Capote & Hitchcock, Part 1: Shadow of a Doubt

      Looking back over everything we read this term, I stand by my original pronouncement that In Cold Blood was definitely my favorite read. (I use 'read' specifically because I'm not entirely sure if it was technically my favorite book of the term, but I'll address that later, possibly.) Although In Cold Blood was one of the longer texts we read this term, it didn't feel that way at all; and I think that has much to do with Capote's narrative approach. Like Hitchcock does on film, Capote establishes a creeping sense of dread from the beginning and deftly maintains that sense throughout the novel. He continues to build suspense so as not to lose his reader's interest, and to guarantee they remain rapt, he punctuates the mood with truly horrific scenes at precisely the right moments.

      The opening scenes of In Cold Blood remind me of the first shots of Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943). In this film, after an establishing shot of the Hackensack River and Pulaski Skyway, subsequent shots reveal the Newark skyline, an urban residential street, an rundown apartment building's door, then window, and finally Uncle Charlie on his bed as the camera pans to a pile of money on the nightstand and floor beside him. Capote too brings his reader gradually from the vast Kansas plains into the town of Holcomb to River Valley Farm and then to the Clutter home itself. Four shotgun blasts are mentioned during this sequence, which, like the suspicious pile of money next to Charlie, immediately establish the aforementioned sense impending dread. We're led distinctly to each narrative's point of origin and told in no uncertain terms that something is wrong and it's going to get worse...

      After the shotgun blasts, Capote's narrative dissolves into an nearly placid description of the Clutters' lives, which fosters of a sense of normalcy despite the dread. The result of this approach is to prompt the reader to feel that he/she has full stakes in the action when the most heinous events occur. This technique is frequently utilized to great effect by Hitchcock too. In Shadow of a Doubt, after Charlie hightails it out of Jersey under questionable circumstances, a similar series of shots to those that introduced Charlie are used to introduce his niece, who also happens to be nicknamed Charlie. However, the seediness of the river and overpass is now replaced by an establishing shot of a quaint Californian suburb set in the hills, which is followed by a shot of the town square, then a picturesque suburban street and house, then a front door, then window, and finally young Charlie on her bed. It's the same progression of shots as the opening sequence, yet the change of scenery creates an entirely different, calm mood. Nevertheless, like in In Cold Blood, this mood is troubled by the menace the viewer knows is headed its way...

I could easily go on with this Capote/Hitchcock discussion, but I think that's enough for now. I'd love to know if anyone had similar reactions/thoughts when reading, and maybe I'll share some of my In Cold Blood/Rope (1948) and Dial M for Murder (1954) comparisons in another blog...