In this course on suspense films, we'll start with Hitchcock's early classic, The 39 Steps. This film, often considered his first great work, combines thrilling action with humor. The story follows Richard Hannay, an innocent man wrongly accused of murder after a woman he meets is killed in his apartment. He is chased across England and Scotland until he proves his innocence with the help of a skeptical woman. Next, we'll study Three Days of the Condor by Sydney Pollack. This film, which at first seems to be merely a man-on-the-run story, becomes very quickly a complex study of who is chasing the hero and why.

The second half of this semester’s study of suspense films will be spent on Shadow of a Doubt, the movie Hitchcock often said was his favorite of all the films that he directed, because it is at once gripping entertainment and psychologically complex, and we’ll conclude with the movie Leonard Maltin calls his “candidate for the best Hollywood movie of all time” - Casablanca.

Twelve-Week Course Schedule | Tuesdays
Sept 03 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Sept 10 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Sept 17 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Sept 24 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Oct 01 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Oct 08 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Oct 15 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Oct 22 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Oct 29 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Nov 05 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Nov 12 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Nov 19 | 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

This class will be held in-person at WIH