[A Tribute By
Carletto di San Giovanni:]
myspace.com/giancarletto
www.directorspotlight.com(Please take note that I've moved a lot of information (quotes, trivia, videos) into the blog section for easier reading and access. Thanks, Carletto 7-30-08)
IMDB Mini biography:
Alfred Hitchcock was the son of East End greengrocer William Hitchcock and his wife Emma. Raised as a strict Catholic and attending Saint Ignatius College, a school run by Jesuits, Hitch had very much of a regular upbringing. His first job outside of the family business was in 1915 as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company. His interest in movies began at around this time, frequently visiting the cinema and reading US trade journals.
In 1920 Hitch learned that Lasky were to open a studio in London and managed to secure a job as a title designer. He designed the titles for all the movies made at the studio for the next two years. In 1923 he got his first chance at directing when the director of _Always Tell Your Wife (1923)_ fell ill and Hitch completed the movie. Impressed by his work, studio chiefs gave him his first directing assignment on Number 13 (1922), however, before it could be finished, the studio closed its British operation. Hitch was then hired by Michael Balcon to work as an assistant director for the company later to be known as Gainsborough Pictures. In reality Hitch did more than this - working as a writer, title designer and art director. After several films for the company, Hitch was given the chance to direct a British/German co-production called The Pleasure Garden (1925). Hitchcock's career as a director finally began. Hitchcock went on to become the most widely known and influential director in the history of world cinema with a significant body of work produced over 50 years.
Trade mark
Has a cameo in most of his films.
Likes to insert shots of a woman's hairstyle, frequently close-ups. [hair]
Bathrooms are often a plot device; often a hiding place or a place where lovemaking is prepared for. Hitchcock also frequently uses the letters ....BM'', which stand for ....Bowel Movement''. [bathroom]
Often used the "wrong man" or "mistaken identity" theme in his movies.
He preferred blondes: The most famous actresses in his filmography were Anny Ondra, Madeleine Carroll, Joan Fontaine, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Novak, Vera Miles, Janet Leigh and Tippi Hedren.
There is a recurrent motif of loss or assumed identity. While mistaken identity applies to a film like North By Northwest, assumed identity applies to films such as Vertigo, Psycho, Marnie, and The 39 Steps among others...
Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
Perhaps only one other filmmaker-Walt Disney-lived to see his name become synonymous with a certain type of screen entertainment: In Hitchcock's case, it was stylish, sophisticated suspense, laced with humor and romance. Moreover, his bald pate, pearshaped body, and lugubrious drawl made him as recognizable as any star he ever directed. Educated by Jesuits, the young Hitchcock developed a flair for things mechanical, and first went to work for a telegraph company. He later took up art, applying his talents to print advertisements. Hitchcock broke into the British film industry in 1920 as a title-card illustrator, working his way up to art director, assistant director, editor, writer, and finally director. His first hit was the thriller The Lodger (1926), by which time many of his now-familiar cinematic trademarks were already apparent, including his ritual cameo appearance. He mastered the new medium of talking pictures with seeming effortlessness in Blackmail (1929) and proved that the presence of sound was no reason not to continue to tell stories with visual panache. (Speaking of things visual, 1930's all-star talkie revue Elstree Calling gave Hitchcock his only opportunity to direct a pie-throwing scene-with Anna May Wong, of all people.) He reached the top of his game with such outstanding films as The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), and The Lady Vanishes (1938), all of which placed ordinary people- with whom audiences could readily identify-in life-or-death situations, often being chased by the authorities as well as the villains.
Hitchcock succumbed to the lure of Hollywood in 1939; his first film there, the romantic thriller Rebecca (1940), won the Best Picture Oscar and cemented his standing. He continued to masterly manipulate audiences' emotions in such classics as Foreign Correspondent (1940), Suspicion (1941), Shadow of a Doubt (1943, reportedly his personal favorite among his films), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), and Notorious (1946). During this period, as he immersed himself in the slickness of Hollywood filmmaking, he continued to draw from a seemingly inexhaustible cinematic bag of tricks, using his mechanical and electrical knowledge to create memorable little effects and images (such as the illuminated glass of milk carried upstairs by Cary Grant inSuspicion His first color movie, Rope (1948), was an experiment-not altogether successful-in shooting an entire film in one seemingly continuous shot.
In the 1950s Hitchcock set himself new challenges and created a gallery of unique and memorable films, including the psychological cat-and-mouse thriller Strangers on a Train (1951), the 3-D opus Dial M for Murder (1954), the visually challenging Rear Window (1954), the elegant and witty To Catch a Thief (1955), the incomparably droll black comedy The Trouble With Harry (1955), the remake of his own The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956, with its bravura climax in London's Albert Hall), and the low-key, documentarystyle The Wrong Man (1957). In 1955 he agreed to host (and occasionally direct) a weekly TV anthology series, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," a diversion that lasted a full ten years. His droll commentary (written by James Allardice) and distinctive greeting ("Good eeeevening") made him more famous than ever. The TV years also saw him directing four of his greatest films in a row: the incredibly complex and adult thriller Vertigo (1958), the witty and exciting North by Northwest (1959, with its audacious set-pieces in a desolate cornfield and atop Mount Rushmore), the starkly frightening, very black Psycho (1960, which he made quickly and inexpensively with his TV crew), and that masterpiece of manipulation and control, The Birds (1963). Hitchcock brought out the best in his stars (including James Stewart, Cary Grant, and the ultimate "Hitchcock blonde," Grace Kelly) and inspired composer Bernard Herrmann to do some of his finest work on his films.
Hitchcock's work past this point became uneven. Marnie (1964) was ahead of its time. Torn Curtain (1966) had star power but little else. Topaz (1969) told an intriguing tale, but the lack of recognizable stars made audiences feel aloof. Frenzy (1972) saw the director back in form-in peak form, to be precise, pulling some new visual tricks out of his bottomless bag, and playing violence against humor as only he could. (Hitchcock always hosted his own coming attractions trailers; for the British-made film, his first in more than 30 years, he appeared on-screen floating in the Thames River!) Family Plot (1976) tipped the scales too far toward comedy, and was only a middling success. Hitchcock continued to develop properties for future production, but failing health curtailed those plans. In 1979 he received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award; he died the following year.
Astoundingly, the man considered by many the finest director who ever lived never won an Oscar, though he did receive the Irving Thalberg Award in 1967, and a long-running mystery magazine bears his name. His influence on a younger generation of filmmakers is impossible to overstate; virtually every thriller that comes along is described as "Hitchcockian," though few manage to live up to that description. As if that weren't enough, the director almost literally returned from the grave in 1985, when NBC revived "Alfred Hitchcock Presents": the episodes were new, but Hitch (now colorized) was still introducing them!
