Hitchcock's MacGuffins
WARNING:
There are lots of spoilers here
Part
1 | Part 2
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Film Title
(chronological order)
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Identification of MacGuffin(s)
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Screenshots of MacGuffin(s)
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Blackmail (1929)
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- the MacGuffin: a pair of women's gloves found
at the crime scene
- in the story, a London woman named Alice White (Anny
Ondra) murdered an artist (of harlequins) named Mr. Crewe
(Cyril Ritchard) who tried to rape her in his Chelsea art studio;
she defended herself with a bread-knife and stabbed him to death;
as she fled his studio, she accidentally left behind her gloves
- Scotland Yard Detective Frank Webber (John Longden),
Alice's beau-boyfriend, was coincidentally assigned to investigate
the homicide case; at the crime scene, when he located one glove
and realized it belonged to Alice, he concealed it from other colleagues,
knowing that it would incriminate Alice as the killer
- Alice's blackmailer was petty criminal Tracy (Donald
Calthrop), who had seen Alice enter Crewe's studio; he claimed
that he possessed the second glove; he made payment demands that
were confronted by Frank - who was determined to cover up for
Alice's misdeed
- as a suspect, Tracy fell to his death at the British
Museum during a chase, while Alice was considering turning herself
in to authorities; she wrote a note to Frank: "I am going to give
myself up. I cannot bear the thought of that man being accused
of something I have done"
- the police assumed that Tracy was Crewe's murderer;
she confessed the truth to Frank ("I did it")
and he replied: "I know"; she then explained how it was self-defense:
"I was defending myself - I didn't know what I was doing"
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Alice's Glove Left At Crime Scene
Glove Discovered (and Concealed) by Scotland Yard Detective
Frank Webber
Frank Revealing to Girlfriend Alice That He Had Her Glove
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Number Seventeen (1932)
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- the MacGuffin: a jeweled, diamond Suffolk necklace
stolen by a gang of thieves in London (Amhurst Park), and located
in a safe-house hideout on Anderson Road known as "Number
Seventeen"
- in the expressionistic opening set in a dilapidated
and abandoned mansion with cobwebs (a "house for sale or let" at
No. 17), a body was discovered on the floor (with handcuffs and
a gun) by a Cockney homeless man named Ben (Leon M. Lion) and an
undercover detective named 'Barton' (revealed at the end to be
Detective Gilbert Fordyce (John Stuart) (aka
Forsythe))
- shortly later, policeman’s daughter Rose Ackroyd
(Ann Casson) (a neighbor at No. 15) fell through the rotting roof
of the home; she claimed she was looking for her father Mr. Ackroyd
(Henry Caine), who disappeared from their home just before she
received a telegram -- "Have
Traced Suffolk Necklace to Sheldrake - Expect Him to Make
Getaway Tonight - Watch NO 17 - Will Arrive Later – Barton" --
the telegram from 'Barton' referred to a stolen necklace
and jewel thieves (led by 'Sheldrake' (Garry Marsh)) who were lured
for an anticipated rendezvous at the house at around midnight before
their escape via a trap door to a railway siding
- suddenly, the body on the floor disappeared - it
was actually 'Sheldrake' pretending to be dead;
he was
seen removing the necklace from the water-tank of a toilet, but then
Ben pickpocketed the necklace from 'Sheldrake's' pocket
- a trio of individuals (thieves looking for the necklace,
posing as house hunters) arrived at the house at 12:30 am: (1)
the gang leader's girlfriend Nora (Anne Grey), pretending to be
mute, (2) Nora's escort-husband Brant (Donald Calthrop), and (3)
their nephew, Henry Doyle (Barry Jones) (who falsely claimed in
the film's conclusion he was posing as 'Barton')
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in the final scene, Ben revealed that the necklace was safe around
his neck and offered it as a wedding present in exchange for a ride, as he spoke to Detective
'Barton'/Forsythe and Nora: "Will you see me safely home, guv'nor,
if I gives you a nice wedding present, eh?"
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Telegram to Rose About the Rendezvous at No. 17
The Necklace - Worn by Ben in the Film's Conclusion
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The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
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- the MacGuffin: the planned assassination attempt
of a foreign dignitary that was to take place in London (seen in
a secret message intended for the British consul)
- in the plot, during a skiing holiday in St. Moritz
(Switzerland) taken by the Lawrence family, Bob Lawrence (Leslie
Banks) with his wife Jill (Edna Best), a French skier named Louis
Bernard (Pierre Fresnay) was shot and killed during dinner; as
he expired, he whispered to Jill that in his hotel room, he had
a shaving brush containing a message that must be given to the
British consul
- the enigmatic and cryptic note contained a place
name (WAPPING) and two names: G. BARBOR MAKE CONTACT A. HALL MARCH
21st.
- it was revealed that Louis Bernard had been an agent
for the "Deuxieme Bureau" and had been in the process of preventing
the assassination of a world leader-statesman
- meanwhile, the Lawrence's daughter Betty (Nova Pilbeam)
had been kidnapped; under time pressure to find his daughter and
not upset the terrorists, Bob went in pursuit of the clues in the
note; he realized that he had misunderstood, through concert tickets,
that A. Hall was not a
person but a place (Royal Albert Hall), and the assassination was
to occur there at the end of the orchestral performance during
a clash of cymbals, by a sharpshooter-assassin named Ramon (Frank
Vosper)
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Cryptic Note: Assassination Attempt ("Contact A Hall"
- A Person or a Place?
Clue: Tickets to Albert Hall - The Location of the Assassination
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The 39 Steps (1935)
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- the MacGuffin: the nature of the '39 Steps' (What
did 'the 39 Steps' refer to? Was it an organization or a thing?)
- the British possessed
military secrets - secret airplane engine plans (vital to the country's
air defense) that spies were attempting to smuggle out of the country
in the mind of a music hall mentalist named Mr. Memory (Wylie Watson)
- in the concluding scene set in London's Palladium,
it was revealed that the memory expert on stage held the Hitchcockian "MacGuffin" in
his head - he had memorized the classified secret information
regarding mechanical plans for the design of an airplane engine:
"The details of the Air Ministry secrets were borrowed,
memorized by this little man, and then replaced before anyone could
find out" - and after the evening's show, Mr. Memory was to be
taken out of the country by the spies, led by Professor Jordan
- when the hero Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) shouted
out the question: "What are the Thirty-Nine Steps?", Mr. Memory
dutifully answered: "The Thirty-Nine Steps is an organization of
spies, collecting information on behalf of the foreign office of..."
- but before he finished and named the country, Mr. Memory was
silenced with a gun shot that rang out from master-spy Professor
Jordan's (Godfrey Tearle) box above the stage; backstage as he
died, Mr. Memory "confessed" by
proudly reciting the complicated scientific mathematical formulas
of the secret documents that he had painstakingly memorized - the
secret formula was about how to make silent aircraft engines
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Richard Hannay (Robert Donat): "What are the 39 Steps?"
Mr. Memory (Wylie Watson)
Professor Jordan - Firing at Mr. Memory From His Box
Mr. Memory - As He Died, He Recited his Memorized
Secret Plans Collected for the Spy Organization (the 39 Steps)
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Young and Innocent (1937) (aka The Girl Was Young)
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- the MacGuffin: the belt (used for strangulation)
from a missing (stolen?) raincoat
- in the plot, the body of international film star-actress
Christine Clay (Pamela Carme) washed up on an English coastal seaside;
her death came the morning after an argument with her jealous and
estranged ex-husband Guy (George Curzon), who still wanted to be
married to her (he said her Reno divorce wasn't valid), and accused
her of having affairs; incensed, he looked out at the sea from
the balcony, and turned back with rapidly-twitching eyes at his
ex-wife (angered and capable of foul play)
- at the scene of the crime, screenwriter Robert
Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) spotted the body and ran off to notify
authorities; police had determined that Christine
was strangled with the belt from a raincoat
- there were three reasons for Tisdall to be considered
a prime suspect, although he was wrongly-accused: (1) he was seen
running away from the crime scene, (2) Tisdall claimed that his
raincoat was recently stolen and was missing, and (3) Christine
had left him £1,200 pounds in her will (unknown to him),
suggesting that they were romantically involved with each other
- Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam), the daughter of
local police chief Colonel Burgoyne (Percy Marmont), believed in
Robert's innocence; an intense search occurred, with her help,
to search for and retrieve his raincoat to prove his alibi (if
his coat still had its belt, the one found next to Christine's
body wouldn't be his); when they questioned a local vagrant and
China-mender named Old Will (Edward Rigby) who had the raincoat,
it was learned that Will was given the coat (without a belt) by
a man with twitching eyes
- in the conclusion, a matchbook in the pocket of
the coat led to the Grand Hotel, where the killer (with the tell-tale
twitching eyes) was finally spotted - he was a blackfaced drummer
in a minstrel dance band (concealing his looks) in the hotel's
ballroom; when confronted after collapsing, he confessed to the
murder of Christine and Robert was cleared
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Raincoat Belt (for Strangulation)
Report of Murder: Raincoat Belt Clue
Guy (in Blackface) Confessing to Crime
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The Lady Vanishes (1938)
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- the MacGuffin: the secret message encoded in a piece
of music sung by a folk singer-musician on the street - listened
to and remembered by Miss Froy (May Whitty) - and then the singer
was soon after murdered by strangulation - why was the singer murdered?
- another MacGuffin: the identity (and location) of
the kidnapped or disappearing elderly lady Miss Froy - why did
she vanish?
- in this tale, the person carrying the 'secret'
information disappeared (or was kidnapped) and the search for their
'secret' became a search for the person
- there was evidence! that Miss Froy existed - she
had written her name on the steamed-up carriage train window, proving
that Iris Henderson's (Margaret Lockwood) claim that Miss Froy
existed wasn't just an hallucination, but then grime from a train
tunnel covered up the evidence
- in the final scene, Miss Froy was seen in the British
Foreign Office in Whitehall, playing the tune on a piano
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Folk Singer in Street Playing Tune - And Soon After Strangled
- But Why?
Evidence of Miss Froy Writing Her Last Name on Train Window
Miss Froy in the Foreign Office
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Rebecca
(1940)
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- the MacGuffin: the character
of the first Mrs.
de Winter - Rebecca (never seen on screen) - did husband Mr. Maxim
de Winter (Laurence Olivier) really love her or not, and was he
responsible for her death?
- the haunting presence of
keepsakes and the hallowed memory of Rebecca de Winter, continually
mentioned lovingly by housekeeper Mrs. Danvers to drive the second
Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine) crazy
- the startling confession given by Maxim to his second
wife, about how he despised Rebecca; when she asked: "How could
I even ask you to love me when I knew you loved Rebecca still?"
- he replied with vehemence: "You thought I loved Rebecca? You
thought that? I hated her!... I never had a moment's
happiness with her. She was incapable of love, or tenderness, or
decency"; the second wife replied with disbelief - and relief:
"You didn't love her?
You didn't love her?"
- the death of Rebecca (how she died) - was revealed
by her doctor Dr. Baker (Leo G. Carroll) and her husband to be
intentional - realizing that she was terminally ill, she deliberately
goaded Maxim into accidentally killing her; Maxim was acquitted
of her murder, and her death was ruled as a suicide
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The Deceased Mrs. de Winter
The 'Second' Rebecca - Haunted by the Memory of the
first Mrs. de Winter
Maxim's Startling Confession of Hatred For Rebecca
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Foreign Correspondent (1940)
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- the MacGuffin: the secret Clause 27 in a peace
treaty between Holland and Belgium, memorized by Dutch diplomat
Van Meer (Albert Bassermann) who was one of only two signatories
of the treaty; the most important clause in the treaty was never
written down, just memorized by the two; therefore, it was "a
piece of information that would be very valuable to the enemy in the
war that breaks out tomorrow, weather permitting"; the secret
clause in the treaty could either be used to avert or start the war
- in the plot, American crime reporter and 'foreign
correspondent' Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) was selected to interview
Van Meer: "Talk
with him, find out what's in that treaty, and what he thinks is
gonna happen. Facts!"
- in the film's most striking sequence set on steep
stair steps leading down from the Amsterdam
Town Hall to the public square, Jones became suspicious when
diplomat 'Van Meer' (Samuel Adams), whom
he had already met and talked to in London, failed to recognize him
even after repeated reminders; at the same time, a press photographer
(Charles
Wagenheim) stepped up to them and asked permission for the diplomat's
photograph - a gun was concealed or hidden by his camera, and the
assassin shot 'Van Meer' to death at point-blank range in the middle
of his forehead; he tumbled down the steps
- however, as it was revealed a bit later in a windmill
outside Amsterdam, the real Van Meer was alive; the man shot was
Van Meer's impersonator, look-alike decoy
or doppelganger; as a result of the real diplomat's
knowledge, he had been kidnapped after the faked assassination
attempt by a secret international peace organization operating
as a subversive Nazi spy ring; he admitted what had happened to
Jones before being taken away: "The man you saw shot, it wasn't
me. He was a substitute that looked like me...They want the world
to think that I've been assassinated. Yes. To conceal the fact
that I'm in their hands"
- the film revolved
around trying to locate and save the diplomat ("Holland's
strongman") (and prevent his torture) - he was allegedly the
key to maintaining peace in Europe in 1939
- in the long run, the MacGuffin became unimportant
when Van Meer was rescued (and the leader of the spy ring
was uncovered); the film ended with reports that Germany had invaded
Poland and Denmark, and was bombing Norway
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Reporter Jones and Photographer-Assassin with Diplomat
Van Meer (actually an Imposter!)
Assassination of Van Meer - Faked
At the Windmill - The Real Van Meer Was Alive
Van Meer - Kidnapped and Alive, But Tortured
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Suspicion (1941)
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- the MacGuffin: the overriding question: was playboyish,
irresponsible, untrustworthy, and penniless con-artist and gambler
Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) also a killer or not? did he marry
his wife just for her money? was he plotting his rich wife's murder?
- Johnnie's wife Lina McLaidlaw-Aysgarth (Joan Fontaine) continually
suspected that her husband was going to murder her - when he played
word games, all she could see was the word 'murder,' and when he
read a book about a killer, she thought it was a manual for his
own deeds to poison her
- the character of naive Englishman 'Beaky' Thwaite
(Nigel Bruce), Johnnie's friend and financial partner - was the
catalyst that caused Lina to ultimately suspect
that husband Johnnie was a murderer, when 'Beaky' was found dead,
traveling with Johnnie; after Lina learned of the death, the skylight
above her in the hallway cast a web-like shadow over her as if
she was in a cage - and the next victim?
- in the "glass of milk" sequence, Johnnie brought
bed-ridden Lina a glass of milk (was it poisoned?), ascending
the stairs with the luminous glass
- however, by film's end in a tacked-on ending, it
was revealed that Lina had been entirely wrong about Johnnie; he
was planning on taking out a life insurance policy on himself and
then committing suicide, in order to cover his debts
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Suspicions of Murder
"Beaky" Suspiciously Dead in Europe
Trapped - Shadows Cast a Cage Around Lina
Johnnie With a Glass of Milk for Lina (was it poison?)
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Saboteur (1942)
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- the MacGuffin: the elusive whereabouts of Frank
Fry (Norman Lloyd), an arsonist-saboteur who was part of a cabal
of 'fifth columnists' and terrorists who were plotting to destroy
Hoover (Boulder) Dam and a USS naval battleship in Brooklyn, among
other things, including in the first scene the burning of a
Los Angeles defense aircraft factory
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Fry with a Tampered Fire Extinguisher
Frank Fry - On Way to the Statue of Liberty
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Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
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- the MacGuffin: incriminating items (the stolen
ring and the newspaper article) that would reveal the evil identity
of serial killer Charles Oakley (Joseph Cotten) of rich widows
for their money
- upon arrival in Santa Rosa, CA, homicidal Uncle
Charlie gifted a stolen emerald ring to Young Charlie Newton
(Teresa Wright) with incriminating initials engraved
inside - a major MacGuffin
- after Young Charlie's sleuthing at the library to
read the days' newspaper (her family's paper had been destroyed
by Charlie) - she came upon an article about the 'Merry Widow'
murderer; she learned that the MW Murderer's third victim's name
matched the engraved initials on the ring Uncle Charlie gave her
(TS From BM): TS (Thelma Schenley) From BM (Mrs. Bruce Matthewson)
- the film's major turning point
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The Gift of a Ring From Uncle Charlie to Young Charlie
The Destroyed Newspaper Article
Young Charlie's Ring Engraving
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Spellbound (1945)
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- the MacGuffin: the many mysterious instances
of parallel lines (fork lines on the tablecloth, robe stripes,
vertical bars on a train station's ticket counter, train tracks,
patterns on a bedspread, and sledding tracks outside a window)
- and the search for their real meaning; why did the lines or patterns haunt and agitate
the sanity of the replacement head for Green Manors, a Vermont
psychiatric hospital - a young Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck)? --
was it due to a forgotten murder from the past?
- the MacGuffin, in essence, was Dr. Edwardes' memory
of his past and some traumatic event
- Dr. Constance
Petersen (Ingrid Bergman), the hospital's only female psychologist
- discovered that the signature on the note slipped to her by Dr.
Edwardes was markedly different from his autograph in his book
(Labyrinth of the Guilt Complex); she suspected he was a fraud,
although was falling in love with him
- through sleuthing and psychoanalyzing his phobia
(or "guilt complex"), Dr. Edwardes came to be cured;
he admitted he was an imposter (his real name was John Ballantyne
or J.B.), had amnesia, was on-the-run, and had possibly killed
the real Dr. Edwardes; he also remembered a traumatic childhood
incident of pushing his brother off a bannister, accidentally causing
him to be impaled by the spires of an iron gate; his recovered
memory revived him and inspired him to save Constance from skiing
off the same steep slope on which Dr. Edwardes, in JB's presence,
fell to his death
- the MacGuffins in the story ultimately climaxed
to reveal the unmasking of the real killer of Dr. Edwardes, Dr.
Murchison (Leo G. Carroll), the long-time head of the institution
who didn't want to be retired; he had shot Dr. Edwardes on the
ski slope just before he skiied off the edge
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Fork Tracks
Comparison of Signatures
Parallel Sledding Tracks in Snow Seen Outside Window
Remembering Traumatic Event of Childhood On Ski Slope
Childhood Trauma
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