21L011 The Film Experience
Professor David Thorburn

Lecture 8 - Capra and Hitchcock

1. Frank Capra (1897-1991)
   • Sentimental populist
   • Key films
     
     
2. It Happened One Night (1934)
   • Context: the Depression
   • The American Male
   • Romance across social class
   • “A marriage of true minds”
     
     
3. Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)
   • An anecdote
   • Hitchcock’s career
   • Hitchcock the technician
   • Themes:  “The Double Man”
     
     
4. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
   • Context: WWII, Hitchcock in exile
   • Against Capra
   • The opening: behind any door or window
   • An American town, an American family
   • Two Charlies: rhyming shots     
   • Subplot: murder as diversion     
   • The ending: ambiguity