SirAlfred Hitchcock, avowed master of suspense, architect of anticipation, is known for creating creeping, sneaking atmosphere, and a sense of impending, ominous peril lurking just beneath the surface. As the king of thrillers, it is no wonder Hitchcock has given viewers some of Hollywood’s most iconic villains.
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Hitchcock’s villains don’t tend to be scary by horror’s standards, but defined instead by their competence, their menace, the potency of their threat. These bad guys don’t wear masks or carry chainsaws. In fact, they may seem more damaged or desperate, almost sympathetic if not for their unpredictability and the ruthless pursuit of their devious ends. Hitchcock believed that the success of his films depended on their villainy, and these are some of his best.
10Tony Wendice, ‘Dial M For Murder’ (1954)
Tony (Ray Milland) is a former tennis player who married wife Margot (Grace Kelly) for her money. Unsatisfied, he spends a year meticulously planning her murder to inherit her fortune and blackmailing a criminal into committing it. When his plan goes awry, he scrambles to stay a step ahead of the inspector who just won’t quit.
An egotistical mastermind, Tony is charming and cunning, in direct contrast to the bumbling criminal hired to do the dirty work. Milland plays him with a serpentine savvy; Tony is a menacing villain because his planning results in an almost perfect murder and the audience believes he just may get away with it. While his smooth veneer is so over the top as to be sickly, it’s his bone-chillingly deliberate and methodical approach to plotting murder while simultaneously kissing his wife every morning over breakfast that makes this Hitchcock villain unforgettable.
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9Uncle Charlie, ‘Shadow Of A Doubt’ (1943)
Charlotte (Teresa Wright), in typical teenage fashion, is bored with her perfect family and idyllic small town but delighted when sophisticated Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) arrives for an unexpected visit. Charlotte and her Uncle Charlie share a special bond; she feels he’s the only one who understands her need for more. However, his strange behavior during the visit elicits even Charlotte’s suspicion.
Perhaps Hitchcock’s most nihilistic villain, Uncle Charlie is the definition of a psychopath hiding in plain sight. The disparity between his appearance and his behavior is stressed by Hitchcock; he’s handsome and seductive, but underneath, he’s the misogynistic serial killer known as the Merry Widow Murderer. Lightly disguised by nice suits and good manners, evil slithers into small town America unrecognized. ButShadow Of A Doubtmakes the townspeople and even Charlotte’s family complicit, unable or unwilling to see what’s right in front of their eyes. The audience is reminded that they, too, are susceptible as dapper actor Joseph Cotten conveys an unsettling rage simmering just beneath his polite exterior as Hitchcock pulls his camera in for a closeup.
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8The Birds, ‘The Birds’ (1963)
Melanie (Tippi Hedren), a spoiled, mischievous San Francisco socialite, meets handsome but arrogant lawyer Mitch (Rod Taylor) at a pet store, and is interested enough to drive up the coast to visit his family home in Bodega Bay where his eleven-year-old sister is celebrating a birthday. Melanie’s prank and subsequent flirtation are put on hold, however, when the little town is bombarded by unexplained bird attacks.
One character in the film explains that birds are incapable of mass attacks because they lack intelligence, yet the film not only portrays coordinated attacks, but strategic withdrawals as well. Their motive is unknown, which makes their actions feel even more menacing and unpredictable. Their numbers grow, their violence increases, and the birds are so devoted to their destruction that some will even die in the process. The birds are ushering in the end of the world;The Birdsis perhaps one of the first modern apocalypse movies, traumatizing viewers for decades now with its chilling score of nearly 120 minutes of hostile bird sound and a few minutes of threatening silence. Whether the birds attack as punishment for the self-absorbed characters’ complacency or as nature’s revenge, the film’s lack of explanation, indeed its lack of ending, is the most haunting and damning facet of all.
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7Phillip Vandamm, ‘North By Northwest’ (1959)
In a dire case of mistaken identity, advertising exec Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is kidnapped by thugs led by Phillip Vandamm (James Mason) who believe him to be secret agent George Kaplan. Roger escapes but must find Kaplan to prove his innocence in a murder. He’s helped along by a random young woman (Eva Marie Saint) who may not be as random as she first seemed.
North By Northwestis often referred to as Hitchcock’sJames Bondfilm, making Vandamm an ultra-suave Bond villain. He cuts the figure of a perfect gentleman in tailored suits with plenty of henchmen to do the dirty work for him. He’s a powerful, charming man who seems to have no moral code whatsoever, a stark contrast with the film’s innocent protagonist, Thornhill, though both have much in common as well - both elegant, urbane men prone to witty banter and sharing the same taste in women. Vandamm is as cold-blooded as he is smooth, his casual villainy only serving to highlight Thornhill’s inherent goodness.
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6Mrs. Danvers, ‘Rebecca’ (1940)
A shy young woman (Joan Fontaine) is ripe for being swept off her feet as she’s paid to keep an obnoxious woman company in Monte Carlo, and widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) does just that, marrying her within just two weeks. He brings his blushing bride home to Manderley where the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), is openly hostile, and still loyal to the previous Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca, who’s been dead less than a year.
Mrs. Danvers is dangerously obsessed with Rebecca, preserving her bedroom as a shrine, and openly bullying the new Mrs. de Winter in a campaign of harassment and subterfuge. She doesn’t stop at psychological abuse; she’ll do anything to be rid of the new Mrs. de Winter, including encouraging her to commit suicide. Attentive viewers may notice that Anderson rarely blinks. The audience is unsettled well before they can identify why. Her hatred of Maxim’s new bride isn’t exactly personal as no one could possibly replace Rebecca, but Mrs. Danvers despises both newlyweds for merely existing while her Rebecca does not, and will stop at nothing to make them miserable.
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5Brandon, ‘Rope’ (1948)
Brandon (John Dall) and Phillip (Farley Granger) embark on a fun intellectual exercise, strangling their former Harvard classmate, David, to death just to prove themselves capable of the perfect murder. With their classmate’s body stuffed into a trunk in their apartment, they host a dinner party and serve a buffet dinner atop it. Brandon makes a particular point of inviting their prep school housemaster Rupert (James Stewart), whom he feels sure will appreciate the art of murder.
While Phillip appears to struggle with their actions, drinking too much and becoming visibly morose, Brandon confidently steers conversation toward murder, dropping subtle hints about David’s unexplained absence. With David’s body cooling in the chest, Brandon cold-heartedly attempts to play matchmaker between David’s fiancée and other unsuspecting dinner guests. He strains under his secret, certain Rupert would be impressed. Dall plays well to the tension, a perfect portrait of psychopathy: no empathy, no remorse, only callousness.
4Robert Rusk, ‘Frenzy’ (1972)
Former RAF pilot Richard Blaney (Jon Finch) is fired from bartending for drinking on the job. He complains to his friend Bob Rusk (Barry Foster) and visits his ex-wife Brenda (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) to lament his luck with her as well. The next day, Brenda is found dead, sexually assaulted, and strangled with a necktie, an MO familiar enough that tabloids have dubbed the serial killer the Nicktie Murderer. Though the audience knows Rusk to be the killer, the cops suspect Blaney, who unfortunately is oblivious enough to turn to Rusk for help.
Frenzywas Hitchcock’s penultimate film, the first to earn an R rating, the first to have nudity, and by far the most explicitly graphic of his oeuvre. ForFrenzy, Hitchcock required a top-notch psychopath with an extensive rap sheet and an awful lot of carnage. On top of which, Rusk is willing to frame his friend for the murders. Barry Foster, a relative unknown to American audiences, played him to perfection, stylish and courtly, irredeemably depraved.
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3Bruno Antony, ‘Strangers On A Train’ (1951)
Tennis star Guy (Farley Granger) meets Bruno (Robert Walker) on a train one day and the two have a conversation that Guy will soon regret. Guy is hoping to divorce his unfaithful wife and marry another woman instead. Bruno speaks of his overbearing father and proposes a solution to suit them both: as the two are perfect strangers, they should swap murders as neither would seem to have any ties to the crimes. When Bruno murders Guy’s wife, he demands that Guy reciprocate, or be framed for the murder himself.
Bruno was queer-coded to suggest homosexuality without raising censors’ eyebrows. Both sinister and flamboyant, Bruno was undoubtedly a dangerous man, trapping an innocent one in a murder scheme after a single aborted conversation. Walker is brilliant in the role, charismatic and creepy, enacting a cat-and-mouse dynamic that has him firmly in the feline seat.
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2Lars Thorwald, ‘Rear Window’ (1954)
Photographer L.B. Jefferies (James Stewart) fights boredom as he convalesces, wheelchair-bound, in his Greenwich Village courtyard apartment. Peering through his window, he witnesses a murder in the salesman’s (Raymond Burr) apartment opposite his. When police are unwilling to get involved, he and girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) continue to spy.
Thorwald is one of Hitchcock’s most interesting villains because of how little the audience knows of him. Viewers experience him as Jeff does – from a distance. He is seen but rarely heard. But because so little is known, anything seems possible. Viewers are undone by their own imaginations. The uncertainty is oppressive. Burr’s hulking presence contrasts Stewart’s weakened one, and makes Jeff’s accusations seem all the more plausible, even without proof.
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1Norman Bates, ‘Psycho’ (1960)
When a secretary (Janet Leigh) embezzles from her employer’s client, she takes the money and runs, holing up at a small motel run by a strange and lonely young man (Anthony Perkins) doing the bidding of his domineering mother.
Both the villain and a victim, Norman Bates is one of the most iconic villains in popular culture. When Bates first encounters Marion Crane, he puts on a shy but helpful show, as if he’s merely awkward in the presence of such a beautiful woman. The audience, however, senses that there’s something a little off about him. Perkins reveals himself slowly, his eyes shifty, his voice not quite right, his slow, subservient responses like warning flares the audience is powerless to heed. Norman’s villainy is such that though he commits unspeakable acts, the audience still feels for him, perhaps even sympathizes. Evil feels more potent when it can’t be simply sorted into black and white. Norman Bates is a man who cannot help himself, sick but not so different from any other man, and perhaps that’s what makes him the scariest of them all.
