I love finding useless bits of trivia, so here’s some for The 39 Steps (1935)! Mr. Memory It’s widely known that the character of Mr. Memory (played by actor Wylie Watson) was based on a real-life music-hall performer — William James Maurice Bottle (1875-1956), who performed under the stage-name “Datas: The Memory Man” from 1901 onwards. Hitchcock told François Truffaut about Bottle’s act and why Mr. Memory is unable to stop himself revealing his secrets… (read more)
Volume 18 of the Hitchcock Annual is now available to buy at your nearest book shop! Contents: Champagne (1928): The Nation’s Favorite Meets the Critics’ Choice — Amy Sargeant Hitchcock and Documentary: Re-editing Men of the Lightship — Charles Barr Hitchcock’s Newspaper: A “Thing in the Crowd” — John Bruns Intimate Violence: Marnie and Queer Resilience — David Greven Hitchcock and the Wandering Woman: The Influence of Italian Art Cinema on The Birds — Richard… (read more)
It’s been rumoured for a while now that “North by Northwest” will be getting a Blu-ray release this year, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film. Eagle-eyed John Hodson has spotted that HMV UK has added the following Hitchcock films to their Blu-ray pre-release list: Universal: The Birds, Torn Curtain, Family Plot, Frenzy, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Marnie, Mr and Mrs Smith, Psycho, Rear Window, Rope, Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, Topaz,… (read more)
I think it’s safe to say we’ve reached the end of an era with the passing last week of the screenwriter John Michael Hayes, who died in his sleep at the age of 89. In recent years, we’ve seen the deaths in 2005 of Evan Hunter and Ernest Lehman, and then Jay Presson Allen and Joseph Stefano in 2006. Along with Hayes, they were responsible for some of Hitchcock’s greatest and most iconic celluloid moments…… (read more)
Google have partnered with LIFE magazine to make several million images from their photographic archive available on line. Amongst the images are around 90 relating to Alfred Hitchcock.
It’s beginning to look like the new MGM “Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection” 8 DVD set might be a victim of poor quality DVD manufacturing. The packaging, lovely though it is, is a poor design for keeping the DVDs in pristine condition — the rigid cardboard sleeves can easily scuff the playing surface of the DVDs…. Not only that, it would appear that the discs themselves suffer from poor construction and/or poor quality control. Quite a… (read more)
Not too sure how much truth there is in this story, as the Daily Mail seems to be the only source, but… Playboy boss Hugh Hefner, 82, has donated $120 million towards a new School of Cinematic Art, to be built in Hollywood in memory of Alfred Hitchcock. Why? Hef declares that he wished to honour Hitchcock as “he managed to work with the three women I most wanted to pose nude for me, and… (read more)
Knife related crime seems to be on the rise in the UK, with over 20 people killed in London this year. To try and help combat this, the government has enlisted Alfred Hitchcock to come up with a solution. Yep — I did a double-take too, but this is Manchester born policeman, 49 year old Alf(red) Hitchcock. I’m sure Hitch, who filmed some of his most memorable murders with knives, would have raised an eyebrow.
Every now and then, I add some of the Hitchcock related images on Flickr (that have been uploaded with a Creative Commons License) to the Hitchcock Gallery. One of the things that took me slightly by surprise was just how much Hitchcock graffiti there is out there… (Hitchcock says “Nude coloured clothing party”) If you’d like to see what a “Nude Coloured Clothing Party” looks like, then again, head over to Flickr! I guess I… (read more)
The DVD Times site is reporting that the long awaited Universal releases of “Psycho” and “Vertigo” will be released in October, along with “Rear Window“… Universal Studios Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of new Two-Disc Special Editions of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Rear Window and Vertigo on 7th October 2008. Priced at $26.98 SRP each, these two-disc sets are released under the Universal Legacy Series banner and offer the following features… Psycho… (read more)
