Things learnt from Hitchock’s ‘Murder!’

Murder! is a 1930 British drama film co-written and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, about an actor that employs his acting skills to try and discover the innocence of a young actress that was found guilty during a trial in which he was a jury-member.

1. Have a character’s goal tie in to his/her want.

The character of Sir John, a successful actor, is brought to pursue true justice for a woman that he was bullied into declaring her guilty whilst serving on the jury during her trial. His goal (goal being plot based), is to find her innocent. His want (want driving the emotional core of the character), is to justify his role as an actor in society as important. This is hilarious, as it makes a mockery of the art and the character. He’s hope of being a hero is from a satireable place.

However, it does hold back on this and even pulls away to the point where I begin to doubt my suspicions on his drive. When a connection is found between him and the victim, in that he was the one who sent her off with the person she apparently murdered, it weakens the drive of his character and puts it down to simple guilt. I believe this was a…