Update 11 August 2017: This was published by mistake before it was done but I figure i am just going to leave it as a work in progress. I just completed TCM Presents The Master of Suspense: 50 Years of Hitchcock online course. I’m just throwing out an idea out here and that’s Girls Who Wear Glasses (GWWG) as a motif. Considering that one of them is Hitchcock’s own daughter Patricia, and it appears about as often as paintings, it’s significant, but it doesn’t really get talked about…not that I saw anyway.
Foreign Correspondent (1940) — Here a GWWG is played for a rather cruel laugh in the scene that starts around 19:40.
Obviously, there is Strangers on a Train (1951), with the Miriam/Barbara doubling. Barbara is played by Hitchcock’s daughter Pat.
“You don’t mind if I borrow your neck for a moment, do you?” Bruno’s disturbing obsession with Barbara is evident for the second time in the film at about 1:40 in this clip.
Vertigo (1958) — Fan favorite GWWG Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes) is waaaaaay too good for Scottie (James Stewart).
North by Northwest (1959) — Roger O. Sterling Thornhill (Cary Grant) sneaks out of the hospital via a GWWG’s room:
Three other films in which characters wear glasses (however briefly…and all are main characters).
Rebecca (1940) — Joan Fontaine as the second Mrs. DeWinter.
Suspicion (1941) — Fontaine as Lina is first seen wearing her glasses when she meets Johnny, and throughout the film needs them to help her read his correspondence, but they don’t necessarily help her see the truth.
Spellbound (1945) — Ingrid Bergman as Dr. Constance Petersen
Of course, the most important GWWG in Hitchcock’s life was his wife, Alma Reville, who was born the day after him (that would be on August 14, 1899) and seemed to wear glasses at least some of the time.
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