MovieChat Forums > The Ten Commandments (1923) Discussion > Did it inspire Hitchcock? *SPOILERS*

Did it inspire Hitchcock? SPOILERS

posted 14 years ago by christinekay
4 replies | jump to latest

I recently saw this film, and something struck me during the modern sequence when Rod la Rocque shoots Nita Naldi. As she falls, she grasps a curtain held on a rail by hooks. During her fall, we see a closeup of the rail with the curtain gradually parting company from it hook by hook. This is actually very similar to the classic shower scene in "Psycho" where Janet Leigh grasps at the shower curtain which is ripped off the rail in the same manner. Hitchcock would have been in his mid-twenties when the film was released - I wonder if he ever saw the film and kept the memory of the incident with him when he made "Psycho".

[–] Tina-37 13 years ago

Hi there christinekay and sorry I'm just now seeing your post. I haven't been on this messageboard in a while. I've seen the movie several times, and I thought there was something familiar in the moment you mentioned -- and as a fan of Hitchcock and 'Psycho', it should have hit me immediately. While I don't know for certain if what you asked was the actual case with these two similar scenes, you figure that since many directors checked out the works of others, I wouldn't be overly surprised. I actually saw a clip from a silent DeMille film in which his use of camera movement -- particularly for Hollywood in the 1910's -- was almost from the German school. And years later, James Whale has obviously been inspired by Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' when he creates both Frankenstein's creature and The Bride. Spielberg once said that one of his favorite movie moments as a child was the train crash in DeMille's 'The Greatest Show on Earth.' (And DeMille had an equally spectacular train crash in his own silent 'The Road to Yesterday').

It might be some tiny detail that most movie goers will never catch, but it's still one director's way of paying tribute to another. I consider it even more special when one of us catches it and thinks "I wonder..."

[–] porfle 13 years ago

I watched this again today and was thinking the same thing!

hkfilmnews.blogspot.com
porfle.blogspot.com
andersonvision.com

[–] christinekay 13 years ago

Thanks for the comments! It'd be interesting to check out more early examples of cinema to see if they contain anything that looks familiar in later films.

[–] novastar_6 11 years ago

My mother and I just saw the movie tonight and that's the same thing she said.