Over at MacGuffin, Ken Mogg’s latest entry in “The Editor’s Week” (29/Sep/2007) catches up with some of the observations he’s received from Hitchcock fans around the world. Just to pick up on the children’s song in “The Birds“, in the documentary “All About The Birds“, writer Evan Hunter said: The crows are gathering behind her on the jungle gym and I have the kids sing a song. I asked my kids, what’s a… they were… (read more)
In 1919, whilst he was working at W.T. Henley’s Telegraph Works, Hitchcock edited and wrote articles for the in-house newsletter “Henley Telegraph“. Nearly 90 years later, director Sylvie Bolioli and Polaris Productions Ltd took one of the Hitchcock short stories that appeared in the Henley Telegraph — Gas — and turned it into a short film (see Internet Movie Database) starring Tony Hadley, Johanna Mohs, and Valerie Leon. The US premiere for “Gas” takes place… (read more)
Just a quick reminder that the Vertigo weekend at the San Juan Bautista (San Francisco) is only a week away now: www.oldmissionsjb.org/vertigo.html Highlights of the event include: viewing and discussion of the film mass in memory of Mr. Hitchcock and his wife Alma auction and gala fundraiser at Casa Maria Hitchcock’s daughter Patricia will also be attending some of the events.
Over at MacGuffin, Ken Mogg’s latest entry in “The Editor’s Week” (22/Sep/2007) discusses the film “The Ipcress File”. I remember reading somewhere that Hitchcock was keen to make an anti-James Bond film — one in which the viewer sees the mundane side of espionage (rather than the glamorous and STD risky lifestyles of Messers Connery and Moore). Also, “The Ipcress File” contains many camera shots from weird angles, including one from above a light bulb… (read more)
As Hitchcock prepared to make the move to Hollywood, David O Selznick was mooting the idea of making a film of the ill-fated Titanic. Selznick even planned to purchase the SS Leviathan, and Hitchcock proposed an opening credit sequence which would begin with a close-up of a rivet, then a gradual pull back of the camera to reveal the entire ship. Hitchcock also joked about filming the sinking sequence, only to discover that there was… (read more)
I’ve been adding the odd name to the Frequent collaborators section on the Alfred Hitchcock article on Wikipedia for a while now, so I decided recently to do the job properly and analyze the “Complete Cast and Crew” pages on IMDB for the 53 major Hitchcock films. The final data showing everyone who appears 3 or more times can be seen in this Excel spreadsheet. Quite often, Leo G Carroll is named as being the… (read more)
Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic!But SCREAM!Scream for your lives! I just happened to catch the beginning of “The Tingler” (1959), directed by William Castle this morning and couldn’t help spotting all of the links with Hitchcock! According to his IMDB profile, Castle emulated Hitchcock (by appearing in trailers and by creating a trademark silhouette), but it was the highly succesful low budget “House on Haunted Hill” that, apparently, inspired Hitchcock to make his… (read more)
Over at MacGuffin, Ken Mogg’s latest entry in “The Editor’s Week” (15/Sep/2007) continues the discussion about “The Manxman“. A big “thank you” to screwball for creating the Desktop Wallpaper of the Week (click to view different sizes): This week… 18th September Many happy returns to cinematographer Jack Cardiff, 93 years young today! 19th September Many happy returns to actress Rosemary Harris, who celebrates her 80th birthday! Harris appeared in several episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents“,… (read more)
It’s 25 years today since Grace Kelly, one of the two actresses most closely associated with Hitchcock (the other being Ingrid Bergman), died as a result of a car accident in Monaco. Curiously, Bergman herself had died just 2 weeks before from cancer. Kelly appeared in 3 Hitchcock films (the same number as Bergman): Dial M for Murder (1954) Rear Window (1954) To Catch a Thief (1955) Speaking about Kelly in “To Catch a Thief”… (read more)
Three of the great, if not the greatest, Hitchcock baddies passed away on the 12th September… Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates in “Psycho“, died 12/Sep/1992) Hitchcock deliberately cast Perkins against type — all the better to keep us from realising that Norman isn’t normal, but is really Norma (Norm’s ma?)! Psycho bears out repeated viewings, if only to pick up on some of the very subtle acting from Perkins — the hesitation in picking which cabin… (read more)
