Hitchcockian Thresholds in Uncanny Homes

Yi Yang 21L.706 Paper #1 Hitchcockian Thresholds in Uncanny Homes The two domestic spaces in the films Blackmail and Shadow of a Doubt share a similar theme of “the uncanny home as a trap” for the guests and the inhabitants. However, the domesticity and privateness were represented and experienced by different modes of architectural narratives: one through thresholds as a genre of architectural structures, and the other through an atmospherical and abstract enclosure generated by the signification of “home”. It is also noticeable that the two modes seem different at the first glance, as one is much more literal than then the other, but we can visualize the atmospherical enclosure as a more abstract threshold between the private and public, and whatever is enclosed within the threshold is the domestic sphere. We essentially rely on the same differential definition of the two sides of the threshold, either to trespass the architectural thresholds between privateness and publicness in Blackmail, or to define the inside and outside of the atmospherical enclosure in Shadow of a Doubt. The first question is to define what is private and public in each film. In Blackmail, the private sphere to be focused on is the first floor of the family house operated and inhabited by Alice’s family. The entire townhouse is presumed to be owned by Alice’s family, where the family sleeps on the second and the third floor of the townhouse, and operates the family-owned shop on the first floor. However, the shop only occupies the front half of the first floor, while the back of the first floor is similar to a living/dining room and a kitchen, hosting the family’s day-to-day routines. As the first floor hosts both the characters’ private life and their economic activities in the society, the architectural space’s hybrid functions become interesting with an intrusion from guests. On the other hand, Newton’s family house in Shadow of a Doubt is categorized to be in the private sphere easily, as opposed to the rest of Santa Rosa as the public sphere. Like most ordinary suburban houses, the first floor contains the living and dining room, while the second floor is taken up by the bedrooms. At the exterior of the house, there is also a front porch, back exterior stairs, and a garage separated from the main house. 

From its dictionary definitions, the word “threshold” means a gate, a door on a literal level, and it also further means a boundary or an interim space between a place’s ending and another place’s beginning on a more abstract level. In architectural studies, we say that a “threshold” is a “barrier space that is located for separating the volumes,” and “the floor of an entrance to a building or room”. A threshold is not a specific architectural element, but rather, they materialize in various spatial forms, including doors, windows, doorways, arches, and even some sub-spaces. The private and public spheres are never described directly in Blackmail, but rather experienced through trespassing the thresholds in between. In Blackmail, we will be talking about several thresholds manifested in architectural structures, where the three main characters (Alice, Frank and Tracy) move through (or try to), and each of the thresholds marks the clear spatial and symbolic boundary in each character’s own narrative. Some of the relevant spatial narrative concepts in the dialogue of thresholds will include visibility (or vision), acoustics, circulation and movement. I have attempted to recreate the plan of the first floor as shown above in figure 1 and figure 2, in order to locate the important thresholds in the scene and to relate them in the spatial layout and narrative structure. The first thresholds to start with are the glass entrance to the store and the door of the phone booth, shown in Figure 2 as threshold #2 and #6, which mark the boundary between the urban public space and the semi-private family-owned store, and even further into the more private enclosure within the store. At 52’19”, we see that Tracy stands outside of the store (Figure 4), lurking among other passersby and spying through the glass on the door. Here, the camera and the wooden frame of the glass door introduce Tracy as a new character in the film, by distinguishing him from the other strangers who were walking past the store in the background without stopping or casting their looks into this otherwise ordinary store. Soon enough, he sees a chance of confrontation when both Alice and Frank are talking privately in the phone booth, which is placed directly across the glass door in the front. It is certainly not a coincidence that any passerby could easily see through the glass door and the glass phone booth to check who is calling. Hitchcock specifically aligned the two glass structures to allow Tracy as a stranger with an agenda to spy on Frank easily and to complete the confrontation. The moment Tracy walks through that front glass door and opens the phone booth’s door, essentially trespassing two thresholds at the same time, he is no longer a stranger in the city who only had shown his shadow earlier in the film, nor is he any other customers coming to the store to shop. He now becomes another main character on the stage, entangled in the more private matter between Frank and Alice. Both the glass shop door and the phone booth door as architectural thresholds failed to separate the potentially hostile intrusions from the public into the semi-private, and even further failed to protect the occupants’ privacy in the semi-private space with the transparent glass. The occupants of the space, such as Alice and Frank, are exposed nakedly under and even directly framed by the glass panels enclosing the store and the phone booth. As Frank and Alice think they are safely enclosed by the glass panels, they are actually trapped inside with the minimal level of protection of their privacy, just as Tracy’s suggestion during the confrontation later: “don't wave the important clues inside of phone boxes: they've got glass doors.” In addition, the implication that Tracy has been following Frank and eventually chooses the family store for the blackmailing emphasizes the store’s hybrid functions of being both public and private. Suppose Frank walks into Alice’s private house with no glass door for Tracy to see anything, there would be no possibility for Tracy to even confirm if he is blackmailing the right persons. It is exactly because of the space’s hybrid functions of both a semi-public store but also owned by a small family that Frank would drop by and ask Alice on such private matter about the murder, and that Tracy would be able to come straight in without any excuse to present his stakes at hand. Similarly, the artist studio previously also has similar hybridity of privateness and publicness. One of the main reasons Alice would visit the artist’s studio at a late time is because the studio not only hosts the artist’s daily living routines, but also is a commercial or production space as he paints for his living. The artist utilizes the duality of the spatial functions to convince Alice to visit, just like Tracy understands the family/business duality in the store so that he managed to intrude into the private matter and blackmail for a cigar and some money. This threshold signified by the glass door at the storefront is later repetitively crossed by other normal visitors of the store, and every crossing of the threshold emphasized its function of separating the public and the semi-private. After Alice’s father goes into the family living room in the back, the three main characters are the only ones occupying the semi-private space, where they may discuss freely their deal. But whenever another stranger enters the store from the street, the three characters’ secret discussions are interrupted and they have to pretend to be normal and even strangers to each other since they are suddenly brought back to the public sphere. The moment when the intrusion of the public happens after every doorbell ring, the audience can also hear the sounds from the streets outside, breaking the silent tension and the implicit unease in the room. Unlike the three characters in tension who are afraid to be discovered by other strangers, the sound from the outside world is a break for the audience, where the audience knows that not many actions or plots would happen between the three. Puncturing through the film world into reality, this short relief for the audience is a reverse proof of the concept of “home as a trap”, where the audience can expect safety that comes from the open threshold connecting the public and the semi-private. The uncanny home as a trap not only functions on the hosts of the space, such as Alice and Frank. Rather, it also functions on the uninvited guest Tracy, as he crosses the boundary leading to the private. This threshold marks the connection between the store and the most private part of the space, illustrated in figure 2 as threshold #3. After Tracy extorts money and an expensive cigar from Frank, Tracy further invites himself to stay for breakfast in the family’s dining room, and he is now introduced as a “friend” of Frank. The living and dining room in the film is often occupied by the family's daily life other than managing the store. As shown in the reconstructed plan, the living room in the back has a similar size to the storefront. For Alice’s family, the living room is the connection between their private bedrooms and the economic activities. Through the glass panels and the glass door in between the store and living room, the family can watch over the store while performing their daily routines in their home. Prior to Tracy, there was another guest who almost trespasses the private threshold — the other lady who visits the store and gossips. Even though she spends quite a long time in the store, we see that she does not intrudes in the living room, and the most she does was standing right on the threshold. And as Tracy trespasses the threshold without any hesitation, and even taken a further step by sitting in Alice’s father’s armchair, he walks straight into the trap of domesticity. Later as Frank orders Alice to lock the door (threshold #4) and firmly cuts the boundary between private and public, we see that the living room has literally turned into a trap in the reversal of the power relationship between Frank and Tracy. The two thresholds in the living room (threshold #3 and #4) lead to the two ends of the private and public spectrum, with one leading to the even more private spaces in the household, and the other returning to the public. As both routes are then sealed off by Frank and Alice, it is emphasized that the living room is symbolically the most intimate space on the first floor, where we get to see the three characters’ inner thought process, and also for the first time Tracy’s background story. At last, with no other way out, Tracy manages to find another exit and breaks through the threshold to return to the public. The threshold broken through is the window that connects the living room to the backyard and then the urban public again, as shown in figure 2 as threshold #5. The only escape from an enclosed private space, or a trap set up by Frank and Alice, is to illegally break the glass. He escapes from the physical trap of the living room, yet from this moment of illegality, Tracy becomes trapped in the false accusation of murder, a much more severe crime than blackmailing. In the end, as Tracy climbs up to the open roof (by running through the small enclosed gallery rooms that are almost private), he dies from the symmetrical action of breaking through the glass and this time falling into the interior, which can be seen as a destined ending of his entrapment. Similarly in the film Shadow of A Doubt, the uncanny home is enclosed by a strong abstract threshold between the inside and the outside, while also becomes a trap for both the inhabitants and the guests. The threshold surrounding the house in this film manifests more as the differential definition of the homely atmosphere, rather than in the literal architectural forms (such as windows and doors) in Blackmail. One could only define what is inside of the threshold or enclosure by distinguishing what is outside and does not belong. When defining the homely atmosphere inside of the Newton house and determining who belongs to the family, we are essentially abstractly applying a threshold between the inside and outside, and measuring against the threshold. Nevertheless, it is certain that this abstract threshold is projected onto certain architectural elements or symbolism in the Newton house, and as these morphed thresholds are crossed, we see the uncanny home is activated and then becomes the entrapment of the inhabitants. It is certain that the pair of two main staircases, one interior and the other exterior in the back, play central roles not only in distinguishing the spectrum of private and public, but also being used as a crucial tool by the two Charlies against each other, which makes this threshold an uncanny architectural symbol of the house. To start with the interior staircase, we can see it as a threshold between guests and family, as well as a “stage” to exhibit the knowledge and power relationship. The detectives have to pretend to be the surveyors in order to be righteously invited to the second floor of the house, led by young Charlie (figure 5). Unlike the other guest Herbie, who only comes into the living room in his visit. During the detectives’ visit, Uncle Charlie walks up straight to the second floor without interacting with the detectives, implying that he is counted as a family member in the Newton house, and potentially exerting power over the strangers that Emma has allowed into the house. As the detectives go upstairs to try to confront Uncle Charlie, Uncle Charlie leaves the house with the exterior stairs at the back. The detectives try really hard to trap or corner Uncle Charlie, while Uncle Charlie is able to use the other staircase to escape from this domestic trap. Later in the film, after learning that the police have captured the merry widow murderer, Uncle Charlie goes up to the stairs, and then looks downward at young Charlie (figure 7). Young Charlie is framed by the front door and is almost reluctant to come into the same house with Uncle Charlie (figure 8). Note that there is a switch in the power relationship between the guest and the host. The two Charlies are connected visually and symbolically by the interior staircase. Their psychological distance is materialized by being a staircase apart, and the vertical height difference suggests their switch of power. Being at the top of the staircase here means for Uncle Charlie to possess more power and credibility than young Charlie, and also suggests the possibility of Uncle Charlie intruding into the private even more. The interior staircase’s function power exertion or pressuring is again seen at the end of the film when young Charlie descends the stairs down to the living room, wearing the ring she has stolen back from Uncle Charlie (figure 6). Since the lower part of the staircase is visible from the living room, the stairs become a stage for young Charlie to transmit the secret message between her and Uncle Charlie. As the camera zooms in and guides the viewer’s gaze to the center object, we know that the telepathy between the two Charlies has been completed, as well as the power exertion from young Charlie. The interior stairs serve the twisted functions of being an architectural apparatus containing the secret uncanniness of the home. On the other hand, the exterior stairs are also a frequently used structure by the two Charlies, and its functions soon turn from an alternative threshold of escaping from the private to a literal murderous tool. As mentioned earlier, Uncle Charlie leaves the house from the back stairs in order to hide away from the detectives (figure 9). As Uncle Charlie’s double-figure, young Charlie also uses the back stairs at night when she wants to go to the library to find out about Uncle Charlie. The exterior staircase in both cases is a tool well-used by the two Charlies as an alternative solution to some goal they wanted to achieve. It represents a quick and easy escape from being cornered by the detectives for Uncle Charlie, while it means sneaking out for knowledge transmission for young Charlie. Both of which are an inconspicuous way of trespassing the threshold between the private and public, and both of which emphasizes the fact that the private or the home is something that needs to be escaped from. However, soon enough, the back stairs as an architectural structure are turned into a murderous weapon by Uncle Charlie (figure 10). As the wooden step is on the verge of being broken into two pieces and a hold is about to appear between the steps, the back stairs become the literal trap for young Charlie as she walks down. The literal entrapment also manifests as the garage in the film that young Charlie has stuck twice inside. As James McLaughlin in the essay “All in the Family” also points out this example, the first time of being trapped in the garage is when Graham proposes to young Charlie in the garage, and the doors, which are the only thresholds connecting to the public, are slammed shut. As if one time is not enough to alert young Charlie about the danger of the garage as a trap, young Charlie once again goes into the garage to take out the car alone. The garage door is set up to be stuck, the car is running without the key to turning it off. Uncle Charlie sets up this second trap with the existing architectural structure by cutting off all of the possibilities for Charlie to escape from the private to the public. The garage can be seen normally as a safe and private enclosure, protecting both the car from the weather and also previously the private and intimate conversation between young Charlie and Graham. We can almost see the garage as a scaled-down version of the Newton house. But here the enclosure no longer purely means a shelter or haven. Instead, the overly exaggerated shadow casted on the door of the garage (shown in figure 11) suggests ominously that it is much more like a hostile trap that one could utilize to involuntarily “enclose” someone. On another note, another scaled-down model of the house contains a similar level of the uncanniness of the domestic space — the newspaper home constructed (shown in figure 12) by Uncle Charlie earlier in the film. This home model is inherently fragile from its fabrication material, and in a sense, it only consists of the contour or the facade of the house. Its fragility and emptiness inside could register itself as an architectural embodiment of the family, almost matching young Charlie’s comment at the beginning of the film: “This family has just gone to pieces.” As Uncle Charlie tears out the news about his murders, the paper model of the home cannot even be considered as a proper enclosure anymore, as it is constantly challenged by intrusion from outside,  To conclude, even though the two films Blackmail and Shadow of a Doubt narrates completely different kinds of suspense, both film’s domestic or private spaces are constantly under the spell of being “the uncanny home as a trap” for the occupants. Through the concept of thresholds, both architecturally and abstractly, we took a close look at the internal structures in the private spaces, as well as the symbolism of several architectural elements. And it seems that Hitchcock was quite consistent in the theme of uncanny homes in the timespan between the two films. Maybe a much broader topic is to trace Hitchcock’s methods of defining the concept of homes and private spaces in other films throughout his career. And in the end, we could ask: did Hitchcock’s assumptions of homes change in his films? Bibliography

Hitchcock, Alfred, director. Blackmail. 1929.

Hitchcock, Alfred, director. Shadow of a Doubt. Universal Pictures Co., 1943.

Jacobs, Steven. The Wrong House: the Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock. 2013.

McLaughlin, James. ”All in the Family: Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt”