I’ve been meaning to start regularly blogging about Hitchcock, so here goes! I’m planning to cover news from the previous week and details of upcoming DVD releases, as well as any birthdays or anniversaries in the coming week.
As reported at MacGuffin, the actor Hansjörg Felmy (who played the role of Heinrich Gerhard in “Torn Curtain“) died on 24/Aug/2007. Oddly, the report of his death at Variety states he appeared in “Alfred Hitchcock’s cold war thriller The Iron Curtain.”
Also over at MacGuffin, Ken Mogg’s latest entry in “The Editor’s Week” (08/Sep/2007) covers “The Manxman” and the similarities between Kate’s suicide attempt and those by Madeleine in “Vertigo“.
The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University (north of Chicago) is hosting an exhibition (“Casting a Shadow: Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film“) and is running a season of nearly 30 Hitchcock films, starting on 26/Sep/2007. A selection of images from the exhibition is available here and there’s a copy of the press release here.
On October 5th, the Old Mission San Juan Bautista is hosting a “weekend of Vertigo” to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film. As well as a dinner and gala fundraiser with Pat Hitchcock O’Connell and James Katz (who worked on the restoration if the film), there’s also a bus tour of some of the filming locations.
This week…
11th September
- Several Hitchcock film actors passed away on this day, including Leonard Carey, O E Hasse, and Jessica Tandy (who was married to Hume Cronyn).
12th September
- Three Hitchcock “baddies” passed away on this day — Anthony Perkins (“Psycho“), Raymond Burr (“Rear Window“), and Tom Helmore (“Vertigo“).
13th September
- Composer Maurice Jarre (“Topaz“) celebrates his 83rd birthday.
- 25th anniversay of the death of Philip Ober, who played the “real” Lester Townsend in “North by Northwest“.
14th September
- 25th anniversay of the death of Grace Kelly, who was arguably the ultimate “Hitchcock Blonde”.
15th September
- The 100th anniversary of the birth of actress Fay Wray (star of the original “King Kong”), who appeared in two episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” (“A Dip in the Pool” and “The Morning After“). Wray died in 2004, aged 96.
16th September
- Many happy returns to Peter Falk (80) and Anne Francis (77), who both appeared in episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour“.
If you have any Hitchcock related new items you’d like including in the next update, please send them to email [at] daveyp.com