Just in time for Christmas — $500 from Hitchcock
eBay currently have a cheque/check signed by Hitchcock for auction…
Archive for 2008
RIP: John Michael Hayes (1919-2008)
I think it’s safe to say we’ve reached the end of an era with the passing last week of the screenwriter John Michael Hayes, who died in his sleep at the age of 89. In recent years, we’ve seen the deaths in 2005 of Evan Hunter and Ernest Lehman, and then Jay Presson Allen and Joseph Stefano in 2006. Along with Hayes, they were responsible for some of Hitchcock’s greatest and most iconic celluloid moments…… (read more)
LIFE magazine
Google have partnered with LIFE magazine to make several million images from their photographic archive available on line. Amongst the images are around 90 relating to Alfred Hitchcock.
MGM “Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection” faulty DVDs?
It’s beginning to look like the new MGM “Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection” 8 DVD set might be a victim of poor quality DVD manufacturing. The packaging, lovely though it is, is a poor design for keeping the DVDs in pristine condition — the rigid cardboard sleeves can easily scuff the playing surface of the DVDs…. Not only that, it would appear that the discs themselves suffer from poor construction and/or poor quality control. Quite a… (read more)
New Universal “Legacy” editions
So far, two out of three of the new Hitchcock “Legacy” 2 DVD sets have arrived on my doorstep — Psycho and Vertigo. I’ve analysed both transfers and compared them to the previous US Masterpiece Collection. Although Gary at DVD Beaver talks about the new Vertigo transfer being a slight improvement over the 2005 transfer, it’s very much in the eye of the beholder. The primary difference between the Masterpiece and Legacy transfers is the… (read more)
RIP: Paul Newman (1925-2008)
Actor Paul Newman has died of lung cancer, aged 83. (Newman and Hitchcock, on the set of “Torn Curtain“)
new film about the young Hitchcock
Just spotted today that the The McGuffin Film Society is producing a film about Hitchcock’s early years… Work is currently underway on the McGuffins third film… an in-depth documentary about director Alfred Hitchcock’s early days – and particularly his origins in East London. The film will explore the lesser known facts about his early life and work, while identifying the key sites from his youth which still exist today. Initial filming has already taken place… (read more)
“Spielberg ripped off Hitchcock”
I think it’s a given that any Hitchcock fan who’s seen the 2007 film “Disturbia” (co-produced by Steven Spielberg) will know that it owes more than a little to “Rear Window“… Well, the current owners of the rights to Cornell Woolrich‘s original short story (“It Had to be Murder” or “Murder from a Fixed Viewpoint”) aren’t happy about that and filed a lawsuit in a Manhattan federal court yesterday… What the defendants have been unwilling… (read more)
Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play
Many thanks to playwright Joe Landry for sending me details of “Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play“, which premieres at the Legacy Theatre, Atlanta, GA on October 17th. “Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play” is an evening of radio play adaptations of three early films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In “The Lodger,” a landlady suspects her mysterious new tenant may be a serial killer. In “The Lady Vanishes,” a young woman on vacation triggers an… (read more)
Vertigo – the stage play
I’m sure most people are aware that “The 39 Steps” was recently turned into a highly successful stage play by playwright Patrick Barlow. Well, it looks like the same has now been done for “Vertigo“. The Derby Evening Telegraph has a write up of the adaptation by Jonathan Holloway: Holloway returns the psychological thriller to wartime Paris and, in supremely theatrical style, frames the tale of the tortured hero as a public demonstration of hypnosis…. (read more)