Hitchcock Chronology: Month of April

Entries in the Hitchcock Chronology for the month of April...

1910

• The US film company Famous Players-Lasky announces that it plans to open studios in the UK and development work begins in October 1919 at a new studio complex in Islington, London. Islington Studios are officially opened in May 1920.

1920

• 22nd - J.M. Barrie's melancholic play Mary Rose debuts at the Haymarket Theatre in London. According to some sources, Hitchcock saw the play on the first night.
• 23rd - The Times carries a review of the first night of J.M. Barrie's play Mary Rose at the Haymarket Theatre, "It is like nothing you have ever seen and yet full of everything you have seen from a child up. Its ghosts are almost more human than its creatures of flesh and blood, so that you subdue your shiver to love them."

1921

• 27th - Hitchcock begins working full-time for Famous Players-Lasky British Producers Limited at their Islington Studios.

1924

• 18th - Licensed victualler Harry Lee dies, aged 31, leaving Hitchcock's sister Ellen Kathleen a widow with two young sons.

1925

• 21st - The Blackguard is screened at the Royal Albert Hall. Variety reports that the film has been "splendidly produced".

1926

• 14th - The Observer newspaper carries a review of The Pleasure Garden saying that, whilst Hitchcock was "saddled with a complicated story", "he has made some of it, so interesting as to make one eager and optimistic for his future."
• 16th - The Pleasure Garden receives a premiere presentation at the Odeon Capitol cinema, Haymarket, London.

1928

• 9th - Hitchcock's sister Ellen Kathleen gives birth to a child out of wedlock, christened Albert William Ingram. The father is licensed victualler Albert Edward Ingram, who is married to another woman, and the child is raised by foster parents. Albert and Ellen fail to register the birth of the child until 1932.
• 13th - British International Pictures begin running newspaper competition adverts, hoping to discover new British female film stars.

1929

• British International Pictures completes building temporary sound stages. The company announces in the trade papers that Blackmail will become its first "talking picture".
• Benn Levy completes writing the dialogue for the sound version of Blackmail by mid-April.

1931

• 27th - Hitchcock's sister Ellen Kathleen marries licensed victualler Albert Edward Ingram in a Roman Catholic ceremony at the St Thomas of Canterbury, Fulham. Father W.A. Wright performs the ceremony and the witnesses are Emma Jane Hitchcock and Alma Reville. Ellen Kathleen had given birth to an illegitimate child in April 1928, the result of her affair with Albert Edward, who was married to another woman at the time.

1932

• 4th - The Times reports that Hitchcock will be spending the next 12 months producing, rather than directing, films for British International Pictures. Ultimately, Lord Camber's Ladies is the only film Hitchcock will produce for the company.

1933

• 26th - The Gloucestershire Echo carries a report about the portrait commissioned of Hitchcock painted by deaf and mute artist Alfred Thomson. A few days later, the Western Morning News reported that the painting "shows our ablest film director dramatically placed in studio surroundings".
• 28th - Actor Robin Irvine, who had appeared in Downhill and Easy Virtue, dies aged 32 after contracting pleurisy in Bermuda.

1934

• Script sessions for The Man Who Knew Too Much, are held at 153 Cromwell Road throughout April and May 1934. Contributing are Charles Bennett, Angus MacPhail, Ivor Montagu, Alma and Alfred

1935

• 8th - In Hollywood, Michael Balcon announces that he has signed deals to sell 13 Gaumont-British films in America, as well as agreeing a reciprocal contract player loan scheme with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
• Post production on The 39 Steps is completed.

1937

• 1st - Hitchcock gives a lecture as part of the Association of Cine-Technicians' Winter Programme of lectures and film shows (1936-37).

1938

• 4th - The Manchester Guardian reports that Hitchcock purchased a painting by English artist Christopher Wood (1901-1930) for £200 at an art exhibition held at the New Burlington Galleries in London.
• 20th - Newspapers report that an electrician's strike has halted production of Hitchcock's latest film, The Lady Vanishes.
• 30th - Actress Nova Pilbeam is injured when the taxi she is travelling in is hit by another car. The driver of the other car, Ernest Arthur Hardy, is later fined £10 for careless driving.

1939

• 5th - The Hitchcocks arrive at the Santa Fe Railway Depot in Pasadena, California — known as the "Gateway to Hollywood" — where they are met by Myron Selznick.
• 13th - Hitchcock is a guest on The Royal Gelatin Hour, a radio variety show hosted by singer-bandleader Rudy Vallée. The other guests were American actress Kay Francis and English actor Eric Blore.
• Hitchcock cables Robert Donat urging him to consider the lead role of Maxim de Winter in Rebecca. Selznick is unconvinced — his list of potential actors includes Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Howard, Mervyn Douglas and William Powell.

1940

• 21st - A fund raising tennis tournament is held for the British War Relief, with Hollywood stars matched against professional tennis players. Along with Hitchcock, other attendees include Herbert Marshall, Maureen O'Hara, Nigel Bruce, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Dame May Whitty and Madeleine Carroll.

1943

• 16th - The Los Angeles Times reports that Hitchcock is keen to cast actress Kathleen Hepburn in Lifeboat. By June, Tallulah Bankhead had been signed for the film.

1944

• By the end of April, Ben Hecht and Hitchcock have completed the script for Spellbound.

1946

• 11th - The creation of Transatlantic Pictures, a joint project of Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein, is announced in the press.

1949

• Hitchcock sends Marlene Dietrich a copy of the script treatment for Stage Fright in early April. She writes back, "I like it very much, knowing that you are going to do it."
• 28th - The Hitchcocks and Whitfield Cook depart from New York City to London aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth. During the voyage, Hitchcock comes down with a dose of flu and takes to bed. Cook completes a new draft of Stage Fright before they arrive at Southampton.

1951

• 5th - Actor Edward Rigby, who played the role of Old Will in Young and Innocent, dies aged 72.
• The Hitchcocks continue their European vacation. Leaving Italy, they travel to Austria, visiting Innsbruck, then on to Germany, visiting Bavaria, Munich and Berlin. Finally, they visit Paris before ending their vacation in London.

1952

• 21st - Actor Leslie Banks, who starred in The Man Who Knew Too Much and Jamaica Inn, dies of a stroke, aged 61.
• Dramatist George Tabori is hired to revise the dialogue of William Archibald's screenplay for I Confess.
• Hitchcock, Sidney Bernstein and writer George Tabori travel to Quebec to scout locations and hire local actors for I Confess. Local priest Father Paul La Couline is hired as a technical consultant and to act as a liaison with the Catholic Church.
• Warner Bros object to elements of the screenplay for I Confess, including the ending which has the priest being executed, forcing Hitchcock and Barbara Keon to hastily rewrite the scenes.

1953

• With Warner Bros pushing Hitchcock to make a film in 3D, the director abandons The Bramble Bush in favour of Dial M for Murder, which can be more easily shot on a sound stage with the bulky 3D cameras.
• 17th - Mary Alma O'Connell, daughter of Joseph E. O'Connell, Jr. and Patricia Hitchcock, and granddaughter of Alfred and Alma Hitchcock, is born.

1954

• With the budget for To Catch a Thief escalating towards $3,000,000, Hitchcock begins cutting unnecessary scenes from the script, including a planned police chase through a street carnival.

1955

• 3rd - The BBC Radio Light Programme broadcasts a portrait of Hitchcock with contributions from Michael Balcon, Tallulah Bankhead, Ingrid Bergman, Alma Reville, Frank Mills and James Stewart.
• 20th - Hitchcock swears American citizenship. En route to the courthouse, Herbert Coleman reportedly asks the director if he was having second thoughts, "No, but the Hitchcock name goes back almost to the beginning of the British Empire and you can imagine what a serious thing it is for me to break away." At the courthouse, his official witnesses are MCA agent Arthur Park and actor Joseph Cotten.
• 20th - Hitchcock meets Doris Day to discuss The Man Who Knew Too Much.
• 23rd - Hitchcock leaves the US to travel to London to scout locations for The Man Who Knew Too Much.

1956

• 15th - Filming on The Wrong Man is halted to allow Vera Miles to marry Tarzan actor Gordon Scott.
• 18th - Grace Kelly marries Rainier III, Prince of Monaco. Although Hitchcock was invited to the ceremony, he declined.

1957

• 7th - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "One More Mile to Go", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.
• 9th - Hitchcock finally returns home from hospital. He spends the rest of April recuperating at home from the gallstones operation.
• Hitchcock, Lew Wasserman, Herman Citron and James Stewart meet at the end of April to discuss who should play the role of Madeleine/Judy in Vertigo. Wasserman favours rising star Kim Novak instead of the pregnant Vera Miles.

1958

• 3rd - Hitchcock receives a letter from the London Symphony Orchestra (dated 19 March) explaining why they were unable to complete the recording of the score for Vertigo.
• 13th - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Lamb to the Slaughter", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents is nomited for (and subsequently wins) a Golden Globe Award for the best television series of the year.
• Hitchcock directs the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "A Dip in the Pool" in mid-April.
• 17th - Alma Reville is diagnosed with cervical cancer.

1959

• A second unit crew refilms some of the North by Northwest exterior shots before capturing the film's finale — the suggestive footage of a train entering a tunnel.
• Hitchcock, Herbert Coleman, Henry Bumstead and Samuel Taylor travel to London to scout locations for No Bail for the Judge.

1960

• Trade journals begin to report that Hitchcock's next project will be an adaptation of Arthur David Beaty's novel Village of Stars.
• 2nd - The Hitchcocks leave the US to start a publicity tour around Europe and Asia for Psycho, visiting Honolulu, Sydney, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Singapore, Rome, Naples, and Paris.
• 26th - Hitchcock reads an article about a bird attack in La Jolla, California, which reminds him of Daphne du Maurier's short story that he had recently read when it was published in the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Fourteen of My Favorites in Suspense anthology.
• 28th - Hitchcock arrives into Singapore to promote Psycho (1960).

1962

• The French Government renounces the Administration and Mutual Assistance Convention treaty with Monaco in an attempt to reign in Monaco's reputation as a tax haven. The pressure on Monaco to negotiate a new treaty over the next few months means that Princess Grace will eventually abandon her plans to play the lead role in Hitchcock's Marnie.
• 2nd - The studio-based filming on The Birds begins at Universal Studios. Initial filming concentrates on scenes inside the Brenner house, including the sparrow attack.
• 2nd - Evan Hunter submits his final amendments to the screenplay for The Birds, including changes to the film's coda. Ultimately, Hitchcock decides not to use Hunter's ending.
• 16-17th - Studio-based filming on The Birds continues with the interior shots of Fawcett farmhouse, including Jessica Tandy discovering Dan Fawcett's body.
• 18th - At the suggestion of Saul Bass, German electronic music composer Remi Gassmann writes to Hitchcock to extol the virtues of the tratonium instrument for creating film soundtracks. Hitchcock will go on to use the tratonium to create the soundtrack for The Birds.

1965

• 3rd - Julie Andrews meets with Hitchcock for the first time to discuss her role in Torn Curtain.

1968

• 10th - At the 40th Academic Awards, Hitchcock receives the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from fellow director Robert Wise. Famously, his acceptance speech is just two words — "thank you".
• Hitchcock begins regular meetings with author Leon Uris to develop the screenplay for Topaz.

1969

• Hitchcock returns to Paris in mid-April to film the duel finalé for Topaz. News that Alma has been hospitalised forces the director to return to Los Angeles before the sequence is completed and Herbert Coleman takes over. Two further endings will be filmed, with Hitchcock returning to Paris once more to film an ending at Orly Airport. The third "suicide" ending is constructed from existing footage.

1970

• 6th - Hitchcock undergoes a thorough physical examination. He spends much of the year recuperating after the rigours of filming Topaz.

1971

• 9th - Hitchcock receives Anthony Shaffer's first draft of the Frenzy screenplay and spends the weekend reading it.
• 17th - Film editor Charles Rees places two personal adverts in The Times in the hope of being hired as the editor for Frenzy (1972) — they read "MR. HITCHCOCK. May we assist Charles Rees. Phone Roger Wilson, David Gowing, Shepperton." and "DEAR MR. HITCHCOCK. I want to cut your next film. Charles Rees. London. 01-937 9490."
• 19th - Having flown in from New York, Anthony Shaffer meets with Hitchcock to discuss further revisions to the Frenzy screenplay. By now, the screenplay has become 160 pages long.
• 30th - Alma reads the Frenzy screenplay and provides a number of script and continuity issues for Anthony Shaffer to address.

1972

• 27th - Hitchcock attends a film class at the University of South California, held by Professor Arthur Knight. The director screens Frenzy for the students.

1974

• Writer Ernest Lehman completes an initial draft of Deceit (later retitled Family Plot).
• 29th - The Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York, hold a gala tribute to Hitchcock. In his address, the director ends by saying "They tell me that a murder is committed every minute, so I don't want to waste any more of your time. I know you want to get to work. Thank you."

1975

• After months of discussion and occasional disagreements with Hitchcock, Ernest Lehman finalises his screenplay for Deceit.

1980

• With his health failing in early April, Hitchcock takes to bed at his Bel Air home.

1987

• 13th - Francis M. Cockrell, who wrote 20 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents including several directed by Hitchcock, dies aged 80.

1990

• 17th - Production designer and art director J. McMillan Johnson, who worked on three Hitchcock films including Rear Window and To Catch a Thief, dies aged 77.

1998

• 29th - Composer Joel McNeely conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra at City Halls, Glasgow, in a recording of Bernard Herrmann's score for The Trouble With Harry. The recording is later released on the Varèse Sarabande label.

2002

• 2nd - Writer Henry Slesar, who wrote dozens of screenplays and short stories for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and the Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, dies aged 74.

2006

• 22nd - Actress Alida Valli, who starred in The Paradine Case, dies aged 84.

2010

• 1st - Actor John Forsythe, who starred in The Trouble with Harry and Topaz, dies aged 92.

2014

• 6th - Actress Mary Anderson, who appeared in Lifeboat (1944), dies aged 96.

References

Hitchcock Chronology
1890s	1890	1891	1892	1893	1894	1895	1896	1897	1898	1899
1900s	1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905	1906	1907	1908	1909
1910s	1910	1911	1912	1913	1914	1915	1916	1917	1918	1919
1920s	1920	1921	1922	1923	1924	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929
1930s	1930	1931	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936	1937	1938	1939
1940s	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
1950s	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
1960s	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969
1970s	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979
1980s	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
1990s	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
2000s	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
2010s	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
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