Perhaps only one other filmmaker-Walt Disney-lived to see his name become synonymous with a certain type of screen entertainment: In Hitchcock's case, it was stylish, sophisticated suspense, laced with humor and romance. Moreover, his bald pate, pearshaped body, and lugubrious drawl made him as recognizable as any star he ever directed. Educated by Jesuits, the young Hitchcock developed a flair for things mechanical, and first went to work for a telegraph company. He later took up art, applying his talents to print advertisements. Hitchcock broke into the British film industry in 1920 as a title-card illustrator, working his way up to art director, assistant director, editor, writer, and finally director. His first hit was the thriller The Lodger (1926), by which time many of his now-familiar cinematic trademarks were already apparent, including his ritual cameo appearance. He mastered the new medium of talking pictures with seeming effortlessness in Blackmail (1929) and proved that the presence of sound was no reason not to continue to tell stories with visual panache. (Speaking of things visual, 1930's all-star talkie revue Elstree Calling gave Hitchcock his only opportunity to direct a pie-throwing scene-with Anna May Wong, of all people.) He reached the top of his game with such outstanding films as The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), and The Lady Vanishes (1938), all of which placed ordinary people- with whom audiences could readily identify-in life-or-death situations, often being chased by the authorities as well as the villains.
Hitchcock succumbed to the lure of Hollywood in 1939; his first film there, the romantic thriller Rebecca (1940), won the Best Picture Oscar and cemented his standing. He continued to masterly manipulate audiences' emotions in such classics as Foreign Correspondent (1940), Suspicion (1941), Shadow of a Doubt (1943, reportedly his personal favorite among his films), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), and Notorious (1946). During this period, as he immersed himself in the slickness of Hollywood filmmaking, he continued to draw from a seemingly inexhaustible cinematic bag of tricks, using his mechanical and electrical knowledge to create memorable little effects and images (such as the illuminated glass of milk carried upstairs by Cary Grant inSuspicion His first color movie, Rope (1948), was an experiment-not altogether successful-in shooting an entire film in one seemingly continuous shot.
In the 1950s Hitchcock set himself new challenges and created a gallery of unique and memorable films, including the psychological cat-and-mouse thriller Strangers on a Train (1951), the 3-D opus Dial M for Murder (1954), the visually challenging Rear Window (1954), the elegant and witty To Catch a Thief (1955), the incomparably droll black comedy The Trouble With Harry (1955), the remake of his own The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956, with its bravura climax in London's Albert Hall), and the low-key, documentarystyle The Wrong Man (1957). In 1955 he agreed to host (and occasionally direct) a weekly TV anthology series, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," a diversion that lasted a full ten years. His droll commentary (written by James Allardice) and distinctive greeting ("Good eeeevening") made him more famous than ever. The TV years also saw him directing four of his greatest films in a row: the incredibly complex and adult thriller Vertigo (1958), the witty and exciting North by Northwest (1959, with its audacious set-pieces in a desolate cornfield and atop Mount Rushmore), the starkly frightening, very black Psycho (1960, which he made quickly and inexpensively with his TV crew), and that masterpiece of manipulation and control, The Birds (1963). Hitchcock brought out the best in his stars (including James Stewart, Cary Grant, and the ultimate "Hitchcock blonde," Grace Kelly) and inspired composer Bernard Herrmann to do some of his finest work on his films.
Hitchcock's work past this point became uneven. Marnie (1964) was ahead of its time. Torn Curtain (1966) had star power but little else. Topaz (1969) told an intriguing tale, but the lack of recognizable stars made audiences feel aloof. Frenzy (1972) saw the director back in form-in peak form, to be precise, pulling some new visual tricks out of his bottomless bag, and playing violence against humor as only he could. (Hitchcock always hosted his own coming attractions trailers; for the British-made film, his first in more than 30 years, he appeared on-screen floating in the Thames River!) Family Plot (1976) tipped the scales too far toward comedy, and was only a middling success. Hitchcock continued to develop properties for future production, but failing health curtailed those plans. In 1979 he received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award; he died the following year.
Astoundingly, the man considered by many the finest director who ever lived never won an Oscar, though he did receive the Irving Thalberg Award in 1967, and a long-running mystery magazine bears his name. His influence on a younger generation of filmmakers is impossible to overstate; virtually every thriller that comes along is described as "Hitchcockian," though few manage to live up to that description. As if that weren't enough, the director almost literally returned from the grave in 1985, when NBC revived "Alfred Hitchcock Presents": the episodes were new, but Hitch (now colorized) was still introducing them!
Personal Quotes:
"There is a dreadful story that I hate actors. Imagine anyone hating Jimmy Stewart... or Jack Warner. I can't imagine how such a rumor began. Of course it may possibly be because I was once quoted as saying that actors are cattle. My actor friends know I would never be capable of such a thoughtless, rude and unfeeling remark, that I would never call them cattle... What I probably said was that actors should be treated like cattle."
On his cameos: "One of the earliest of these was in _The Lodger_, the story of Jack the Ripper. My appearance called for me to walk up the stairs of the rooming house. Since my walk-ons in subsequent pictures would be equally strenuous - boarding buses, playing chess, etc. - I asked for a stunt man. Casting, with an unusual lack of perception, hired this fat man!"
"Television has brought murder back into the home - where it belongs"
"The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder"
"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."
"To me Psycho was a big comedy. Had to be."
"Even my failures make money and become classics a year after I make them."
"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible"
"When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'"
"Drama is life with the dull bits left out."
[His entire acceptance speech for the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award] "Thank you."
[When accepting the American Film Institute Life Achievement award] "I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat, and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen. And their names are Alma Reville."
"[Hitchcock] said, 'I don't want you going back to sink-to-sink movies. You do movies where you wash the dishes looking drab in an apron. The audience wants to see their leading ladies dressed up.' He saw me as others didn't." - Eva Marie Saint
About Dario Argento and his film Profondo rosso (1975): "This young Italian guy is starting to worry me."
"Some films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake."
"I enjoy playing the audience like a piano."
Ingrid Bergman, trying to make Hitchcock help her understand the motivation for the feelings of her character told him that: "I don't feel like that, I don't think I can give you that kind of emotion." Hitchcock replied: "Ingrid - fake it!"
"I was an uncommonly unattractive young man."
"It's only a movie, and, after all, we're all grossly overpaid."
"There is nothing quite so good as a burial at sea. It is simple, tidy, and not very incriminating."
"Man does not live by murder alone. He needs affection, approval, encouragement and, occasionally, a hearty meal."
"Cartoonists have the best casting system. If they don't like an actor, they just tear him up."
About his actress Claude Jade, who starred in Topaz (1969): "Claude Jade is a brave nice young lady. But I don't give any guarantee, what she will do on a taxi's back-seat."
On directing Charles Laughton: "You can't direct a Laughton picture. The best you can hope for is to referee."
"The paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace the hardcover book -- it makes a very poor doorstop."
"Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders."
"I am a typed director. If I made "Cinderella," the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach."
"If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on."
"A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it."
"In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director."
[regarding "The Birds" (1963)] You know I've often wondered what the Audubon Society's attitude might be to this picture.
"Cary Grant is the only actor I ever loved in my whole life."
"Disney has the best casting. If he doesn't like an actor he just tears him up."
Salary
Psycho (1960) 60% of the net profits (salary deferred)
North by Northwest (1959) 250,000 + 10% of the net profits.
Trivia:
According to Alfred himself, he was required to stand at the foot of his mothers bed, and tell her what happened to him each day. This explains Anthony Perkins in Psycho (1960) standing at the foot of his mother's bed.
Was a close friend of Albert R. Broccoli, well known as the producer of the James Bond - 007 franchise. Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) was the influence for the helicopter scene in From Russia with Love (1963).
On April 29, 1974, the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York sponsored a gala homage to Alfred Hitchcock and his contributions to the cinema. Three hours of film excerpts were shown that night. François Truffaut who had published a book of interviews with Hitchcock a few years earlier, was there that night to present "two brilliant sequences: the clash of the symbols in the second version of _The Man Who Knew Too Much , and the plane attack on Cary Grant in North by Northwest (1959)." After the gala, Truffaut reflected again on what made Hitchcock unique and concluded: "It was impossible not to see that the love scenes were filmed like murder scenes, and the murder scenes like love scenes...It occurred to me that in Hitchcock's cinema...to make love and to die are one and the same."
Hitchcock never won a best director Oscar in competition, although he was awarded the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1967 Oscars.
Alma Reville and Hitch had one daughter, Patricia Hitchcock, who appeared in several of his movies: Stage Fright (1950), Strangers on a Train (1951) and Psycho (1960)
He made a cameo appearance in all of his movies from The Lodger (1927) onwards.
Hitchcock's bridling under the heavy hand of producer David O. Selznick was exemplified by the final scene of Rebecca (1940). Selznick wanted his director to show smoke coming out of the burning house's chimney forming the letter 'R." Hitch thought the touch lacked any subtlety; instead, he showed flames licking at a pillow embroidered with the letter 'R.'
Hitchcock first visited Hollywood in 1940, but was turned down by virtually all major motion picture studios because they thought he could not make a "Hollywood" picture. He was finally offered a seven-year directing contract by producer David O. Selznick. His first project was supposed to be a film about the Titanic, but Selznick scrapped the project because he "couldn't find a boat to sink." Selznick assigned Hitch to direct Rebecca (1940) instead.
When he won his Lifetime Achievement award in 1979, he joked with friends that he must be about to die soon. He died a year later.
After having never received an Oscar throughout his career, the frequently snubbed Hitchcock only said "Thank you" when he received a Lifetime Achievement award in 1979.
Was voted the Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. The same magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Films of all time includes more films directed by Hitchcock than by any other director, with four. On the list were his masterworks Psycho (1960) (#11), Vertigo (1958) (#19), North by Northwest (1959) (#44) and Notorious (1946) (#66).
He had a hard time devising one of his signature walk-ons for Lifeboat (1944), a film about a small group of people trying to survive on a small boat. What he eventually came up with was to have his picture in a newspaper advertisement for weight loss that floated among some debris around the boat. He had happened to have lost a considerable amount of weight from dieting around that time, so he was seen in both the "Before" and the "After" pictures.
He was infamous with cast and crews for his "practical jokes." While some inspired laughs, such as suddenly showing up in a dress, most were said to have been more cruel than funny. Usually he found out about somebody's phobias, such as mice or spiders, and in turn sent them a box full of them.
Directed the pilot episode of the radio series "Suspense" which aired from 1942-1962, and made a brief appearance at the end. It was an adaptation of his 1927 film "The Lodger" and starred Herbert Marshall and Edmund Gwynn, who reprised his brother Arthur Chesney's role as Mr. Bunting.
Directed 8 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, Albert Bassermann, Michael Chekhov, Claude Rains, Ethel Barrymore and Janet Leigh. Fontaine won an Oscar for Suspicion (1941).
Later,
Kenaz
