1. Mrs Miniver (Director: William Wyler)

   Starring Greer Garson in the title role, this film was made in 1942 and was intended to awake the sympathy of the American public, who, at that time, did not fully understand the situation that the British were facing. Mrs Miniver is a typical British woman, forced to try to keep her family together while her menfolk are away. This is an incredibly moving film that reminds the modern viewer just how lucky the majority of us are, and also gives a poignant reminder that some are still facing wartime conditions.

2. The Maltese Falcon (Director: John Huston)

   Based on the book of the same name by Dashiell Hammett, this film was made in in 1941 and stars Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade. Spade is a private investigator and is hired to find a missing sister, but he soon discovers that all is not what it seems - the only thing missing is a valuable statuette called the Missing Falcon. This is classed as film noir and is very black in tone from start to finish, just like the book. However, excellent performances from Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre more than make up for this.

3. The Bishop's Wife (Director: Henry Coster)

   The Whitney Houston film, The Preacher's Wife, is based on this film, made in 1947. This is the story of a bishop, played by David Niven, who needs divine intervention to save his relationship with his wife (Loretta Young), and this comes in the form of an angel called Dudley (Cary Grant). It is cheesy, but it is also heart-warming, and perfect for watching around Christmas-time. I prefer David Niven's performance because it is so understated, but Cary Grant is also great as the boisterous angel who isn't always very angelic.

4. The Ghost and Mrs Muir (Director: Joseph L Mankiewicz)

   Another 1947 film about other-worldy goings on, this stars Rex Harrison as a ghost who comes into the life of a lonely widow played by Gene Tierney. George Sanders, one of my favourite actors, appears as a love interest. Visually, Tierney is the highlight of the film - she has amazing eyes and high cheekbones. The story is slightly formal and moralistic, but it is nevertheless a beautiful love story that is bound to surprise.

5. An Inspector Calls (Director: Guy Hamilton)

   Based on the play of the same name by J B Priestley, this film was made in 1954 and is about a wealthy family who are responsible, in one way or another, for the suicide of a young girl. Hard-hitting, the film has a very strong moral - don't judge before you know the circumstances and don't presume that the life of someone from a lower social echelon is less important than your own. Starring Alastair Sim as the Inspector who tries to persuade the family to see the error of their ways, this is a first-class film that I doubt will ever be bettered.

6. Suddenly (Director: Lewis Allen)

   A 1954 thriller, this film is about a plan to assassinate the President of the United States of America and stars Frank Sinatra as the man in charge of the assassination attempt. The pacing of this film is great, particularly when Sinatra's character holds a family hostage because their home directly overlooks the President's place of arrival. This is a sadly underestimated film that is well worth a watch, particularly for Sinatra's performance, which proves just how well he can act.

7. Strangers on a Train (Director: Alfred Hitchcock)

   It is enormously hard to choose a favourite film from amongst the Hitchcock selection, but this is definitely one of them. A 1951 thriller, based on the book by Patricia Highsmith, this tells the story of two men who meet on a train and a pact to swap murders. Robert Walker is excellent as the more evil of the two men, but Farley Granger is also good as the less than willing accomplice. The highligh of the film for me is the scene of a murder shown in the reflection of a pair of glasses - for its time, this is outstanding cinematography.

8. Rebecca (Director: Alfred Hitchcock)

   Rebecca, Hitchcock's first Hollywood film made in 1940, is based on the novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. Starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier, this is a superbly atmospheric film about a young woman who marries a man still deeply affected by his first wife's death. Fontaine is slightly rocky towards the beginning of the film, but soon picks up the pace and by the end is truly outstanding. Best of all, the film is based quite closely on the original novel.

9. A Place in the Sun (Director: George Stevens)

   If you enjoy thrillers, then you will love this 1951 film about a young man who plans the death of his girlfriend so that he can marry a wealthy woman. Montgomery Clift is excellent as the main character; all the more so because the case is not as cut and dried as it first seems. Elizabeth Taylor plays the wealthy woman and looks fantastic, even if she doesn't have much of a chance to show off her acting skills. However, it is the excellent storyline and beautiful cinematography that make this film stand out from the rest.

10. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Director: Tay Garnett)

    Made in 1946, this film noir is based on the book by James M Cain, and should not be confused with the Jack Nicholson version made nearly forty years later, which, in my opinion, is nowhere near as good. The story follows a layabout who falls in love with a married woman and their plan to kill the woman's husband. Starring Lana Turner and John Garfield, the quality of the acting is flawless and portrays the rawness of the book brilliantly.

I hope this inspires some of you to give black and white films a second glance!

A mesmerizing and stunning film, Psycho was released in nineteen-sixty in black and white, because Hitchcock believed the film would be too graphic for color. Film censors were stunned with the movie's depiction of sexual content, nudity, and violence in a way previously considered taboo. Psycho is one of the few films from its era to have retained an R rating to this day. This testifies to the film's unflinching portrayal of its disturbing subject matter.

Psycho deals heavily with the concept of mental illness and its representation and consequences in culture. Norman Bates is a seemingly normal hotel manager under the iron-eye of an overbearing "mother." He comes across as nearly pleasant to a fault in most circumstances, conversing in a needy and child-like manner with his single guest, Marion Crane. Marion responds politely to his demeanor as she is in need of a place to stay after having trouble with her car. However, the audience is alerted to the abnormality of the situation as Norman becomes defensive when confronted about his overbearing "mother" and by Norman's voyeuristic tendencies as he watches Marion undress in her room.

As the film progresses, we listen to Norman's "mother" demean him for becoming involved with a female, as he responds in his signature child-like manner. Norman's "mother" becomes convinced that this woman is not safe to leave alone with her son, so she decides to put a stop to their interaction. Whilst Marion is showering, the audience hears the now famous shrieking score. In possibly the most frantic scene ever filmed, the "mother" is revealed to be Norman. After swinging open the shower curtain, Norman, complete with wig and dagger, stabs Marion to death.

One could possibly spend an entire essay examining this single scene, but for the purposes of this paper, the explanation will only be a cursory one. The scene is filmed in a sequence of close-ups and quick cuts, mainly of Marion's face, arms, and legs. Through suggestion and convincing, diagetic sound effects, the audience is led to believe that they are literally watching Marion be stabbed to death. In reality, the knife is not once shown piercing the skin, and blood is nearly absent until Marion is shown laying dead with blood swirling down the drain. The scene ends with Marion staring lifelessly into the camera in a truly haunting scene.

Also of interest is the near-lack of nudity in the scene. By quickly cutting between face, arms, and legs, one is under the impression that they are seeing Marion nude. But this is only because of the quick cuts. If one were to watch the scene in half-time, it would become apparent that only one out-of-focus nude shot is even present.

After disposing of the body, investigation ensues. It is eventually revealed that Norman keeps his death mother in a chair in the basement, and treats her as if she were real. After an abusive and controlled childhood, Norman was unable to disconnect himself emotionally from his mother after her death, so he simply took on her role, splitting his personality into two distinct entities. It is of great note that the film's plot was inspired by Ed Gein, whose background and crimes were of a strikingly similar nature to those of Norman Bates.

Psycho works on multiple levels as a commentary on its period and an attempt to bring the concept of mental health to a higher level of discussion. While the film does not explicitly state its intentions, symptomatically this shocking portrayal of illness and death was going to open a dialog regarding mental health that could not be previously held in the public sphere.

After filming Psycho, it was reported that the use of the term "transvestite" was actually considered objectionable to the censor board, but Hitchcock refused to succumb to their wishes, as he had already duped them during the aforementioned shower scene by including extraneous footage for the censors to cut.

During the final scene, after the psychologist has met with the authorities and explained Norman's condition, the scene peers into Norman's padded cell. He is seen wearing a straight-jacket and muttering to himself. As the audience listens to the conversation, it becomes readily apparent that Norman is speaking in two distinct voices, those of him and his mother. He continues this disturbing conversation until he speaks a final line, then gazes into the camera with one of the most twisted and chilling expressions captured on film.

This scene serves to point out a crucial message conveyed symptomatically from the film, that those with Multiple Personality Disorder or Schizophrenia are somehow dangerous and demented. This is obviously a gross generalization, but Psycho treats this subject as if all individuals with said disorders are demented freaks of nature. As the culture in which this film premiered was generally unaware of psycho- and neurological disorders, this film was their first glimpse into the realm of mental illness, and it was a terrifying one.

The central character was depicted as a soulless killer, only able to be contained by a padded cell and straightjacket. The doctor, when describing the disorder, spent no time discussing the uniqueness of Norman's manifestation of his disorder, but seemed to give the impression that this behavior was typical of the mentally ill.

Also conveyed by this film is a higher level of gender equality than was typical of Hollywood. As the story plays out, it becomes a monster-movie of sorts, with Norman Bates as the seemingly unstoppable beast. But this is not a damsel-in-distress story, as a male investigator is stabbed to death in the same vicious manner as Marion. This set a new trend, not by exalting women, but rather by victimizing and questioning the control and authority of the patriarch.

Psycho is also unique in that it exposes the dangers of vulnerability in a way that equates vulnerability with victimization. As Marion changes her clothing, her vulnerable state arouses the desire of a homicidal maniac. Her decision to converse with Norman, allowing him a glimpse of her personal life, allows him to attach himself to her through her vulnerability. And in the most vulnerable act of all, she disrobes and separates herself from even the rest of the room by closing the curtain to take a shower.

As Hitchcock shows, her feeble attempt at juxtaposing vulnerability and privacy is compromised when Norman storms in and rips open the curtain, leaving her with only her vulnerability. At this moment, she is at her most vulnerable, and as Hitchcock would have his audience believe, most endangered state. With nothing but her vulnerability, she is murdered brutally in what is symptomatically a cautionary tale to the audience regarding their own vulnerability. In Hitchcock's world, safety is only achieved by the constant guarding of one's self against the often un-identifiable forces of malevolence.

In relationship to vulnerability, Psycho also has much to say on the concept of human relationships. One can see that Norman is a somewhat tragic example of the danger of vulnerability in the most vulnerable relationship of all, the one between mother and child. Norman is subjected for her abuse for years by leaving himself in a vulnerable state and accepting her abuse. This causes his extreme dependency that leads to his eventual illness and demise.

The mother can be seen as the true malevolent force of the movie, praying on Norman's vulnerability in such a way that she is allowed to live on through Norman and continue her reign over other innocent victims. So in effect, the mother is actually the true killer of Marion, at least in a metaphoric sense.

Lastly, this film is about the unknown and the fear that it inspires, not so much for the film's characters as for the audience. We can see this trend continue in films such as Alien, Jaws, Poltergeist, and a host of others. As was stated, this film was released in a time of relative ignorance on the part of the general public in relation to the subject of mental illness.

Rather than giving the audience a clear picture of mental illness from the start of the film, Hitchcock forces the audience to watch in suspense with no point of reference as character's are viciously murdered without explanation. And after the audience receives the final explanation, the last words are given to Norman Bates. So rather than allowing the audience to witness a full dialog on Norman's disorder, only a brief explanation is given, leading into the final scene of even more fear and confusion from this still misunderstood illness. As the film closes, Norman watches the audience, almost mocking their ignorance.

This is the genius of Hitchcock. He consistently finds unexplored topics, or those most filmmakers would not dare explore, and constructs fantastical yet grounded accounts of their horrifying effects of humanity. In the wake of such films, a dialog is opened, leading to new knowledge and awareness. Rarely before or since has a filmmaker put such a progressive step forward and left such a historic mark on the realm of cinema.

• 1931

  • M

    Prototypical noir directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre. In German with English subtitles. This is a German Expressionist film about a child murderer and is essential in helping viewers see the influence of German Expressionism film upon subsequent noir films in America.

• 1934

  • They Made Me a Criminal

    Interesting early noirish film directly by Busby Berkeley starring John Garfield as boxer on the lam and Claude Rains as his pursuer. The film begins in the corrupt city but soon makes the leap to the undefiled country where Garfield gets involved with the Dead End Kids who are working on a farm. Sunny noir.

• 1936

  • The Wrong Road

    Young lovers noir directed by James Cruze (The Great Gabbo, I Cover the Waterfront). Lionel Atwill wants the stolen $100,000 back but wants to help the misguided thieves even more. I’ve always believed in you kids from the very start.” See also You Only Live Once, Gun Crazy, They Live by Night, Side Street, etc.

• 1939

  • Convict’s Code

    Lambert Hillyer’s parolee noir. Falsely-accused ex-football star “Whiz” Tyler (Robert Kent) gets out of prison and wants to clear his name. Cinematographer Arthur Martinelli’s uses Expressionistic shadows to advantage. See Fritz Lang’s American noirs You and Me and You Only Live Once.


• 1944

  • Bluebeard

    Edgar G. Ulmer’s tale of horror. Perhaps thematically a noir but, though atmospheric, not a noir visually. John Carradine is the murderer who strangles the women he “paints.”

  • Lady in the Death House

    Steve Sekeley directed this film, most notable for its use of flashbacks. Its title (and thus basic situation) is its most noirish aspect. Stars Jean Parker who was also featured in Ulmer’s Bluebeard.


• 1945

  • Detour

    Ulmer’s noir masterpiece. Exemplary noir both in look and in theme. With Tom Neal as the hapless sap Al Roberts and Ann Savage as Vera, the femme fatale. Nasty noir.

  • Scarlet Street

    Fritz Lang’s remake of Jean Renoir’s La Chienne (The Bitch) from 1931. Scarlet Street is a wonderful noir starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea. Though sanitized in the Hollywood way, this is true gutter noir. Even the ending irony is dark.

  • Strange Illusion

    Not to be confused with Anthony Mann’s noir Strange Impersonation of 1946. This is Edgar G. Ulmer’s Hamlet noir. A dream warns the young protagonist that his mom shouldn’t remarry, particularly the man who murdered his father. “Mother, no! This man isn’t Father!”

• 1946

  • Shock

    Evil doctor noir starring Vincent Price and Lynn Bari. Directed by Alfred L. Werker (He Walked by Night).
  

  • The Stranger

    Orson Welles directs and stars along with Loretta Young and Edward G. Robinson in this New England, disguised-Nazi noir. Compare to Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943), the prototypical sunny noir compromised by the shadow of foreign menace.

  • The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

    Outstanding cast (Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas, Lizabeth Scott, and Van Heflin—all to have significant careers in noir films) in Lewis Milestone’s psychologically complex noir.

• 1947

  • My Favorite Brunette

    Parody noir with Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, and Peter Lorre. Directed by Elliott Nugent.

  • The Red House

    Absolutely fascinating though unconventional psychological noir starring Edward G. Robinson (Scarlet Street, The Stranger) and Judith Anderson and directed by Delmer Daves. Creates a noir atmosphere out of country sunlight.

  • Fear in the Night

    Hypnotism noir directed by Maxwell Shane and starring DeForest Kelley (aka Dr. “Bones” McCoy of Star Trek) and Paul Kelly (Crossfire, The File on Thelma Jordan, Side Street). Voiceover. Mirrors. Visually stylish. “All the evidence points to me!” theme. Plausible villain. From a Cornell Woolrich story. See Black Angel, The Blue Dahlia, The Blue Gardenia, etc.


• 1948

  • He Walked by Night

    Police (Jack Webb) pursue cop-killer (Richard Basehart) noir. Directed by Alfred L. Werker. Compare the ending of He Walked by Night with the ending of Carol Reed’s The Third Man out the following year. Its documentary nature also bears comparison with Jules Dassin’s The Naked City (also 1948).

  • The Amazing Mr. X

    Con-man noir with Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari (Shock), and Cathy O’Donnell (They Live by Night). Outstanding cinematography by John (“It's not what you light - it's what you DON'T light”) Alton. Directed by Bernard Vorhaus.
  

  • Inner Sanctum

    Twilight Zone noir—turns on a mystical prediction. Gritty sizzle noir directed by Lew Landers. With Charles Russell and Mary Beth Hughes (The Great Flamarion).

  • The Scar or Hollow Triumph

    Deeply ironic noir with Paul Henreid and Joan Bennett (Scarlet Street). Well directed by Steve Sekeley (Lady in the Death House).


• 1949

  • Jigsaw

    Fletcher Markle’s socially-conscious film about a conspiracy of extremists. Considered noir by some but lacks characteristic noir plot, characters, look, and tone. Stars Franchot Tone (The Man on the Eiffel Tower). Notable for multiple cameos by famous Hollywood actors and actresses (John Garfield, Henry Fonda, Marlene Dietrich, Burgess Meredith...) who supported the film’s moral and political viewpoint.

  • Port of New York

    Drug smuggling New York noir with Yul Brynner with hair. Directed by László Benedek. See Borderline.

  • Impact

    Impressive noir from Arthur Lubin starring Brian Donleavy, but it’s the women who dominate this film: Ella Raines as Marsha Peters, Anna May Wong as Su Lin, and Helen Walker, despicably delicious as Irene Williams. The film is Shakespearean in its ABA structure, the “green world” being Larkspur, Idaho, and San Francisco as the frame city.
  

  • D.O.A.

    Edmund O’Brien (The Killers, White Heat , The Hitch-Hiker) poisoned and dying in San Francisco as the film opens, the action of the movie is the search for the identity and the motive of his killer. Classic noir from Rudolph Maté.

  • Too Late for Tears

    Bryon Haskin directed this femme fatale noir that has Arthur Kennedy and Dan Duryea (Scarlet Street, Black Angel, The Great Flamarion) up against the deadly avarice of Lizabeth Scott (The Strange Love of Martha Ivers).

• 1950

  • The Second Woman

    Underrated noir with Robert Young and Betsy Drake. Atmospheric and psychological like The Red House. Chandleresque twists. Directed by James V. Kern.
  

  • The File on Thelma Jordan

    Barbara Stanwyck (The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Double Indemnity, Clash by Night) as a femme fatale who grows a soul. With Wendell Corey as another of the helpless noir males who succumb to females whose hearts are in the wrong place. Directed by Robert Siodmak.

  • Borderline

    William A. Seiter noir about drug trafficking stars Claire Trevor (Murder, My Sweet; Born to Kill; Raw Deal,) working for the police. She gets involved with two criminals: Raymond Burr (Raw Deal, Pitfall, The Blue Gardenia) and then Fred MacMurray (Double Indemnity). Begins as noir, transforms to comedy. “It Happened One Noir.” See The 39 Steps.
  

  • Quicksand

    Irving Pichel’s unrelenting noir starring Mickey Rooney whose lust for Jeanne Cagney leads him to theft to feed her greed. Also with Peter Lorre (M, Quicksand, My Favorite Brunette, Beat the Devil). Downward-spiral noir. See also Detour, Pitfall, The File on Thelma Jordan, etc.
  

  • Panic in the Streets

    Chase noir with Richard Widmark (Kiss of Death, Road House, Night and the City, No Way Out, Don’t Bother to Knock, Pickup on South Street) as the chaser and plague-ridden Jack Palance (Sudden Fear) as the chased. With Barbara Bel Geddes, Paul Douglas and Zero Mostel. Directed by Elia Kazan.

  • The Man on the Eiffel Tower

    Paris chase noir directed and starring Burgess Meredith. With Charles Laughton as Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret and Franchot Tone as the Nietzschean villain Johann Radek. Compare Radek with Harry Lime in Carol Reed’s Viennese noir The Third Man, also 1949.


• 1951

  • Cause for Alarm!

    Brilliant Loretta Young film, noir because of its nightmarish, noose-tightening plot. Directed by Tay Garnett (The Postman Always Rings Twice¬). A subset of sunny noir; one might call it suburban noir.

• 1952

  • Kansas City Confidential

    John Payne taking revenge against the men who framed him: Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef, and Neville Brand under the leadership of Preston Foster. The gang doesn’t know each other. They’ve always worn masks! Coleen Gray as the love interest. Outstanding noir. Iconic images abound.


• 1953

  • Beat the Devil

    Parody noir scripted by Truman Capote. Only slightly more serious than My Favorite Brunette. Top notch cast (Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre), top notch director (John Huston).

  • The Hitch-Hiker

    Wonderful noir directed by Ida Lupino, star herself of many classic noir films (High Sierra; They Drive by Night; On Dangerous Ground; Road House; The Man I Love; Beware, My Lovely; and her own directorial effort The Bigamist). The small cast all brilliant: Edmond O’Brien (The Killers, White Heat, D.O.A.), Frank Lovejoy, and William Talman as Emmett Myers, the psychopath kidnapper who sleeps literally with one eye open.


• 1954

  • Suddenly

    Psychotic-killer noir starring Frank Sinatra as John Baron, would-be presidential assassin. With Sterling Hayden (The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing) as the good guy. Small town noir. The infiltration of big city evil. Anticipates The Rifleman.

All films are available on the internet.

See The Internet Movie Database for detailed information on individual films.

Stills by Bill Yarrow from public domain versions of the films

This information is current as of April 30, 2008

For the entire movie, Jeff is bedridden and powerless, and reliant on the care from women, especially from Lisa. She wants him to be a domestic husband rather than a traveling adventurer, creating tension between the two. In the Thorwald apartment, Jeff sees a reflection of his own situation. Mrs. Thorwald is bedridden and a constant nag to Mr. Thorwald creating tension between the two. There is no sexuality in the relationship, but rather Thorwald is totally stripped of his power because he must take care of his sick wife. She mocks and belittles him to the point where he cannot take it any more. This is why he feels that the only way out of his situation is through murder. In both apartments, the men are desexualized by their circumstances.

This is why Jeff literally wants to see murder. He feels as though he is totally desexualized and powerless and wants to see the murder because it shows that there is a way out of this feeling. As Rushing states, “Jeff identifies with Thorwald who lives out of “the real deal of his desire” - killing the nagging wife who ties him down, freeing the male subject for further adventures” (317). Jeff wants to be free again as he was when he was a traveling photographer. Lisa, though, is taking this opportunity to tie Jeff down to domesticate him into a husband. “The woman represents a trap in this case the trap of domestic status” (Rushing, 316).

In the movie, all that Jeff sees is men who cannot pursue their own sexual wants and needs, amplifying his own fear of women and sexuality and his desire to see murder. In the case of Miss Torso, the scantily clad dancer, many men seem to desire her, but she ultimately holds the control as she thwarts every man's sexual advance. With Miss Torso, however, like murder, the audience and Jeff desires to see her become more than a tease. The husband in the newlyweds is literally sexually controlled by his wife and every time he comes up for air, he is called back for what the audience and Jeff presumes to be more sex. Ms. Lonely Hearts is unable to “trap a man” (Hitchcock, Rear Window) and when a man makes sexual advances on her, she does not like it, but wants to be in control herself. The couple with the dog is totally desexualized and there is no outward show of sexual emotion. When the dog is murdered however, it is interesting to note that the wife says the murder was done “because it loved you” (Hitchcock). This is interesting because in both Thorwald and Jeff's case, their significant others probably love them, and both men desire to be rid of them. In all of these cases, Jeff sees only negatives that go along with love and sexuality, making his own fears even worse. Obviously, the worst case that Jeff sees is Thorwald's and therefore, when Thorwald murders his wife, he sees himself through Thorwald. He does not actually see the murder, but can empathize with Thorwald's situation and can see why Thorwald would want to be rid of his wife.

Through the movie, the viewer can make the assumption that sex is dependent on love, but that love is a source of misery. We see this through the neighbors' various pursuits of sex or love. The people that have love are unhappy because they have become desexualized, either through sex acts, with the newlyweds, or through no sex acts, as is the case with Thorwald. On the other side, however, the people that do not have love (the pianist and Ms. Lonely Hearts) are unhappy because they do not have love and therefore, no sex. Jeff soon realizes subconsciously through what he thinks is murder in the Thorwald household that murder is the only way out of the misery of relationships. He is not sure of what he actually wants- does he want to be with the woman he loves and become like these other married men, or does he want to have no love at all?

Ultimately, the film relates murder and sexuality as the two things that the audience and Jeff presume occurs, but never actually sees. Jeff desires to see both sex and murder through his gaze and “window shopping” because he sees himself in his various neighbors' different situations, both in and out of relationships. He is able to identify the most, however, with Thorwald. Thorwald's wife is the source of his tension, just as Lisa is Jeff's source of tension. He wants to see the murder that he thinks happens because he is also desexualized, powerless, and in a tense relationship just as Thorwald is. Lisa is a trap to Jeff and he realizes this, but does not know how to deal with it and as a result desires to see the murder. This is how the film, Rear Window, relates love and sexuality to murder.

 

The storyline of this film involves a young woman who steals $40,000 from her employer's client, and ends up on a personal odyssey towards terror when she encounters a disturbed young hotel proprietor who is dominated by his mother. Patrick McGilligan (2003) wrote that the Bates character was based on Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, who may have had an incestuous relationship with his mother. (McGilligan, 2003. Page 579)

One of the biggest signifiers in the film is cash. Money is the initial drive that leads the main character, banker Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh), down a path towards her own destruction. What is signified is the power that money and greed have over people, and how you pay a price for succumbing to its powers.

Facing a paradigmatic structure composed of desiring to marry her boyfriend, but lacking the finances to do so, Crane stumbles upon a solution when a rich oil tycoon enters the office and asks Crane to deposit $40,000 cash in the bank. (Berger, p. 24) While driving to the bank, Crane dreams of how the money could help alleviate her repressed desire to escape a boring job and set her free to flee the state and go on a fairy tale romance.

The oil tycoon practically waves the cash in her face while flirting with her. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why she was able to absolve herself of any guilt - she was stealing from a rich, creepy guy. This would be a form of rationalization.

While driving to see her boyfriend, she grows tired and pulls over to the side of the road and falls asleep. She is awakened by a police officer who suspects that the woman might be in some sort of trouble. Crane's hurried manner and defensive attitude only increase the officer's suspicions. The officer is an example of Freud's theory of ego. He is very cool, emotionless, and almost mechanical in his demeanor. No doubt a logical thinker who relies on police intuition and paying close attention to the environment and noticing subtle cues about Cranes behavior. This contrasts with Crane, who represents the id - basing her decisions on emotions such as desire, greed, lust and love. She is unaware of how her defensiveness makes her look more guilty.

The police officer eventually lets Marion go. Eventually, she grows tired and decides to stay at a motel. The motel is run by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who turns out to be a serial killer. Bates is a deeply disturbed young man who has a strong Oedipus complex in regards to his mother. It is so strong, in fact, that he had murdered his mother in a jealous rage after he found out that she had found a male lover. Unable to mentally handle the loss of his mother and his own guilt, he keeps her corpse, dresses it, and cares for it by using his taxidermy skills. His mind fragments and splits into two personalities. He adopts the persona and dress of his mother.

While dressed as his mother, he murders Crane while she is taking a shower in one of the Bates' motel cabins in one of the most talked about scenes in cinematic history. (House of Horrors, para 4). Prior to the murder, the audience's attention is drawn to the money, safely wrapped in a newspaper on the nightstand. Hitchock allows the audience to bask in the guilty pleasure of sharing in the sense of comfort that Crane may have felt believing that the money was all hers. The second guilty pleasure, one that Hitchcock was probably teasing the audience with since the beginning of the movie, was seeing Crane naked, basking in the warmth and sanctity of the restroom - painted white as if to offset the uncleanly business that goes on in restrooms. The comfort of the phallic, anal and genital stages of Freudian theory contribute to the sanctity of the setting, as a bathroom is a safe haven for these Freudian stages to manifest. Crane, as well as the audience, pays for their enjoyment of the shower as the curtains are ripped open and she is stabbed to death. This is accompanied by a piercing, terrifying score. (House of Horrors, para 3)

Bates had taken a liking to Crane after having dinner with her the night before. However, his alter ego of his mother is not happy about the prospect of an attractive young woman disrupting the love affair between mother and son. He even holds conversations with himself thinking he's speaking to his mother.

Therefore Bates, dressed as his mother, represents the jealous side of the mother persona - she needed to eliminate the threat posed by an attractive young woman who could steal her son away. The mother side of Bates' mind could represent the superego - the domineering personality of a mother whose son is beholden to her. At the same time, there is an element of id in the mother persona if you are to assume that she killed Crane out of jealousy towards a young attractive woman who might steal her son. Bates ends up trapped in ambivalence, taking a liking to the girl with the mother side hating her for being a threat to their relationship. It serves to negate guilt over the murder. (Berger, Arthur. P. 90)

Following the murder, Norman Bates returns to the crime scene as the innocent son who cleans up the evidence simply because he is being a dutiful son doing what he has to do to protect his mother. This serves two psychological purposes for Bates fragmented persona - alleviating the big green eyed monster of his jealousy towards his mother and her lover by making his mother the jealous one, and absolving himself of guilt related to the murder at the same time. This love hate relationship is another example of ambivalence - hatred for the murder, but covering up the scene of the crime out of love, as well as projecting the jealousy to his mother to alleviate his own.

Ironically, as reality starts to catch up to Norman Bates and his demented game, a private investigator, as well as Crane's family assumes that Bates was involved in Crane's disappearance to get to her cash.

Money had nothing to do with Norman Bates' motivation. In fact, Bates didn't seem to have any use for money whatsoever. Hardly anyone ever stayed at his motel.

Crane, on the other hand, could have avoided her death if she would have just deposited the money in the bank in the first place. In this case the use of money in this film is a conventional symbol. The money signifies the root of all evil and paying the ultimate price for succumbing to its power.

As for Bates, a perverted form of justice seemed to crystallize in his twisted mind. As he sat in a holding cell at the end of the movie the persona of the mother had taken over, consigned to the fact that her son would go away for murder for a crime that she had committed. This is an example of Bates' psychological defense mechanism of reaction formation, to escape having to accept the reality of being caught and going away for life. (Berger, Arthur. P.90)

The conclusions about critical differences are that women can have a great deal of power over men. According to Anderson, men seem to hold the cards professionally and financially, as evidenced by the oil tycoon and the male employers at the real estate office while women hold low wage jobs with a lot of stress (P. 81). However, the power of an attractive young woman can cause a man, who prides himself on being able to control his emotions, to do things he normally wouldn't do. This played a part with the oil tycoon giving Crane the cash - he wanted to flash money at her in an attempt to eventually gain sexual favors. Normally, he probably wouldn't be so irresponsible with his money. Also, the power of sexual attraction came into play with Crane at the hotel. Bates attraction towards her caused his alter ego to snap with jealousy stemming from the power of sexual attraction. Also, Hitchcock used her attractiveness to entice the viewers into an erotic scene and then make them pay for their sin by enduring the stabbing scene. Beautiful women have enormous power, more power than a man - no matter how rich or attractive he may be. More so than money, sexual attraction towards women was the main signifier in the movie and served as the root cause of the main character's dissent into complete and utter madness.

One of the things that made his movies a classic was the star-cast. He always worked with some of the best people in the industry and thus his movies were always high profile. For an example his movies starred Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman and others who were known as some of the most beautiful women in Hollywood. The male characters in his movies were mostly varied but personified as hard guys in each of his movies. It is rather useless to just think about his kind of movies without having seen them, so just watch it.