Thriller Director Research

One of the most popular directors of my groups genre is Alfred Hitchcock. He has directed many successful thrillers during his time of directing movies. These include Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window and North By Northwest.

Psycho got a rating of 8.6 out of ten. They had a budget of $800k and they smashed box office by earning $32 million on box office.The film was so successful that it was reissued to theatres in 1965. A year later, CBS purchased the television rights for $450,000. It won awards for Best Motion Picture, Best Actor and also Best Supporting Actress. 

Vertigo got a rating of 8.4 out of ten. They had a budget of $2.4 million and in box office sales earned $14 million.  It is the first film to utilize the dolly zoom, an in-camera effect that distorts perspective to create disorientation. It won awards for Best Picture and Best Director. 

Rear Window got a rating of 8.6 out of ten. They had a budget of one million dollars and ended up get $36.7 million sales on box office which was a huge success. In 1997, Rear Window was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congressas being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It won an award for Best Picture.

North By Northwest got a rating of 8.5 out of ten. They had a budget of $4.3 million and on box office sales, sold $9.8 million. According to MGM records the film earned $5,740,000 in the US and Canada and $4.1 million elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $837,000. The movie won an award for Best Motion Picture, Best Actor and Top Action Drama.

Alfred Hitchcock movies did have something in common and this was his themes and plot devices. He uses a lot of suspense in most of his movies. Many of his movies involved placing a normal human in some of the most extra ordinary situations. For example in the movie The Man Who Knew Too Much an ordinary man goes on a vacation and during the vacation his son is kidnapped. In The Wrong Man is when a ordinary man gets arrested for a crime he does not commit. Mistaken identity is also a common plot device for example in North By Northwest where Roger Thornhill playing Cary Grant is mistaken for a non-existence CIA agent. Finally staircases were often a main role in Hitchcock's movies for example in Shadow of a Doubt, Uncle Charlie attempts to murder his niece by rigging a staircase to collapse and in Dial M for Murder, a key kept under the stair carpet plays a pivotal role in catching the murderer.