“There is no terror in the
bang, only in the anticipation of it.”
“The length of a film
should be directly related to the endurance of the human
bladder”
“I didn't say actors are
cattle. What I said was, actors should be treated like
cattle”
--Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock’s first
job was as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph Cable Company
in 1915. Was this
early communication device what inspired Hitchcock to learn
more about spreading his ideas, even through images, across
the globe? Did
this telegraph machine sparked an idea in him that grew to a
flame that soon evolved into one of the most well-known titles
in all of movie history?
Is the telegraph the basis for Rear Window?
No.
No, not really.
Alfred Hitchcock’s interest in
film began at the same time as he held the job, but the
interest sparked from his personal hobbies.
He went to the movies and read US trade journals.
Not that any Joe Schlub can go to the movies and decide
to be a world-renowned moviemaker!
No, Hitchcock carved his path.
Hitchcock fell into a job as a
title designer at a movie studio in London.
From 1920 to 1922, Hitchcock designed the titles for
all the studio’s films.
What films, you may ask?
That’s not important right now.
But what is important is that when the director Hugh
Croise (Scrooge) couldn’t finish the film Always
Tell Your Wife, Hitchcock finished it for him.
Thus, his brilliant career began.
Well, not just like that.
First, the studio wanted him to direct a love story set
on a large boat that hits an iceberg and sinks at the end.
(Titani—something.)
When they couldn’t find a sinkable boat, they gave
him Number 13. Thus,
his career flew! Well,
not quite. The
London studio went belly up.
Finally, he was hired by Gainesborough Productions and
ended up working on The Pleasure Garden, and yes, his
career took of like a low-swooping attack plane.
His first hit was The
Lodger (1926),
but he went on to create the wonderful production of
love-meets-murder-meets-love that we all know and, well, love.
He even took on television and created the great weekly
series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
The brilliant man who never won an Oscar received the American
Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1979 and died the
following year. On
his tombstone are the words “I’m in on a plot.”
But his works, and his name, are still very much alive.
Frightening, isn’t it?
Which is just the way he’d like it.
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