, the genius was in the final moments of his training. The best was yet to come. A film not extraordinary, but that serves to continue studying and configuring a global understanding of the oeuvre of such referential filmmaker.

Young and Innocent (1937) - Alfred Hitchcock

The gigantic filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock in the early 30s, as many filmmakers to him contemporaries, produced films adapted to the then not so novel advent of sound movies, having already been at the time nearly a decade since the great sound revolution. The master of suspense, unlike other cinematic titans, could adapt himself very well to the great revolutionary change, having produced superb exercises of silent films, it did not take long for him to also make masterpieces in the early talkies. Always true to his style, adherent to adaptations of literary works to film, this time translates a novel by Josephine Tey, on a picture perfectly framed in almost every Hitchcockian guideline. It presents the great Hitch a typical story in him, when a young man finds a corpse on a beach, by punctual circumstances he is considered as the murderer, a trial is started for him, and everything is against him, being his only hope to find a coat as proof of his innocence, taking desperate search for it, having as only ally the daughter of the police chief who seeks him. The film excels in many ways, already contains the main vertex, corners that will accompany the British cinema, it is a wonderful example of the genius of this extraordinary filmmaker, who knew to stand out in the two major eras of cinema.

                   

The film begins with a couple in a hard discussion, in a house, after which the man seems to withdraw from the place. Then, on a beach, the corpse of a girl appears on the bank, Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) finds it, but when he ran out for help, a couple of girls see him running, they also see the corpse, and think he murdered her. He is taken to the police where he learns that the deceased, an acquaintance of his, has left him a substantial amount of money in inheritance; everything involves him even more; at the police station, Colonel Burgoyne (Percy Marmont) is in charge of the case, and there, also Robert meets Erica (Nova Pilbeam), daughter of Colonel. Robert gets to obtain her trust, when the trial of the alleged murderer is done, everything seems irreversible for him and his sentence, but manages to escape, he meets Erica, who will transport him in her car, fleeing the police. Robert says that a garment, a coat, would be capital to prove his innocence, and they embark to look for it. Various forays start, as both young fellows inevitably get closer and closer; they go to a family reunion of her, the police is always about to catch them, and they always manage to escape. Finally the time is up, they attend a party where, amid the hubbub and music, Erica gets a clue that will be vital to identify the real murderer, and save his beloved Robert.

The film does not waste a second, the initial moment presents two characters talking in a noticeable English accent, arguing angrily, and also that initial sequence ends quickly, without major expplications in this regard being given. It is a great start for the film, the typical Hitchcockian start, in which precisely because of the absence of further guidelines or indications, the intrigue has already been generated, the mystery has been engendered when we see the individual withdraw from the house after the brawl, turns to look at the woman, has a tic winking the eye, something that only at the end, or in a second viewing of the film, is possible to understand. Remarkable opening of the film, close-ups draw us into history, the hard discussion is done, and is a great resource that it ends with the man retreating, through the door we see, an intense storm that is taking place, which intensifies the observed effect of dispute; the man turns, looks at the camera, we appreciate the tic in his eye, the sequence is over. Extraordinary and very classic filmmaker's film startup, which will further be enhanced when the sequence immediately afterwards is of the female body on the beach, everything has been raised in less than five minutes. A film that oozes Hitchcock, is the story of a young man in the wrong place at the wrong time, a victim of circumstances, will be locked in Kafkaesque situation, when all the evidence would incriminate him of a murder he did not commit; it is one of the classic Hitchcockian elements, the false culprit, that suddenly is immersed in surreal nightmare. We observe the romance between the protagonists in the film flow, the idyll that is strengthened during the delirious situation, an element that the Hitch's cinema connoisseur will recognize as a perennial watchword in almost all features of the filmmaker. Not a few moments of comedy has the movie, scattered throughout the film and providing that comic load typical of several films by the British, and many of those moments will be personified by police and its incompetence, the way Robert and Erica scurry always on their noses; the officers and their absurd errors and disabilities, are ridiculed, and are part of that hilarity.

We also observe the typical Hitchcockian shots, characters driving the car, and the camera, emplaced in front of the vehicle, gets a midplane of them driving, something unmistakable for the connoisseur of the director's oeuvre, images that recall, just to give an example, North by Northwest (1959). Because of the latter mentioned details, romance, humor, and even some technical resource as protagonists shots driving the car, the film feels fully identifiable as a work of its author. Of course we add to that the general plot, an intrigue, an investigation to unravel this mystery, while the male protagonist has the unconditional support of an attractive woman who becomes more than a simple accomplice, an almost traced plot of mentioned feature of 1959. It is thus a film by Hitchcock 100%, an embryonic Hitchcockian film of course, but his main edges are already here, many of the guidelines will refine and perfect, as usual, over the years and upgrades, such as the arrival of Cinemascope, color and other advances. But the seed was already deeply rooted in the art of British director, as if the blueprints of a construction were properly diagrammed. The music accompanying film is rather light, contributing to maintaining that -despite the delicate and serious circumstances we witness- cool environment, as the film itself and the attitude of the young protagonist, to whom Erica scolds precisely for this attitude with such a risky situation ahead. It is quite interesting that since the beginning of the film the camera shows remarkable looseness, freedom in its movements, and the first sequence to give a sample of this is the judgment, fluidly surrounding the room where the process is carried out; but not only that, because, aside from the aforementioned slides, and the supernal travellings performing, we appreciate also zooms in and out, zooms into action to enrich its quite varied and nurtured audiovisual language. After nearly a decade of the arrival of sound to the movies, the master filmmaker already deploys quite well in what would be one of his filmic cornerstones, freedom of movement of his camera, his artistic tool.

A good example of the effectiveness of his resource, becomes the sequence of Erica having dinner with her family, where close-ups of her and that ease of movements create a tense atmosphere, because she is learning some unfavorable details regarding the young man she is interested in. The great corollary, the magnificent and great compendium of huge shown display of the camera is in the final sequence, the party with the band that Erica attends, where slides and looseness of the camera reaches its peak, the climax moment, the summit moment. It is certainly the best imaginable colophon, condenses all previously appreciated, the commented freedom in movements, travellings reaching every angle, the zoom in and out, these zooms stand out more than ever when we get approached from a distant general shot containing the whole party, to a closer shot, to the very eye of the murderer winking. And that's where we deduce who the real culprit is, wordlessly we have discovered it, and Hitch as well builds the harsh environment of uncertainty and urgency, when the lens immediately takes us back with Erica, we already know the truth, our concern is that if she will be able to discover it among all the confusion, confusion fed by the diversity of perspectives, when we see the murderer's approach alternating with her approach, certainly a masterfully embodied suspense. Our dear great Hitchcock, always wordlessly informed us, and at the same time generated the greatest suspenseful, and closes it in a big way when Erica attends the passed out murderer, consistent and connected detail as we saw her in response to Robert when he fainted at the police station. Finally, the murderer has that tic in the eye, no doubt, is the man of the initial discussion, no longer loose ends, all came together in an ending perfectly articulated by the director, the dosed dispensing of information is vital and in the end all of it is connected. The film is made with daytime shots, also very good night shots, dark and contrasting shots, which added to that eloquent camera work, set interesting aesthetic moments. A very important scene within the picture for director is the sequence of the Blind Man's Bluff game, which was censored in its premiere in some countries, Hitch considered key in his film, and perhaps can be seen as an allegory of the protagonists constantly fleeing from authorities who appear to have blindfolded, always just about to find the target, always staying one step away. Tremendous feature by Hitchcock, in his extensive filmography, is not always considered among the highest points, but it is certainly a very significant jewel, already depicting almost every big mark of its creator.