"Telephone Murder" is not the most famous in Hitchcock's work sequence, but in my opinion, it is the one that best shows the characteristics of his film language. From the first half of the film, we can see well how Hitchcock controlled the audience's psychology and created a tense and suspenseful atmosphere.
First of all, the first half focuses on sorting out the incident. The whole layout is neat and tidy. Tony's motives for committing the crime, the preparation stage for the implementation of the plan, and the implementation plan are all neatly laid out, just one stroke at a time. This is also Hitchcock's consistent approach: to give an omniscient perspective, let the audience get information before the characters, so as to mobilize the audience's emotional participation in the event process, and immerse themselves in the pleasure of reading video stories from the perspective of a bystander. middle. And because we can predict things the characters can't expect—in this film, it's Margo, who, as an object in the action element, doesn't know that he'll be murdered—there's a suspenseful effect from the character's fate and situation. Subsequently, the accident in the implementation and the subsequent contingency created a "realism" at the level of the story body, which made the audience have to be amazed at Tony's clever and effective response after the mutation, and sympathy and anxiety for the difficult situation of the heroine. , as if this story happened around the audience, and involuntarily made suggestions for the police officer and Mark, and came up with a way to dismantle Tony and rescue Margo.
At the same time, Hitchcock's narrative efficiency is reflected in the handling of the film's characters. The experience of reading a Hitchcock is very similar to reading a detective novel, which lies in his simplified and code-based treatment of the characters. Unlike most European art films, in Hitchcock's film system, characters serve as chess pieces interspersed in the plot, serving the narrative. Rarely do we get to see a character come and go in his films (except Hitchcock himself). Hitchcock-style characters are always the key. Characters other than the protagonist can exist as clues for exploration, serve as a foreshadowing, and play a delaying role, maintaining the continuity and development of the story in the form of a lead. In the film, the heroine's lover, Mark, becomes the motive element of Tony's criminal plan in the first half, and in the second half, when the subject turns into Margo, Mark becomes the action element as a lover and a detective novelist. The helpers in the film are interspersed with words about detective novels, such as "every secret must have a sparse", which hints at the ending and main theme of the film, thus promoting the development of the narrative.
In the lens design, it also shows Hitchcock's courage. During the planning process, both the low-angle looking up lens and the high-angle looking down lens are used, showing Tony's smug calculation in the secret plan.
In the process of implementation, Hitchcock used a large number of unbalanced compositions in a closed space, subjective shots, push-track shots, and close-ups of characters (such as calves, faces, open hands) in strong light, rendering tension and oppressive atmosphere, and alludes to the gradual out of control of the implementation process, and even deviated from the planned track.
Finally, Margo rushed out the window and broke the enclosed space to announce the end of the first half.
At this time, the scene is switched, and a large scene is given an overhead shot, but the space is still very narrow. The characters who have experienced emergencies are temporarily out of danger, but they are still frightened and confused about their own experiences and situations. .
Hitchcock may not be a master of art films, but he is also an outstanding writer of suspense films.
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