Tag Archives: Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock (Volume 4, Episode 4) Part One

In his sixty year career, Alfred Hitchcock established himself as one of the most important cultural figures of the 20th century

Publicity photo for The Birds, early sixties.
A photo of Hitchcock, early in his career

Hitchcock broke into show business by getting a job with the newly arrived motion picture studio Famous Players-Lasky British Producers, a venture associated with Paramount Pictures.  He was to design the captions that accompanied the action in the studio’s silent films.  Initially, a part time employee, Hitchcock worked hard, keeping his day job at Henley’s but eventually landing full time at Famous Players Lasky in 1921.

Peter Lorre, The Man Who Knew Too Much

Hitchcock spent the next few years directing and producing various dramas, thrillers and even a musical revue before his 1934 effort, The Man Who Knew Too Much.  Possessing the same title as his subsequent 1956 effort with Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart, the film has a similar plot involving kidnapping, political assassination and criminal intrigue.  It also cast Peter Lorre, having recently fled Germany after his great success in the Fritz Lang classic, “M.”  Lorre, who was Jewish and was uncomfortable with Hitler’s acquisition of political power, barely spoke English and ingratiated himself with the director by anticipating when Hitchcock, already a budding raconteur, would finish a story, laughing noisily despite not understanding a word of the anecdote.  For the part, the Hungarian born actor had to learn his lines phonetically.  Lorre’s mysteriously interesting face was featured on the film’s poster and “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” was received with great acclaim and popularity, reaffirming Hitchcock as a major figure in British cinema.

Alma Hitchcock, Joan Harrison, and Hitchcock’s daughter, Patricia

Hitchcock was headed to greener pastures in the United States.  Sailing on the Queen Mary on March 1, 1939 with his family, his personal secretary, Joan Harrison, two servants and two dogs, he and his wife were eager to leave.  They believed that Hitchcock had accomplished everything he could possibly achieve in Britain and Hollywood allowed him much greater opportunity.  He could afford his entourage, having signed a five-picture deal with David O. Selznick, with a guaranteed $50,000 salary for his first picture, Rebecca. 

Olivier and Fontaine in Rebecca                                                                                           If Hitchcock’s personality included a desire for complete control, he certainly met his match in David O. Selznick.  The director’s adaptation and script outline for Rebecca, that also contained as always contributions from his wife, was summarily rejected with any attempts at including characteristic humor deemed inappropriate.  In one of his famously lengthy and detailed memos, the producer stated in the first sentence that “he was shocked and disappointed beyond words,” and declared that the film must be a completely faithful rendition of the novel with a focus on retaining its serious tone.  He also made it quite clear that the final version of the film would be his and his alone.  An additional headache was Laurence Olivier, so miffed that his wife Vivien Leigh wasn’t cast in the film that he took it out on the eventual female lead Joan Fontaine.  If there wasn’t enough tension on the set, the beginning of World War II in Europe coincided with the first week of shooting.  The production was a predictable struggle of wills, Hitchcock sticking to his style of only shooting scenes from an angle or perspective he ultimately would use in a final edit and Selznick wanting vastly more material to select during the editing process.  Clearly, it was not a creatively happy marriage.  But, probably as a tribute to both men’s ability, the resulting film was a commercial success and the Best Picture of 1940.  Fontaine’s performance was academy nominated for Best Actress, the twenty-two year old probably benefiting from the director’s domineering demeanor.
Selznick and Hitchcock

One aspect of the production of Rebecca that prevented any permanent damage to Hitchcock’s business relationship with Selznick was the producer’s preoccupation with the lead up to and release of Gone With The Wind.  Selznick also anticipated a profitable gambit to make money on his contract with the director without having to immediately produce another picture.  He loaned Hitchcock to independent producer Walter Wanger at a fee of $5,000 a week while he only had to pay Hitchcock $2500.  A compulsive gambler, methamphetamine addict and profligate spender, Selznick was perpetually strapped for cash.  He could also keep the director at arms-length while the two figured out how to work together in the future. 

Raymond Burr as the murderer in the climactic scene of Rear Window. Note resemblance to Selznick

Hitchcock began filming Rear Window in November, 1953, only weeks after completing Dial M for Murder.  His enthusiasm combined with his established crew of technical associates handling wardrobe, script supervision, music soundtrack, sound technicians and a stage set so large Hitchcock frequently needed a walkie-talkie to communicate with his cast produced a remarkable effort.  Although this was a complex project, it went as smoothly as any Hitchcock production, Hitch even enjoying the practical joke of having Raymond Burr, the film’s villain made up to look exactly like David O. Selznick.  Box office was sensational and the critical response transcended the usual Hitchcock accolades.

Robert Walker as Bruno Antony

Robert Walker’s Bruno Antony pushed the limits in a Hitchcock film, strangling his victim onscreen and employing a nasty malevolence unlike any previous Hitchcock character.  His borderline personality is underlined by a Hitchcock designed tie embellished with closed-clawed lobsters and a garishly over-the-top smoking jacket that screams twisted among other things.  In selecting Walker, Hitchcock made a curious casting choice relative to his former colleague David O Selznick.  Walker was deeply upset by the 1943 collapse of his marriage to Jennifer Jones.   Jones’ affair with Selznick was the worst kept secret in Hollywood and Jones left Walker while both were performing in a 1943 Selznick produced film. Her subsequent marriage to the much more powerful producer depressed and humiliated Walker.  When cast in Strangers On A Train, the actor had spent the previous year in a mental hospital battling alcoholism and a psychiatric disorder. Perhaps Hitchcock sensed that to achieve a realistic portrayal of a an individual with a tenuous grip on sanity, he needed to use someone truly familiar with such mania.  Walker’s portrayal of an intensely destructive personality enhances the film’s climax which utilizes an amusement park merry-go-round that goes flying out of control graphically hurling debris into a cloud of onlookers.  That Hitchcock accomplished this by blowing up a toy carousel and enlarging the result does not diminish the sense of realistically violent destruction.

Doris Day, sings Que Sera, Sera in the 1955 remake of The Man who Knew Too Much
In 1955, With Grace Kelly intent on bigger things, Hitchcock was forced to find another actress for his next film, a remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, a project that the director had envisioned for many years.  Characteristically, possibly because he would not be the center of attention, Hitchcock eventually turned down an invitation to one of the most high profile events of the decade, the marriage of Grace Kelly to Prince Rainer of Monaco.  Instead Hitch focused on his next project.  A combo of international intrigue, politics and domestic drama, the film meanders for close to two hours but has enough suspense, scenic visuals and plot twists to establish it as theatrically successful.  Considered a cut below some of the other Paramount efforts, the film still holds up today as memorable, especially the Academy Award winning song Que Sera, Sera written especially for the film and presented by Doris Day. 

alfred hitchcock (volume 4, episode 4) Part Two

In his sixty year career, Alfred Hitchcock established himself as one of the most important cultural figures of the 20th century.

Robert Walker and Farley Granger in Strangers on a Train

 

Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly in Rear Window

 

Grace Kelly, publicity photo for Rear Window
Vertigo movie poster

 

With Kim Novak on the set of Vertigo

 

Cary Grant, North by Northwest

 

Eva Marie Saint, North by Northwest

 

Hitchcock at Mount Rushmore

 

Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren on the set of Marnie

 

Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor in The Birds

 

Hitchcock never won an Academy Award but did receive the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement award in 1968

 

alfred hitchcock (Volume 4, Episode 4) Book and music information

The books used to produce this podcast included:

“Alfred Hitchcock: The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock,” by Donald Spoto

And

“Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light,” by Patrick McGilligan

The musical intro in Part One is “The Funeral March of a Marionette,” composed by Charles Gounod. The outro in Part One is “Imperial Forces,” by Aaron Kenny

The musical intro in Part Two is “In the Temple Garden,” by Aaron Kenny and the outro is “Best Horizon, Gone,” by The Westerlies.