Way back in 2007, I did some DVD screen grabs of a possible Hitchcock cameo in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). Even with the best quality DVD transfer available, it wasn’t particularly conclusive. Anyway, I’ve just gone back and taken a new set of grabs using the Criterion Bluray transfer. See what you think (I’ve boosted the contrast to make them easier to view)… …the figure then crosses the road and is in… (read more)
Yes, that’s right — I’ve found Hitchcock’s long lost film, The Mountain Eagle! …OK, I’ve not actually found a print of the film, because that would be amazing beyond belief, but what I have found is some new information about what happened to The Mountain Eagle in the UK. As is well known, both of Hitchcock’s first two full directorial efforts, The Pleasure Garden and The Mountain Eagle, were deemed too uncommercial for release by… (read more)
Before Grace Kelly, there was Gene Kelly! By 1940, the dancer was a hot property on Broadway, taking the lead role in Rogers & Hart’s musical “Pal Joey“. Hollywood wanted a piece of the action and it was producer David O. Selznick who eventually persuaded Kelly to sign a contract. With Kelly due into Hollywood in October 1941, Selznick began thinking about what the dancer’s first picture should be. In August 1941, Variety reported that… (read more)
From the first issue of The Cine-Technician (May 1935), a lead article by Hitchcock… Alfred Hitchcock Says “Acquire a Real Knowledge of Cinema Technique” Any young technician entering films to-day should take a parallel from the instruction given to sailors learning the art of navigation. Just as the best of the present-day candidates for the Mercantile Marine have to pass through a sailing course as an elementary part of their training, so the young man… (read more)
Reproduced from the Winter 1933-34 issue of Cinema Quarterly. ALFRED HITCHCOCK on MUSIC IN FILMS In an Interview with STEPHEN WATTS When the British student of intelligent cinema turns to survey the creative side of film-making in his own country the names available for reference are pathetically few. Even ranging over the whole of the talkie’s short history he can probably produce a bare half-dozen, say (alphabetically for safety!) Asquith, Dupont, Grierson, Hitchcock, Korda, and… (read more)
A surprise from the newspaper archives! I knew Hitchcock was considering several potential projects for Transatlantic Pictures, but this one from the Yorkshire Evening Post (27/Mar/1948) was new to me… Alfred Hitchcock hopes to produce “King Lear” in England, with Orson Welles in the lead. “Hitch” leaves for England early next month to produce “Under Capricorn,” starring Ingrid Bergman. I can’t even begin to imagine how Hitch would have approached filming “King Lear” with Welles!… (read more)
