Hitchcock Comparison Essay

438 Words2 Pages
Dial M for Murder/Psycho Comparison What do you get when you take everyday life and turn it 180 degrees? You get a Hitchcock film. Alfred Hitchcock has long been known for his fright inducing and thrilling movies. Three of his classic movies are “Dial M for Murder,” “The Birds,” and “Psycho.” Camera angles, music, and attention to detail dominated the psyche while watching these movies. Although these movies are all very closely related in many ways, as well as very different, there are many more similarities in “Psycho” and “Dial M for Murder.” “Dial M for Murder” takes the classic story of a gold digging spouse looking for their cut and adds a very interesting, and frightening, twist. When an ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice decides to murder his wife for her money and because she had an affair the year before. He blackmails an old college associate to strangle her, but when things go wrong he sees a way to turn events to his advantage. The characters and storyline go twisting and turning all throughout the movie. This makes it a very stunning and groundbreaking film. When compared to “Psycho” though, this movie is very tame. The gore is almost nothing, the camera angles are much wider and straight on, and the content is much more laid back. The fact that they both have to do with murder is quite a similarity as well as the ideas of greed being a motivator. Hitchcock was at his best when he made this movie. Hitchcock’s most revolutionary and shocking film was “Psycho.” This film shocked and awed audiences around the country. Because of this Hitchcock was so far ahead of his time, this film was shunned for many years. Color had so much to do with both films as well. In Psycho, in the opening scene, Marion Crane is wearing a white bra because Hitchcock wanted to show her as being "angelic". After she has taken the money, the following scene has her in a black bra
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