I Am Alfred Hitchcock (2021) - full transcript

[Alfred Hitchcock] If you turn
the volume up very loud...

it will drown out screams.

I believe

in putting the horror
in the mind of the audience.

How do you do,
ladies and gentlemen?

My name is Alfred Hitchcock.

[crash]

You know, I sometimes consider
getting out of this business.

[Eli Roth] Hitchcock made it
cool to be a director.

He was so respectable.

You don't picture him in sweatpants
and a Hawaiian shirt.



He's wearing that suit.

He is iconic.

[Edgar Wright]
Alfred Hitchcock's films are cinema,

and everything that you need
to know about cinema

is within those films,

and, crucially,
within that frame.

[Ben Mankiewicz] He didn't
just understand filmmaking.

He helped develop it.

He played a critical role

in making storytelling onscreen
what it is today.

[Steven Spielberg]
He was absolutely

the master of suspense,

and, therefore,
he was a master manipulator.

[Roche] You want Hitchcock
to tell you where to look,



tell you how to feel,
tell you what to think.

You want to be tricked by him,

and you're happy to be fooled.

Alfred Hitchcock
is an adorable genius.

[interviewer] You invariably appear
in your own films, Mr. Hitchcock.

Have you ever been tempted
to become an actor yourself?

Nothing so low as that.

[John Landis]
He was very funny,

and sometimes quite vulgar.

[Alfred Hitchcock] Have you been
a bad woman or something?

Well, not just bad, but...

But you've slept with men.

Oh, no!

You have not?
Come here. Stand in your place.

Otherwise, it will not
come out right,

as the girl said
to the soldier.

[John Landis]
Why is he so remembered?

Because he made sure to be.

That's enough.

This is Alfred Hitchcock.

Having lived with "Psycho”

since it was a gleam
in my camera's eye,

I now exercise
my parental rights

in revealing
a number of significant facts

about this slightly
extraordinary entertainment.

[Adam Roche] Hitchcock needed
"Psycho” to be a huge hit.

He was personally financing it.

There were rumors that the bosses
weren't happy with what he was making.

[Alexandre O. Philippe]
There was a lot of issues

around this idea
that this 61-year-old filmmaker

was taking on
this trashy pulp novel.

Most people told him,
"Don't do it.

It's beneath you."

[Alfred Hitchcock] Well, "Psycho”
is my first attempt at a shocker.

In some sense,
it could be called a horror film,

but the horror only comes to you
after you've seen it,

when you get home,

in the dark.

[Philippe] The first thing
that Hitchcock did

was bought as many copies
of Robert Bloch's novel

as he could get his hands on

to get it off the market,

so that people wouldn't know
what happens in "Psycho".

[Roche] He didn't want any details
of the film getting out there.

He made his crew swear an oath

that they would not talk
even about his methods on set.

Finally, they got
their first glimpse

when the trailers
started appearing in cinemas...

...and it was just
this seven-minute clip

of Hitchcock walking around
to this jovial music.

Good afternoon.

Here we have
a quiet little motel,

[Eli Roth] He is the most famous director
in the world,

no question,
not even a close second.

No one from
the French New Wave,

no one's coming close
to what Hitchcock's doing,

certainly not in America,

and not in world cinema.

Instead of watching a trailer, going,

"Who is this director
and why are they talking?"

It's, "Uh-oh.

How is Alfred Hitchcock
going to get us this time?"

Bathroom.

[Roche] The critics,
who were expecting

to be able
to go in and see the film

and appraise it
before the public got to see it,

were disallowed,

which just led
to more anticipation.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
I've suggested

that "Psycho" be seen
from the beginning.

In fact, this is more than
a suggestion.

It is required.

[Philippe] Back in the day,

people were walking
in and out of movies.

You know, you could
walk into the middle of a film,

watch it until the end,

watch the first half,

and then walk out.

He basically built
the entire advertising campaign

around this idea

that once the movie starts,
you cannot go in the theatre.

What it did

is that people started

lining up now
to go watch "Psycho”.

It built anticipation.

"What is this thing

that's going to happen
in the film?

Why do I have to
show up on time?"

It also now changed the way
that we watch movies.

The lines of people
waiting to go see "Star Wars,”

it's all because of Hitchcock,
in a way.

[Mark Ramsey] No one had
more doubts about it

than Hitchcock himself.

He was convinced

this was the biggest disaster
of his career.

[Roche] Throughout
the '50s and '60s,

there'd been this movement
in France called the "auteur theory".

It was the theory

that certain directors
have certain looks to films.

You know, they have
their stamp on them so entirely

that they could never be made
by anyone else.

So many French critics,
writers, directors

were saying

that Alfred Hitchcock deserved
to be known as an auteur,

and the biggest proponent
of that was Francois Truffaut.

Francois Truffaut
was very determined

to see to it that Hitchcock
got this accolade.

It wasn't enough
that audiences respected him.

Critics had to respect him, too.

He arranged an interview
with Mr. Hitchcock,

and, uh, told him
why he was an auteur

and why he really has shaped cinema
in the 20th century,

and the interview turned into

one of the most famous
and oft-quoted interviews

of all time.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
There is no question

that one of the pieces
of good fortune...

[woman speaking in French]

.1 that nobody else
understands this milieu,

the suspense,

the thriller
fype of picture.

[woman speaking in French]

You see, that's why I've had
the field to myself.

[John Landis] Francois Truffaut
was extremely intelligent,

passionate about film,

and he worshipped Hitchcock
as a god,

and Hitchcock took advantage
of the situation

to tell his story.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
| was so keen on film.

At the age of 16,

| would only read trade papers.

When I discovered

that an American company
was opening in London,

| wanted to get the job
to do their titles.

[Mankiewicz]
Clearly, he made an impression very early on,

because pretty quickly,

he's into production design

and writing screenplays
for silent films.

[Roche] Alfred Hitchcock's life
at the time

was very much
a solitary existence.

If he had a spare evening,
he would go to the theatre.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
Well, I am shy.

You know,
I'm not very gregarious.

| don't mix
with a lot of people.

| don't think I'm very good
in the company of a lot of men.

| don't know
what it would be like

among a lot of women.

| don't know.

[Mankiewicz] He was working
at Gainsborough Studios,

starting to develop
his reputation,

and he notices Alma.

[Roche] She was an editor,

and the rumor was
that she was going to be

an assistant director
before long,

because she was very much
arising star.

He admired her straight away.

[Mary Stone] Hitch was
petrified of her at times.

She was 411",

and a tough,
mighty, little woman.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
I was 23 at the time...

[woman speaks in French]

...and f'd never been out
with a girl in my life.

I'd never had a drink
in my life.

[Patricia Hitchcock]
In those days,

a gentleman
would not talk to a lady

if he had a job below hers,

so he had to wait
until he was promoted,

and then he was able
to talk to her.

[Roche] He was offered
an assistant director's chair

under Graham Cults.

He needed an editor.

He thought,
"Well, now's my chance.

| can finally get to meet
Miss Alma Reville.”

He contacted her
and hired her,

and that's how
their relationship began.

Graham Cutts was probably
the rising star

when it came
to directors at the studio.

British cinema at the time
was very much in its infancy,

and there was
no real technique involved.

People just found
a stage play they liked

and would point a camera at it.

So when Hitchcock
went to work for him,

he was hoping to learn, I think,
from Graham Cutts,

but instead just found himself sidelined
and very bored.

Hitchcock soon developed
this reputation

for being the guy to go to
if you needed anything on set.

Graham Cutts slowly came

to resent Hitchcock
through that,

especially as Michael Balcon

was very a big fan
of Alfred Hitchcock.

[interviewer] In some ways,

you were breaking info
his territory.

Oh, I not only
broke into territory,

| gave him the shots
and where they should be taken.

I built the set in such a way

you couldn't take it
from any other angle.

[Roche] There was
this constant power struggle

between them both.

| was told that the director
of all these pictures

was very jealous

because I was getting credit
for all this amount of work,

and then he said
he didn't want me anymore,

so the producer said,
would I like to direct?

And I said,
"It never occurred to me."

[Roche] When he finished making
"The Pleasure Garden," he handed it back

to Michael Balcon
and the studio,

and they were
very, very happy with it.

The next step was to get it
through the distributors,

and the one that everyone
needed to use

in Britain at the time

was a man called C.M. Woolf.

Very, very rich,
very, very powerful man.

And he saw the film
and refused to release it.

He said that it didn't feel
British enough.

Hitchcock was devastated,

but he pressed on,

because he was confident

that sense
would prevail eventually.

So he went to film
"The Mountain Eagle”.

C.M. Woolf watched
"The Mountain Eagle”,

again said, "This film
is not British enough.

You can't release this.
| don't like it."

So Michael Balcon suggested

maybe they should come up
with something different,

a bit more radical
than a melodrama.

He suggested

Belloc Lowndes' novel,
"The Lodger,"

and Hitchcock instantly saw
the possibilities.

[Alfred Hitchcock] This is a book about
the landlady asking herself the question,

"Is the man who is my lodger
Jack the Ripper or not?"

[Roche] Hitchcock spent
many, many weeks

preparing for "the Lodger".

He storyboarded meticulously.

He came up with ideas

that had never, ever
been attempted before on film,

| had the faces
of the people below

looking up to the ceiling,

and I dissolved
the ceiling away.

| had a glass floor made,

which today we would do sound.

[Roche] "The Lodger"
was a genuine masterpiece,

and it was
a potential smash hit,

C.M. Woolf
arrived at the screening

with Graham Cuts,

who was actually
a friend of C.M. Woolfs

and had been the bird
that sat on his shoulder,

chirping into his ear
these past few years,

telling him what an awful man
Alfred Hitchcock was.

The director
that I had been working for

was looking at the rushes,

and reported to the producer,

he said, "I don't know
what the devil he's shooting.

| don't understand
a word of it."

[Roche]
So they watched the film,

and when the film was over,

C.M. Woolf got up and walked out
with Graham Cuts,

making sure
that Hitchcock heard

as he walked past him

that it was an atrocious
lot of rubbish

and it wouldn't be seeing
a release in any of his cinemas.

Michael Balcon was adamant

that this one
was going to get out there,

50 he contacted a friend of his
that he knew

called vor Montagu,

who was a film critic
at the time.

Ivor Montagu started screening
for his film circles

and invited some of the critics
and writers that he knew.

These writers
all banded together

and wrote article after article.

They preached to everyone
who would listen

that there was a film
called "The Lodger".

It was a masterpiece,

needed to be seen,

and it was being suppressed.

[Alfred Hitchcock] And they said,
"Well, we have an investment in this,

better take a look
at it again,”

and they finally agreed
to show it,

and then it was acquired

as the greatest British film
made to that period.

So there you seen the fine line
between failure and success.

[Roche] When people found out

that there were
two more Hitchcock films in the can

and waiting to be released,

they were even more eager
to see those,

and so over the course of 1927,

from January to June,

it was an Alfred Hitchcock fest.

"The Lodger" is also the film
where he made his first cameo.

| think they just needed
a stand-in for that day,

and it became a trademark.

[interviewer] You invariably
appear in your own films,

Mr. Hitchcock.

Have you ever been tempted
to become an actor yourself?

Nothing so low as that.

[Philippe]
This idea of a filmmaker

inserting himself
into his movies

is really interesting
in the case of Hitchcock,

because he is

such an important part
of his films.

| think to have
Hitchcock there physically

made him an accessible figure.

He became this kind
of Uncle Alfred

that we've embraced
over generations...

...and I think it made it,
in some way,

easier and easier
for him to play with us.

[Landis] His cameos became

what's now called
an "Easter egg".

It was there
for the audience to spot,

| think he started it
just for fun,

then it became
almost like a chore.

[Roth] John Ford,
Cecil B. De Mille,

their name became a brand.

We don't have a mental picture
in our head

of those directors.

Hitchcock-- you had to look for him
in the movie.

You had to watch the movie

to go,
"Oh, that's Alfred Hitchcock."

[Roche] In the wake
of the three films

that finally got released
in 1927,

Hitchcock was suddenly
in huge demand

and was riding
the crest of a wave, really.

[camera shutter clicks]

He married Alma.

They were on a boat ride,

and it was
a very rough crossing,

and she was incredibly seasick.

He took her by the hand

as she was swaying
from side to side,

and very biliously said to her,
" want to marry you.

Please, will you marry me?"

And her answer was just
a huge burp into his face,

which he always said
was perfectly played.

[Tere Carrubba]
My mother was born

in July of 1928.

She was their only child
that they would ever have.

[Stone] Alma and Hitch treated her
as almost a little adult.

They never left her side.

She always went to dinners
with them.

Their life was her.

[Ramsey] There's something
about a director

who trusts his spouse so much

that they become collaborators
in the process

throughout your career.

That was rare then.

It's still rare today.

[Stone] Alma was
his strongest critic

with stories
that he brought to her.

[Patricia Hitchcock] If she thought
it would make a picture,

he'd go ahead.

If she said, "No, it won't,”
he didn't even touch it.

[Mankiewicz]
Hitchcock's a prolific director

of silent films
in Great Britain,

and then, really,
he moves seamlessly into sound.

[clap]

This is sound.

[piano key plunks]

[plunk]

[Roth] There were directors
that just didn't survive.

A lot of these star directors
in the silent era

did not adapt to talking.

Hitchcock is not someone
who's afraid of technology.

Hitchcock embraces technology,

and sees the opportunities,

and wants to grow
as a filmmaker with it.

[Philippe] I think even

when Hitchcock
started working with sound,

he never lost track of this idea
of "pure cinema"--

what he calls "pure cinema,”

which is this idea

of how do you tell a story
without a line of dialogue?

[Alfred Hitchcock]
Photographs of people talking

bears no relation
to the art of the cinema.

Tell the story visually

and let the talk
be part of the atmosphere.

[Roche] "The Man Who Knew Too Much”
had been a huge hit,

so Hitchcock had said to himself
thrillers are the way to go.

He and Alma decided

that "The Thirty-Nine Steps”
by John Buchan

was a very well-regarded novel

and could be
a very well-regarded film.

[train chugging over tracks]

[Philippe] I think "The 39 Steps"
really announces

the thriller cinema
in a big way,

and Hitchcock's thrillers.

[Mankiewicz]
So we get an espionage thriller,

we get an everyman
thrust into a frantic situation

that jeopardizes his life,

and we get the Hitchcock blonde.

Darling, how lovely to see you.

[Roche] Hitchcock decided
that Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll

didn't really have time

for the whole, "Oh, let's
get to know each other.

Let's see if there's
chemistry between you."

So he handcuffed them together
on their first day on set

and then pretended
to lose the key,

so that they would have to
get to know each other.

So they spent
the whole day dragging around,

swapping stories,

even having to use the bathroom,

and by the end of the day,
the chemistry was there.

For a male
and female character

to be handcuffed together
and sleeping in the same bed,

it wasn't something you tended to see
in '30s cinema anyway,

but especially not
British '30s cinema.

[interviewer] Can I ask you,

was this the beginnings
of sex interest

cropping up in your films
consciously or not?

Oh, I think that the handcuff
and tying up

is a highly sex symbol.

You'll notice
always newspapers

photograph criminals
being taken away in handcuffs.

We used to read years ago

of undergraduates at the college

tying themselves to bedposts
and all that sort of thing.

| think it's highly sexual,
the handcuff.

[Roche] "The 39 Steps”
is the first film

in which you see
the Hitchcock blonde,

played by Madeleine Carroll,

who really set the standard

for the other blondes
that were to follow.

[suspenseful music plays]

A Hitchcock heroine
is smart, witty.

| think they got smarter
as they went along.

They're sexy,
but they're not overtly sexy.

They're like an idealized
version of womanhood, I guess.

Well, according
to Alfred Hitchcock.

[Christina Lane] Hitchcock had a very
good understanding of female characters,

and he did a great job

of putting you in the point of view
of his female characters,

50 he often showed you them
from a distance.

He would give you
a glamorous perspective on them,

but then quickly,

he would move you
into their point of view,

and he would show you

what it felt like
to be a woman objectified.

Joan Harrison
is really the inspiration

for the Hitchcock blonde.

There had been women

who embodied a version
of the Hitchcock blonde

before the mid-1930s,

but she really becomes
much more realized onscreen

once Harrison
walks into the office.

[Mankiewicz] Hitchcock hires
Joan Harrison as his assistant,

and very quickly,

she becomes
a critically-trusted colleague,

along with Alma.

She was helping
to write scripts,

helping to define
female characters,

helping to produce films.

She was obsessed
with true crime,

and she was obsessed with film,

which means she was working for
the right guy.

[Roche] She was instantly a hit
with Hitchcock himself,

and with Alma and Patricia.

They all became
very good friends.

Hitchcock developed something of a crush
on Joan Harrison.

[Lane]
She really carried herself

like a lady,

and yet on the inside,

she tended to have
a lot of layers.

She had a lot
of intellectual passions,

and she was also very free
in terms of her sexuality.

One of the reasons

that his films
are so complicated

in terms of gender
and perspective

is because he did have
50 many female collaborators,

and there were
50 many women in the room,

working on his stories
and developing characters.

[Roche] As his thrillers
took flight,

50, too, did his career.

He was very much now

the crown prince
of British cinema,

being called as such
by the press,

and he also knew

that he couldn't really
progress anymore in Britain.

[Stone] In 1939,

Hitch started a collaboration
with David Selznick,

the famous producer.

Hitch had wanted
to come to America.

He was fascinated
with America.

So when Selznick
offered Hitch the opportunity,

he and Alma and Pat
moved to America.

[Mankiewicz] When Hitchcock
comes from England to the States,

he tells Selznick

he's not coming
without Joan Harrison.

She's part of that deal.

[Roche] When Hitchcock
arrived in America,

he was surprised, I think,

to find
that people knew who he was.

He already had a presence there.

I mean, I know he had films
that had been out,

but I don't think anyone,
even Hitchcock himself,

expected them to be the hits
that they were.

He very much felt
straight away

that, "Wow, I've made it."

[Lane] Hitchcock and Joan
were working on adapting "Rebecca"

for many months,

and then the version
that they tum into David O. Selznick,

which they were very proud of,

turns out to be a disaster,
in Selznick's mind.

[Roche] In response,
Hitchcock got a memo back

that was about three times the size
of the script he'd handed in,

with directions
to the minutest detail

of everything
that had to be changed.

[Landis] David O. Selznick
was a very gifted filmmaker,

but also a control freak.

Everyone who worked for him
went crazy.

| mean, he was
a very difficult guy to work for.

[Roche] Hitchcock and Selznick,
| think, butted heads,

mainly because Hitchcock
had a desperate need to control,

as Selznick did.

That stems from

his fear of having
his freedoms taken away.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
At a very tender age,

| was frightened by a policeman.

I'd been a bad boy.

| don't remember now
what it was I'd done,

but my father sent me along
to the police station

with a note.

They read the note

and locked me in a cell

and left me there
for five minutes.

I've been trying to escape
from that cell ever since.

[Landis] He said it was
the most terrifying experience of his life.

| think that's the key.

I really do.

[Roche] If you look at
his entire body of work,

the themes of losing control

come through in almost
every film he ever made.

[Mankiewicz] On paper,

signing a seven-year deal
with David O. Selznick

seems like a great deal.

This is the guy who made
"Gone With the Wind."

In reality,

Hitchcock had
more artistic freedom in England

than he did in the States
working for David O. Selznick.

[Tippi Hedren] The studio
wanted the final cut,

and Hitch said no,

and they said yes,
and he said no,

and they-
they won.

So what he did
was he shot an edited film,

so that there was no other way
that they could change it,

and he knew what he wanted,

so that's all he shot.

It's brilliant filmmaking,
totally brilliant.

[announcer] Announcing
the most glamorous motion picture ever made,

David O. Selznick
and Alfred Hitchcock

bring you
the grand-slam prize-winner

that made
motion-picture history.

[Roche]
"Rebecca” was a huge hit.

People rushed to see I,
and they weren't disappointed.

It's rightfully regarded
as a masterwork.

Hitchcock was nominated
for Best Director,

but lost out,

but the film won
for Best Picture,

and, of course,
when the Best Picture is awarded,

it's not to the director,

I's to the producers.

On behalf of
the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,

| present you this Oscar

for your wonderful production
of "Rebecca,”

which you
so beautifully produced,

as well as you did
"Gone With the Wind."

Thank you very much.

[Roche] The fact that Selznick was up there
receiving an Academy Award for it

was hugely disappointing.

It was then
that people began to say,

"Well, you know, maybe Hitchcock
could come and work for me?"

And Selznick saw that

as a huge opportunity
for them both,

because if people
could guarantee him an income,

then fine,
you go and make films for them,

and I'll let you argue
with those people.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
The salary I was getting then for a picture

was $75,000 from Selznick.

[woman speaking in French]

He received from Universal,

for my services, $183,000.

Nice profit, huh?

[gunfire roaring]

[announcer] These are not
Hollywood sound effects.

This is the music they play
every night in London—-

the symphony of war.

[Patricia Hitchcock]
In 1939, in September,

war was declared,

and my father was devastated,

because his mother
was in England.

| remember him frying
to get a call through,

and the operator saying,

"There are no calls
to that country

because it is at war,”

and he was devastated.

[Roche] Because America
wasn't officially in the war yet,

Hitchcock was being told
by people around him

that he should do something
towards the war effort.

The Hollywood contingent,

they were all drifting back
to Europe to join the fight,

but Hitchcock remained,
and because he did,

he was fairly lambasted
by everyone in Britain,

who saw him
as kind of a deserter.

[Alfred Hitchcock] / needed

at least to make
some contribution.

There wasn't any question
of military service.

I was both over-age
and overweight.

[Roche] He saw
this second condemnation of his actions

as a personal insult,

Hitchcock was doing his part
for the war effort.

[Mankiewicz] He was very willing
to make movies

that clearly demonstrated
the threat posed by the Nazis,

starting with
"Foreign Correspondent,”

where he worked
to redo the ending

to make the Nazi threat clear.

Look at "Saboteur.”

There's no question
of what that message is,

which is, "They're here.

They can't be trusted.

Keep your eyes open.”

After "Saboteur,”

Joan Harrison leaves Hitchcock

to become
an independent producer,

She did not need
Alfred Hitchcock to succeed.

[Lane] Hitchcock often saw
his writers and his actors

as his own.

He took a possessive attitude
toward them,

and this is one thing that Joan
would absolutely refuse.

She wanted to be her own woman.

[Mankiewicz] I think
I's really easy to say

that he was both drawn

to these powerful,
independent women,

but he was also angry

that women held
this power over him,

[Ann Todd] He wanted so much

to be like the stars
he was directing.

| mean, a Cary Grant or...

When he was directing,
you could tell he was in it.

It gave him a feeling
of great domination, I think,

because, after all,
he couldn't take part in life, really,

the way that he wanted to do,
but when he was directing,

he was dominating people
and living it.

[Roche] Hitchcock was
essentially looking for ways

to express all of these feelings
in his work at the time.

[Landis] What
"Shadow of a Doubt” is about

is Americana,

white-picket fence,

lovely lawn,

and evil in plain sight.

[Teresa Wright]
He was very intrigued

by the combination

of the innocence
of the small American town,

as against the corruption
of the uncle's life.

[Landis] What's interesting

is how profoundly terrifying
the villain is.

| mean, Joe Cotten
plays a psychopath.

Your favorite uncle
is a serial killer,

and he's in your house,

and he knows you know.

That's profoundly disturbing.

Cities are full of women--

Middle-aged widows,
husbands dead,

husbands who've spent
their lives making fortunes,

working and working,

and then they die,
and leave their money to their wives—-

their silly wives--

And what do the wives do--
these useless women?

You see them in the hotels,
the best hotels,

every day by thousands,

drinking the money,
eating the money,

losing the money at bridge,
playing all day and all night,

smelling of money...

proud of their jewelry
but of nothing else.

Horrible.

Faded, fat, greedy women.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
Our evil and our good

are getting
closer together today,

that the hero
is no longer fall,

with a perfect profile,

or flaxen hair,

and the villain
doesn't kick the dog anymore.

He's a charmer.

In fact,
we've reached the point,

in today's sophisticated era,

that you can barely tell
one from the other.

Goodbye.

[Mankiewicz] "Shadow of a Doubt"
shatters America's vision of itself.

There's a darkness
to small-town America,

and, clearly,

Hitchcock loved turning
the American ideal of itself on its head.

After he finishes
"Shadow of a Doubt"

at the end of 1942,

he gets horrible news.

[Roche] His mother, who refused
to come and live with him in America,

even though he'd repeatedly
tried to get her to come out,

was falling sick.

Emma Hitchcock was the ultimate authority
in Alfred Hitchcock's life.

She used to punish him

by making him stand
at the foot of her bed

as she slept for hours on end.

Physical punishment

was very much paired
with psychological punishment.

Hitchcock adored his mother,

but because she was
such a strict authoritarian,

it was tempered a lot

with a great awe for his mother
and for mothers in general.

It's one of the reasons
they pop up so much in his work.

Well, a boy's best friend
is his mother.

Hitchcock was greatly affected
by the loss of his mother.

| don't think he ever
really truly recovered,

but it also made him realize
that he was mortal,

and needed to recognize the fact

that people can be gone
in the snap of a finger.

The feeling that he should not
waste his time on earth

led him to start
taking better care of his body.

Actually, this is
my doctor's idea.

When he says "strict dist,”
he means strict diet.

[Roche] I think it almost
caused a maturity in him.

[Patricia Hitchcock]
He would go on so many diets,

and he had suits in the closet
for every weight.

He would fluctuate
a great deal.

[Roche] He did spend
a long period during the '40s

balloon dieting
and fluctuating in weight.

Especially when it got
to "Lifeboat,"

he was very, very slimmed down.

[Mankiewicz] Finally, he reaches the end
of this seven-year deal with Selznick,

where the best films he made

were the ones
that Selznick didn't produce.

I'm not sure
a great producer like Selznick

should have been working

with this visionary director
like Hitchcock.

Selznick wanted control.

Hitchcock wanted control.

There's a relationship
doomed to fail.

[Roche] When Hitchcock finally
escaped from his contract,

Selznick actually
wanted to extend it,

but by then
Hitchcock was firmly set

on partnering
with Sidney Bernstein,

so they set up
Transatlantic Pictures.

Hitchcock was now a producer.

[Farley Granger] This was
the first film he had done

away from Selznick,

who, evidently,
he grew to loathe and despise,

and so I think he wanted
to do something, you know,

quite different and interesting.

[screaming]

[Philippe] In "Rope,”

the name of the person
in the chest is David.

| don't think it's a stretch

to think that he actually put
David O. Selznick in there.

Open it.

Hitchcock always experimented,

and he always tried things

that technology at the time
couldn't do.

"Rope" is an example of that,

Of course.

You know I'd never do anything
unless I did it perfectly.

I've always wished
for more artistic talent.

[James Stewart] He wanted
to do the picture on one set,

and he wanted to use
the principle of the long take.

He planned to shoot the picture

so that the audience
wouldn't be conscious of a cut.

[Philippe] You couldn't have

a single, continuous take
of 80 minutes or 85 minutes,

especially with the cameras

that they were using
at the time.

[Roth] He's trying to challenge himself with,
"How few cuts can I get away with?

How can I just design a movie
that's all about camera,

so that I can hide editing?”

You get much too upset
much too easily, Phillip.

We have a very simple excuse
right here.

Wheat are you
worrying about, Phillip?

After all, old Mr. Kentley

is coming mainly
fo look at these books.

Now, what could be better
than to have them laid out neatly

on the dining-room table,

where the poor old man
can easily get at them?

[Stewart] I found,

after knowing Mr. Hitchcock
for a very short time,

that he has a way

of presenting a problem
to the technicians,

which seems
absolutely impossible,

but he also has a way about him

to convince all concerned
that they can be done.

[Philippe] There's
this extraordinary moment

when the dinner's over,

everybody's worried
because David is missing.

The camera comes to a halt.

You are now focusing
on the chest

as it's being cleared,

and you hear the conversation
off-screen.

They're right there,

50 you know they're watching it.

| thought I heard David
on the phone to Phillip

yesterday morning.

Really?

Yes, you did.
I'd forgotten.

[Philippe] We're waiting
for somebody to open the chest,

and oh, my gosh,
we're going to see David's body,

but this is a classic case
of Hitchcock playing with us.

Oh, thank you, Mr. Cadell.

That's all right, Mrs. Wilson.

You can put the books back

when you come in to clean
in the morning.

[Arthur Laurents]
One of the reasons

that Hitch was interested
in "Rope”

was that he's interested
in anything kinky.

He was fascinated
with homosexuality,

because that was the subject.

Though the word "homosexual”
was never used,

| thought it was quite obvious.

Golly, those bull sessions
you and Rupert used to have at school.

Brandon would sit up
to alt hours

at the master's feet.

Brandon at someone's feet?

Who is this Rupert?

[Lane] "Rope” brings up
representations of homosexuality

and shows
that they're transgressive

and suggests
that they're criminal,

but it was also doing things
at the time

that no one else was doing.

The censors
in classical Hollywood

were regulating sexuality

to keep allusions to lesbian,

bisexual, gay,
transgender representation

off the screen,

or to suggest
that it was criminal.

[Mankiewicz]
Censorship in Hollywood

set the industry back decades.

They banned miscegenation.

Think about that.

You couldn't have a black character
drawn to a white character.

Forbidden.

One thing I think we can say
about Hitchcock

is that he would have pushed
the envelope on those stories

if he'd been allowed to.

[Roche] "Under Capricorn” was a film
that was very important

for Transatlantic.

They needed it to succeed

in order for the company
to survive.

One of Hitchcock's greatest friends,
of course, was Ingrid Bergman,

who he'd cast
throughout the '40s,

and when it came
to "Under Capricorn,"

he was utterly convinced

that her name and her star power
could make it a success.

He was also very taken
with Ingrid Bergman.

He was slightly obsessed
with her.

He had fallen in love with her.

He'd even made up stories
to people around the studio

that, you know,
she was in love with him, too,

and that they were
romantically involved.

The problem was
that the success of Transatlantic

depended on "Under Capricorn”
and Ingrid Bergman's name,

and just as the film
was being readied for release,

she had an affair
with Roberto Rossellini,

ran off to Italy to be with him,

leaving behind
a husband and child,

and was vilified
by the American press.

Her films were boycotted
far and wide.

90% of the reason that that film
was ignored by the public

was because she was
such a no-no at the time.

Unfortunately, his partnership
with Sidney Bernstein suffered,

and Transatlantic Pictures died
after just two films.

[Edgar Wright] After that,
he's off to the races.

He is just making
Alfred Hitchcock movies.

He's not diluted by Hollywood,

he's empowered by Hollywood,

and he changes Hollywood.

He is making

state-of-the-art films
in Hollywood,

which are some of the best films
made by any of those studios.

[Spielberg] My favorite Hitchcock picture,
which I think is

the quintessential
Hitchcock film, is "Rear Window".

| mean, the idea that
this guy who had a broken leg,

Jimmy Stewart, you know,

is stuck in a room
during a sweltering summer,

and he gets himself
in a lot of trouble

with his curiosity by snooping.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
A picture like "Rear Window,"

there's a piece
of pure cinematics.

Now, there are
no galloping horses,

no wild action,

but a man sitting
in one position

for the whole picture,

but look at its structure.

He looks, he sees something,

and he thinks, he reacts,

and mentally,

only by the use of film,

by the use images,

do you build up a conception
in a man's mind

that he's seen a murder.

[Spielberg] Hitchcock was
a declared voyeur,

and so many of his films

were just sort of
scratching the surface of voyeurism,

but "Rear Window"
was the culmination

of this desire

to finally not be ashamed of it,
and embrace it,

and make the most entertaining
movie of his career.

Window shopper.

| think one of the most suspenseful sequences
in "Rear Window"

is when Grace Kelly

decides to go over there
and investigate on her own.

Hey--

You've got Jimmy Stewart
not being able to cry out,

because he's coming home,

and she's stuck
in his apartment,

-Lisa!
-Looking around.

| mean, nothing beats that
for suspense.

[Philippe] It's so brilliant,

this idea of containing
the action of a film

from the perspective of somebody
who can't do a thing.

[Lisa screaming]

| think Grace Kelly

is the purest expression
of the classic Hitchcock blonds.

The class,
the beauty, the glamour.

Do you like it?

[Roche] When Hitchcock
found Grace Kelly,

he thought he'd found
a partner for life.

She famously even got on
to such an extent with Alma

that Alma always said

that she was the one blonde

she didn't mind
leaving her husband with.

He had big plans

for his future productions
with her.

[news announcer]
Prince Rainier's yacht

bears his betrothed in triumph
into the harbor at Monaco.

A few hours earlier,

Grace Kelly of Philadelphia
and Hollywood

stepped aboard
the "Deo Juvante”

from the finer "Constitution",

which carried her
across the Atlantic.

A picture queen
who will become a princess

greets her new subjects
and is greeted by them in tum.

[Roche] Her movie career
was cut short

by the fact that she became
the princess of Monaco.

She followed her heart
and left acting altogether.

He was
very disappointed by that.

How do you top Grace Kelly?

But when asked about it,
he did say

that she's finally found a part
that's worthy of her.

In the wake of the success
of the films with Grace Kelly,

Hitchcock was casting around
for a replacement for her.

He found Vera Miles,

and he was very taken with her

and thought perhaps he could turn her
from kind of a homespun beauty

into another Grace Kelly.

So he set about
trying to transform her.

He advised her on what to wear,

who she should be seen with,
where she should be seen,

how she should act,

but his big plans for her
were to be part of "Vertigo,"

but Vera Miles made the cardinal sin
of getting pregnant,

which she kind of saw
as the only way

to escape his control
at the time,

because he was
50 overbearing with her

that even her husband
was starting to get worried.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
| had Vera Miles

tested and costumed.

We were ready to go with her.

She went pregnant,

but ! lost interest then.

| couldn't get the, uh,
the rhythm going again.

Silly girl.

[Roche] The thing is, you see almost
that story of how he treated Vera Miles

come to life in "Vertigo".

Now, we'd like to look at
a dinner dress,

an evening dress,

short, black, with long sleeves,
and a kind of a square neck.

Scotty...

My, you certainly do know
what you want, sir.

[Roche] You see a woman
being remodeled

by a man who's desperate
to recreate the thing he's lost.

You're sure about
the color of the hair?

Oh, yes.
If's an easy color.

I mean, all the rest of the...

Yes, sir.
We know what you want.

Thank you.

In many ways,
if it had been Vera Miles onscreen

instead of Kim Novak,

it would have been
a sick joke too many.

[William Friedkin]
"Vertigo" is one of

the most complex
of Hitchcock's films.

It's about someone

who falls so in love
with a character

that after he knows she's dead,

he believes her to be alive.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
The sick psychological side

is you have a man
creating a sex image

that he can't
go to bed with her

until he's got her back,

or, metaphorically

indulged in a form of necrophilia.

[Martin Scorsese] We thought it was good.
We didn't know why,

but there was something special about it,
and over the years,

we kept watching it again and again,
and I think it has to do with the character.

The story doesn't matter at all.

You'll watch that film
repeatedly and repeatedly

because of the way he takes you
through his obsession,

and the kind of man
he is in that film.

Maybe it's
Hitchcock's obsession.

It seems that Jimmy Stewart
understood it pretty well.

[Edgar Wright]
The act of watching "Vertigo"

is a lot like watching Stewart
watching Novak in the gallery,

is you just want to look at it,

and to see if there are
further secrets

that will reveal
themselves to you.

It is a film to get lost in,

as much as James Stewart

gets lost in the sort of
the riddle of the case.

[Philippe]
Halfway through the film,

the Kim Novak character dies.

[screaming]

At that point,

the major dramatic question
of the film

is will they end up together.

So you're removing
the major dramatic question.

You're removing
the love interest,

and you enter
this very strange act,

where Jimmy Stewart
can't speak anymore.

He is in a state of shock.

| mean, quite frankly,
you have no story,

and you've got nothing
until she shows up again,

and at that point,
you go, "Wait a minute.

Is this a ghost story?

Is this woman
one and the same?

Are we in the mind
of a crazy guy?"

| mean, what is this movie?

Like, you don't even know
what it is that you're watching.

You don't know
the genre of the film

until much later on,
you see the necklace,

you connect the dots,
and you go,

"Okay, now I understand
where this is going,"

and at that point,
it's completely heartbreaking.

You shouldn't have been...

You shouldn't have been
that sentimental.

I loved you so, Madeleine.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
"Vertigo" will break even.

I wasn't a big success.

I think the leading man
was a problem in "Vertigo."

[interviewer] You once fold me

that actors were cattle
fo be shoved about.

| wonder if you'd care
to enfarge on that.

You mean you want
fo make them larger cattle

than they are?

No, no.

Well, uh, I don't-
that's really a joke,

but, um, they're children,
you know,

and, invariably,

the problem one always has
with actors

is coping with their ego,

but they have to have the ego,

and they have to be
ultra-sensitive,

otherwise they wouldn't be able
to do what they're--

What they're...
is asked of them.

[James Steward]
When you work with Hitch,

you don't try doing a scene
two ways.

You do it one way-His.

[Kim Novak] At times,
there were scenes

that he had in the background
a metronome. Is that what you call it?

One of those
going back and forth

to carry the tempo of the scene.

Instead of trying to reach me
on an emotional level

that would gear me
to whatever level of pace

or whatever that he wanted,

he liked doing it technically.

Everything he thought of,
he saw through the camera.

Everything.

[Thom Mount] Actors didn't love
Mr. Hitchcock,

but they loved
being in his films,

because, of course,
he got great performances out of people,

but he also boosted
their careers

in ways that were extraordinary.

[Janet Leigh] He said to me,

"I am not going to do
a great deal of directing

unless you don't do enough
or you do too much.”

What he did was give you

more respect as an actor
or an actress,

because he is saying,

"You create your reasons,

because that's the way
it has to be."

[Mankiewicz] His best line about actors
is when he says,

"When an actor comes to me

and wants to discuss
his character,

| say, 'Is in the script.

When the actor then says,
'What's my motivation?"

Hitchcock says,

"Your salary.

America in the 1950s

was in the middle

of the greatest economic boom
in its history.

Hitchcock finds his stride,

makes the best movies
of his career,

certainly the best-known movies
of his career.

There are all these changes
happening in America in the 1950s,

and one of the most important,

just with the exception
of the civil rights movement

and the dawn of the nuclear age,

is television,

the power of television,

but also the opportunity.

Alfred Hitchcock, thanks to his agent,
Lew Wasserman,

instantly saw that there was

a part for Hitchcock
to play on television,

both figuratively and literally,

and Hitchcock embraced it.

Good evening.

| am Alfred Hitchcock,

and tonight I am presenting

the first in a series

of stories of suspense
and mystery

called, oddly enough,
"Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”

[Norman Lloyd]
MCA sold the idea

of Hitchcock doing a series,

and it was Lew Wasserman
who said to Hitchcock,

"Joan Harrison should be
your associate producer.”

[Lane] Joan comes onto

"Alfred Hitchcock Presents”
series.

She's essentially
what we know of today

as a showrunner,

and she's doing everything
for that series.

Our particular kind
of television film

is not as easy to make
as people would sometimes think,

because it's not just
a simple crime thing.

It also has to be
a study in character.

[Roche] As an anthology show,

each tale,
usually a suspense tale,

ends with a nasty twist.

[man] Jackie!

[mirror shatters]

[Roth] There are
so many indelible images

that were burned into my mind,

from the body in the trunk,

to the rear blinker going out,

to the Steve McQueen episode
with Peter Lorre,

the image of her pinkie
and her thumb

picking up the keys.

It was the craziest thing
I had ever seen on television.

[Roche] He oversaw production
on most of them,

directed a few of them,

but the hook
that audiences just loved

were the fact that Mr. Hitchcock

showed up every episode
at the beginning

and lampooned himself.

Oh, good evening,
fadlies and gentlemen.

Oh, good evening.

Oh, good evening!

I was, uh,

just constructing a mobile
for my living room.

Good evening.

Good evening,
fadlies and gentlemen.

[Roche] Lampooned the fact
that TV shows had sponsors.

I'm afraid I said some nasty things
about commercials.

[Roche] At first, the sponsors were
very, very against that.

They pushed back a lot.

"We don't want to be,
you know, a figure of fun.

You know, we're paying
for your show to be mads.”

When they saw
their sales skyrocketing,

they knew that
they should have listened.

But first, we have
an important announcement,

My sponsor--

The way he bows and scrapes
before the sponsor,

it's disgusting.

He's obviously a relative.

Shh.

...And expensive message.

[Roche] Over the course
of the show,

they got to see
his sense of humor,

and they just took him
to their hearts.

[interviewer]
| have a strong impression

that the real Alfred Hitchcock
is not at all

like the macabre and mischievous
gentleman on the TV screen.

No, of course not.

[gunshot]

It was all make-believe,

all play-acting.

Of course, the gun is genuine,

and was loaded,

but the doctor
isn't a real doctor.

He's an actor.

[Roth]
Alfred Hitchcock

became famous
from his television show

at a time when there were
probably three networks.

At the very, very
beginning of the medium,

there he is, on camera,
in everyone's living room.

[Stone] He was wonderful

when people acknowledged him
and asked for autographs.

| asked him at one point,

"Doesn't it ever bother you,

these people bothering you
during dinnertime?"

And he said,

"No, because
these are the people

that are paying
for your dinner."

[Ramsey] He saw that people
were responding to the TV show

in a way that
they hadn't responded to the films.

He saw that people
who responded to the TV show were different

from the people
who were responding to the films,

and he asked himself,

"What about them?

What can I do for them?"

And that was what
gave rise to "Psycho."

"Psycho" is based in part

on the story
of the mass murderer Ed Gein.

Robert Bloch,

the author
of the original book "Psycho,"

lived near where Ed Gein's activities
had taken place.

He knew these hints
of the horror of Ed Gein,

and he knit those
into this remarkable novel

with this twist ending

that just bowled people over
in its time.

Hitchcock wanted to make it

because he knew it was time
for something else,

but the studios,
they weren't interested in it.

[Philippe]
Most people told him,

"Don't do it,
it's beneath you,"

especially coming out of
"North by Northwest,”

which is this grand picture,

Technicolor, movie stars.

It's fun.

It's just a beautiful,
accessible film...

...and then he wants to make
this weird pulp novel

that's really, really dark
and really messed up.

[Joseph Stefano] First thing
that Hitch said to me

was there's a company

that's making pictures
for about $250,000.

What if we did that?

What if somebody
of his caliber

directed one of
these low-budget movies?

And he told me

that he had intended
to do "Psycho”

for under a million dollars.

[Philippe] The gamble for him
was, "Okay, fine.

Well, I'm gonna mostly finance it myself.
I'm gonna take a TV crew,

and we're gonna shoot it
in black and white,

and we're gonna do this thing.”

And I think that's what gives
"Psycho” its quality.

| was on set

exactly if I had been
on the anthologies.

We were just assigned
to "Psycho,”

and we went to work

the same as we did
every other day,

but we were just beginning
to work with a master

and a very different kind
of black-and-white project, too,

in the middle of Technicolor.

[Alfred Hitchcock] I did use
a television unit,

and we did work pretty fast,

but when it came

to certain things
that were cinematic,

then I slowed up
to the feature-film rate,

45 seconds of film, 70 setups,

and I took seven days to do it.

[Philippe] The shower scene in "Psycho”
is what I would call

the Mona Lisa of movie scenes.

It's really something
you could put in a museum.

Everything he has ever done
throughout his entire career

has always led
up to the shower scene.

[piercing music plays]

[screams]

[screams]

[piercing music plays]

[screams]

[Leigh] I had no idea of the impact
of the shower scene

when I was doing it.

| knew each scene
had an impact,

but the total effect
| didn't get

until I actually saw it,

because then I saw

what he had envisioned
all along,

which was each cut
of the film

was the slice of the knife.

[Philippe]
Our brains at the time,

we were not used to
this kind of fast-paced editing,

and what he does

that I think
is so absolutely brilliant

is that if you look at POV
in the shower scene,

in certain shots,
you're the victim,

you are the murderer,

you are the voyeur,

you are the spectator,

you are the eye of God,

and you are also
Hitchcock the auteur,

and so all of this happens

in a very, very quick
45 seconds.

He essentially
splits your personality

into multiple points of view

in a very short amount of time,

and he tums you
into the psycho.

One thing about Hitchcock
is that he always found

a way to do
what he wanted to do,

and it's a bit
of a mystery sometimes

how he got around censorship.

[Ramsey] This was an era

when two characters in bed
were usually in separate beds.

There was no sex in movies
in those days,

and there wasn't even the impression that
there might conceivably be sex in movies.

The censors at that time

weren't ready
for the experience

"Psycho" was going
to invite them to.

Some were convinced
in the shower scene

that they saw nudity.

Others were convinced
that there was no nudity.

So they sent it back
to Hitchcock,

and they said,
"Take out the nudity."

Hitchcock took the reels,

made no changes,

sent the reels back,

and said, "Fixed."

They took
another look at the film.

This time, the people who thought
they had seen nudity the first time saw none.

The people who thought

they saw no nudity
the first time

were convinced
that there was nudity.

They sent it back to Hitchcock.

"Please take out the nudity."

Again, Hitchcock did nothing.
He sent it back.

This time, they were satisfied.

No nudity.

[Roth] What Hitchcock did
that was so genius

was he doesn't actually
show anything,

and shooting in black and white,
he can get away with the blood.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
Once in the street,

a little boy came up to me

and said, "Mr. Hitchcock,

in that murder scene
in Psycho,'

what did you use for blood?

Chicken blood?"

| said, "No, chocolate sauce.”

"Okay."

And he went on his way.

See, the operative phrase was,
"What did you use for blood?"

He didn't believe it.

[Philippe]
It's an extraordinary piece of work.

It's also a very problematic
piece of work.

It completely changed cinema.

| mean, it brought in
the slasher film,

and a wave of violence,

of helpless women

being assaulted
in private spaces.

We still see the ripple effect
of the shower scene today.

[Ramsey]
By the time he finished it,

by the time it was in the can,
by the time it was ready to go,

no one had more doubts about it
than Hitchcock himself.

He actually contemplated

breaking it up
into 30-minute segments

and running it
as part of his television show.

He was terrified
of what audiences would say.

He was terrified
of what film critics would say.

All his doubts were resolved

when the audiences started lining up
around the block

to see the movie,

and the minute they finished it,

they would go and line up
around the block again.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
My main satisfaction is

that film could make
an audience scream.

[screaming]

[piercing music plays]

[interviewer]
So you don't really feel

that sociologists
have much of a foundation

for saying that films

that record
the criminal impulse,

or television shows
that concentrate on crime,

have a lasting influence
on the viewer?

| would say it had
an influence on sick minds,

but not on healthy minds.

[Roth] As a director,

there's so much pressure
to follow up a hit.

You had this vision.

You fought for it.

You won the battle.

You got it into cinemas,

and it's a hit,
and everyone made money,

and people love it,

and they're calling it
the best film of your career,

and then what do you do
after that?

How do you do?

My name is Alfred Hitchcock,

and I would like to tell you
about my forthcoming lecture.

It is about the birds

and their age-long relationship
with man.

[Philippe]
There's no such thing, really,

as a faithful adaptation
of a source material by Hitchcock.

He was known
for reading the book once,

and when he finds

the one thing
that excites him about a story,

he will work with a writer

and go
in that particular direction,

and, essentially,
throw the original material away.

[Evan Hunter] One of the first things
he told me on the phone

was we're getting rid
of the du Maurier story entirely.

We're just keeping the title

and the notion of birds
attacking people.

[Roth] "The Birds," really,
is about the randomness of life.

Aren't those lovebirds?

You meet this girl.
She meets this guy.

They're in this town.

Everything's fine,
and then out of nowhere,

the birds just start invading.

[birds shrieking]

"The Birds"
is an intense movie,

and the violence in that movie
is intense,

and it is relentless,

and it is against children,

it's against women,

it's against people that are just
helplessly attacked by birds for no reason

and get their eyes pecked out.

| mean, if's brutal.

[birds shrieking]

[Hunter] Whenever we were
discussing this,

there was no question
in either of our minds

that this was Cary Grant
and Grace Kelly.

He said, "But why should
| give Cary 50% of the movie?"

And then he said,

"The only stars in this movie,
Evan, are the birds and me,"

and then he hesitated, and said,
"And you, of course.”

[announcer]
Works slick as a whistle.

[whistling]

7! Feel beter... I

[Hedren]
| had been doing commercials,

and there was a commercial
that I had done.

It was a pet milk product
called Seagull Dietary Drink.

7 With Seagull...

7 With Seagull

[Alfred Hitchcock]
| felt when I saw this little flash

of her on the television screen

that she had something.

Now, I didn't see it once.

This was a commercial,

so I got a chance
to look at this girl

probably a half a dozen times,

and it had an effect on me
and I thought,

"Well, I'd better
send for her."

[Hedren]
| was asked to go to MCA,

which is a huge talent agency.

It was then
that I was told

that Alfred Hitchcock
wanted to sign me to a contract,

and he said,
"Here is the contract.

If you look it over

and you agree with the terms
and sign it,

we'll go over to meet him.”

So I was under contract
to Alfred Hitchcock

before I even met him.

[Roche] He had signed her
to a contract,

a very long-term contract,

exclusive to him,

and began to fall
into that pattern again

of remolding,

and suddenly,

she was Alfred Hitchcock's
new plaything.

You can be honest.

Whatever you feel about Hitch
is perfectly all right,

because we all know what he is.

You know, mean, all that stuff.

Yeah, mean and all that stuff.
-You can say whatever you want.

Well, possibly, I see
a little different side of him.

-You do?
-Yeah.

[Hedren] It went
extremely well for months.

You know, "The Birds”
took six months to film.

[Roche] As the process
of filming "The Birds" went on,

the dark side in him
really came out.

It climaxed, of course,

with the filming
of the bird attack.

Originally, the attack

was supposed to be performed
with mechanical birds.

When it came time
to shoot it,

she arrived on set
and found cages of real birds,

and asked what was happening.

The only excuse she got
was that they didn't look real enough.

[Hedren] There was no intention
of using mechanical birds.

They had built a cage
out of chain-link fencing,

with the door that I come in.

[gasps]

[screams, gasps]

[Hunter] They were throwing
birds at her.

She was being attacked.

She was visibly crumbling
under the assault of the birds.

[Roche] Cary Grant
visited the set

while this was going on,

saw what was happening,

and he'd only been there
two minutes, and he said,

"What the hell are you doing
to this poor girl?"

[Roth] Tippi Hedren shot
that attic scene for a week.

Your body doesn't know
you're acting,

so even though
you can tell yourself it's fake,

when you scream
and act terrified and cry,

it affects you emotionally.

[Alfred Hitchcock]
The great French playwright,

Sardou, he said,
"Torture the woman,"

as a piece of dramatic,

and the trouble is today,

uh, we don't torture
the women enough.

[laughter]

[announcer] At Universal City
in California,

they prepare for the start
of a unique pigeon derby across the U.S.

The official starters
are director Alfred Hitchcock

and Tippi Hedren,

who is being introduced
fo theatre-goers

in Mr. Hitchcock's "The Birds".

[Roche] Tippi Hedren had to come out
of filming "The Birds,"

where she'd had this experience,

and somehow
pull herself together

for a lengthy press tour

in which she was introduced
as Mr. Hitchcock's new blonde.

After "The Birds,"

"Mamie" was the next film
that Hitchcock had.

He originally was going
to get Grace Kelly back,

but that didn't work out,

50, of course, the job fell
to Tippi Hedren.

If you were Tippi Hedren,

what were you going
to be expecting for your next film?

[Philippe]
You look at his later films,

and they're quite sad.

He raises the stakes
on the violation of the woman

from movie to movie to movie.

It becomes
a little bit disturbing,

getting into "Marnie,"

where there seems to be

more and more of a bitterness
from Hitchcock

that he could never have
those women.

[Roche] Obviously,
he said something or did something

during production

that caused her to say,
"Enough's enough.”

The only people that really know
are Alfred and Tippi themselves.

When filming wrapped,

Hitchcock called his crew,

including his cast,

and said, "Congratulations,
job well done,”

and as he was looking out
over the faces,

he saw Tippi Hedren
walking towards the exit.

That was the last time
he ever directed her.

Post-"Mamie,"

| think Hitchcock's reputation
was starting to suffer.

"Mamie" wasn't the hit
that he needed it o be,

and the tales of his mistreatment
of Tippi Hedren

were beginning to filter out
into Hollywood.

He was desperately trying

to reinvent himself
at this point,

because he was Alfred Hitchcock,

he still had the star power,

and he felt that if he gave cinema
a huge jolt again,

that he could be back on top.

[Mankiewicz] Hitchcock said
the four things that scared him most

were small children,
policemen, high places,

and that my next movie

will not be as good
as the last one.

[Roche] After
the relative disappointments

of films like "Torn Curtain”
and "Topaz,"

| think they were less inclined

to suddenly just sign off
on things for him anymore.

[Roth] You can imagine

that Hitchcock
at a certain point

just got tired.

You know, you need energy
to do this.

You have to be up
2400 in the morning, 5:00 in the morning,

day after day, on location.

Though when Hitchcock
is younger,

he's making two movies a year,

but as he gets older,

he's kind of slowing down
and taking a breath.

[Ramsey] The biggest challenge
that Hitchcock had after "Psycho”

was how to follow up
something so massive.

In fact, he was never able

to put that lightning
in a bottle again,

and it was
a tremendous frustration to him,

because people

would always evaluate
everything he did

according to
his peak box office,

and nothing ever quite compared.

[Lane] Hitchcock's career
may have been waning,

but in the 1970s,

there's this new appreciation
for his work

that suddenly rises.

[Stone] A lot of it started
with film school.

The USC Film School
started a class about him.

Then there were retrospectives
on his old films.

Everyone was studying him.

Everyone was studying his films,

and a lot of film theorists

look way too deep
into his films.

When I was in college,
| took a film class.

It was all about Hitchcock.

It came time to take the final,

and you had to write about
your favorite Hitchcock film,

and I knew his
was "Shadow of a Doubt.”

[woman] They're alive,
they're human beings.

He helped me write a paper
on "Shadow of a Doubt,"

and I handed it in,

and I got a "C" on the paper,

so I took it over to him,

and I said,

"Do you remember the paper
that you helped me write?"

| said,
"Well, Igota'C'onit"

and he said,
"“Well, I'm very sorry,

but that's
the very best I can do."

[Mount] He had transcended
into god-like status in Hollywood.

Lots of people become famous
and have big careers,

and then they go away.

Mr. Hitchcock
was exactly the opposite.

He loved pushing the edge.

He was really frying
to respond to what he saw

as an audience interest
in violence

that was new
and unparalleled at that time,

and I think that's largely true.

He was very interested
in where things were going

in a kind of
psychosexual context.

[Landis] The '70s is a wonderful time
in American movies,

because things
really loosened up.

What's really interesting
is when he made "Frenzy,”

because now if's the time
of slasher movies...

[screams]

It's not an old man's movie
in any way.

| think people
were quite taken aback by it.

[Edgar Wright] "Frenzy,"
which is his first film in London

since the '50s,

is one of his best movies.

It's not uncontroversial,
because I think some people see it

as being
kind of bleak and nasty.

[Alfred Hitchcock] People think
that one is a monster,

and they relate me
to my material.

[Roche] I think "Frenzy,"

as well as being
this bookend to a career—-

You had "The Lodger" at one end,

which was the thriller
that started it,

and "Frenzy,"
| would argue,

is the thriller
that it ends on.

It was almost like

a homecoming and a farewell tour
for Alfred Hitchcock.

He was confronted
with places like Covent Garden,

where he'd grown up.

A greengrocer came up to him

whits he was walking through
the location,

and said,
" remember you as a boy,"

and Hitchcock was dumbfounded

by the fact
this ancient gentleman

had just reminded him so much
that he did grow up here.

[Carrubba] When he was
in England shooting "Frenzy,"

my grandmother
had suffered a stroke.

When she started getting ill,

you know,
he was losing his partner,

his life partner,

the only woman he ever loved.

[Roche] I think
he very much felt

his mortality at that point,

because he was
getting old himself.

After that,
his pain became much worse.

Alma's mobility
became much worse,

and I think without her constant
energy and vitality,

his need to make films
slowly became less vital to him.

[Mankiewicz]
"Frenzy" comes out in 1972,

Hitchcock's 73.

It's pretty good,

and everybody considers it
his last film.

Then four years later,
he makes "Family Plot".

The blue car's gone that way.

Has it gone that way?

That'll be nothing.

Therefore, it must have
gone over the edge.

Okay, go again.

[Mount] I think he felt
"Family Plot" was a weak film

relative to what he could do
or his ambitions for it.

He wanted to do something

that was darker,
scarier, and fresher.

[Mankiewicz] Not easy
for Alfred Hitchcock films

to compete
in the most important 10-year period

of American movies,

1967 to 1976.

[Ramsey] He could feel
the times changing.

He could feel
a new generation of filmmakers,

the Scorseses, the Spielbergs,
the Lucases,

and the work they were making,

that work was filling theatres.

[Mankiewicz] These were
realistic stories,

gritty stories,

uncomfortable stories.

They weren't Hitchcock stories,

but they were borrowing from
the Hitchcock formula.

They either heard or read
the Truffaut interviews.

They knew at this time

how vitally important
Hitchcock was,

and they knew Hitchcock
could teach them a thing or two or eight

about how to make movies.

[Roche] After "Family Plot,”

he tried to make
"The Short Night"

And when he realized

that he just wasn't going
to have the energy to get that made,

he said,

"You know,
let's just be happy.

Let's not try
to kill ourselves prematurely.

Let's enjoy the time we have."

So he essentially retired

and spent the next few years
just with Alma at their home

and lived the life

of not Alfred Hitchcock

the world-renowned entertainer
and filmmaker,

but they were Alfred and Alma,
the two old folks.

When you consider
the work he put into the world,

the fact that he never got
a best-director Oscar

is ridiculous.

[Stone]
He was nominated five times.

He would have loved
to have won an Academy Award,

and he did feel a little cheated
that he didn't.

[Mankiewicz]
The 1968 honorary Oscar

was a big deal,

but even bigger

turned out to be the Life Achievement Award
from the AFl in 1979.

[man] This is
the highest honor

one can receive for a career
in motion pictures--

The American Film Institute's
Lifetime Achievement Award.

[Roche] Everyone was there.

It was the night
that Hollywood came together.

In fact, they said that,
you know,

if a bomb had gone off
in that room that night

that the industry
would have shut down.

When you consider the names
that were in front of him--

| mean,
you had Cary Grant there,

who sat next to him.

Ingrid Bergman presented it,
famously without a script.

Congratulations
to the American Film Institute,

who tonight acknowledge

what our audiences
have known for 50 years,

that Alfred Hitchcock
is an adorable genius.

[applause]

[Roche] It was him getting
to sit with the people

that had made him
such a success,

it was him getting to hear
from the people

that he'd nurtured, and loved,
and created with,

and despite
all those names he had there,

and he chose to thank
just four people.

[Alfred Hitchcock] First of all
is a film editor,

the second is a script writer,

the third is the mother
of my daughter, Pat,

and the fourth

is as fine a cook

that ever performed miracles
in a domestic kitchen,

and their names
are Alma Reville.

[applause]

| think that we have
once more pointed out

that behind every great man
there is a woman,

50, men, watch out.

[Roche] The biggest
misconception about Hitchcock

is that he was a director,

or that he was a monster,

or that he was a showman.

He was all of those things,

and he was
50 much more than that.

He was human,

and he wasn't afraid to show it.

[Mankiewicz] We're not going
to stop watching "Rear Window"

and "Vertigo” and "Psycho”

because of a re-examination
of how he treated actresses...

Turn out the light.
He's seen us.

...But it's okay

to re-examine Hitchcock
as a man.

In fact, it's not merely okay.

It's vitally important.

[Philippe] Alfred Hitchcock

made 53 feature films
over the course of his career,

which is not only
an astonishing amount of movies,

but there are
very few filmmakers

in the history of cinema

who have given us

as many masterpieces
as Hitchcock has.

The footprint that he left
is immense

and still reverberating
to this day.

Any other director

would be happy
with a 20th of his success.

Everything came
from Alfred Hitchcock.

Hitchcock was the first one

who put himself out there
in a big way

and made it okay
for the director to be the star.

[gunshot, mirror cracks]

[Philippe]
The emotions that we feel

when we watch a Hitchcock film

is really what Hitchcock
was all about,

this rollercoaster,

the laughter,

the suspense,

the dread.

That's movies at their best.

[interviewer]
Perish the thought,

but if you could only make
one more picture,

what would it be about?

[Alfred Hitchcock]
| think it would be about

murder, mayhem, violence, sex,

beautifully
pictorially expressed,

lovely costumes,
perfect cutting,

and, uh, a joke or two.