Hitchcock's films

[ikantspelwurdz]

Most of Hitchcock's films have 1 or 2 bodies, so I thought I'd make a single big topic with all the ones I know of. The bodies are all from memory, so I might be wrong about some of them (but the names of the actors and characters are from IMDB).


The 39 Steps (1935)
Top billed actors: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll
2 bodies

Annabella Smith (Lucie Mannheim) is found dead in the morning with a knife in her back. The killer is unknown.

Mr. Memory (Wylie Watson) is shot by Professor Gordon (Godfrey Tearle). He doesn't die on screen, but he's unlikely to survive the wound.


Rebecca (1940)
Top billed actors: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine
1 body

Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) sets fire to the mansion, and becomes trapped in Rebecca's bedroom. It's implied she will burn up with the mansion.


Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Top billed actors: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten
1 body

Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) gets hit by an oncoming train.


Notorious (1946)
Top billed actors: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman
1 body

At the end of the movie, Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains) is disgraced in front of his "friends," and he steps inside his house's front door, fully aware that they are about to kill him. Fade to black, and the credits roll.


Rope (1946)
Top billed actors: James Stewart
1 body

Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and Philip Morgan (Farley Granger) strangle David Kentley (Dick Hogan).


Dial M for Murder (1954)
Top billed actors: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings
1 body

Margot (Grace Kelly) stabs Charles Swann (Anthony Dawson) with a pair of scissors in self-defense.


Rear Window (1954)
Top billed actors: James Stewart

No bodies in this one. A murder takes place during the movie, but neither the character nor the body are ever seen. There's also a dead dog.


The Trouble with Harry (1955)
Top billed actors: Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine
1 body

The entire movie is about a dead body; the titular Harry (Philip Truex).


The Birds (1963)
Top billed actors: Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Tippi Hendren
1 body

Lydia Brenner (Jessica Tandy) discovers a dead neighbor with his eyes gouged out.

A lot of people get attacked by the birds, but apart from the above body, it's unknown who gets killed by them.


Marnie (1964)
Top billed actors: Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery
1 body

In a flashback, Marnie Edgar (Tippi Hendren) kills a sailor (Bruce Dern) with a fire poker. Melody Thomas Scott plays as Marnie in the flashback, so she gets credit for the kill instead of Tippi.

Tippi does, however, get to kill a horse. (Not counted)


Torn Curtain (1966)
Top billed actors: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews
1 body

Hermann Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling) is murdered by Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman)


Films with more than 2 bodies:
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Spellbound (1945)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Vertigo (1958)
North by Northwest (1959)
Psycho (1960)
Frenzy (1972)


Lost films:
Number 13 (1922)
The Mountain Eagle (1927)

I haven't seen these:
The Pleasure Garden (1925)
The Lodger (1927)
The Ring (1927)
Downhill (1927)
Easy Virtue (1928)
The Farmer's Wife (1928)
Champagne (1928)
The Manxman (1929)
Blackmail (1929)
Juno and the Paycock (1930)
Murder! (1930)
The Skin Game (1931)
Rich and Strange (1931)
Number Seventeen (1932)
Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1935)
Secret Agent (1936)
Sabotage (1936)
Young and Innocent (1937)
Jamaica Inn (1939)
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
Saboteur (1942)
Lifeboat (1944)
The Paradine Case (1947)
Under Capricorn (1949)
Stage Fright (1950)
I Confess (1953)
To Catch a Thief (1955)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
The Wrong Man (1956)
Topaz (1969)
Family Plot (1976)

[JenGe]

ikantspelwurdz said:

The bodies are all from memory, so I might be wrong about some of them

Then please do not do them!!!!

Only post "exact" counts...nothing from "memory."

[ikantspelwurdz]

I am 100% certain that I got all the ones from:

Rebecca (1940)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Rope (1946)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
Marnie (1964)


These ones I remember very well, but I don't know for sure if some of the bodies count according to the rules or not.

Spellbound (1945)
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
Vertigo (1958)



These ones I'm not 100% certain:

The 39 Steps (1935)
Notorious (1946)
The Birds (1963)
Torn Curtain (1966)


-------------------------------------------------

The guidelines says not to count kills were nothing is actually shown, but to count kills where everything is shown until the last moment. That leaves a lot of ground open, so there are some bodies I'm not sure about. Can you tell me which ones count or not, and if possible, why?

Here are the ones I wasn't sure about.

In The 39 Steps, Annabelle Smith is given shelter at Richard Hannay's house. When the scene ends, she is perfectly healthy. The next time you see her, there's a knife in her back.

In Spellbound, a murder is discussed, but never shown. However, John Ballentine, who witnessed the murder and repressed the memory, has a dream where a man is pushed off a cliff, and this dream is clearly a metaphor for the murder.

In The Trouble with Harry, Harry is dead before the movie begins, but the entire movie is about his dead body and the inconveniences that it causes to the people who discover it.

In Vertigo, John Ferguson dreams he is falling to his death, but wakes up before he hits.

Also in Vertigo, a dead body is dropped from the top of a mission belfry to make it look like a suicide. This character is never seen alive.

In Psycho, the preserved corpse of the mother is discovered in the cellar. She's been dead for many years, and hasn't been seen alive in the movie.

In The Birds, a dead neighbor with his eyes gouged out is discovered. This person is never seen living.

Let me know if there are any more details I need to share. Thanks.

[JenGe]

ikantspelwurdz said:

The next time you see her, there's a knife in her back.

You "see" a knife in her back count it. You see a dead body count it.

In Spellbound, a murder is discussed, but never shown. However, John Ballentine, who witnessed the murder and repressed the memory, has a dream where a man is pushed off a cliff, and this dream is clearly a metaphor for the murder.

A discussed kill is NOT counted. A dream sequence kill is. The difference is one is "shown" the other is not. This site is about what is actually "shown" on screen...kills, bodies...

In The Trouble with Harry, Harry is dead before the movie begins, but the entire movie is about his dead body and the inconveniences that it causes to the people who discover it.

Harry counts once.

In Vertigo, John Ferguson dreams he is falling to his death, but wakes up before he hits.

This can be counted but noted as a "dream sequence/fictitious" death.

See The count for Number 23...

Also in Vertigo, a dead body is dropped from the top of a mission belfry to make it look like a suicide. This character is never seen alive.

Count.

In Psycho, the preserved corpse of the mother is discovered in the cellar. She's been dead for many years, and hasn't been seen alive in the movie. ...In The Birds, a dead neighbor with his eyes gouged out is discovered. This person is never seen living.

Did you see a dead body? Count it. This is clear in the quidelines. The person does not need to be alive anywhere in the film to count.

[davethejew]

Jen you wanna take this, i don't feel like pissing off anymore new users?

In my eyes all of those listed count as kills except for John Ferguson dreaming in Vertigo. Bodies discovered after (mummies, rotting corpses, skeletons and the like) are always counted. Put them in the Misc count and add them to the final count.

And please don't ever go by memory. EVER! I've done that and then forgotten kills. Don't do it. Frenzy has a decent count(it is my favorite Hitchcock film).

[JenGe]

davethejew said:

Jen you wanna take this, i don't feel like pissing off anymore new users?

Got it dave. Your restraint is admirable.

And please don't ever go by memory. EVER! I've done that and then forgotten kills. Don't do it. Frenzy has a decent count(it is my favorite Hitchcock film).

Seconded!!!! I only remembered one from Swing Kids but the film actually has two clearly shown kills/bodies.

My favorite Hitchcock is Rebecca which of course he hated.

[ikantspelwurdz]

Thanks for being patient with my questions. I have one more that I forgot to ask in my last post. At the end of Notorious, it's pretty clear that Claude Rains' character is going to be killed, and soon, but the credits roll before this happens. It's hard to do justice to the scene by describing it in words, but the implication is about as obvious as if the last shot showed him walking towards a gallows. Does this count as a cut-away kill?

[JenGe]

ikantspelwurdz said:

Does this count as a cut-away kill?

Yes, as long as most of it is shown and the outcome is clear. Many of Hitchcock's films are like this "cut-away's" or "edited" implied kills like the Psycho shower scene (nothing is actually shown if you look closely) but would count anyway.

An example of one that would not count is the "card game" killing in the recent Mr. & Mrs. Smith. All of that is "off screen"...no shots, no hits, no bodies are shown just "light flashes" from under the door.

[ikantspelwurdz]

Ok. Well, here are the ones with low counts that I'm completely confident are accurate:

Rebecca (1940)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Rope (1946)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
Marnie (1964)


And the ones I'm not 100% sure about:

The 39 Steps (1935)
Notorious (1946)
The Birds (1963)
Torn Curtain (1966)

[Amie]

If you're sure about those first six, and they're low count movies (1-2 kills only), you should post each of them in their own thread in the Low Count board with their details.

I have The Birds in my Netflix queue, so I can do that one.