One of the often quoted stories in the turbulent saga of Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren during the filming of Marnie is the notion that Hitchcock denied Hedren the opportunity to collect a Photoplay Award out of spite. Hedren herself says that this was supposed to happen over ‘a long weekend’, where she would fly out to New York on a Thursday and come back by Monday ready for filming. However the following memos in the Alfred Hitchcock files show this not to be true – and that the awards filming was taking place midweek on Wednesday February 5th (memo from David Golding head of Universal publicity Jan 21 1964). In another memo Golding described the awards ceremony as ‘a rat race’ and would have little impact on the Golden Globes or other nominations.

No time to pause filming midweek because of Sean Connery

Furthermore the production was filming every day due to Sean Connery’s imminent departure at the end of February as he was then scheduled to go and film Goldfinger back in London. The below memo shows that there was little time for publicity shots and Hedren herself didn’t want to come in on a Saturday as she was ‘bone tired’ and recovering from the flu bug. Yet she still was prepared to fly to New York to accept the photoplay award.

When filming finished in March Hitchcock allowed Hedren to accept the award

Filming wrapped in Mid March and by that time Hitch allowed Hedren to accept the Photoplay award

Was Hitchcock so churlish then not to allow Hedren to fly to New York given the filming constraints?

Louise Latham says she felt sorry for Hitchcock as he was being professional and trying to finish the movie with an expensive star in Connery ($200,000) and a schedule to keep to. That seems to be the cause of the real bust up between Hitchcock and Hedren. Read the true story in Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie on Amazon.

Yet reports still circulate, ignited recently by Hedren’s Grand daughter Dakota Johnson, that Hitchcock was abusive. Type your thoughts in the comments section below.

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