Alfred Hitchcock and The Avengers

Speed Six · Post by **Speed Six** » Sat Aug 30, 2014 9:46 am

anti-clockwise wrote:Would you say that Hitch had a sense of humour? IMHO, In a perverse sense of the meaning but nothing as brilliant as TA. But his subversive elements I think show he was the master of suspense and horror that are just incomparable even to this day.

I would say that there's no question about Hitchcock having a sense of humour ! It could be a dark gallows humour at times, but even in his darkest films he usually finds time to poke fun at some aspect of life or audience expectations. I believe he always regarded Psycho as a black comedy, and he himself was known to be quite a joker on and off set.

anti-clockwise · Post by **anti-clockwise** » Sat Aug 30, 2014 11:38 am

Speed Six wrote:
anti-clockwise wrote:Would you say that Hitch had a sense of humour? IMHO, In a perverse sense of the meaning but nothing as brilliant as TA. But his subversive elements I think show he was the master of suspense and horror that are just incomparable even to this day.
I would say that there's no question about Hitchcock having a sense of humour ! It could be a dark gallows humour at times, but even in his darkest films he usually finds time to poke fun at some aspect of life or audience expectations. I believe he always regarded Psycho as a black comedy, and he himself was known to be quite a joker on and off set.

well come to think of it, his very brief appearances in most of his movies are sort of humorous beneath the heaviness of it all. You make a good point but frankly sometimes his movies are so very dark, it is hard to find the humour. I never thought of Psycho that way but it is so OTT that I do laugh at the lines.
"It's not like my mother is a maniac or a raving thing. She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you?

What kind of practical jokes did hitch play?

Speed Six · Post by **Speed Six** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 8:49 am

Hitchcock's sense of humour is very British, and possibly isn't that apparent to those who don't see the world in the same way that we do in this country. It's very understated, and probably the best example of his approach can be seen in 'The Trouble With Harry', which turns disposing of a dead body into a light hearted farce. As to his practical jokes, these are well documented - and usually involved those working on his films. If you want to find out more about the man and his work, I'd recommend Donald Spoto's 'The Life of Alfred Hitchcock', which provides an illuminating of his career and complex personality.

anti-clockwise · Post by **anti-clockwise** » Sun Aug 31, 2014 4:29 pm

Speed Six wrote:Hitchcock's sense of humour is very British, and possibly isn't that apparent to those who don't see the world in the same way that we do in this country. It's very understated, and probably the best example of his approach can be seen in 'The Trouble With Harry', which turns disposing of a dead body into a light hearted farce. As to his practical jokes, these are well documented - and usually involved those working on his films. If you want to find out more about the man and his work, I'd recommend Donald Spoto's 'The Life of Alfred Hitchcock', which provides an illuminating of his career and complex personality.

I do find them sort of twisted and I guess see black humour but that is not what first comes to mind. Have you seen "The Rope" with Jimmy Stewart? I wonder if you see humour. I suppose keeping a dead body later used as a buffet table is dark humour. Still like TA humour far better, as most episodes have a better blend of humour and perversion. Do love hitch though.

Speed Six · Post by **Speed Six** » Mon Sep 01, 2014 12:28 pm

anti-clockwise wrote:
Speed Six wrote:Hitchcock's sense of humour is very British, and possibly isn't that apparent to those who don't see the world in the same way that we do in this country. It's very understated, and probably the best example of his approach can be seen in 'The Trouble With Harry', which turns disposing of a dead body into a light hearted farce. As to his practical jokes, these are well documented - and usually involved those working on his films. If you want to find out more about the man and his work, I'd recommend Donald Spoto's 'The Life of Alfred Hitchcock', which provides an illuminating of his career and complex personality.
I do find them sort of twisted and I guess see black humour but that is not what first comes to mind. Have you seen "The Rope" with Jimmy Stewart? I wonder if you see humour. I suppose keeping a dead body later used as a buffet table is dark humour. Still like TA humour far better, as most episodes have a better blend of humour and perversion. Do love hitch though.

Rope is a wonderful and rather under-rated Hitchcock, and yes I did see black humour in the situation. He's obviously not an obvious contender as comedy director, though I think with the right script he would probably have been perfectly capable. There's a wonderful scene in the Farmer's Wife involving a tea party that is sustained comic brilliance, and if he'd followed that line he might have produced films to rival the Ealing Studio comedies. Audiences that only know him for films like Vertigo and Psycho however might find it difficult to see him in that light, but if you look at his earlier British films his sense of humour is far more apparent.

mousemeat · Post by **mousemeat** » Tue Sep 02, 2014 9:54 pm

Speed Six wrote:
anti-clockwise wrote:
Speed Six wrote:Hitchcock's sense of humour is very British, and possibly isn't that apparent to those who don't see the world in the same way that we do in this country. It's very understated, and probably the best example of his approach can be seen in 'The Trouble With Harry', which turns disposing of a dead body into a light hearted farce. As to his practical jokes, these are well documented - and usually involved those working on his films. If you want to find out more about the man and his work, I'd recommend Donald Spoto's 'The Life of Alfred Hitchcock', which provides an illuminating of his career and complex personality.
I do find them sort of twisted and I guess see black humour but that is not what first comes to mind. Have you seen "The Rope" with Jimmy Stewart? I wonder if you see humour. I suppose keeping a dead body later used as a buffet table is dark humour. Still like TA humour far better, as most episodes have a better blend of humour and perversion. Do love hitch though.
Rope is a wonderful and rather under-rated Hitchcock, and yes I did see black humour in the situation. He's obviously not an obvious contender as comedy director, though I think with the right script he would probably have been perfectly capable. There's a wonderful scene in the Farmer's Wife involving a tea party that is sustained comic brilliance, and if he'd followed that line he might have produced films to rival the Ealing Studio comedies. Audiences that only know him for films like Vertigo and Psycho however might find it difficult to see him in that light, but if you look at his earlier British films his sense of humour is far more apparent.

how about his film (1955) the trouble with Harry ? black humour..about a missing stiff...

Dan · Post by **Dan** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 2:18 pm

The scene in How to Succeed...at Murder in which Steed trails Henry to a graveyard is very reminiscent of the Vertigo scene in which James Stewart trails Kim Novak.

JohnSteedFr · Post by **JohnSteedFr** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 10:50 pm

I'm reading Alan's excellent book The strange case of the missing episodes and One for the Mortuary shares a huge similarity with Hitch's The Man who Knew Too Much. They both feature some crazy taxidermist whose name sounds like the name of a nearby place (Bernard Bourg in the Avengers episode; Ambrose Chapel in the Hitchcock film, Chapel being a chapel.....Naturally!)