Hitchcock: Stairs & staircases /
'Hitchcockian levels' - page 1

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Staircases appear frequently in Hitchcock's films, from the beginning (or before the beginning, in his 1925 set design for The Blackguard) to the end (the final shots of Family Plot, 1976). The first shot of the first Hitchcock-directed movie, The Pleasure Garden, 1925, also features a spiral staircase with chorus girls descending.
Left: set for The Blackguard, 1925, designed by Hitchcock as art director. Above: the end of Family Plot, 1976.

According to Michael Walker, in Hitchcock's Motifs (Amsterdam Univ. Press, 2005), staircases are traditional symbols of ascent, learning, and transfiguration--or, conversely, of descent, falling, the occult, and the unconscious. Staircases are also widely used in stage design for symbolic positioning of characters relative to each other. In Hollywood films, staircases provide the setting for grand entrances, particularly by female stars.

Staircases feature prominently in both Expressionism and film noir. (Hitchcock got his start in film working in Germany during the Expressionist period; both The Blackguard and The Pleasure Garden were filmed in Germany.) In Expressionist films, stairs often reflect "the landscape of the mind," suggesting threat or menace.

Childhood fears also can center on staircases, as in "the dark at the top of the stairs," or fear of the monster lurking there.

Walker cites a suggestion by Dennis Zirnite that Hitchcock's staircases create a motif of "levels." This motif contrasts "the main level," a place of ordinary life, complacency, a sense of decency, and social belonging, with "the upper level," "the oppressive dominion of a malignant force, of human destructiveness, the 'overseeing' catalyst of moral instability. Typified by deceptive charm, a repressed misogyny, and an exuding seductiveness, this ascendant domain is incarnated by those who unleash the darkest human impulses" (Dennis Zirnite, "Hitchcock, On the Level," Film Criticism, 1986). Upper levels in Hitchcock tend to be associated with sexuality (bedrooms) and with the maternal (or "mama's boys"). "Main level" characters who ascend to the upper level display a "suspect curiosity," and often are punished as a result.

The stills below and on the following page survey some of the uses Hitchcock makes of staircases and "levels."

The Lodger (1926): Left: the staircase figures prominently in the arrival of the Lodger (suspected as a serial killer of women). He goes immediately up the stairs, bypassing the main level where the normal family congregates. Right: In an early Hitchcock visual effect, a transparent ceiling shows the Lodger pacing in agitation on the upper level.

The 39 Steps (1935): Top: Richard Hannay descends the stairs after discovering the corpse in his upper-level apartment. Left: At the Scottish inn, Hannay drags a resistant Pamela, who is handcuffed to him, to the upper-level bedroom. Right: later Pamela eavesdrops at the top of the stairs and hears key information that confirms Hannay's innocence.

Rebecca (1940): The heroine makes a grand entrance to the ball, wearing a costume modeled on a portrait at the top of the stairs. After her husband's angry rebuff (she has been tricked into wearing the same costume the dead Rebecca wore), she flees up the stairs.

Suspicion (1941): Is he a murderer? Johnnie climbs the stairs with a possibly-poisoned glass of milk for his wife. (Hitchcock placed a light bulb in the milk.)
Shadow of a Doubt (1942): Top left: Steps leading to #13, Uncle Charlie's Philadelphia boarding house. Top right: Uncle Charlie's point of view of young Charlie after he realizes that she has information to expose him. Bottom left: Charlie's fall on the sabotaged outside staircase. Bottom right: Charlie's entrance to the party, wearing the ring that incriminates her Uncle.

Notorious (1946): Top left: The crane shot from the top of the stairs to the key in Alicia's hand. Top right: From Alicia's point of view, the first appearance of Mother Sebastian as she comes downstairs to greet her. Middle: Alexander Sebastian descends the cellar steps to discover his wife kissing Devlin. Bottom left: The poisoned Alicia's hallucinatory point of view of the grand staircase. Bottom right: The same staircase as the four main characters begin their suspenseful descent at the movie's climax.