THE T A R S a great success, remains significant for two reasons. The 3D craze was sweeping the American nation, and Warner Brothers felt that Part 2 Hitchcock should jump on the bandwagon. Dial M for murder thus became the first 1950 to (and only) 3D Hitchcock production. 1980 Hitchcock himself once lamented that the 3D process was a seven-day wonder, and that he had arrived on the seventh day. Indeed the film was hardly ever screened using the gimmicky process, and was largely seen by audiences in a ‘flat’ version. The second, and probably most significant, reason for the film’s importance, is that it introduced Hitchcock to actress Grace Kelly. In Kelly, Hitchcock found the ultimate The corpse in personification of the ‘cool blonde’. She was everything that he could have hoped for, and the coach more. Not quite a femme fatale, and not quite the wilting flower, Kelly was Hitchcock’s ice princess. They would ultimately work to- gether on a further two projects. When she married Prince Rainier of Monaco, Hitchcock The life and career of sorely missed her. Despite both their best efforts to work together again (in The birds and Marnie) the people of Monaco made it Alfred Hitchcock clear that they would not share their prin- cess with Hollywood. After four major successes in a row for the Warner Brothers Studio, Hitchcock was ALEXANDER VAN DER POLL about to sign one of the most lucrative in 1950 was a critical and commercial failure. Correspondent director’s contracts in cinema history… Despite a stellar cast including Jane Wyman, Michael Wilding, and Marlene Dietrich Success is Paramount ‘If I made Cinderella, the audience would singing The laziest gal in town, its poor per- Through the business acumen of MCA be looking for a dead body in the coach’. formance at the box office sealed, forever, agent, Lew Wasserman, Paramount Studios Alfred Hitchcock the fate of Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein’s offered Hitchcock a nine-picture deal. In Transatlantic Pictures. addition to receiving the highest salary (per Part 1 appeared in the CL September/October A new era picture) that he had ever earned, he would be offered a percentage of the profits, as 2005 issue, p 34. In keeping with his usual work ethic, well as acting as producer on five of those Hitchcock had already started working on films. Moreover, the rights of the pictures n an evening in October of 1955, his next couple of projects, even before Hitchcock produced would revert to him thousands of Americans turning on completing Stage fright. The most important eight years after their initial release. Otheir television sets were greeted of these was a film adaptation of Patricia Feeling highly motivated, Hitchcock by the slow-emerging drawn silhouette of (The talented Mr Ripley) Highsmith’s debut embarked on a golden era of creativity. In a Alfred Hitchcock, accompanied by the strains novel, Strangers on a train (1951). The sus- matter of five years, the Master of Suspense of Gounod’s Funeral march of a marionette. penseful story was the perfect source mate- created half a dozen films, all of which are Alfred Hitchcock, in partnership with rial for Hitchcock. The eventual screenplay today regarded as classic cinema. Rear win- MCA and CBS, had launched the Alfred would leave little unchanged from the book, dow, To catch a thief, The man who knew Hitchcock presents television series. With yet it nevertheless met with critical and too much, Vertigo, North by northwest, this project, Hitchcock cemented his popu- public acclaim, making Strangers one of the and ending off the decade with the film that larity; his name, and his image in the minds of most successful Hitchcock films ever made. would launch a thousand imitations. the American public. The son of an English Continuing under contract to Warner In Rear window (1954), Hitchcock was greengrocer had become an American Brothers, Hitchcock produced and directed gladly re-united with Grace Kelly, and an- icon… two further projects, I confess (1953) and other favourite actor and close friend, James Yet, the decade, which would see the Dial M for murder (1954). I confess met Stewart. Rounding off the cast was veteran ultimate rise of the star director, began with mild response from audiences and crit- character actor, Thelma Ritter. rather inauspiciously. Stage fright, released ics, but Dial M for murder, aside from being Cape Libr., Nov/Dec 2005 44 The film was based on a short story helicopters. The very idea seemed ab- book that formed the by Cornell Woolrich, It had to be murder surd, and certainly had never been done basis of the classic 1955 first published in the pulp magazine Dime before, but Hitchcock respected his wife’s film, Les Diabolique detective in 1942. In fact, pulp fiction often knowledge of cinema, and so, despite much (remade in 1996, star- supplied Hitchcock with ideas for his radio, difficulty, the scene was thus shot. Today, ring Sharon Stone). and later television series. the scene still stands as a testament to Indeed Hitchcock’s first The central motive in Rear window is that Hitchcock’s pursuit of cinematic innovation. choice was to make of voyeurism. A pastime that one suspects Hitchcock’s third contribution, The Diabolique, but having the director of having been particularly trouble with Harry (1956) was a curious lost the chance to do so, fond. As one reviewer noted, ‘It’s like being venture into the realm of black comedy. he settled on D’Entre Hitchcock for 112 minutes.’ (The Second The plot revolves around a bothersome les Morts (From among Virgin film guide, 1993.) Indeed, Rear win- corpse (Harry’s) which keeps appearing and the dead) which would dow is a brilliant exercise in this regard. In disappearing, causing the residents of a small become Vertigo. Hitchcock and Francois the film, a wheelchair-bound Jimmy Stewart Vermont town no end of trouble, as each The complexities and Truffaut (1962) spends his days spying on his flat-dwelling has their own reason for believing that they psychological influ- Truffaut a director of the neighbours across the way. Simultaneously are responsible for his death. ences on the film and its French New Wave inter- the viewer is watching Stewart, watch- The trouble with Harry may not be a casting, is so immense viewed Hitchcock extensively ing others (of course being watched by a masterpiece of cinema, but it did introduce that one could do no for a seminal film book voyeuristic director). A kind of vortex of the world to a talented new actor: Shirley better than to read Dan voyeurism. MacLaine. Auiler’s 1999 book, This theme would re-appear (in smaller Another aside to this whimsical film is that Vertigo - the mak- measure) in later films like Vertigo, Psycho the picturesque autumn-time village was ing of a Hitchcock and The birds, to name but a few. filmed in winter, after having been ravaged classic. Unlike Hitchcock’s first film for Warner by Hurricane Carol. Much of what is seen Hitchcock Brothers, Stage fright, Rear window (a onscreen was filmed back in Hollywood on desperately wanted Paramount production) enjoyed enormous a soundstage. A testament to Hitchcock to cast Vera Miles success. Critics and audiences applauded, and his crew’s ingenuity is that it is quite dif- (from The wrong and were hungry for more. Hitchcock ficult to tell the difference between the real man) as the ‘cool received his fourth Academy Award Vermont, and the studio recreation. blonde’ Madeline nomination for Rear window, having Hitchcock’s next venture divides his loyal Elster. Hitchcock Baldy, off duty, chatting with his previously been nominated for Rebecca fans to this day. He had made The man had great plans for director during the filming of (1940), Lifeboat (1944), and Spellbound who knew too much in England in 1934. Vera Miles, aiming The birds (1963) (1945). Hitchcock was not about to disap- Now, in 1956, Hitchcock saw fit to remake to shape her into point them, nor lose momentum. his own film. This time the stars would be the new Grace Kelly. The next year, 1955, saw the release of To James Stewart and Doris Day. Fans of the However, she had fallen catch a thief. Again, the film starred Grace Master still disagree as to the merits of the pregnant and announced Kelly, this time opposite Cary Grant. remake versus the original, but Hitchcock her semi-retirement from To catch a thief is almost certainly one of himself seemed particularly proud of the acting. Hitchcock was Hitchcock’s most beautifully-photographed latter version. He once said that the original despondent, and had to films. The idyllic French Riviera scenery, the was ‘the work of a talented amateur, and the make do with newcomer, VistaVision cameras, and the Technicolor second was made by a professional.’ Kim Novak. Just as James film stock, all helping to achieve a kind of Incidentally, while filming The trouble Stewart’s character tries to postcard beauty. with Harry Hitchcock first hired Bernard re-model a young girl into Though considered a minor entry in the Herrmann to compose the musical score. the image of his deceased Hitchcock oeuvre, audiences worldwide He would subsequently be hired to score lover, so Hitchcock had to responded well to his particular mixture of the next seven Hitchcock productions, and re-model Novak into his humour and suspense. To say little of sexual here he makes a cameo appearance in The image of Miles, who he On the set of innuendo. During an impromptu picnic man who knew too much as the conduc- in turn wanted to fashion To catch a thief (1955) - of cold chicken, Grace Kelly’s character tor of the Storm cloud Cantata during the after Kelly, in another kind Grace Kelly giving seductively asks of Grant’s, ‘So which do you Albert Hall sequence.