“It’s Only a Movie…”

Another dose of Hitchcock on UK TV and radio. As part of an evening about railways, BBC4 is showing "Lady Vanishes" on Thursday…

Title:                The Lady Vanishes
Broadcast Info:       Thursday 09 Oct 08, 22:00 (95 mins)
Channels:             BBC4

Title:                The Man Who Knew Too Much
Broadcast Info:       Sunday 05 Oct 08, 07:45 (125 mins)
Broadcast Info:       Sunday 05 Oct 08, 17:05 (120 mins)
Broadcast Info:       Monday 13 Oct 08, 11:45 (125 mins)
Broadcast Info:       Monday 13 Oct 08, 21:00 (125 mins)
Channels:             Sky Movies Premier 3

Title:                Psycho
Broadcast Info:       Sunday 12 Oct 08, 21:00 (110 mins)
Broadcast Info:       Monday 13 Oct 08, 02:45 (120 mins)
Channels:             Sky Movies Premier 3

Title:                Frenzy
Broadcast Info:       Monday 13 Oct 08, 01:00 (120 mins)
Channels:             Sky Movies Max

Title:                Shadow of a Doubt
Broadcast Info:       Friday 10 Oct 08, 09:55 (110 mins)
Broadcast Info:       Friday 10 Oct 08, 17:25 (110 mins)
Channels:             Sky Movies Premier 3

Title:                The Birds
Broadcast Info:       Sunday 05 Oct 08, 21:00 (125 mins)
Broadcast Info:       Monday 06 Oct 08, 01:35 (130 mins)
Channels:             Sky Movies Premier 3

Actor Paul Newman has died of lung cancer, aged 83.

(Newman and Hitchcock, on the set of "Torn Curtain")

Just spotted today that the The McGuffin Film Society is producing a film about Hitchcock's early years…

Work is currently underway on the McGuffins third film… an in-depth documentary about director Alfred Hitchcock’s early days – and particularly his origins in East London.

The film will explore the lesser known facts about his early life and work, while identifying the key sites from his youth which still exist today. Initial filming has already taken place and some rarely seen archive film has also been secured for the production. It is hoped the film will be completed in time for a major Hitchcock-related event currently being prepared for next year.

The McGuffin Film Society is keen to hear from local residents who may be able to contribute to the film – and we are particularly hoping for help in finding images of Leytonstone, Walthamstow and Limehouse from the early 20th Century. We are also hoping to identify photographic images of the various Walthamstow film studios from the same period. If you are able to help, please get in touch.

The story has also been covered by one of the local newspapers…

The film is the brainchild of the McGuffin Film Society. Spokesman Bill Hodgson said: “We live in an area which is woefully neglectful of its cultural history and landmarks. It is therefore particularly important that groups like ourselves do something positive to preserve that heritage while we still can. Hitchcock remains a film icon of world renown and yet most people have no idea about his associations with Waltham Forest. The new film will explain why east London was so important to Hitchcock, while demonstrating why his legacy remains valuable to the area.”

BBC4 have just announced the highlights of their autumn/winter schedule and, right at the bottom of the press release is "Paul Merton on Hitchcock".

Merton, a well known fan of silent films, has already covered early comedians in the 4 part "Silent Clowns" series, which aired in 2006 and gained positive reviews.

No details yet as to when the documentary will be broadcast.

I think it's a given that any Hitchcock fan who's seen the 2007 film "Disturbia" (co-produced by Steven Spielberg) will know that it owes more than a little to "Rear Window"…

Well, the current owners of the rights to Cornell Woolrich's original short story ("It Had to be Murder" or "Murder from a Fixed Viewpoint") aren't happy about that and filed a lawsuit in a Manhattan federal court yesterday…

What the defendants have been unwilling to do openly, legitimately and legally, [they] have done surreptitiously, by their back-door use of the 'Rear Window' story without paying compensation … In the Disturbia film the defendants purposefully employed immaterial variations or transparent rephrasing to produce essentially the same story as the Rear Window story.

Hitchcock fans will no doubt be aware of the links with Spielberg…

• Hitch was a fan of the young Spielberg and hired John Williams for "Family Plot" partly on the strength of "Jaws"
• according to Bruce Dern, Hitchcock refused to meet the director of "the fish movie" because Hitch was ashamed that he'd been paid "a million dollars" to do the voice of the "Jaws" ride at Universal ("And I took [the money] and I did it. I'm such a whore.")

On a different topic, whilst doing a quick Google for the 7 basic storylines (kudos to Jessamyn West for posting them!), I came across this post on Google Answers. The "seven basic needs to a story line", which I've never come across before, fits nicely with "Rear Window" (and nearly every other Hitchcock film I can think of!)…

1. A hero (L B "Jeff" Jeffries)
2. The hero's character flaw (doesn't love Lisa)
3. Enabling circumstances (trapped in his apartment with a broken leg)
4. An opponent (Lars Thorwald)
5. The hero's ally (Stella, then Lisa Carol Fremont)
6. The life-changing event (Lisa entering Thorwald's apartment?)
7. Jeopardy (Jeffries is attacked by Thorwald)

Many thanks to playwright Joe Landry for sending me details of "Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play", which premieres at the Legacy Theatre, Atlanta, GA on October 17th.

"Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play" is an evening of radio play adaptations of three early films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In "The Lodger," a landlady suspects her mysterious new tenant may be a serial killer. In "The Lady Vanishes," a young woman on vacation triggers an international incident when she tries to track an elderly friend who has disappeared. And, finally, in "The 39 Steps," a man falsely accused of murder races across Scotland handcuffed to the beautiful blonde who turned him in. These stories come to life in the style of a 1940s radio broadcast, with five actors playing dozens of characters, live sound effects and musical underscoring.

I'm sure most people are aware that "The 39 Steps" was recently turned into a highly successful stage play by playwright Patrick Barlow.

Well, it looks like the same has now been done for "Vertigo". The Derby Evening Telegraph has a write up of the adaptation by Jonathan Holloway:

Holloway returns the psychological thriller to wartime Paris and, in supremely theatrical style, frames the tale of the tortured hero as a public demonstration of hypnosis.

Best known from Alfred Hitchcock's film adaptation starring James Stewart – itself 50 years old in 2008 – VERTIGO has its origins in the novel D'entre les morts, published in English as The Living and the Dead and created by the hugely influential crime-writing partnership of Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. With Boileau devising the plot and Narcejac developing characterisation, they were at the forefront of crime fiction's evolution from "whodunnits", centred on an impassionate detective, into psychological suspense dramas exploring the emotions of those directly caught up in crime. As such they proved inspirational to filmmakers: as well as Hitchcock's Vertigo, international hit Les Diaboliques was taken from a Boileau-Narcejac novel and they contributed the screenplay to the grisly cult horror Les yeux sans visage.

Further information is available on the Nottingham Playhouse web site.

The UK Times newspaper is giving away 7 Hitchcock DVDs, starting on Sunday September 7th:

• The 39 Steps (Sunday)
• The Man Who Knew Too Much (Monday)
• Sabotage (Tuesday)
• Secret Agent (Wednesday)
• Young and Innocent (Thursday)
• Jamaica Inn (Friday)
• The Lady Vanishes (Saturday)

Presumably these will be licensed transfers from Granada International?

The MacGuffin site has a sketch on the "Editor's Page" which is claimed to be a Hitchcock drawing from the mid 1920's. You can see the original image on Ken's site, but I've done a few alternatives…

(edge enhancement)

(greyscale)

(negative image)

One thing that jumps out is that it doesn't look like the more familiar Hitchcock signature.

Also, I'm not really sure what the sketch is actually of — after much squinting, I still can't really see any of the things Ken lists (especially the warrior headgear and visor).

If you think you can tell what the sketch is showing, please leave a comment!

All of the other Hitchcock sketches I've seen (which isn't many) are much more basic…

(Hitchcock storyboard sketch from "Saboteur")

(Hitchcock storyboard sketch from "Torn Curtain")

Here's the weekly dose of Hitchcock on UK TV and radio…

Title:                A Perfect Murder
Broadcast Info:       Sunday 31 Aug 08, 21:00 (130 mins)
Channels:             Five

Title:                The Man Who Knew Too Much
Broadcast Info:       Monday 08 Sep 08, 08:20 (130 mins)
Broadcast Info:       Monday 08 Sep 08, 17:05 (125 mins)
Channels:             Sky Movies Premier 3

Title:                Torn Curtain
Broadcast Info:       Saturday 06 Sep 08, 07:55 (135 mins)
Channels:             Sky Movies Max

Title:                Topaz
Broadcast Info:       Sunday 31 Aug 08, 08:50 (150 mins)
Broadcast Info:       Monday 01 Sep 08, 01:05 (145 mins)
Channels:             Sky Movies Premier 3

Title:                Aventure Malgache
Broadcast Info:       Friday 29 Aug 08, 17:30 (30 mins)
Channels:             Artsworld