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Alfred Hitchcock: The MASTER of SUSPENSE
“… and remember, the next scream you hear maybe your own!”

LET’S IMAGINE A FILM WITH THREE MEN SITTING IN A ROOM. There is a bomb hidden in the room, but the men don’t know about it. Neither does the audience. The men are engaged in small talk, but no one is really interested. Then the bomb explodes. The audience is surprised, but there has been no suspense.
Now let’s change the situation a little. This time, the audience knows that the bomb is ready to go off, but the men in the film don’t. Now the small talk has a dramatic effect. It becomes unbearable. The audience wants the men to get out of the room, but they don’t go. Someone makes a move to leave, and the audience makes a sigh of relief. But someone delays, and the tension builds again.
One of the greatest masters of suspense was Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980). He knew how to keep the viewers on the edge of their seats and developed his skill to the point of high art.
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Buckingham Palace – Westminster Cathedral = 666 metres.
Buckingham Palace – Wellington Monument = 666 metres.
Buckingham Palace – Victoria Station = 666 metres.
Buckingham Palace – Houses of Parliament = 1332 metres = 2 x 666.
Downing Street – St Jame’s Palace = 666 metres.
Downing Street – New Scotland Yard = 666 metres.
Downing Street – National Gallery = 666 metres.
Westminster Cathedral – Queen Victoria Memorial = 666 metres.
Queen Victoria Memorial – Duke of Wellington’s Memorial = 666 metres.
St Paul’s Cathedral – Bank of England = 666 metres.
St Paul’s Cathedral – Barbican = 666 metres.
Tower of London – London Bridge = 666 metres.
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Can you imagine life without films or television, cinema’s little sister? Today we can watch television 24 hours a day, we can go to the cinema when we want. We can even make video films ourselves.
But imagine the surprise and the shock that people felt when they saw the first films in 1895! There was no sound, no colour and the films were very short: they lasted from 60 to 90 seconds! Besides, they did not tell a story. They were glimpses of real life: a military parade, a running horse, a boxing match, the ocean… One of the first films showed a train coming towards the camera. The audience panicked and ran away! The frightened people were sure that the train was coming into the theatre.
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Strange, true story Of Dracula
Of course, you are familiar with the famous vampire Dracula. How much of the Dracula that thrills modern readers and film-goers is fact? How much is fiction? Read the story and you will probably understand how legendary figures can develop.
Vampire stories… Hounds howl in the night. A young girl cries out, then is silenced. At dawn her body is found, dead but peaceful, with a faint smile on her face. She is pale, drained of blood, with two tiny puncture marks on her neck. Count Dracula has struck again!
Count Dracula has struck again! During the day he is a corpse. But at night he attacks innocent people, mostly girls, and drinks their blood. His victims die and become vampires themselves.
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No one knows when and where people first wore glasses. Europeans probably began wearing them in the 1200s. Marco Polo, an Italian trader and traveler, reported that he saw people wearing glasses in China in 1275!
In the last century, shops sold new and used glasses. Customers simply tried on glasses until they found the ones that helped them see better — and fit their faces!
No one liked wearing glasses because they were unfashionable and often expensive.
Women who needed glasses tried to look as fashionable as possible by carrying lorgnettes, glass lenses attached to fancy handles. Sometimes women hid their eyepieces in jewelled fans.
By the 1900s, people’s eyes got more attention — and more glasses. Women’s glasses also became more popular. Some say it’s because cars were developed. If a woman with poor eyesight wanted to drive, she had no choice but to wear her glasses!
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Each of the following 40 sentences contains 1 typical mistake. Can you find it?
1. This money isn’t mine. I can’t take them.
2. Volga is the longest river in Russia.
3. Tom has to get up very early now, hasn’t he?
4. I’d like to tell a few words about my family.
5. He’s leaving to London tomorrow.
6. We’ll go to the country if the weather will be fine.
7. Can you explain me this rule?
8. I don’t like rave music. — So do I.
9. Our teacher made us to read the text again.
10. Did you watch TV when I phoned you yesterday?
11. Have you ever been to London? — Yes, I have. I’ve been there last year.
12. Has anybody seen him to leave the room?
13. Which of you want to go to the concert tonight?
14. Look at this man! Are you seeing him?
15. What a nasty weather we are having today!
16. You look tired. Let me to help you.
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The Big Secret of Dealing with People
(After D. Carnegie)

What do you want? Not many things, but the few things that you do wish, you crave with an insistence that will not be denied. Almost every normal adult wants:
1. Health and preservation of life.
2. Food.
3. Sleep.
4. Money and the things money will buy.
5. Life in the hereafter.
6. Sexual gratification.
7. The well-being of our children.
8. A feeling of importance.
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