Psycho

Psycho

By Alfred Hitchcock

A young woman steals $40,000 from her employer's client, and subsequently encounters a young motel proprietor too long under the domination of his mother.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writer: Joseph Stefano, Robert Bloch

Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles

Main scenes: killing in the shower and finding the dead mother’s body.

Phoenix office worker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam's California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother.

I think that this is a very good thriller because there are many things in this film that had never been done before in the history of film making, this is a film not for the faint hearted viewers, it is mainly aimed at the older generation because this is a very old film.

The Birds

The birds

By Alfred Hitchcock

A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writer:  Daphne Du Maurier (story) Evan Hunter (screen play)

Stars: Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette

Main scenes:  birds attack children at party & birds attack people in café.

Melanie Daniels is the modern rich socialite, part of the jet-set who always gets what she wants. When lawyer Mitch Brenner sees her in a pet shop, he plays something of a practical joke on her, and she decides to return the favour. She drives about an hour north of San Francisco to Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends the weekends with his mother Lydia and younger sister Cathy. Soon after her arrival, however, the birds in the area begin to act strangely. A seagull attacks Melanie as she is crossing the bay in a small boat, and then, Lydia finds her neighbour dead, obviously the victim of a bird attack. Soon, birds in the hundreds and thousands are attacking anyone they find out of doors. There is no explanation as to why this might be happening, and as the birds continue their vicious attacks, survival becomes the priority.

I think that this is an interesting thriller because they use a range of real and fake birds but as there is a lot of chaos you wouldn’t realise if they were real or not. So I think that it was a good thriller but it will be a bit difficult to understand if you are a younger generation.

North by North West

North by Northwest

By Alfred Hitchcock

An advertising executive has been mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies and he is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to stay alive.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writer: Ernest Lehman.       

Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason.

Main scenes: The kidnap of Rodger Thornhill.

 The attempted assassination of Rodger Thornhill.

Middle-aged Madison Avenue advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill is mistaken for a government agent by a gang of spies. He gets involved in a series of misadventures and is pursued across the States by both the spies and the government whilst being helped by a beautiful blonde.

Cary Grant handles the twisted expressions of his face, his astonished look, his impulsive smile with professional self-assurance and charm while taking us right in the middle of confusion on a breathless 2000-mile cross-country chase which has its gripping showdown across the giant faces of the presidents sculptured on Mount Rushmore high above Rapid City, South Dakota.

Grant plays Roger Thornhill, a stylish publicist, mistaken for a fictitious Federal agent, plunged into a world of crime and intrigue, hunted down by villains who want to eliminate him because he seems to be on their dishonest dealings.

When questioned by bland Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), Thornhill is unable to convince him that he is a victim of a mistaken identity. His three thugs fill him with bourbon, and place him in a stolen car expecting him to have a drunken accident. After narrowly escaping death, no one believes his story including, obviously, his sceptical mother (Jessie Royce Landis).

In an effort to discover the agent he is being confused with, and using the clues he collected, Thornhill returns to the United Nations Headquarter looking for George Kaplan. There, somebody falls into his arms and unthinkingly, Thornhill draws the blade out of the victim's back and is photographed holding the weapon in mid-air. And thus became a fugitive from justice, pursued by the cops and had to skip by boarding a train to Chicago.

While on the run, he is caught by a provocative platinum blonde (Eva Marie Saint), who comes out as a glamorous woman and a delightful charmer.

James Mason, a polished mastermind spy showed too well to be threatening. His menacing henchman, Martin Landau is also convincingly hurtful.

In his fifth Hitchcock picture, Leo G. Carroll is suave and calm as the devoted intelligence chief.

Directed by a genius behind the camera, "North by Northwest" remains a genuinely exciting film for the dangerous world of spies and counterspies.

Welcome to my blog

Hello, my name is Daniel Morris and i am currently studying Media Studies AS at Robert Clack Sixth Form, I hope that you enjoy this blog on my work on thrillers, there will be a range of work from explaining the concept of a thriller down to what makes a good thriller

Enjoy