Starting with the year 1956, the chronological detail of my life story is drawn largely from logbooks of the director’s schedule and appointments in the Hitchcock Collection.
Other books: David Dodge, The Rich Man’s Guide to the Riviera (Little, Brown, 1962); Oleg Cassini, In My Own Fashion (Simon & Schuster, 1987); François Truffaut, Correspondence: 1945–1984 (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1989); Paul Henreid (with Julius Fast), Ladies Man: An Autobiography (St. Martin’s Press, 1984).
FOURTEEN: 1956-1958
Hitchcock is quoted on Flamingo Feather in South Africa’s Cape Times (July 5, 1956).
For the section on Vertigo, I have cited and referred repeatedly to Dan Auiler’s indispensable chronicle, Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic (St. Martin’s Press, 1998).
Vera Miles did not reply to letters requesting an interview for this book. Background about the actress was drawn in part from “Hitchcock’s New Star” by Robert W. Marks, McCall’s (“May 1957), “The New Grace Kellys,” Mademoiselle (Dec. 1959), and “I Walked Away from Fear” by Carl Clement, Photoplay (Sept. 1957). Henry Fonda is quoted from Lawrence Grobel’s interview in Playboy (Dec. 1981). Harold J. Stone is quoted from Harvey F. Chartrand’s interview with him in FILMFAX (Apr.-May 2002).
Sam Taylor is quoted from the Auiler, Krohn, Spoto, and Taylor books, as well as other published interviews and my own phone conversation with him.
The Balcon-Hitchcock correspondence can be found among the Balcon Papers at the BFI. The director’s May 1, 1957, letter to Anita Colby is in the Hitchcock Collection.
I consulted numerous articles and interviews with Kim Novak to depict her relationship with Hitchcock. My key sources include Peter Harry Brown, Kim Novak, Reluctant Goddess (St. Martin’s Press, 1986), “Dream Date: Kim Novak” by John Calendo, Interview (Mar. 1981), “Looking Back at Vertigo” by Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times (Oct. 17, 1996), and Beauregard Houston-Montgomery’s interview with the actress in Interview (Dec. 1986).
Other books: Charles Barr, Vertigo monograph (BFI, 2002).
FIFTEEN: 1958-1960
My account of the evolution of North by Northwest, and Hitchcock’s relationship with Ernest Lehman, is drawn from Lehman’s papers in the Harry Ransom Library, and from several Lehman interviews, including those in the Spoto and Taylor books, and: “Ernest Lehman: An American Film Institute Seminar on His Work” (1977), John Brady’s interview in The Craft of the Screenwriter (Simon & Schuster, 1981), Joel Engel’s interview in Screen Writers on Screen Writing (Hyperion, 1995), and “The View from Here: A Conversation with Ernest Lehman” by Susan Bullington Katz, in the Journal (of Writers Guild-West) (June 1995). Gregg Garrett’s “The Men Who Knew Too Much: The Unmade Films of Hitchcock and Lehman” in the North Dakota Quarterly (spring 1993) added intriguing information about the “unmade” Hitchcock-Lehman projects that followed North by Northwest.
Truffaut writes about Stewart being “too old to play the lead” in Hitchcock films after Vertigo in “Slow Fade: The Declining Years of Alfred Hitchcock,” American Film (Jan.-Feb. 1985).
James Mason is quoted from Before I Forget (Hamish Hamilton, 1981). Hitchcock describes Eva Marie Saint’s costuming in “Alfred Hitchcock Talking,” Films and Filming (July 1959). “Hitchcock gave me three directions …” is from “Five of Hitchcock’s Leading Ladies Speak Up for the Great Director” by Robert Blanco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1997 syndicated article). The Styrofoam cup anecdote comes from “Reel to Real,” David Fantle and Thomas Johnson’s interview with Eva Marie Saint in Senior Highlights (Nov. 1996).
Cary Grant and Hitchcock are quoted during location filming in New York from “Excitement at the Plaza: Hitchcock, Cary Grant” by Richard C. Wald in the New York Herald Tribune (Sept. 7, 1958). “Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Expedient Exaggerations’ and the Filming of North by Northwest at Mount Rushmore” by Todd David Epp in South Dakota History (fall 1993) recounts what transpired on location at Mount Rushmore.
Again and again I drew and quoted from Stephen Rebello’s invaluable Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho (Dembner Books, 1990). Other key books that informed this section include Robert Bloch’s Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography (Tor, 1993) and Filmguide to Psycho by James Naremore (Indiana University Press, 1973). I also consulted “Psycho: The Making of Alfred Hitchcock’s Masterpiece” by Rebello in Cinefantastique (Oct. 1986); this Cinefantastique special issue is somewhat different from Rebello’s later book, and includes the Saul Bass interview where Bass claims to have directed the shower sequence.
Besides the Rebello book, Joseph Stefano is quoted from his BBC transcript and “An Interview with Joseph Stefano” by Sylvia Caminer and John Andrew Gallagher in Films in Review (Jan.-Feb. 1996). Janet Leigh is quoted from the Rebello book, but I also consulted numerous interviews and quoted the actress from her memoir There Really Was a Hollywood (Doubleday, 1984) and her book Behind the Scenes of Psycho with Christopher Nickens (Harmony, 1995).
To report how the Production Code censors handled Psycho, I drew on “Hays Code: Out-Psyched by Hitch” by Jerry Drucker in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section (Oct. 28, 1979).
SIXTEEN: 1960-1964
The Tel Aviv and Copenhagen incidents were recounted for Camera Three.
Philip K. Scheuer handicapped Hitchcock’s Oscar odds in “Scheuer’s Forecast of Oscar Winners” in the Los Angeles Times (Apr. 16, 1961). “We’re on dangerous ground …” is from George Angell’s BBC interview. “The studios run those things …” and Hitchcock’s recollection of seeing pornographic movies and a live sex act in Japan are from Interview (Sept. 1974). “Oscars aren’t the end-all …” is from “The Old Wrangler Rides Again” in the book John Ford Made Westerns: Fiming the Legend in the Sound Era.
Ron Miller’s interview with Alfred Hitchcock appeared in San Jose State College’s Lyke magazine (spring 1960). Miller also answered queries by E-mail.
For the section on The Birds, I drew extensively on Kyle B. Counts’s definitive “The Making of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds” in Cinefantastique (fall 1980).
Evan Hunter has been interviewed numerous times, and is quoted mainly from his book Me and Hitch (Faber, 1997) but also from Cinefantastique and his BBC transcript. I have also drawn from “Jay Presson Allen and Evan Hunter,” On Writing, a publication of the Writers Guild-East (Mar. 24, 1993), “Writing The Birds: An Interview with Evan Hunter,” Scenario 5, no. 2, “Writing for Hitch: An Interview with Evan Hunter” by Charles L.P. Silet; Hitchcock Annual (1994-95); “Words of the Week” (Hunter’s talk before London’s National Film Theatre) in the Independent (June 14, 1997).
Tippi Hedren is quoted from various published and unpublished interviews, including the Cinefantastique article, Tony Lee Moral’s Hitchcock and the Making ofMarnie (Scarecrow Press, 2002), her Southern Methodist University oral history, her BBC transcript, and her interview in 2000 with journalist Scott Eyman, a copy of which was supplied to the author. The “three golden birds with seed pearls” anecdote is from “Tippi Hedren—From The Birds to the Roar of the Lions” by Marianne Gray in Photoplay (May 1982).
“Never dared face them …” and “Almost as though she were cleansing herself…” are from “Art Is Immersion,” Fletcher Markle’s interview with Hitchcock for the CBC Telescope series (broadcast in 1964).
“Your letter made me cry …” is from a June 11, 1962, cable from Hitchcock to Truffaut. All the cited Hitchcock-Truffaut correspondence, the original tape recordings, and the complete transcript of the interview sessions are in the Hitchcock Collection. I have also relied upon the biography Truffaut by Antoine de Baecque and Serge Toubiana (Knopf, 1999).
For the section on Marnie, I referred repeatedly to the authoritative book Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, and author Tony Lee Moral generously consulted with me on findings and interpretations.
Hitchcock discussed Grace Kelly’s casting in Marnie in “Grace Kelly … Ice That Burns Your Hands” with Peter Evans in the Daily Express (
Mar. 24, 1962). Mariette Hartley is quoted from Breaking the Silence with Anne Commire (Putnam’s, 1988), and from “20 Questions” in Playboy (Aug. 1982). Sean Connery is quoted from Andrew Yule’s Sean Connery: From 007 to Hollywood Icon (Donald I. Fine, 1992). Joan Fontaine is quoted about Tippi Hedren from Hollywood Royalty. “He almost had a heart attack …” is from Scott Eyman’s interview.
Other articles and books: Alfred Hitchcock, “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s … The Birds!” in Take One 1, no. 10 (1968); Camille Paglia, The Birds (BFI Film Classics, 1998).
SEVENTEEN: 1964-1970
Joseph McBride graciously supplied clippings from his own Hitchcock file, as well as many insights from his personal study of Hitchcock films. His definitive “Alfred Hitchcock’s Mary Rose: An Old Master’s Unheard Cri de Coeur” appeared in Cineaste 26, no. 2 (2001).
The transcript of a “taped conversation between Mr. Hitchcock and Mr. Robert Bloch on Friday, November 20, 1964” and the Hitchcock-Nabokov correspondence are in the Hitchcock Collection.
“You’ll never know what I went through …” is from Hitchcock’s October 20, 1966, letter to the Reverend Thomas J. Sullivan, S.J., in the Hitchcock Collection. “It was fun then …” is from “Hitch His Own Star” by Margaret Hinxman in the Daily Telegraph (Oct. 5, 1969).
“I just never believed Julie Andrews …” is from “Hitchcock Still Fighting Hard to Avoid the Conventional” by Joyce Haber, Los Angeles Times (Feb. 7, 1973). “Gray everywhere …” is from “Hitch: I Wish I Didn’t Have to Shoot the Picture,” Take One 1, no. 1 (1966). Keith Waterhouse is quoted from his correspondence with me and from Streets Ahead (Hodder & Stoughton, 1995).
The Herb Gardner anecdote is from the William Friedkin interview in Dialogue on Film (American Film Institute, Feb.-Mar. 1974). Hitchcock disparages Antonioni in the Daily Telegraph (Oct. 5, 1969): “It’s easy to make a pretentious film. Pop in quite unnecessary images to baffle people. Like that Italian chap, Antonioni.” Penelope Houston’s “Hitch on Topaz” appeared in Sight and Sound (winter 1969). Bill Krohn’s article about Topaz, “A Venomous Flower,” appeared in Video Watchdog (Aug. 2001).
Other articles and books: Anatoly Dobrynin, In Confidence: Moscow’s Ambassador to America’s Six Cold War Presidents, 1962-1986 (Times Books, 1995); Frances FitzGerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War (Simon & Schuster, 2000); Herb A. Lightman, “Hitchcock Talks About Lights, Camera, Action,” American Cinematographer (May 1967); Charles Loring, “Filming Torn Curtain by Reflected Light,” American Cinematographer (Oct. 1966); Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters, 1940-1977, eds. Dimitri Nabokov and Matthew J. Bruccoli (Harcourt, 1989); Bob Rains, Beneath the Tinsel: The Human Side of Hollywood Stars (Three Lions, 1999); Robert Windeler, Julie Andrews: A Life on Stage and Screen (Birch Lane Press, 1997); Norman Zierold, The Moguls (Coward-McCann, 1969).
EIGHTEEN: 1970-1980
Anthony Shaffer is quoted from the Spoto book, “The Wicker Man and Others” in Sight and Sound (Aug. 1995), and his posthumously published So What Did You Expect? (Picador, 2001). “I’m a bit disturbed at their psychedelic nature …” is from “Chilling Chevalier” in the Evening Standard (Jan. 12, 1971). “We cleaned up the story …” is from “Hitchcock Turns 73, Basks in Praise for Latest Thriller” by Orin Borsten in the Birmingham News (Aug. 25, 1973). Henry Mancini is quoted from the American Film Institute publication Dialogue on Film (Jan. 1974).
Key articles which informed my account of the making of Frenzy: “Hitch … But That’s No Head in His Pocket” by Shaun Usher in the Daily Sketch (Jan. 13, 1971); “A Dream—Is It the Vital Clue to Hitchcock?” by Geoffrey Matthews in the Evening News (Sept. 30, 1971); “Why Hitchcock Treats His Women Rough” by Clive Hirschhorn in the Sunday Express (March 7, 1971); and “Hitchcock’s Finest Hour” by Paul Sargent Clark in Today’s Filmmaker (Nov. 1972). “One is preoccupied …” and “No, my father was not …” are from “Thrillers by an Innocent” by Peter Lennon in the Sunday Times (Aug. 1, 1971). Jonathan Jones’s perceptive “He Travelled Every Tram Route” appeared in the Guardian (Aug. 14, 1991).
Alec McCowen is quoted from “Shooting Stars: Alec McCowen Remembers …” from the Sunday Times (Dec. 5, 1985). I consulted several Jon Finch interviews, including the one that appeared in Interview (Apr. 31, 1973), “On Film Violence and Mrs. Mary Ding-a-Ling” in the Morning Star (June 1, 1973), and “Technical Hitch” in Films Illustrated 1, no. 3 (1971).
Truffaut writes about the screening of Frenzy at Cannes in American Film (Nov. 1984). Herb Steinberg is quoted from his BBC transcript. The Buñuel anecdotes are from My Last Sigh: The Autobiography of Luis Buñuel (Knopf, 1983), and from Buñuel biographer John Baxter. Hitchcock’s February 20, 1975, letter to Michael Balcon is in the Balcon Papers.
The transcript of the Family Plot script sessions is among the Ernest Lehman Papers at the University of Texas. The “typical day” section about working on Family Plot is quoted with permission from the “Lehman at Large” column, “He Who Gets Hitched,” in American Film (May 1978).
Although I spent several days on the set of Family Plot in 1975, interviewing Hitchcock, Bruce Dern, Karen Black, William Devane, and others, I also consulted numerous articles on the production, including “The ‘Plot’ Thickens” by Andrew Meyer in Film Comment (Sept.-Oct. 1975), “Plots and Patterns” by Roger Greenspun in Film Comment (May-June 1976), and “Alfred Hitchcock on the set of ‘Family Plot’ ” by Larry Salvato in Millimeter (Jan. 1976).
“I think that comes under the heading …” is from “Alf Hitchcock Fields Critics’ Questions, Some Pretty Silly” by Joseph McBride in Variety (Mar. 31, 1976), John Russell Taylor wrote about Karen Black in “Hitchcock’s Fifty Years in Films” in the London Times (July 19, 1975). Bruce Dern is quoted from “Muuuurder by the Babbling Brook” by Chris Hodenfeld in Rolling Stone (July 29, 1976). “Barbara, I’m scared …” and the reference to Nashville are in “With Family Plot…” by Penelope Gilliatt in the Observer (Aug. 8, 1976). Gregg Kilday’s “Steel-Belted Playfulness at Work” was published in the Los Angeles Times (July 27, 1975).
David Freeman is quoted from his generous correspondence by E-mail and letter with me, and from his invaluable book The Last Days of Alfred Hitchcock (Overlook Press, 1984).
Charles Champlin reported “A Big Hollywood Turnout for Alfred Hitchcock” in the Los Angeles Times (Mar. 12, 1979). I reviewed numerous other accounts of the AFI event, including “An Homage to ‘King Alfred’ ” by Champlin in the Los Angeles Times (Mar. 7, 1979), “‘Half of Hollywood’ Salutes Filmmaker Hitchcock” by Glenn Lovell in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (Mar. 12, 1979), and Joseph McBride’s contribution to “Buts and Rebuts—Hitchcock: A Defense and an Update” in Film Comment (May-June 1979).
I have at points quoted Karen Black, Dr. Walter Flieg, John Forsythe, Barry Foster, David Freeman, and Anna Massey from the E! Hollywood True Story documentary about Hitchcock. I have also quoted Foster from his BBC interview.
Hitchcock’s June 10, 1977, letter to Michael Balcon, at the BFI, describes Alma’s illness and relates his “difficulties” with writer James Costigan. Hitchcock’s June 15, 1978, letter to Mrs. Gladys Hitching; his November 29, 1978, letter to his sister, Mrs. Nellie Ingram; his December 6, 1978, letter to Elsie Randolph; and his December 20, 1978, letters to Irene Selznick and to Mr. and Mrs. Hume Cronyn, describing his and his wife’s deteriorating health, are in the Hitchcock Collection.
Other books: Hal Kanter, So Far, So Funny: My Life in Show Business (McFarland, 1995); Kenneth Williams, The Kenneth Williams Diaries (HarperCollins, 1993).
CODA
Albert Margolies, Whitfield Cook, and Hume Cronyn are quoted from the Cronyn Papers at the Library of Congress. “Donald Spoto took things and twisted them …” is from “Dizzy Heights,” an interview with Pat Hitchcock O’Connell by Tom Charity in Time Out (Apr. 16-23, 1997). John Houseman’s reaction to the Spoto book is quoted from his collection Entertainers and the Entertained
(Simon & Schuster, 1986).
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