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David Selznick pursued Hitchcock to make some Hollywood films. With "Rebecca" in 1940, Hitchcock made his first American film, and he worked in America for the rest of his career. |
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After Jimmy Stewart's character has been staring across the courtyard at him for most of the film, Raymond Burr's burly villain confronts Stewart by saying "What do you want of me?" Burr might as well have been addressing the audience. |
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Hitchcock heroines tend to be lovely, cool blondes who seem at first to be proper but, when aroused by passion or danger, respond in a more sensual, animal, perhaps criminal way. As noted, the famous victim in "The Lodger" is a blonde. In "The 39 Steps" Hitchcock's glamorous blonde star, Madeleine Carroll, is put in handcuffs. In "Marnie," glamorous blonde [Tippie Hedren]? is a kleptomaniac. In "To Catch a Thief," glamorous blonde [Grace Kelly]? is a cat burglar. And, most notoriously, in "Psycho," [Janet Leigh]? steals $40,000 and gets murdered by a young man who thought he was his own mother. Or, as he put it himself, "My mother is -- what's the phrase? -- she isn't really herself today." |
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Hitchcock heroines tend to be lovely, cool blondes who seem at first to be proper but, when aroused by passion or danger, respond in a more sensual, animal, perhaps criminal way. As noted, the famous victim in "The Lodger" is a blonde. In "The 39 Steps" Hitchcock's glamorous blonde star, Madeleine Carroll, is put in handcuffs. In "Marnie," glamorous blonde [Tippie Hedren]? is a kleptomaniac. In "To Catch a Thief," glamorous blonde [Grace Kelly]? is a cat burglar. And, most notoriously, in "Psycho," [Janet Leigh]? steals $40,000 and gets murdered by a young man named Norman Bates who thought he was his own mother. Or, as Norman put it himself, "My mother is -- what's the phrase? --she isn't really herself today." |
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Hitchcock loved to eat. Toward the end of a small private dinner party with meager portions, Hitchcock heard his hostess say "I do hope you'll dine again with us soon." Hitchcock replied, "By all means. Let's start now." |
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Hitchcock loved to eat. One unrealized film idea was to show 24 hours in the life of a city, with the frame being the food: how it was imported and prepared and eaten and then at the end of the day thrown away into the sewers... Once, toward the end of a small private dinner party with meager portions, Hitchcock heard his hostess say, "I do hope you'll dine again with us soon." Hitchcock replied, "By all means. Let's start now." |
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In both films, he uses a total mastery of the film medium to make almost confessional films about the obsessions and neuroses of men who manipulate women. Vertigo explores more frankly and at greater length his interest in the relation between sex and death. [Kim Novak]?'s character is most attractive as a blonde, and though Jimmy Stewart's character knows she is an accessory to murder, he falls in love with her and she with him. |
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In both films, he uses a total mastery of the film medium to make almost confessional films about the obsessions and neuroses of men who manipulate women. Vertigo explores more frankly and at greater length his interest in the relation between sex and death. [Kim Novak]?'s character is most attractive as a blonde, and though Jimmy Stewart's character knows she is an accessory to murder, he falls in love with her and she with him. Stewart's character feels an angry need to control his lover, to dress her, to fetishize her clothes, her shoes, her hair. |
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Hitchcock once commented "The writer and I plan out the entire script down to the smallest detail, and when we're finished all that's left to do is to shoot the film. Actually, it's only when one enters the studio that one enters the area of compromise. Really, the novelist has the best casting since he doesn't have to cope with the actors and all the rest." |
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Hitchcock once commented, "The writer and I plan out the entire script down to the smallest detail, and when we're finished all that's left to do is to shoot the film. Actually, it's only when one enters the studio that one enters the area of compromise. Really, the novelist has the best casting since he doesn't have to cope with the actors and all the rest." |
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:Rope (1948) |
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:Rope? (1948) |
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:Topaz? |
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:Topaz? |
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