Hitchcock said he never read the critics. He made films to satisfy
himself and his audiences. Even off the job, he was always trying to keep the people
around him amused or in a dither. One of his favorite practical jokes, and he was known to
have pulled many in his day, was describing a particularly bloody killing while he was
riding a crowded elevator. Perhaps he was more amused than anyone. Nevertheless, his films
have grossed well over $200 million, and he had been the impresario of some 350 popular TV
shows. Part of his mystique, his public sobriety, had to do with his shyness and unerring
modesty. In fact, he rarely sat in a theater with an audience watching one of his films.
The first time he had done this in a long while was at Lincoln Center at his Gala Tribute
in 1974. He had the opportunity to hear them scream and squeal and watch them squirm in
their seats.
You would think that he would have missed this after so many glorious
thrillers, but no, Hitchcock said slyly, "I can hear them screaming
when I'm making the picture." His theory of mystery and suspense
as been applied to almost every one of his pictures. In an interview
in Life magazine he was able to explain it simply: "Let us suppose
that three men are sitting in a room in which a ticking bomb has been
planted. It is going to go off in ten minutes. The audience does not
know it is there either, so they go on talking inanely about the weather
or yesterday's baseball game. After ten minutes of desultory conversation
the bomb goes off. What's the result? The unsuspecting audience gets
a surprise .... That's all. But suppose the story were told differently.
This time, while the men still do not know the bomb is there, the audience
does know. The men still talk inanities, but now the most banal thing
they say is charged with excitement. When one finally says, 'Let's leave,'
the entire audience is praying for them to do so. But another man says,
'No. Wait a minute. I want to finish my coffee.' The audience groans
inwardly and yearns for them to leave. That is suspense."
Hitchcock frightened millions of people around the world. Did he
himself scare easily? Very easily," he admitted. "Here's a list in order of
adrenalin production: 1. Little children; 2. Policemen; 3. High places; 4. That my next
picture won't be as good as the last one." He liked to keep everyone in the audience
interested. He did all right.
