“The master of suspense”, Alfred Joseph Hitchcock is one of the world's leading British directors and producers. He was raised by his strict and religious Catholic parents, Emma Jane and William Hitchcock, who believed in God's punishment. Furthermore, during childhood, Alfred Hitchcock mentioned that his parents would take him to the police station and lock him up for ten minutes and forced to stand at the foot of the bed for a few hours as punishment for having behaved badly. Therefore, all these types of concepts of being treated brutally or falsely accused would later be linked to his films. (Biography) For example, the main theme of restoring justice and guilt until proven innocent can be found in The 39 Steps and Rope, as the Catholic elements can be reflected in these two films respectively. In The 39 Steps, the protagonist, Richard Hannay, who bore the name of assassin due to mistaken identity, as the corpse of spy Annabella Smith was discovered in his apartment. Yet, Richard Hannay is just an ordinary Canadian who is on holiday in London and knows nothing about the agent from 'The 39 Steps', and thus was forced to begin his quest to discover the truth and complete the case. mission that Annabella Smith cannot complete and to clear her name from the accusation of murderer. In this scenario, Richard Hannay is an innocent person who commits a wrong crime. According to the National Catholic Register, Church law and the criminal justice system dictate that the accused are “innocent until proven guilty.” The Catholic Church supports the justice system to ensure that people are guilty before they are reported, but everyone must somehow believe in innocence until proven guilty. It is not fair to punish someone for a crime unless you are quite sure that the person is guilty. (Patheos) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Additionally, this idea that until guilt is proven, a criminal suspect should be assumed not to have committed a crime as this serves to protect an innocent and to prevent the possibility of being wrongly held accountable for guilt. Yet, in The 39 Steps, Alfred Hitchcock inverts the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" to "guilty until proven innocent" and this idea is one of the elements of being a Hitchcockian hero, as Richard Hannay was supposed to be." guilty". until proven guilty innocent", in the film he is wanted by the police and continues to chase him, in this scene Richard Hannay supposes to be a criminal from the point of view of the police officers, and also Richard tried to ask for help from the police, it is useless and causes Richard to start running from the police again. Towards the end of the film, Richard leads the police to the orchestra, then he can see Mr. Memory starting to practice his memorization skills, Richard shouts "What are the 39 steps ?" and "What was the secret formula you were taking out of the country?" (Transcript of the 39 Steps) Mr. Memory is sent backstage while being shot by Professor Jordan and trying to answer Richard's questions. After the police have having heard Mr. Memory's answer, Richard can finally clear his name from the accusation of murderer. According to the Bible: “Those who by word declare someone guilty, who trap the defender in court and with false testimony deprive him of justice. innocent". (Isaiah 29:21) “The Lord works justice and justice for all the oppressed.” (Psalm 103:6) This proved that “guilty until proven innocent,” as the Lord.
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