Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Donen were film directors. In their early lives, Hitchcock and Donen had few friends hence they did not interact much. It is their predicament in their lonely environments that forced them to the theatres at a young age. For Donen, he grew up in neighborhood of very few Jewish families and occasional bullying from his classmates made him lonely and unhappy, a situation that led him to spend most of his time in a local movie theatre where he was able to develop a passion for films. Accordingly, Hitchcock had a lonely childhood due to his chubbiness and timidity, as a result of which he preferred to attend London trials and movies. The two directors developed a passion for thriller and comedy movies. Most of the films that the two directed incorporated a blend of romantic comedy and espionage thriller. One of the movies that show the similarities between the two directors is “Charade”, which was directed by Donen and which incorporates the features of a classic thriller that are similar to those that Hitchcock incorporates in most of his films (Silverman, 1996).
While Donen’s first love was theatre, Hitchcock was a draftsman, an advertising designer, an in-house publisher, and had a military stint before taking interest in film production gradually rising from a title card designer to a film director. It is important to note that humor and suspense is the trademark in Hitchcock’s films but the trademark in Donen’s films is his inclusion of musical sequences, which he developed by directing sequences while working with music and photography. Donen’s film work set innovative standards with regard to animation, cinematography, editing, and special effects. Donen had a long working relationship with Gene Kelly with whom he co-directed films and choreographed dance sequences in films. While Hitchcock had a relatively stable relationship with one wife, Donen’s personal life was chaotic given that he married and divorced five times.
References
Silverman, M. (1996). Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and His Movies. New York:
Knopf.
