You Gotta Friend In Me...

In the book I got for my birthday, "Notorious: The Life Of Ingrid Bergman" by Donald Spoto (which, yes, I will have to post about one day instead of just mentioning it) there were some great photos of Alfred Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman together, sometimes with Gregory Peck and Cary Grant as well, but I really liked them, so I scanned them for the blog! Ingrid Bergman, Hitchcock and Cary Grant were best friends basically for life so these photos are so lovely!

In their later years

Helping with her knitting on the set of Under Capricorn

Hitch evidently has some ideas for the script...

Too much amazing all sat in one room on straw chairs...

Perfect

It looks like Gregory Peck has some sort of strangely shaped camera... I am intrigued...

This could also count as a very belated birthday post for the late, great master of suspense. His birthday came around and I was just like, "Oh! It's Hitchcock's birthday... *_* Oops." and I had nothing ready! So this is it :-)

~Bette

Hitchcock in the "50s"

I think my favorite Hitchcock films were made in the 50's. The first on the list being: Stage Fright( 1950). A British crime film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock starring Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding and Richard Todd, Alastair Sim, Sybil Thorndike, Kay Walsh, Hitchcock's daughter Patricia Hitchcock in her movie debut and Joyce Grenfell. The story was adapted for the screen by Whitfield Cook, Ranald MacDougall and Alma Reville (the director's wife), with additional dialogue by James Bridie, based on the novel, Man Running by Selwyn Jepson.

The story begins when actress Eve Gill, is interrupted during rehearsal by her good friend, actor Jonathan Cooper, who tells her that he is having a affair with stage actress/singer, Charlotte Inwood. He also tells her that Charlotte visited him after killing her husband wearing a bloodstained dress and he agreed to go back to her home to get her a clean dress. When he gets there he finds the body of Mr. Inwood then tries to simulate a burglary gone wrong, only to be seen by Charlotte's maid, Nellie Goode.
Eve, takes him to hide in a house near the coast owned by her father Commodore, who notices that the blood on Charlotte's dress has been smeared on deliberately and he and Eve believe that Jonathan has been framed. He does not believe them, destroying the dress the only evidence they have on Charlotte.



Eve posing as a reporter, bribes Nellie Goode to say that she has fallen ill and cannot work for Charlotte for a couple of days. Eve, then takes the temporary job. Soon after, Eve meets Detective Inspector Wilfred Smith. Even though they have become fast friends Eve, has not been able to get much info. about the case from him. Smith visits Eve and her mother at their home in London. They are later joined by the Commodore who drops hints that Jonathan has left their house by the sea.

Meanwhile... Charlotte continues to perform in her musical and is secretly visited by Jonathan who wants her to go away with him. Then tells her that he still has the dress with the bloodstain. Charlotte, tells him that she will not give up her career. The truth is she is having an affair with her manager, Freddie Williams.

Jonathan, goes back to thank Eve for her help, but she feels torn because she has fallen in love with, Wilfred Smith. Will she continue to help Jonathan prove his innocence, or is he...

I thought Jane Wyman, gave a very charming, interesting performance. Marlene Dietrich, also plays her part well, and Alastair Sim gives nice comic relief as the father to Wyman's character. Loved the scene of Eve and the Inspector in the back of the taxi and Hitchcock fans will love the surprise ending...

Fun Facts:

Featured is an original Cole Porter song, The Laziest Gal In Town performed by Dietrich in a sultry fashion. Costumes were designed by Christian Dior.

Stage Fright gained some adverse publicity upon its initial release due to the "lying flashback" which is seen at the beginning of the film. However, some film critics, including those of Cahiers du cinéma, see the flashback as simply being an illustration of one person's version of the events: the events as recounted by the character whose voice-over we hear, which was presumably Hitchcock's intention.

The film has a few extra-long takes, reminiscent of those that Hitchcock used in Rope (1948) and Under Capricorn (1949).

In the biography of Dietrich by her daughter Maria, she shares how Dietrich did not like Jane Wyman, because they were such opposites. Hitchcock, however, may have used this animosity to the film's advantage. At one point in the film, Dietrich compliments Wyman for a change in the way she dresses, when Wyman appears at the garden party.

Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In Stage Fright he can be seen 39 minutes into the film as a man on the street turning to look at Eve as she rehearses her scripted introduction speech to Mrs. Inwood.

Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell (born July 7, 1928). Born in London as the only child of film director Alfred Hitchcock and film editor Alma Reville, the family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1939.

As a child, Hitchcock knew she wanted to be an actress. In the early 1940s, she began acting on the stage and doing summer stock. Her father helped her gain a role in the Broadway production of Solitaire (1942). She also acted in Violet (1944).

After graduating from Marymount High School in Los Angeles in 1947, she attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and also performed on the London stage. In early 1949, her parents arrived in London to make Stage Fright, Hitchcock's first English-made feature film since moving to Hollywood. Pat did not know she would have a walk-on in the movie until her parents arrived. Because she had a resemblance to, Jane Wyman. Her father asked if she would mind also doubling for Wyman in the scenes that required "danger driving."

She had small roles in three of her father's movies: Stage Fright (1950) in which she played a jolly acting student named Chubby Bannister, one of Wyman's school chums, Strangers on a Train (1951), playing Barbara Morton, future sister-in-law of Guy Haines (Farley Granger), and Psycho (1960), playing Janet Leigh's plain-Jane office-mate, Caroline, who generously offers to share tranquilizers that her mother gave her for her wedding night.

Pat Hitchcock also worked for Jean Negulesco on The Mudlark (1950), which starred Irene Dunne and Alec Guinness, playing a palace maid, and she had a bit-part in DeMille's The Ten Commandments.

As well as appearing in ten episodes of her father's half-hour television program, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Hitchcock worked on a few others, including Playhouse 90, which was live, directed by John Frankenheimer. Acting for her father, however, remained the high point of her acting career, which she interrupted to raise her children. (Hitchcock has a small joke with her first appearance on his show - after saying good night and exiting the screen, he sticks his head back into the picture and remarks: "I thought the little leading lady was rather good, didn't you?") She also served as executive producer of the documentary The Man on Lincoln's Nose (2000), which is about Robert F. Boyle and his contribution to motion pictures.

Next on the list.. Strangers on a Train (1951). By a chance meeting on a train, two men meet and talk about getting rid of people who are causing them problems in their lives. Problem is.. one of the men is serious. Farley Granger uses some elements of his performance in Rope, Strangers continued the director's interest in the possibilities of blackmail and murder. Robert Walker, was best known for "boy-next-door" roles, plays the villain in this film.

Fun Facts:

The stunt where the man crawled under the carousel was not done with trick photography. Alfred Hitchcock claimed that this was the most dangerous stunt ever performed under his direction, and would never allow it to be done again.

Alfred Hitchcock originally wanted William Holden to play the part of Guy Haines.

The train station scenes in Metcalf were filmed at the former New Haven Railroad station, Danbury, Connecticut, which is today the home of the Danbury Railroad Museum.

This was the last full feature for Robert Walker who died eight months after filming from an allergic reaction to a drug.

The character of Bruno was named after Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the convicted kidnapper/killer of the Lindbergh baby.

Film debut of Marion Lorne.

This is the movie that determined the location of Carol Burnett's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1951, she was working as an usher when this film was playing at the Warner Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. A couple arrived late, and Burnett, having already seen the film, advised them that it was a wonderful film that should be seen from the very beginning. The manager of the theatre very rudely fired her for this. Years later, when Carol Burnett was asked where she would like to have her star placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she requested that it be placed in front of that theatre

Three very popular films starring Grace Kelly followed the first: Dial M for Murder (1954). was from the popular stage play by Frederick Knott. Ray Milland plays the villain, an ex-tennis pro who tries to murder his unfaithful wife Grace Kelly for her money. When she kills the hired assassin in self-defense, Milland manipulates the evidence to pin the death on his wife. Her lover, Mark Halliday, and Police Inspector Hubbard, try and save her from execution.





Fun Facts:

One of the best scenes is when Tony Wendice at a party, frequently looking down at his watch. It is already past eleven when he notices that it has stopped. He gets up from the table, hurries to the phone booth, has to wait there, and eventually calls his apartment after eleven o'clock, at the very moment Lesgate is about to leave. This is a race against time full of dramatic music, complete with a cut to the telephone exchange.

The courtroom scene: the camera is on Margot, using only various colored lights, and the people at a trial are only there in voice-overs, other than the judge when he is receiving his black cap.

The claustrophobic atmosphere of other Hitchcock films (Lifeboat, Rope, Rear Window) can also be found here. Most of the action is performed on a single set. The angle of the camera is also of interest, several times shot from a bird's eye view, other times shot low, so that the scene shows where the body was found.

Alfred Hitchcock's cameo, can be seen thirteen minutes into the film in a black-and-white reunion photograph sitting at a banquet table among former students and faculty.

Hitchcock then filmed, Rear Window (1954), starring James Stewart, Kelly, Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr. Stewart's character, a photographer, is layed up with a broken leg and out of boredom he watching his neighbours across the courtyard, and becomes convinced one of them has murdered his wife. Stewart tries to convince both his girlfriend, and his policeman friend to to believe him, and eventually succeeds. Hitchcock used closeups of Stewart's face to show his character's reactions to all he sees, "from the comic voyeurism directed at his neighbors to his helpless terror watching Kelly and Burr in the villain's apartment".



Fun Facts:

The film was shot entirely at Paramount studios. There was also careful use of sound, including natural sounds and music drifting across the apartment building courtyard to James Stewart's apartment. At one point, the voice of Bing Crosby can be heard singing "To See You Is to Love You", originally from the 1952 Paramount film Road to Bali. Also heard on the soundtrack are versions of songs popularized earlier in the decade by Nat King Cole ("Mona Lisa", 1950) and Dean Martin ("That's Amore", 1952), along with segments from Leonard Bernstein's score for Jerome Robbins's ballet Fancy Free (1944), Richard Rodgers's song "Lover" (1932), and "M'appari tutt'amor" from Friedrich von Flotow's opera Martha (1844).

Hitchcock used costume designer Edith Head on all of his Paramount films.

Although veteran Hollywood composer Franz Waxman is credited with the score for the film, his contributions were limited to the opening and closing titles and the piano tune ("Lisa") played by one of the neighbors, a composer (Ross Bagdasarian), during the film. This was Waxman's final score for Hitchcock. The director used primarily "natural" sounds from the normal life of the characters in the film.

The third Kelly film, To Catch a Thief (1955), set in the French Riviera, paired Kelly with Cary Grant, who plays retired thief John Robie, who becomes the prime suspect for the robberies in the Riviera. An American heiress played by Kelly knows his true identity. The witty script and the good-natured acting proved a commercial success." It was Hitchcock's last film with Kelly. She married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, and the people of her new land were against her making any more films.

Fun Facts:

This was Hitchcock's first of five films in the widescreen process VistaVision. To Catch a Thief is unique in that it is the only Hitchcock film released by Paramount that is still owned and controlled by Paramount. The others were sold to Hitchcock in the early 1960s and are currently distribution with the exception to the "reversion to Hitchcock" rule was Psycho, which Universal bought directly from Paramount in 1968.

In this film Jessie Royce Landis plays Cary Grant's potential mother-in-law. In North by Northwest she would play his character's mother. In fact Grant was 10 months older than her.

This was Grace Kelly's final film for Hitchcock; she became Princess Grace of Monaco in 1956. Edith Head designed Kelly's clothes for the production, including a memorable golden ball gown. Hitchcock later tried to cast Princess Grace in Marnie (1964), but the citizens of Monaco expressed disapproval in her acting in another film; she later served as a narrator for at least two films.

Video: Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In To Catch a Thief he can be seen (10 minutes into the film) as a bus passenger sitting next to Grant.

Hitchcock remade his 1934 film, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), starring Stewart and Doris Day, play a couple whose son is kidnapped to prevent them from interfering with an assassination.

Fun Facts:

Music plays an important part in this film. Although the film's composer, Bernard Herrmann, wrote little "background" music for this film, the performance of Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds, conducted by Herrmann, is the climax of the film. In addition, Doris Day's character is a well-known, now retired, professional singer. Several times in the film, she sings the Livingston and Evans song "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" which won the 1956 Best Song Oscar under the alternate title "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)." The song reached number two on the U.S. pop charts and number one in the UK.


Herrmann was given the option of composing a new cantata to be performed during the film's climax. However, he found Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds from the original 1934 film to be so well suited to the film that he declined. Herrmann can be seen conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and singers during the Royal Albert Hall scenes. The sequence in Albert Hall runs 12 minutes without any dialogue, from the beginning of Storm Cloud Cantata until the climax, when Doris Day screams.

The Wrong Man (1957), was a black-and-white film based on a real-life case of mistaken identity reported in Life Magazine in 1953. This was the only film of Hitchcock's to star Henry Fonda. Fonda plays a Stork Club musician mistaken for a liquor store thief who is arrested and tried for robbery. Hitchcock told Truffaut that his lifelong fear of the police attracted him to the subject and was added to many scenes.



Fun Fact:

Alfred Hitchcock narrating the film's prologue. The only time he actually spoke in any of his films.

Vertigo (1958), starred Stewart, this time with Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes. Stewart plays "Scottie", a former police investigator suffering from acrophobia, who develops an obsession with a woman he is shadowing. Scottie's obsession leads to tragedy.Vertigo, marked the last collaboration between Stewart and Hitchcock.

The film North by Northwest (1959). Thriller film, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau. The screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".

North by Northwest is a story of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the United States by agents of a organization who want to stop his interference in their plans to smuggle out microfilm containing government secrets .

This is one of several Hitchcock movies with a music score by Bernard Herrmann and features a opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass.

Torn Curtain (1966)

As I posted the other day, this is one of the many new films I watched while on holiday in Greece over the first week of my Easter break. I really enjoyed it, and just wanted to share a little about it as I know it is one of Hitchcock's lesser known films. This is a very complicated science-cold-war-espionage film so the plot summary is War and Peace length. Sorry!


{Many of the pictures in this post were found by chance, using google images, on Clara's blog, Via Margutta 51}


Torn Curtain Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

"IT TEARS YOU APART WITH SUSPENSE!" Gotta love vintage movie posters.

Cast:

Paul Newman as Professor Michael Armstrong Julie Andrews as Sarah Sherman Lila Kedrova as Countess Kuchinska Hansjörg Felmy as Heinrich Gerhard Tamara Toumanova as Ballerina Wolfgang Kieling as Hermann Gromek Ludwig Donath as Professor Gustav Lindt Gisela Fischer as Dr. Koska

Plot:
American physicist and rocket scientist, Michael Armstrong is on a cruise ship with his fiance and assistant, Sarah Sherman, attending a conference of physics. The couple seem perfectly happy for the first few days of the cruise, taking time out from the busy schedule to spend time together and enjoying the journey (before they are married, evidently the movie censorship was kind of non-existent by this point). But Michael Armstrong is corresponding secretly with the CIA about ordering and picking up a particular book in a shop once the ship docks at Copenhagen, Denmark. Sarah finds out once they are there and goes to pick up the book before he can stop her.

She starts to become suspicious about Michael's goings on and decides to try and find out what he is doing. She becomes even more disconcerted and upset when he tells her that he has to suddenly leave to fly to "Stockholm" and she definitely can't go with him. In an attempt to follow him, she asks the man at the desk at the hotel for a ticket on the same flight as Dr. Armstrong but he says that Armstrong's ticket is to East Berlin (on other side of the Iron Curtain). She follows him just the same, only to be discovered by him on the plane. Angry that she has followed him, Michael goes about his work. His anti-missile project was cancelled by Washington, so he has decided to offer his services to the East German government. But again, it is soon apparent that this is just a ruse for Armstrong to find out what the East German scientists know about anti-missile systems, and Michael is working with the CIA, and embarking upon a very dangerous mission as a double agent. But Michael's escort, Hermann Gromek quickly catches on to his plan while Michael is visiting a fellow agent in a farm in the country. Michael and the East German agent that he has gone to meet decide it is out of the question for Gromek to call the police so they murder him and bury him and his motorbike in the field.


Sarah is now furious with Michael for being so frosty and cruel to her, but Michael knows it's for her own good. He wants her to leave as soon as possible because he is afraid she will never see her family or friends again if she becomes too involved.

"We have strange ways of communication in this trade." Dr. Koska on bruising Michael's ribs to get him to see her about the murder.

When michael gets around to visiting the university he is under suspicion of murder and he and Sarah - who still knows nothing of his secret agent-ness - are both questioned. He asks for some time alone with her and he tells Sarah everything. Along with the university doctor, Dr. Koska (also an agent) Sarah decides they must leave the country. They wait for Michael to come and catch the special bus for smuggling agents over the border between East and West Germany, but he is still with Professor Gustav Lindt, the government's top scientist to try and find out if he has any important information. But while he is in the Professor's office, a loudspeaker tells the whole university that they should look for Dr. Michael Armstrong. Lindt then realizes that Michael has told him nothing, and that he has been stealing his ideas. Michael makes a run for it, getting to the bus just in time.

There follows a very suspenseful scene as the fake bus for helping agents get to the other side of the border is nearly caught up with by the regular bus. The police eventually catch up with them, but Michael and Sarah manage to escape just in time. They are about to start their journey to a post office to a man who will help them get back to America when they bump into extravagant and ditsy woman, Countess Kuchinska, who needs sponsors to get her toAmerica. After much persuasion, they give in to sponsoring her, but they are endangering their lives every second they waste in the country and...

I can't tell you anymore because it will spoil it for you! (if I haven't done so already by writing everything in that summary :-S)


Review:

Julie Andrews, Alfred Hitchcock and Paul Newman celebrating with Hitchcock.

I really liked this film and it deserves so much more credit than it gets at the moment. The chemistry between Julie Andrews and Paul Newman was good, I thought. And now, I am completely obsessed with Paul Newman. My to see list is full of movies like Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and Cool Hand Luke. He is really great in this and Butch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid. And can I just say, his blue eyes... Everyone is always saying that Julie Andrews can't act (even she said that she didn't think she was a natural actress in her autobiography, "Home"), but I think she is more than good enough to tackle a role like this. I know that Hitchcock had his heart set on Eve Marie Saint and Cary Grant for the pair, but I think the film would have been turned into a Cary grant farce (even though imagining it it would have been funny) and not a serious spy picture.

Directing Julie Andrews

And there are holes in the plot.. It's like, if you were an agent, even a new one, you wouldn't carve a giveaway sign to all your identities deep in  a driveway and not cover it up.  If he had, there might not have been any need for the difficult business of killing Gromek in such a gruesome way. (Although the murder scene was very well choreographed.) The other Hitchcock I watched on holiday was Strangers on A Train which was more tightly constructed than this, but that didn't mean this was less enjoyable

Also, Hitchcock has the best cameo in this movie of any of them. He is sat in the lobby at the hotel in Copenhagen with Julie Andrews' daughter Emma on his lap. This film also was the end of the Hitchcock /Bernard Hermann partnership. Sad.


One of my favourite characters and performances was that of Lila Kedrova, a great favourite of my Grandma's who gave an amazing performance as Countess Kuchinska.

But I really enjoyed this film, and I would advise you not to be put off by it's unknown and unappreciated history.

At a press conference for the film.

~Bette
P.S. You can check out Clara's amazing post about this film that she did for the Classic Movie Blog Association's Alfred Hitchcock Blogathon here. She is obviously a fellow Paul Newman fan :-)

And The Winner Is.... Edith Head.

I think the clothing or costuming in a movie is very important. If the clothing is wrong, especially in a period film, the whole feel of the movie would not be right. So where would we be without wonderful costume designer like, Edith Head? (October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981), She had a long career in Hollywood, that won the most Oscars by any woman with 8 for her costume designs listed below:

The Heiress (1950)

Samson and Delilah (1951)

All About Eve (1951)

A Place In The Sun (1952)

The Greatest Show on earth (1953)
(no photo)



Carrie (1953)

Roman Holiday (1954)

















Sabrina (1955)

The Facts of Life (1961)
(no picture)



The Sting (1974)

She received a BA in Spanish at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1918 and earned an MA in Romance Languages from Stanford University in 1920 and then became a Language teacher. She wanted to improve her drawing skills so she took evening art classes at, Chouinard Art College.

In 1924, Head was hired as a costume sketch artist at Paramount Pictures, in the costume department. She began designing costumes for silent films starting with film, The Wanderer (1925) and by the 1930s was known as one of Hollywood's leading costume designers. She worked at Paramount for 44 years until she went to Universal Pictures on March 27, 1967, to work for director, Alfred Hitchcock.

Head was originally over-shadowed by Paramount's Head Designers, Howard Greer then Travis Banton. It was only after Banton's resignation in 1938 that she became famous as a designer. Her design of the "sarong" dress made for Dorothy Lamour, in the film,The Hurricane, made her well-known among the women of the era.

In 1944 she designed the top mink-lined gown she was credited with designing for Ginger Rogers in the film, Lady in the Dark.

The institution of an Academy Award for Costume Designer, in 1949 helped her career as it began her record breaking run of Award nominations and awards, beginning with her nomination for the film, The Emperor Waltz.

Head, was well loved by actress because she consulting with them while designing their costumes. Some of her favorite clients were: Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Shirley MacLaine, Anne Baxter, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. Head, was frequently 'loaned' out by Paramount to other studios at the request of their female stars. In the 1950s she was famous for her "queen of the shirtwaisters".

She was one of Alfred Hitchcock's favorite costume designers. While filming, Rear Window, sometimes, problems would emerge on set concerning the wardrobe. Like when rehearsing one scene the sheer nightgown that Grace Kelly was wearing, Hitchcock, decided to contact Edith Head and said, "Look, the bosom is not right, we're going to have to put something in there." While in Grace Kelly's dressing room Edith said, "Mr. Hitchcock is worried because there's a false pleat here. He wants me to put in falsies." Grace Kelly said, "You can't put falsies in this, it's going to show and I'm not going to wear them." And Edith said, "What are we going to do?" So they made some adjustments and Grace Kelly stood as straight as possible without her falsies. When Grace Kelly walked out onto the set Hitchcock looked at her and at Edith and said, "See what a difference they make?"

She also worked with Hal Wallis, who was head of production at Warners. His spanned more than fifty years and he was involved with more than 400 movies. Head, had been famous for her work with Audrey Hepburn in the film, Roman Holiday. She designed the costumes for many Jerry Lewis films, while he was at Paramount.

In 1967, she left Paramount Pictures, and joined Universal Pictures, where she remained until her death in 1981. As many of her stars retired, Head became more active as a television costume designer, often designing costumes for film actresses, like Olivia De Havilland, who began working in television series. In 1974, Head won her final Oscar for her work on, The Sting.

During the late 1970s, Edith Head was asked to design a woman's uniform for the United States Coast Guard. Head called the assignment a highlight in her career, and she was awarded the Meritorious Public Service Award for her work. Her last film project was the black and white comedy, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, starring Steve Martin and Carl Reiner, in which she re-created fashions of the 1940s, using film clips from classic film noirs. It was released shortly after her death and dedicated to her memory.

Dark sunglasses became her trademark. Originally the lenses were blue, but later they were dark shades of gray. They were worn to see how the clothing would appear in black and white. The glasses and her unchanging hair style helped her to hide her true age. In the 1920s, she wore a Colleen Moore Dutch boy cut, but in the 1930s she noticed Anna May Wong's style and copied it: flat bangs with a chignon at the back. She would wear it for the rest of her life.

Among the actresses Edith Head designed for were:

Mae West in She Done Him Wrong, 1933, and Myra Breckinridge, 1970, and Sextette in 1979

Frances Farmer in Rhythm on the Range, 1936 and Ebb Tide, 1937

Paulette Goddard in The Cat and the Canary, 1939

Veronica Lake in Sullivan's Travels, 1941 and I Married a Witch, 1942

Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve and Ball of Fire both 1941 and Double Indemnity, 1944

Ginger Rogers in Lady in the Dark, 1944
Ingrid Bergman in Notorious, 1946

Dorothy Lamour in The Hurricane, 1937, and in most of "The Road" movies.

Betty Hutton in Incendiary Blonde, 1945 and The Perils of Pauline, 1947

Loretta Young in The Farmer's Daughter, 1947

Bette Davis in June Bride (1948) and All About Eve, 1950

Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress, 1949
Hedy Lamarr and Angela Lansbury in Samson and Delilah, 1949
Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, 1950

Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun, 1951 and Elephant Walk, 1954

Joan Fontaine in Something to Live For, 1952

Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, 1953 Sabrina, 1954 and Funny Face, 1957

Ann Robinson in The War of the Worlds, 1953

Grace Kelly in Rear Window, 1954, and To Catch a Thief, 1955

Doris Day in The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956
Anne Baxter in The Ten Commandments, 1956
Marlene Dietrich in Witness for the Prosecution, 1957
Rita Hayworth in Separate Tables, 1958
Kim Novak in Vertigo, 1958
Sophia Loren in That Kind of Woman, 1959
Patricia Neal in Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961

Natalie Wood in Love With The Proper Stranger, 1963 Sex and the Single Girl 1964, Inside Daisy Clover, 1965, The Great Race, 1965, Penelope, 1966, This Property Is Condemned, 1966, The Last Married Couple in America, 1980


Tippi Hedren in The Birds, 1963 and Marnie, 1964

Claude Jade in Topaz, 1969
Katharine Hepburn in Rooster Cogburn, 1975
Jill Clayburgh in Gable and Lombard, 1976
Valerie Perrine in W.C. Fields and Me, 1976

Head received 35 Academy Awards nominations for Best Costume Design for the films:

1949 – Color – The Emperor Waltz
1950 – Black and White – The Heiress – won
1951 – Color – Samson and Delilah – won
1951 – Black and White – All About Eve – won
1952 – Black and White – A Place in the Sun – won
1953 – Color – The Greatest Show on Earth
1953 – Black and White – Carrie
1954 – Black and White – Roman Holiday – won
1955 – Black and White – Sabrina – won

Note: Although Edith Head won an Oscar for Best Costumes, most of Audrey Hepburn's "Parisian" ensembles were, in fact, designed by Hubert de Givenchy.  Because the costumes were made in Edith Head's Paramount Studios costume department, some felt that doing so created enough of a technicality to nominate Edith, instead of Monsieur Givenchy. Edith Head refused to be shown alongside Givenchy in the credits, so she was given credit for the costumes. Edith Head did not refuse the Oscar.

1956 – Color – To Catch a Thief
1956 – Black and White – The Rose Tattoo
1957 – Color – The Ten Commandments
1957 – Black and White – The Proud and Profane
1958 – Best Costume Design – Funny Face
1959 – Best Costume Design, Black and White or Color – The Buccaneer
1960 – Color – The Five Pennies
1960 – Black and White – Career
1961 – Color – Pepe
1961 – Black and White – The Facts of Life – won
1962 – Color – Pocketful of Miracles
1963 – Color – My Geisha
1963 – Black and White – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1964 – Color – A New Kind of Love
1964 – Black and White – Wives and Lovers
1964 – Black and White – Love with the Proper Stranger
1965 – Color – What a Way to Go!
1965 – Black and White – A House Is Not A Home
1966 – Color – Inside Daisy Clover
1966 – Black and White – The Slender Thread
1967 – Color – The Oscar

Note: The Academy no longer distinguished between awards for Color and awards for Black and White films.

1970 – Sweet Charity
1971 – Airport
1974 – The Sting – won
1976 – The Man Who Would Be King
1978 – Airport '77

This video is a mini bio.



Made cameo appearance as herself in one of my favorite TV shows Columbo: Requiem for a Falling Star(1973) as the clothing designer for Anne Baxter's character. Her Oscars were displayed on a desk in the scene.

Appeared as herself in the film, Lucy Gallant (1955). Jane Wyman, plays the main character, Lucy Gallant. The story about how Lucy Gallant, is left at the altar and she moves to a oil town, where she opens up a boutique. Rancher Casey Cole (Charlton Heston) does not believe in "working women", but he's madly in love with her. Lucy nearly loses her business due to financial problems, but Casey secretly pumps money into her operation.

Happy Birthday: Tippi Hedren !

Tippi Hedren (born January 19, 1930), is an actress and former fashion model with a career spanning six decades. She is best known for her roles in two Alfred Hitchcock films, The Birds and Marnie and her work in animal rescue at Shambala Preserve, an 80-acre wildlife habitat which she founded in 1983.

Hedren is the mother of actress Melanie Griffith.

When Tippi reached her 18th birthday, she bought a ticket to New York and began a professional modeling career. Within a year she made her film debut in, The Petty Girl (1950).

She was discovered by Hitchcock, who was watching, The Today Show when he saw Hedren in commercial for Sego, a diet drink. Hitchcock was looking for an actress who had the sex appeal of Grace Kelly. Hedren, was mentored by Hitchcock, for the films: The Birds (1962). Suspense horror film based on the 1952 novel, The Birds by Daphne du Maurier. The story takes place in, Bodega Bay, California which is, suddenly attacked by birds. The video below is Tippi Hendren's screen test.



Marnie (1964). Psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and based on the novel of the same name by Winston Graham. Cast: Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery.

Charles Chaplin cast Tippi in the film, A Countess from Hong Kong (1967). The last film directed by Charlie Chaplin. It was one of two films Chaplin directed in which he did not play a major role, the other was, A Woman of Paris(1923). Chaplin's cameo was his final screen appearance. Cast: Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren, Tippi Hedren, and Sydney Earle Chaplin, Chaplin's second son. The story is based loosely on the life of a woman Chaplin met in France, named Moussia Sodskaya, or "Skaya" as he calls her in his 1922 book "My Trip Abroad". She was a Russian singer and dancer that was marooned in France without a passport.




Tippi produced Roar, an 11-year project that starred dozens of African lions. The film led to the 1983 establishment of the non-profit, Roar Foundation and Hedren's Shambala Preserve. Shambala currently taking care of many African lions, Siberian and Bengal tigers, leopards, servals, mountain lions and bobcats. Hedren lives on the Shambala site and conducts tours. Several documentaries have focused on Shambala Preserve, including the 30-minute Lions: Kings of the Serengeti (1995), narrated by Melanie Griffith, and Animal Planet's Life with Big Cats (1998), which won the Genesis Award for best documentary in 1999.

CMBA Hitchcock Blogathon: Vertigo(1958).

Hitchcock, directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema. He is famous for his narrative and withholding crucial information from his characters and from the audience.

One of my favorite Hitchcock films is, Vertigo (1958). Where Stewart plays "Scottie", a former police investigator suffering from acrophobia, who develops an obsession with a woman he is shadowing (Novak). Scottie's obsession leads to tragedy, and this time Hitchcock does not go for a happy ending. The film clip below shows Hitchcock's cameo in the film.

Vertigo(1958). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes. The film was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor, based on a novel by Boileau-Narcejac. At first the film received mixed reviews, but now ranked among the greatest films ever made. Hitchcock's film is about obsession, which means that it's about circling back to the same moment, again and again ...

The story begins in San Francisco, during a police chase across the rooftops, Detective John "Scottie" Ferguson nearly falls to his death. Unfortunately, his partner falls to his death while trying to save him. After which, Scottie decides to retire from police force, but an old friend Gavin Elster, contacts Scottie and wants him to work for him as a private investigator. His job is to follow his friends wife, Madeleine Elster and to learn the mystery of her strange behavior. Scottie follows them to a restaurant so he knows what she looks like.



In my favorite part of the movie, Scottie now on the case follows Madeleine as she visits the grave and the museum portrait of Carlotta Valdes.

Scottie learns that Carlotta Valdes tragic life ended in suicide and that she was Madeleine's great-grandmother. Madeleine next stop is Fort Point, where she jumps into San Francisco Bay. Scottie jumps in after her and takes her to his home to dry off and rest. There Madeleine shares with him what she thinks is living in a bad dream, Scottie believes the location in the dream as Mission San Juan Bautista and takes her there, in hopes to make her feel better..

At the mission, Madeleine panics and runs into the church and up the staircase of the bell tower. Scottie chases after her, but his acrophobia prevents him from climbing the staircase. Scottie hears a scream and sees Madeleine fall from the tower. Her death was declared a suicide and Gavin blamed it on possession by Carlotta Valdes.

Scottie had fallen in love with Madeleine and went into a great depression after her death. As he improves, he begins to visit the places that they had once visited. In his travels, he spots woman who reminds him of Madeleine. Scottie follows her to her hotel room where she tells him that her name is Judy Barton. At first she is angry, but after a few minutes she does agree to join Scottie for dinner. After Scottie has left, we learn of her true identity. She was, in fact, the woman who he knew as "Madeleine". Judy in love with Scottie, decides to hide the truth. Their relationship is troubled by his memory of "Madeleine." He transforms Judy so that she begins to look like "Madeleine."



Scottie becomes suspicious when Judy wears a necklace that he remembered seeing in the portrait of Carlotta Valdes. Scottie takes Madeleine to Mission San Juan Bautista, so he can reenact the tragic event in which he could not save Madeleine. Maybe he has taken his obsession too far.

The wonderful performances of Novak and Stewart make this one of my favorite films. Hitchcock is on the mark for creating hypnotic scenes and a sense of tension which will keep you on the edge of your seat!

The wonderful score of Bernard Herrman is very important in help creating the atmosphere of these scenes.

Fun Facts:
When actress Vera Miles, who was under personal contract to Hitchcock and had appeared on both his television show and in his film, The Wrong Man, could not act in Vertigo because of her pregnancy. The director cast Kim Novak as the female lead. Columbia head Harry Cohn agreed to lend Novak to Vertigo, if Stewart would agree to co-star with Novak in Bell, Book and Candle (1958).

Hitchcock said that Vertigo was one of his favorite films. Hitchcock blamed the film's failure on Stewart, at age 50, looking too old to play a convincing love interest for Kim Novak, who at 25 was half his age at the time.

Filming locations:

Filmed from September to December 1957, Vertigo is best known for its location of the San Francisco Bay Area, with its famous steep hills, expansive views, and tall, arching bridges.

The Mission San Juan Bautista, where Madeleine falls from the tower, is a real place, but the tower had to be matted in with a painting using studio effects. Hitchcock had first visited the mission before the tower was torn down due to dry rot, and was reportedly displeased to find it missing when he returned to film his scenes. The original tower was much smaller and less dramatic than the film's version.

The gallery where Carlotta's painting appears is the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

Muir Woods National Monument is in fact represented by Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The redwood tree showing its age is a replica of one that can still be found at Muir Woods.

The coastal region where Scottie and Madeleine first kiss is Cypress Point, a well-known location along the 17 Mile Drive near Pebble Beach. However, the lone tree by which they kiss is in fact a prop brought specially to the location.

The spectacular domed building past which Scottie and Judy walk is the Palace of Fine Arts.

Coit Tower appears in many background shots; Hitchcock once said that he included it as a phallic symbol.

Gavin and Madeleine's apartment building is "The Brocklebank" at 1000 Mason Street, is across the street from the Fairmont Hotel, where Hitchcock stayed when he visited and where many of the cast and crew stayed during filming.

The "McKittrick Hotel" was a privately-owned Victorian mansion from the 1880s at Gough and Eddy Streets, was torn down in 1959.

Podesta Baldocchi is the flower shop Madeleine visits as she is being followed by Scottie. The Podesta Baldocchi flower shop now does business from a location at 410 Harriet Street. It is well-known today as the "World's Oldest Family Owned Florist".

The sanatorium is 351 Buena Vista East, formerly St. Joseph's Hospital, now Park Hill condominiums.

The Empire Hotel is a real place, called the York Hotel, and now (as of January 2009) the Hotel Vertigo at 940 Sutter Street.

Please click here to read Lady Eves article: Shooting on a beautiful San Francisco day.

Jimmy Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997), was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime Achievement award.  He also had a military career and was a World War II and Vietnam War veteran, who rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Air Force Reserve.

Throughout his seven decades in Hollywood, Stewart had a very versatile career and performed in the classics: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, Harvey, It's a Wonderful Life, Rear Window, Rope, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo.

Kim Novak (born February 13, 1933), is best known for her performance in the classic film , Vertigo. Novak retired from acting in 1991 and has become an artist of oil paintings. She lives with her veterinarian husband on a ranch in, Oregon, where they raise livestock.

Barbara Bel Geddes(October 31, 1922 – August 8, 2005), Her film career began with The Long Night (1947), starring Henry Fonda, a remake of the French film, Le Jour se lève (1939). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for, I Remember Mama (1948). She found new opportunity when Alfred Hitchcock cast her in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Hitchcock cast her again with James Stewart in Vertigo (1958), as the long-suffering bohemian Midge. Bel Geddes also starred with Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong in the musical, The Five Pennies.

Nineteen other classic movie blogs will post reviews and articles on many Hitchcock films. I 'm really looking forward to a day of wonderful movie reviews about one of my favorite directors. Please join us.

The Birds – Classic Film & TV Café
Dial M for Murder – True Classics: The ABCs of Film
The Lady Vanishes – MacGuffin Movies
Lifeboat – Classicfilmboy’s Movie Paradise
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) – Reel Revival
Marnie – My Love of Old Hollywood
Mr. and Mrs. Smith – Carole & Co.
North By Northwest – Bette’s Classic Movie Blog
Notorious – Twenty Four Frames
The Pleasure Garden – Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
Rear Window – Java’s Journey
Rebecca – ClassicBecky’s Film and Literary Review
Rope – Kevin’s Movie Corner
Shadow of a Doubt - Great Entertainers Media Archive
The 39 Steps – Garbo Laughs
Three Classic Hitchcock Killers – The Lady Eve’s Reel Life
Torn Curtain - Via Margutta 51
The Trouble with Harry – Bit Part Actors
Vertigo – Noir and Chick Flicks
The Wrong Man – The Movie Projector