The Hitchcock Influence

One thing that struck me in particular while reading these "Crime Suspense Stories" was the distinctly cinematic vibe that each issue radiated.  In particular, all of the comics made me think back to Alfred Hitchcock's films throughout the 1940s and1950s.  His films were filled with suspense and mainly focused on giving the viewer a psychological thrill and terror over the more common bloody horror in movies today.  Even when the issues such as "A Snapshot of Death" and "The Corpse in the Crematorium" didn't contain murder or suicide and had an almost "happy" ending, they were still filled with an amount of suspense that left the reader sitting on the edge of their seat turning the pages!  Hitchcock was known for his manipulation of the viewer's psychology within his films and enjoyed toying with his character's motives.  He sometimes made you root for the villain, or at the very least not know exactly which character actually is the bad guy.  This is also found within the "Crime Suspense Stories," as sometimes you end up rooting for the villain or don't actually know who is the real bad guy in the story.

Besides the Hitchcockian feel of the plot lines and 1950s dialogue, the images within the comics themselves were reminiscent of his films.  The dark shadows, deep contrast, stylized and attractive men and women, and angles depicted within the panels all lend to the air of drama as you read.  This is similar to Hitchcock's use of shadows within his black and white films to add drama and suspense (as the viewer occasionally can't see what's actually happening, only hear sounds), use of attractive and popular actors to play the lead roles, and brilliant cinematography to choose which angles and views (or lack thereof) would give the viewer the best nail-biting reaction.

Clearly there was an influence or connection between popular cinema at the time and these popular crime stories.  I'm interested in how much they actually influenced each other- was it in fact a two way street?  Did the popularity of these suspenseful comics among children and teens encourage movie producers to create more crime drama and suspense-filled films?