Mel Brooks on Omelettes, Coffee, and the Inimitable Appetite of Alfred Hitchcock "Mel Brooks: Yes, here's a good story. When I was planning out one of my films, High Anxiety, I called [Alfred] Hitchcock. And I said, "Look, I make fun of movie genres. I did Silent Movie. I did the western. You are the suspense movie. You're a genre. And I'd like to dedicate the movie to you." And Hitchcock said, "Alright, let's talk." So we talked and he was cute. Really adorable. After a while we became friends. He invited me to dinner at his favorite restaurant at the time, it was Chasen's. He had his own booth; he had his own waiter." (READ MORE)
On the set of Shadow of a Doubt Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotton, 1943. The total budget was only $5000 (~ $83,000 today). Hitchcock is on the porch with his hand hanging over the railing. Might have a donut in the other hand (?) LARGER IMAGE ..
Irish America (1999) - Hitchcock's Irish Roots "Though Hitchcock made few movies with Irish themes, the three he did make are uniquely Irish Catholic and represent a significant segment of the Irish Catholicism on film. In Hitchcock's era, few movies identified a specific religious orientation because movies were designed to appeal to a mass audience and divisions were erased. Juno and the Paycock (1929) was filmed with the original Irish Players cast of the Sean O'Casey play. Though crudely made in that early sound film era, it is far superior and truer to the John Ford version of another O'Casey play The Plough and the Stars (1936). Hitchcock loved the play with its morally marginal message which pussy-foots around the Irish Uprising and oppressed Catholic theme. Under Capricorn (1949) explores the life of the transported Irish in 19th century Australia; the storyline is flawed and the film is further marred by the inauthentic casting of Ingrid Bergman as a dipsomaniac emigrant Anglo-Irish aristocrat married to her transported Irish stable hand (Joseph Cotten) but it is one of the few films on the theme of the Irish Diaspora. I Confess (1953) is one of the few movies ever made on the sanctity of the confessional. Father Michael Logan (Montgomery Clift) is the prime suspect in a murder and he cannot tell the police who the real murderer is because the murderer confessed the crime to Father Logan in confession."
Alfred Hitchcock's London "Think of Alfred Hitchcock films, and it's probably not London that springs to mind, but the USA. Lonesome motels, sleepy Californian beach towns and skyscraper-cluttered metropolises are a staple of his movies, but let's not forget that not only was Hitch born in London, integral parts of some of his best films were shot here — both in the studio and on location. Here we immerse ourselves in Hitchcock's London — the pieces immortalized on celluloid, and the bits and pieces of legacy that still pepper the capital." (READ MORE) Big Hitch head within Gainsborough Studios. Photo by Ray Grasso, in the Londonist Flickr pool
Hitchcock's Easter drama "The films of Alfred Hitchcock are often regarded as a master class on the grotesqueries of Western society. To be sure, The Birds, Rear Window, Psycho, Shadow of a Doubt, Rope and even Marnie, all point to a kind of monstrous underbelly that disrupts the tranquility of everyday life." "But it was with his first attempt at cinematic realism, in an attempt to depict the true story of a wrongfully accused man, that Hitchcock managed to create a horror far worse than any Norman Bates." "In The Wrong Man, Manny Balestrero (Henry Fonda) is arrested in an unfortunate instance of mistaken identity and, with little or no explanation, is quickly arraigned on charges of armed robbery. The central sequence of the film follows Manny as he is led through the opaque, impersonal legal apparatus that will determine his fate." "In a particularly poignant moment, Manny, his face still fixed in a look of terrified bewilderment, clutches a silver crucifix and silently prays. All the while, lawyers spew their jargon-laden bile at one another as the uninterested jury talk among themselves." "The entire courtroom scene appears to Manny as simultaneously all-powerful and completely impersonal. It is in control of his life, and it couldn't care less. That's the obscenity of the entire ordeal. There is no slick dialogue or high courtroom drama — just the brutal enactment of an insane system convinced of its own rectitude." "Although it might seem a little strange to invoke Hitchcock at Easter, we can see a similar horror at work in the trial of Jesus. The Gospel narratives depict Jesus as paraded, like some freak at a carnival, before Pilate and then Herod, both of whom taunt and goad him to accept their supposed power and thus to join in their insanity. " (Continue)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents – Guest for Breakfast (02/23/58) "1950s housewife Eve is preparing a breakfast that looks like the buffet at the Hilton — actual brewed coffee, toast, eggs, fresh-squeezed orange juice. All this is very strange in that Eve and husband Jordan are constantly but eruditely sniping at each other and are on the verge of a divorce. Why would she go to such trouble for him if the last ingredient wasn’t rat poison?" "They are interrupted by the doorbell. A man in a rumpled suit immediately elbows his way inside and pulls out a pistol. When Jordan comes out of the kitchen and sees his wife with a disheveled stranger, his calm response is, “Well now, this is a highly interesting development.” He assumes Eve is having an affair, but even when he sees the gun, he very calm." (READ MORE)
In March of 1962, Alfred Hitchcock was filming The Birds in Bodega Bay. He took a break to greet the pupils at a local school. The school’s principal thanks him in a letter. One child had been changed by the visit.