ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Discussion of the actors, directors and film-makers who 'made it all happen'
User avatar
JackFavell
Posts: 11926
Joined: April 20th, 2009, 9:56 am

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by JackFavell »

Oh my gosh, I am never going to forget that story, Larry! I'll chuckle every time I see To Catch a Thief now.

I absolutely LOVE Jessie Royce Landis anyway, in any movie at any time. She makes everything better.

I swear, every time I pick up an autobiography of a British actor, Margaret Leighton shows up in the memoirs with fond remembrance. :D
User avatar
knitwit45
Posts: 4689
Joined: May 4th, 2007, 9:33 pm
Location: Gardner, KS

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by knitwit45 »

Guess she wasn't too far off the mark :oops: :oops: :oops: when she played Caddy in The Sound and The Fury, my most favorite Yul Brynner movie..... :lol: :lol:
Konway
Posts: 136
Joined: January 8th, 2008, 8:15 am
Location: Florida

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

SPOILERS

I am putting Edgar Allan Poe references in Marnie (1964) here.

Alfred Hitchcock put Edgar Allan Poe references throughout this film. Marnie's last name is Edgar. In the novel, Marnie's last name is Elmer. Unlike the film, the novel takes place in England. Like Poe's characters, Marnie Edgar is subject to Psychological terror. The film takes place in New York (Strutt's office), Virginia (Garrod's Stables) and Philadelphia (Rutland Publishing and Wickwind). These are the three places that Edgar Allan Poe lived throughout the better part of his life. The film's climactic scene takes place at Marnie's mother's home in Baltimore, the city where Poe died under mysterious circumstances in 1849. Tippi Hedren played Marnie. Both Tippi Hedren and Edgar Allan Poe were born on January 19. In the novel, Marnie's mother's name is Edith Elmer. In the film, Alfred Hitchcock changed Marnie's mother's name to Bernice Edgar. "Berenice" was a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. In a 1960 article called "Why I Am Afraid of the Dark", Hitchcock noted this information - "..it's because I liked Edgar Allan Poe's stories so much that I began to make suspense films."

I am also posting a music video of Hitchcock's Suspicion I made long time ago. It contains SPOILERS of Suspicion.

The music is Bernard Herrmann's cue for the scene "bedroom" in Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1966). I thought I should use this music for Suspicion (1941). I studied the music and put the scenes according to the movement of music.



I hope you all will like it.
Konway
Posts: 136
Joined: January 8th, 2008, 8:15 am
Location: Florida

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

ROPE (1948) SPOILERS

Its possible that Rope (1948) was also based on an incident that happened in Alfred Hitchcock's life.

There was an assassination scene in Hitchcock's film Foreign Correspondent (1940). It was the scene where the killer shot the man with the gun right next to the camera. Two years after the release of Foreign Correspondent, Hitchock heard that this assassination scene was copied in real life to kill someone at a place called Tarahan. This incident was mentioned by Alfred Hitchcock in "Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder." Ever since that incident, Hitchcock regretted making this scene. This was the "only scene" that Hitchcock regretted making, because of the incident that happened in Tarahan. This was revealed in the interview with Tom Snyder.

Rope (1948) is entirely different from the play it is based on. Hitchcock and Hume Cronyn made a totally different adaptation. Here are the differences between the play and the film.

Here are characters in the play - Rupert Cadell (only 29 years old in the play), Wyndham Brandon (Brandon Shaw in the film), Charles Granillo (Philip Morgan), Sir Johnstone Kentley (Henry Kentley, the father of David Kentley in the film), Ronald Kentley (David Kentley in the film), Leila Arden (A friend of Wyndham Brandon and Charles Granillo), Kenneth Raglan (A friend of Wyndham Brandon and Charles Granillo), Quiet Mr. Debenham, Sabot.

Quiet Mrs. Debenham became the cheerful Mrs. Atwater in the film. Sabot became Mrs. Wilson. In the film, Rupert looks like he is in mid 40s and he may marry Mrs. Wilson. Here are the descriptions of the characters that aren't in the film. The descriptions are from the playwright Patrick Hamilton. In the play, Leila Arden and Kenneth Raglan have no relation to the victim Ronald Kentley. With the exception of Mrs. Wilson, everyone in the film knows David Kentley. The play takes place in England.

Hamilton's Description of Leila Arden - "Leila, like Raglan, is young, good-looking, and has no ideas. She also has the same tendency to conceal that deficiency with a show of sophistication. In this she is perhaps more than successful than Raglan. She has a fairly good stock of many-syllabled and rather outré words which she brings out with rather comic emphasis, rolling her eyes the while, as though she doesn't really mean what she is saying. In this way she never actually commits herself to any emotion or feeling, and might even be thought deep. But she is not."

Age: 20-25
Sex: Female
Eye Color: Blue or Brown
Hair Color: Blonde or Brown
Height: 5"6'

Hamilton's Description of Kenneth Raglan - "Raglan is very young, fair, simple, good-looking, shy, foolish and good. He has no idea whatever. He still thinks that nightclubs are dens of delight, but that there is probably one girl in the world for him whom he will one day find. His pathetic ideal, in his bearing before the world, is sophistication. To hear him alluding to 'simply staggering binge, old boy,' when he was merely got mildly intoxicated, is to have exemplified at once his sense of humor and wickedness. In the presence of Granillo and Brandon he is merely, of course, tentative and hopeless. He is in evening dress."

Age: 20-25
Sex: Male
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Blonde
Height: 6"
Nationality: England

Hamilton's Description of Sabot - "Sabot is an alert, very dark little Frenchman, with a long nose and a blueness of cheek which no amount of shaving will eradicate. He is an almost perfect servant - intelligent, alert and obedient, but not, perhaps, completely impersonal - his employers being in the habit of making the occasional advances towards him. Whoever he is with, he has an air of being breathlessly anxious to apologize for something or anything. He is married, quietly ambitious, industrious, and will have a restaurant of his own one of these days."

Age: 35
Sex: Male
Eye Color: Blue or Brown
Hair Color: Blonde or Grey or Brown or Bald
Height: 6"
Nationality: France

Hamilton's Description of Mrs. Debenham - "Mrs Debenham is the sister of Sir Johnstone. She is tallish, plainly dressed, has been widowed long, is very plain, about fifty. She hardly ever opens her mouth, her sole means of expression being a sudden, broad, affable smirk. This she switches on, in a terrifying way, every now and again, but immediately relapses into the lost, miserable, absent-minded gloom which characterizes her. She is, indeed, so completely a nonentity as to acquire considerable personality and distinction from the very fact."

Age: 50
Sex: Female
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Grey
Height: 5"8'
Nationality: England

So we can see that the film is totally different from the play. In the play, there is no gun scene. Instead, Rupert uses a whistle to call the police. Rupert finds out that David was there through a theater ticket. But in the film, Rupert finds out that David was there, because of David's hat.
Konway
Posts: 136
Joined: January 8th, 2008, 8:15 am
Location: Florida

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

One of the interesting things in Rope is the speech at the end of the film. Its different from the play. Here is the ending of the play.

The Ending on a quote from the play " - I got this from the website of DC Cairns (shadowplay website).

Rupert: (suddenly letting himself go — a thing he has not done, all the evening, and which he now does with tremendous force, and clear, angry articulation) What do I mean? What do I mean? I mean that you have taken and killed — by strangulation — a very harmless and helpless fellow-creature of twenty years. I mean that in that chest there — now lie the staring and futile remains of something that four hours ago lived, and laughed, and ran, and found it good. Laughed as you could never laugh, and ran as you could never run. I mean that, for your cruel and scheming pleasure, you have committed a sin and a blasphemy against that very life which you now yourself find so precious. And you have done more than this. You have not only killed him, you have rotted the lives of all those to whom he was dear. And you have brought worse than death to his father — an equally harmless old man who has fought his way quietly through to a peaceful end, and to whom the entire universe, after this, will now be blackened and distorted beyond the limits of thought. That is what you have done. And in dragging him round here tonight, you have played a lewd and infamous jest upon him — and a bad jest at that. And if you think, as your type of philosopher generally does, that all life is nothing but a bad jest, then you will now have the pleasure of seeing it played upon yourselves.

Brandon (pale and frozen) What are you saying? What are you doing?

Rupert It is not what I am doing, Brandon. It is what society is going to do. And what will happen to you at the hands of society I am not in a position to tell you. That’s its own business. But I can give you a pretty shrewd guess, I think. (He moves forward to the chest and swings back the lid) You are going to hang, you swine! Hang! Both of you! Hang! (Whistle in hand, he runs hobbling to the window, throws it open, leans out, and sends three piercing whistles into the night)

Here is the ending of Alfred Hitchcock's Rope.

Konway
Posts: 136
Joined: January 8th, 2008, 8:15 am
Location: Florida

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

What do you all think about The Paradine Case? I think it is a great film. I think it is one of Hitchcock's best films with visual touches. But what are the weak points? Selznick's meddling. He removed many of Hitchcock's suspense and psychological touches in the film. In rough cut and 131 minutes version, Ethel Barrymore can be seen as a half crazed wife. But Selznick replaced Hitchcock's shot with his silly retakes. Charles Laughton's Lord Horfield was more menacing in Hitchcock's version. There was a brilliant eye contact scene in the courtroom between Keane and Mrs. Paradine while Keane is questioning Latour. When Selznick removed this eye contact scene, it made questioning scenes weaker. Some of these scenes are available at George Eastman House in New York.
User avatar
MissGoddess
Posts: 5072
Joined: April 17th, 2007, 10:01 am
Contact:

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by MissGoddess »

Hi Konway,
I'd have to say The Paradine Case is not one of my favorites. I find most of the cast members too cold with the exception of Charles Coburn, so this is entirely a matter of my opinion. I would be curious to see the "director's cut" with the scenes as Hitch originally intended. Especially as I barely remember Ethel Barrymore's character at all.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
Konway
Posts: 136
Joined: January 8th, 2008, 8:15 am
Location: Florida

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

I think the film would have been better if the post production was done under Hitchcock. Selznick did the post production. That's why it has lots of weak points. In Hitchcock's Original Cut, Ethel Barrymore had lot more scenes. But they were removed by Selznick. In the released version (114 minutes), Selznick did something that was terribly bad. He removed some of Hitchcock's creepy scenes with his retakes. All of them had to do with Ethel Barrymore.

I think the missing scenes are available at George Eastman House in New York. I wish somebody tried to restore these scenes. It will make The Paradine Case far more memorable. I agree that Coburn was great in The Paradine Case. Unfortunately, I believe Selznick's meddling affected their performances.
User avatar
MissGoddess
Posts: 5072
Joined: April 17th, 2007, 10:01 am
Contact:

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by MissGoddess »

Hi Konway,

It's a pity if Eastman actually has the elements and no one puts forth the effort (and $$$) to incorporate them, at least as an alternate, for a new DVD release. It sounds like the sort of thing Criterion or Kino might be interested in.

So you went up to Eastman and saw the scenes Hitch filmed? I envy you that. I'd love to see what they have up there in their "vaults".
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
Konway
Posts: 136
Joined: January 8th, 2008, 8:15 am
Location: Florida

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

Information about one important missing scene is available here.

http://www.stevenderosa.com/writingwith ... ecase.html
Gary J.
Posts: 199
Joined: November 9th, 2008, 1:22 pm
Location: Sonoma, CA
Contact:

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Gary J. »

So do you love THE PARADINE CASE for how it is now released or how you imagine Hitchcock's version would had looked?

Personally I could never sit through this whole quagmire and find Greg Peck in a powdered wig silly looking.
Konway
Posts: 136
Joined: January 8th, 2008, 8:15 am
Location: Florida

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

I think Hitchcock's version would have looked far better. In the released version, Gregory Peck looks like a dumb lawyer. This is because Selznick cut some of his "interesting" scenes. The Paradine Case does have some good qualities in its released version. But it looks dull, because of the continuous talking without Hitchcock touch. It would have been way better and interesting if Hitchcock's suspense scenes were in the film. Its not the fault of the actors. Selznick edited the film in a horrible way.
User avatar
MissGoddess
Posts: 5072
Joined: April 17th, 2007, 10:01 am
Contact:

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by MissGoddess »

Image

In 1962 French critic and director Francois Truffaut, with the assistance of a translator, sat down with Alfred Hitchcock at Universal Studios to record conversations about their films. They talked for over twelve hours and the recordings would eventually become the important book Hitchcock/Truffaut book (Alfred Hitchcock: A Definitive Study, 1967) later revised to include some of Hitchcock's later work. It's a must-have book for any admirer of Hitch, and just as good if not better is the opportunity to listen in on the conversations themselves. You can do just that, via the blog If Charlie Parker Had a Gun, here:

http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/search/labe ... ut%20Tapes

They are also available, naturally, at the Hitchcock Wiki:

http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/wiki/Inter ... ug/1962%29

So if you have a dozen hours to spare, knock yourself out. :)
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
Konway
Posts: 136
Joined: January 8th, 2008, 8:15 am
Location: Florida

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by Konway »

Thanks for posting them, MissG. I got them from Hitchcock wiki website long time ago. But still, I am glad you posted another link where I can get the Hitchcock audio interviews I don't have.
User avatar
MissGoddess
Posts: 5072
Joined: April 17th, 2007, 10:01 am
Contact:

Re: ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Post by MissGoddess »

Now the IFTA John Ford festival which focused on the director's ties to Ireland is done, things are gearing up for the BFI Hitchcock fest in London which will spotlight Hitch's ties to his own homeland and the ten films he made before moving to the U.S and Hollywood. The program will screen all of Hitch's 58 surviving films, but the highlight promises to be the premier of a newly restored print of The Pleasure Garden (1925), Hitch's first directorial effort. The London Film Festival is to be the culmination of the 2012 Olympiad festivities planned in the capital.

Image

The Telegraph ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film ... ition.html ) today released an excerpt of a letter from Hitchcock detailing the star-ego problems he was already encountering with The Pleasure Garden while filming in Germany. His two leading ladies, Carmelita Geraghty and Virginia Valli, were making the usual "diva" demands, and in a letter to director Adrien Brunel he expresses his frustrations with them:

“My dear Adrian, I expect that you have given up all hope of ever hearing from me, that is to say if you ever did want to....However, when I tell you that I haven’t written to my own mother but twice since I have been away, you will see how I am entirely concentrated on The Pleasure Garden. Of course you have heard that I have two stars under my banner - quite a handful as a matter of fact.”


Since Hitch later became very famous for exerting careful control over the performances of his leading ladies, I'm tempted to believe his frustrations with this experience may have strengthened his determination to avoid any tampering with his authority, and no doubt he learned valuable lessons that would serve him later on when dealing with world class stars (and their demands).

In the letter Hitchcock also goes on about feeling cut off from things, the job of directing a picture being such a consuming endeavor:

“I have seen very little of Munich since I have been out here - only the studio and my hotel room are the “sights” of this beautiful city that I have been permitted to see.

"Have you seen any new good films at the Tivoli? [a cinema on the Strand, London] I shall be interested to hear from you of any developments in screen art because I am fairly isolated here.”


The letter is signed “Hitch”, and is the earliest known document recording the nickname that became his trademark.

The letter will be exhibited for the first time along with many other documents, correspondence, posters and other memorabilia at BFI's London headquarters on the South Bank.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film ... ition.html

For more on the BFI Hitch fest go here:
http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b9ee3449d
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
Post Reply