Alfred Hitchcock
A COLLECTION OF FILMS
Alfred Hitchcock
A COLLECTION OF FILMS
This book is dedicated to Gene & Donna Biggs (Nana & Papa). Thank you for introducing me to Mr. Hitchcock, & instilling my love for truly great films. I love you.
“Give them pleasure—the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.” Alfred Hitchcock
psycho
PLOT
Phoenix office worker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam’s California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother.
TRIVIA
The shot of Janet Leigh flushing the toilet is believed to be the first such shot in American cinema history.. Hitchcock bought the rights to the novel anonymously from Robert Bloch for just $9,000. He then bought up as many copies of the novel as he could to keep the ending a secret.
Frank Albertson John Anderson Martin Balsam John Gavin Patricia Hitchcock Ted Knight Janet Leigh John McIntire Vera Miles Mort Mills Simon Oakland Anthony Perkins Vaughn Taylor Lurene Tuttle
CAST
Tom Cassidy California Charlie Milton Arbogast Sam Loomis Caroline Prison Guard Marion Crane Sheriff Chambers Lila Crane Highway Patrolman Dr. Richmond Norman Bates George Lowery Mrs. Chambers
“Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints.” Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock makes his cameo appearance 4 minutes in wearing a cowboy hat outside Janet Leigh's office.
THE FILM Genre Horror – Thriller Director – Alfred Hitchcock Writers – Robert Bloch (novel) Joseph Stefano Composer – Bernard Herrmann Director of Photography – John L. Russell 1960
Dial M for murder
PLOT
In London, wealthy Margot Mary Wendice had a brief love affair with the American writer Mark Halliday while her husband and professional tennis player Tony Wendice was on a tennis tour. Tony quits playing to dedicate to his wife and finds a regular job. She decides to give him a second chance for their marriage. When Mark arrives from America to visit the couple, Margot tells him that she had destroyed all his letters but one that was stolen. Subsequently she was blackmailed, but she had never retrieved the stolen letter. Tony arrives home, claims that he needs to work and asks Margot to go with Mark to the theater. Meanwhile Tony calls Captain Lesgate (aka Charles Alexander Swann who studied with him at college) and blackmails him to murder his wife, so that he can inherit her fortune. But there is no perfect crime, and things do not work as planned.
TRIVIA
The movie was shot in 3-D although it was never released that way until after Hitchcock’s death. Early in the film, Margot calls Mark (Robert Cummings) “Bob” by mistake.
George Alderson Patrick Allen Leo Britt Sanders Clark Robert Cummings Anthony Dawson Robert Dobson Guy Doleman Sam Harris Robin Hughes Grace Kelly George Leigh Ray Milland Thayer Roberts John (I) Williams
CAST
First Detective Pearson The Storyteller Detective Mark Halliday Captain Lesgate Police Photographer Detective Man in Phone Booth Police Sergeant Margot Wendice Williams Tony Wendice Detective Inspector Hubbard
“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.� Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock makes his cameo appearance 13 minutes into the film, on the left side of the reunion photograph.
THE FILM Genres – Thriller Mystery Director – Alfred Hitchcock Writers – Frederick Knott (also play) Composer – Dmitri Tiomkin Director of Photography – Robert Burks 1954
spellbound
PLOT
The head of the Green Manors mental asylum Dr. Murchison is retiring to be replaced by Dr. Edwardes, a famous psychiatrist. Edwardes arrives and is immediately attracted to the beautiful but cold Dr. Constance Petersen. However, it soon becomes apparent that Dr. Edwardes is in fact a paranoid amnesiac impostor. He goes on the run with Constance who tries to help his condition and solve the mystery of what happened to the real Dr. Edwardes.
TRIVIA
The dream sequence was designed by Salvador DalĂ, and was originally supposed to run for 20 minutes. It included a scene with Dr. Peterson covered in ants. Only part of it was filmed, and even less of it ended up in the release version. Although the film is in black and white, two frames where the gun shot goes off while pointed at the camera are tinted red.
Ingrid Bergman Gregory Peck Michael Chekhov Leo G. Carroll John Emery Steven Geray Paul Harvey Donald Curtis Rhonda Fleming Norman Lloyd Wallace Ford Bill Goodwin Art Baker Regis Toomey Irving Bacon
CAST
Dr. Constance Peterson John Ballantine Dr. Alex Brulov Dr. Murchison Dr. Fleurot Dr. Graff Dr. Hanish Harry Mary Carmichael Mr. Garmes Hotesl Masher Hotel Detective Lt. Cooley Sergeant Gillespie RR Ticket Taker
“Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.� Alfred Hitchcock
Alfed Hitchcock’s cameo appears coming out of the elevator at the Empire Hotel carrying a violin.
THE FILM Genres – Black Comedy Director – Alfred Hitchcock Writers – Francis Beeding (novel The House Of Dr. Edwardes) Angus MacPhail (adaptation) Ben Hecht (screenplay) Composer – Miklos Rozsa Director of Photography – George Barnes 1945
vertigo
PLOT
Retired police detective Stewart, who has a fear of heights, is hired by an old school chum in San Francisco to keep an eye on his wife (Novak). He eventually falls in love with his quarry and that’s just the beginning; to reveal more would be unthinkable. Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor scripted, from the novel D’entre les Morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Vertigo is a haunting, dream-like thriller, with a riveting Bernard Herrmann score to match. It is a genuinely great motion picture that demands multiple viewings.
TRIVIA
San Juan Batista, the Spanish mission which features in key scenes in the movie doesn’t actually have a bell tower - it was added with trick photography. The mission originally had a steeple but it was demolished following a fire. Hitchcock invented the famous combination of forward zoom and reverse tracking shot to convey the sense of vertigo to the audience. The view down the mission stair well cost $19,000 for just a couple of seconds of screen time.
Raymond Bailey Barbara Bel Geddes Ellen Corby Tom Helmore Henry Jones Kim Novak Lee Patrick Konstantin Shayne James Stewart
CAST
Doctor Midge Manageress Gavin Elster Official Madeleine False madeleine Pop Leibel Scottie Ferguson
“The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.�
Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock makes his cameo appearance about 11 minutes in wearing a gray suit walking past Gavin Elster’s shipyard.
THE FILM Genres – Mystery, Thriller Director – Alfred Hitchcock Writers – Pierre Boileau (novel), Alec Coppel, Thomas Narcejac (novel), Samuel Taylor Composer – Bernard Herrmann Director of Photography – Robert Burks 1958
Sources: imdb.com http://hubpages.com/hub/hitchcockfilms http://hitchcock.tv/Hitchcock.html http://www.doctormacro.com/index.html This book was designed and illustrated by Lauren Smith while a student at the University of Louisville.
“I have a perfect cure for a sore throat: cut it.” Alfred Hitchcock