The priest who suffered too much

One of Hitchcock's favourite story paradigms, that of the
wrongly-accused man, was one he used again and again. The director
expressed surprise, IIRC, to Truffaut when the latter pointed this out
... I suppose he felt what with the variations and embellishments with
each usage, each was unique.

One of these is in 'I Confess', where the wrongly-accused man is Fr.
Michael Logan. The variation here is that Logan actually appears to
*invite* and accept the ordeal he goes through .. possibly over some
guilt he feels over something.

I was wondering though if this quite unique example of Hitchcock's use
of this theme was not *illuminating* for all those other instances. For
examples, does Hannay have some psychological need to get out of London
(the big city) and go up to Scotland? .. does John Robie have some need
to abandon his hermitic life? .. does Roger Thornhill have some need to
give up his comfortable New York city life and do something a bit more
worthwhile (for both his country and himself)?

Fergal #.

muffin DeleteThis @labyrinth.net.au wrote:

> sawakatoome wrote:
> > One of Hitchcock's favourite story paradigms, that of the
> > wrongly-accused man, was one he used again and again. [...]

> Interesting post, Fergal. I think it all goes back to the prototypical
> spy novel 'The Riddle of the Sands' (1903) by Erskine Childers, in
> which the hero starts out being 'bored in London' - and thus in
> desperate need of the adventures that soon befall him after he travels
> abroad for a yachting trip. John Buchan borrowed this idea to use in
> 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' (1915), for Hannay, too, starts out being
> 'bored in London'. In turn, Hitchcock saw that the idea was a useful
> one because (1) boredom is a universal experience, and (2) film
> audiences often went to the cinema precisely to alleviate boredom!

Thanks for that. I must check out 'The Riddle of the Sands' .. and now
not least because of who penned it (.. one of Ireland's most prominent
republicans of old, Erskine Childers).

Fergal #.