Henry Mancini and “Frenzy”

A big “thank you” to film historian Morris Bright (author of Pinewood Studios, 70 Years of Fabulous Filmmaking) for sharing these extremely rare photographs of Hitchcock and composer Henry Mancini, taken in December 1971, which were found hidden away in the Pinewood Studios archives. Following the breakup of the Hitchcock/Herrmann partnership over the score of Torn Curtain (1966), Hitchcock never again worked with a composer on more than one film. In Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy: The… (read more)

“I was not surprised I had chosen the Sarony” said Alfred Hitchcock

We’ve previous covered the Lux Toilet Soap newspaper advertisement from May 1929 which featured Hitchcock and this one appeared later on the same year in the Daily Mail (on 31/Jul/1929 and again on 11/Sep/1929): This was just one of dozens of Sarony adverts from 1929 which featured famous sports and entertainment stars, but gives an indication that Hitchcock was perceived by Sarony as being a household name. Amongst the other adverts were Gracie Fields and… (read more)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Great Hitchcock Murder Mystery

This little curio titled “Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Great Hitchcock Murder Mystery” appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune‘s weekend magazine, “This Week”, on Sunday 4th August 1957. Unfortunately the images are from the best quality scan I have, but hopefully you can make out Hitchcock hamming it up (if anyone has a better quality scan, please let me know!) It’s seems highly unlikely the photoshoot was specifically staged as a response to a question from… (read more)

You’d like to say … it can’t happen here … but it has!!

I take my hat off to the designer of this wonderful advert for Saboteur (1942) which appeared in the Texan Sweetwater Reporter newspaper in July 1942! This was a highly opportunist piece of advertising, as the two agents seen in the photograph were amongst a group of eight German saboteurs arrested as part of the failed “Operation Pastorius” just a couple of weeks prior to the advert being placed. On the left is Ernest Peter… (read more)

Hollywood Oversight: Norman Lloyd

Next month marks the centenary of the birth of actor, producer and director Norman Lloyd! Lloyd’s first major film role was in Hitchcock’s Saboteur (1942), playing the role of “Fry”. Later, he became an associate producer and director on both Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. To celebrate the centenary, here is one of the earliest film magazine articles about Lloyd, from the November 1942 issue of Hollywood Magazine… “Norman Lloyd hung around… (read more)

Now you can shampoo…

Just as Hitchcock knew the power of publicity, advertisers knew the power of publicity that referenced Hitchcock. Here’s an advertisement from the July 1960 issue of Modern Screen, featuring actress Vera Miles. The irony is that Miles wore a wig in Psycho! Here’s Ann Todd drinking Lipton Tea: …and here she is again with the rest of the cast of The Paradine Case (1947) smoking Chesterfield cigarettes: Here’s a naughty Hitchcock taking candid photographs of… (read more)

“Jamaica Inn” restored

This piece of news almost slipped me by, but Cohen Films and Finishing Post Productions have partnered with the British Film Institute to restore Jamaica Inn (1939). According to the press release (PDF): The restoration project marks the first time RRsat has undertaken this technique. With the help of FPP, the RRsat team in London was tasked with achieving the best possible restoration, at the highest suitable data rate, in order to create a high… (read more)

Alfred Hitchcock Directs: The TV Collection

If you want to complete your Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour collections, then you need to look to Australia, where Madman Entertainment have released complete collections of both series. If you just want to own the episodes that were actually directed by Hitchcock, then you might want to treat yourself to their 3-disc “Alfred Hitchcock Directs” collection. As an extra bonus, it includes the Startime “Incident at a Corner” episode. It’s not… (read more)