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.