R. Barton Palmer & Homer B. Pettey 
Hitchcock’s Moral Gaze 

In his essays and interviews, Alfred Hitchcock was guarded about substantive matters of morality, preferring instead to focus on discussions of technique. That has not, however, discouraged scholars and critics from trying to work out what his films imply about such moral matters as honesty, fidelity, jealousy, courage, love, and loyalty. Through discussions and analyses of such films as
Strangers on a Train,
Rear Window,
Vertigo,
North by Northwest, and
Frenzy, the contributors to this book strive to throw light on the way Hitchcock depicts a moral—if not amoral or immoral—world. Drawing on perspectives from film studies, philosophy, literature, and other disciplines, they offer new and compelling interpretations of the filmmaker’s moral gaze and the inflection point it provides for modern cinema.

Cuprins

Illustrations

Acknowledgments



Introduction


R. Barton Palmer and
Steven M. Sanders




Skepticism



1. Jealousy and Trust in
The Lodger


Graham Petrie



2. Fun with Suspicion


Thomas Leitch



3. Heroic Satans and Other Hitchcockian Heresies


Nick Haeffner



4. “Guilt, Confession, and . . . Then What?”:
The Paradine Case and
Under Capricorn


Brian Mc Farlane



5. The Forgotten Cigarette Lighter and Other Moral Accidents in
Strangers on a Train


George Toles




Immorality



6. Hitchcock’s Immoralists


Steven M. Sanders



7. Hitchcock the Amoralist:
Rear Window and the Pleasures and Dangers of Looking


Sidney Gottlieb



8. Voyeurism Revisited


Richard Allen




Moralizing



9. Alfred Hitchcock as Moralist


Murray Pomerance



10. The Deepening Moralism of
The Wrong Man


R. Barton Palmer
11. Hitchcock and the Philosophical End of Film


Jerold J. Abrams




Moral Acts



12. The Dread of Ascent: The Moral and Spiritual Topography of
Vertigo


Alan Woolfolk



13. The Philosophy of Marriage in
North by Northwest


Jennifer L. Jenkins



14. “The Loyalty of an Eel”: Issues of Political, Personal, and Professional Morality in (and around)
Torn Curtain


Neil Sinyard



15. Hobbes, Hume, and Hitchcock: The Case of
Frenzy


Homer B. Pettey



Bibliography

Alfred Hitchcock Selected Filmography

Contributors

Index

Despre autor

R. Barton Palmer is Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature at Clemson University. His previous books include
Invented Lives, Imagined Communities: The Biopic and American National Identity (coedited with William H. Epstein) and
Hitchcock at the Source: The Auteur as Adaptor (coedited with David Boyd), both also published by SUNY Press.
Homer B. Pettey is Professor of Film and Literature at the University of Arizona. His previous books include
Film Noir and
International Noir, both coedited with R. Barton Palmer.
Steven M. Sanders is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Bridgewater State University. He is the author or editor of many books, including
The Philosophy of Michael Mann (coedited with Aeon J. Skoble and R. Barton Palmer) and
The Philosophy of Steven Soderbergh (coedited with R. Barton Palmer).