TMI (2-1-12)

February 1, 2012

TMI (Today’s Movie Info)

February: Director’s Month

 ALFRED HITCHCOCK (1899-1980) directed more than 50 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He used very distinctive camera movement and pioneered a film editing style that created a new viewing experience.  He was married to Alma Reville from 1926 until his death.  She was his most valued behind-the-scenes collaborator on his films. If Alma didn’t like something, Hitch changed it.  Hitchcock was nominated five times for a Best Director Oscar, but remarkably never won. In fact, the only two Oscars won for his films were: Best Actress for Joan Fontaine in Suspicion (1941), and Best Song for “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que sera, sera)” from The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956).  One of his trademarks was a small cameo in most of his movies.  He overcame the challenge of Lifeboat (1944), which is filmed entirely on a small boat.  Watch closely and you’ll see Hitchcock in a newspaper advertisement for weight loss … he was both the “Before” and “After” picture.   His classic films include: Rebecca (1940), Lifeboat (1941), Suspicion (1941), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Strangers on a Train (1951), Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), Vertigo (1958), North By Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963)


TMI (1-14-12)

January 14, 2012

TMI (Today’s Movie Info)

 NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) was the fourth and final movie director Alfred Hitchcock made with Cary Grant.  The other three were: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955).
 
This film contains two iconic Hollywood scenes: the chase across Mount Rushmore, and the Crop Duster (“where there ain’t no crops”) buzzing Grant.
 
Jimmy Stewart really wanted the role, but Hitchcock preferred Grant for this one.  
 
Sophia Loren was the first choice for the Eva Marie Saint role, but studio contractual obligations required her to turn it down
 
The film contains one of Hitchcock’s most memorable cameos: (during the opening credits) he arrives at a bus stop, but gets there just as the door is closed in his face.
 
Hitchcock couldn’t get permission to film inside the United Nations building or on the face of Mount Rushmore, so sets were built.
 
Ernest Lehman – wrote this script and also some of Hollywood’s most successful screenplays: The Sound of Music (1965), West Side Story (1961), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966)