Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie celebrates its 60th anniversary this month. It was released in the US on July 22nd 1964 in New York and also in the UK on July 9th 1964, buoyed by the presence of international star Sean Connery who was garnering great reviews in the James Bond series. Sixty years on how has Marnie fared? As Mark Rutland would say, surprisingly well “Old Girl”.

Marnie has become a time capsule for gender representations, and psychoanalytical ideas of key traumas and events. The power of Hitchcock within the medium of cinema, is his ability to create iconic characters who remain indelible in our culture, like murdering psychopaths played by Robert Walker and Anthony Perkins, or ice heroines personified by Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren. Furthermore, Hitchcock’s ability to create alternative realities within familiar settings, such as the haunting, urban landscape of San Francisco, or the imposing, granite faces of Mount Rushmore, remain in our consciousness as a world existing somewhere between reality and illusion. In Marnie, such images are represented by the shooting of the horse Forio, and the infamous Baltimore backdrop of the looming ship. The fact that these images linger long after we have seen the film, and have been influential to a vast array of other artists, is testimony to Hitchcock’s power as a film maker.

Hitchcock’s very popularity has made him a continual source of fascination for critical writing, from Cahiers du Cinéma in the 1950s to Lacanian champion Slavoj Zizek, who himself observes: “Hitchcock as the theoretical phenomenon that we have witnessed in recent decades – the endless flow of books, articles, university courses, conference panels, is a ‘postmodern’ phenomenon par excellence.”  What makes Hitchcock’s work so enduringly and eminently accessible, is the presentation of fundamentally significant human issues in an entertaining and provoking manner. Hitchcock’s films have captured the realm of popular imagination, suffused our culture and continue to remain an engaging critique of male and female sexual relationships. A panel of top directors including Martin Scorsese, Atom Egoyan and Bruce Robinson, assembled by the British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound magazine, voted for the ten greatest Hitchcock works. They chose; 1. Psycho, 2. Vertigo, 3. Notorious, 4. The Birds, 5. North by Northwest, 6. Shadow of a Doubt, 7. Foreign Correspondent, 8. Frenzy, 9. The Lady Vanishes and 10. Marnie.

A film that was universally scorned when first released, Marnie has grown tremendously in popularity and has now become a time capsule for gender representations and psychoanalytical ideas for key traumas and events. The film may well be Hitchcock’s testament in which his signature is left on every shot. The fact that these images linger long after we have seen the film, and have been influential to a vast array of other artists, is testimony to Hitchcock’s power as a film maker.

You can read about the making of the film in “Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie” published by Rowman and Littlefield who are offering a 30% discount with the code RLFANDF30 through this link https://rowman.com/…/Hitchcock-and-the-Making-of-Marnie… #hitchcock #marnie

#marnie #alfredhitchcock #hitchcock #60thanniversary #seanconnery #

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780810891081/Hitchcock-and-the-Making-of-Marnie-Revised-Edition

The new play “Double Feature” about the working relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren has premiered at the Hampstead Theatre in London and is already perpetuating the myth about the famous director and his protege.

While scriptwriter John Logan in The Times says he believes Hedren’s story that Hitchcock assaulted her, many of the cast and crew interviewed deny the veracity of the allegations, especially physical abuse. You can read many of their interviews on this site and in Tony Lee Moral’s books The Making of Hitchcock’s The Birds and Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie.

Hitchcock did believe that actresses under contract should be committed to their craft which may be an old school way of thinking under the studio system, but cast and crew deny witnessing any physical abuse during the filming of The Birds and Marnie. All due care was given to Hedren during the filming of The Birds according to bird handler Gero Gerry, hairdresser Virginia Darcy and wardrobe mistress Rita Riggs.

The myths were also perpetuated by Donald Spoto, biographer of The Dark Side of Genius, whose research and motivations have come into question, not only in his biography on Hitch, but also James Dean, Audrey Hepburn and others.

Official Hitchcock biographer John Russell Taylor who knew both Hitchcock and Hedren in the 1970s, describes the allegations and dramatisations as “a tissue of melodramatic invention”.

It also just been reported that Tippi Hedren, 94, is battling dementia according to Spanish Media Reports. Apparently Tippi can’t remember her career.

Drop your comments below.

#doublefeature #johnlogan #alfredhitchcock #tippihedren #hampsteadtheatre #play #londonplay #tippi

Donald Spoto, the unauthorised biographer of “The Life of Alfred Hitchcock: The Dark Side of Genius” died last week at the age of 81 as reported in The New York Times. May he Rest In Peace.

His first book “The Art of Alfred Hitchcock” was published in 1976 and was a coffee table book on Hitchcock’s work. But as esteemed Hitchcock critic Robin Wood, author of the seminal book “Hitchcock’s Films” stated, Spoto quickly turned from reverence to rape with the publication of his next Hitchcock book, “The Dark Side of Genius”.

Many Hitchcock collaborators went on record to say they did not recognise the man Spoto portrayed in his book, while others such as Patricia Hitchcock, Herbert Coleman and Norman Lloyd actively defended the director with alternative sides of the story.

Following the publication of his Hitchcock books, Spoto made a name for himself as a celebrity biographer with often sensational accounts on the likes of Joan Crawford, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Ingrid Bergman and James Dean among others.

He published his third and final book on Alfred Hitchcock in 2008 titled “Spellbound by Beauty” which catalogued Hitchcock’s predilictions with blondes and his alleged obsession with Tippi Hedren. Spoto and Hedren collaborated as advisers on the BBC’s and HBO’s drama “The Girl” which was released in 2013. Again more controversy ensued, and defendants such as Kim Novak, Doris Day and Barbara Leigh-Hunt spoke out to defend Hitchcock as the man they did not recognise in the television movie.

Spoto’s allegations were also refuted in two books by author Tony Lee Moral, “Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie” in 2002 and “The Making of Hitchcock’s The Birds” in 2013.

While Save Hitchcock disputed The Girl’s allegations and contradicted many of those in Spoto’s biography, we will be addressing some of those claims in the coming months on this site.

Spoto leaves behind his husband Ole Flemming Larsen who he married in 2003 where they lived together in Denmark.

#AlfredHitchcock #DonaldSpoto #TheGirl #Spoto #Hitchcock #TippiHedren #Marnie #TheBirds

The reason for Hitchcock’s enduring influence on Directors and Critics today.

Alfred Hitchcock has a reason to dance. Four of Hitchcock’s Films have made the Top 100 films of all time list in the recent British Film Institute Sight and Sound Poll. Although Hitchcock’s Vertigo is down only one place to Number 2 having beaten Citizen Kane to the top spot in the last poll, Hitchcock is only rivalled by Jean Luc Goddard in having the greatest number of films on the list, with Psycho, Rear Window and North by Northwest.

While cinematic greats like Bergman with only film, Persona, and Renoir have slipped or fallen out of the top, which testifies Hitchcock’s enduring appeal as a master storyteller and giant of cinema.

You can read about Hitchcock’s legacy in a new book The Young Alfred Hitchcock’s Moviemaking Master Class available on Amazon.

#books #sightandsoundpoll #sightandsoundmagazine #filmbooks #vertigo #jeannedielman #psycho #rearwindow #northbynorthwest #polls #ilms #alfredhitchcock

The Sight and Sound Directors’s and Critic’s Polls for the Best Film of All Time will be published on Friday December 2nd 2022, every ten years since its inception. In 2012, Vertigo gained the top spot, dethroning Citizen Kane.

Will it retain the Number 1 position this year? Rumour has it that another film like 2001 will take the title.

Find out why Vertigo is held in such high esteem in a new book The Young Alfred Hitchcock’s Moviemaking Master Class which is published in 2022.

Now available to preorder: A one-of-a-kind historical document and 100th anniversary celebration of the artwork behind several of the Master of Suspense’s greatest films.

To coincide with the 100th anniversary of his directorial debut in 2022, this stunning coffee table book focuses on the storyboards, including never before published images and incisive text putting the material in context and examining the role the pieces played in some of the most unforgettable scenes in cinema. Hitchcock author and aficionado Tony Lee Moral takes you through the last 100 years of cinema, with the Master of Suspense as your guide.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/708209/alfred-hitchcock-the-storyboards-by-tony-lee-moral/

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.

#alfredhitchcock #tippihedren #photoplayawards #hitchcock #hedren #dakotajohnson #seanconnery #metoo #truestory #hollywood #newyork #scandal

#Hitchcon #JamesBond #Notimetodie #northbynorthwest #psycho #thebirds #marnie #thrillers #movies #classics #tickets #virtual #weekend #online #thetroublewithharry #tuxedo #seanconnery

The first annual HITCHCON is this weekend (October 1st to 3rd 2021) and is starting today. You can buy weekend or day passes here http://www.hitchcon.org along with the full programme line up which includes:

Discussions with Hitchcock authors and scholars including Q&A

Screenings of MARNIE (Friday at 7pm EST) and THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (Saturday at 7pm EST)

Insights into the films of Alfred Hitchcock and his quest for love in his movies

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Pat Hitchcock O’Connell, Hitchcock’s only child with his wife Alma. An actress herself, Pat memorably starred in two of the director’s films Strangers on a Train and Psycho. She was also supportive of books written about her father and graciously gave interviews to Save Hitchcock. May she RIP.

It is with great sadness that Norman Lloyd, an actor, producer and long time friend of Alfred Hitchcock has died at the age of 106 (November 8th 1914 – May 11th 2021).

We interviewed him a couple of times for Save Hitchcock at his home in Brentwood and was always impeccably attired with a copy of the New Yorker by his side. A true gentleman in every sense of the word, he described Alfred Hitchcock’s camera logic and gift as a storyteller. He famously starred in Hitchcock’s Saboteur and fell from the Statue of Liberty. He went on to produce Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the 1960s.