On this day, August 13, 1899, the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, was born. The British director’s horror films have left an era, as he is considered a pioneer in his genre!

But what is it that gives him the title of “master of suspense”? Let’s discover 5 pioneering Alfred Hitchcock film scenes…

  • The opening scene of “Strangers on a Train”

This is the movie, in which two men travel together on a train and one reveals to the other a plan for the perfect murder and how to get away. In this scene, therefore, the two characters are not introduced to the camera by showing their faces but by shots of their feet. From shoes, especially, we can understand a lot about the economic and social situation of each one. Then the tangled tracks of the train can be seen, until the final meeting of the two protagonists inside the train.

  • Dolly Zoom in ‘Vertigo’

This particular camera effect is now known to everyone, but not everyone knows that it first appeared in Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”. Essentially, it was the attempt to portray the feeling of vertigo of the protagonist when he looks down from above. It has various names such as “Zolly”, “Jaws Shot” and “Reverse Tracking Shot”. Paramount Pictures cameraman Irmin Roberts is responsible for the result.

  • Milk in Suspicion

In “Suspicion”, the protagonist fears that her husband is planning to kill her. So while in one scene, he just brings her a glass of milk, Hitchcock makes us wonder if the milk contains poison. Creating suspense in a theoretically simple scene is achieved by placing a light inside the glass of milk. As the film is black and white, the bright white created by the light writes so well, it focuses our attention on the glass!

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