Symbiology

Alfred Hitchcock, of course, was Catholic. There are interminable discussions about the quality of his Catholicism. There is no doubt that his work is often permeated by a Catholic ethos and Catholic themes. More rarely, his works are explicitly informed by Catholic culture. I Confess, of course, is about the seal of Confession.

Another film that is explicitly Catholic is The Wrong Man (1956), staring Henry Fonda,  Vera Miles, and Anthony Quayle. We watched it the other night.

[spoiler] There is a scene--the climax in fact--where the resolution occurs because of a Catholic prayer. You can't get more explicit than that film about the power of prayer.

The point of this post, though, is about the content of one of the features. One of those famous people and talking head analyses of the film and of Hitchcock. One of the "experts" said something like, "The Wrong Man is the Hitchcock film with the most explicit Catholic symbiology in it." First of all, what is "symbiology?" I'm thinking he meant "symbolism." Besides that, though, there is nothing symbolic about the Catholicism in the movie. A mother asks her son to pray. He prays--before an image of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus no less--the resolution happens.

People are funny.