1 00:00:55,150 --> 00:01:00,970 In February 1927, London audiences got their first real taste of an Alfred 2 00:01:00,970 --> 00:01:01,970 Hitchcock film. 3 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:25,300 is now recognised as the first Hitchcock masterpiece. 4 00:01:26,100 --> 00:01:30,900 But as the director himself liked to recall, the film, and with it his 5 00:01:31,140 --> 00:01:33,040 was very nearly stillborn. 6 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:46,720 Unfortunately, when the film was finished, the distributors sent down two 7 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:51,840 representatives to view the film, and they came out and said it was awful. 8 00:01:53,070 --> 00:01:54,690 And it was a dreadful picture. 9 00:01:55,750 --> 00:01:59,350 Well, you know, this is a pretty low ebb to get. 10 00:02:01,610 --> 00:02:06,570 And it was on the shelf for about two months. And then they decided to show it 11 00:02:06,570 --> 00:02:08,310 after all. They felt they had an investment. 12 00:02:09,009 --> 00:02:10,350 And it was shown. 13 00:02:11,110 --> 00:02:15,730 And it was acclaimed as the greatest British picture ever made to that date. 14 00:02:16,350 --> 00:02:21,690 So there you see is that thin red line between failure and success. 15 00:02:25,640 --> 00:02:26,640 How do you do? 16 00:02:26,900 --> 00:02:31,680 I am Alfred Hitchcock and I would like to tell you about my latest motion 17 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:35,580 picture, Marnie, which will be coming to this theatre soon. 18 00:02:38,940 --> 00:02:43,140 In a 60 -year career that began with hand -cranked cameras and silent movie 19 00:02:43,140 --> 00:02:48,180 stars and ended with widescreen technicolour and method actors, 20 00:02:48,180 --> 00:02:51,900 taste both success and failure in pursuit of a simple goal. 21 00:02:55,560 --> 00:03:01,980 He wanted fame, he wanted fortune, he wanted the right to make his own art in 22 00:03:01,980 --> 00:03:04,080 his own way, and he got all those things. 23 00:03:05,580 --> 00:03:09,960 Along the way, he would create a world as strange as his own personality. 24 00:03:10,260 --> 00:03:11,260 Don't be afraid. 25 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:17,100 A Hitchcockian world where glamour and thrill were docked by fear and guilt. 26 00:03:19,340 --> 00:03:20,540 How do you do? 27 00:03:21,100 --> 00:03:23,200 My name is Alfred Hitchcock. 28 00:03:23,660 --> 00:03:26,540 And I would like to tell you about my forthcoming lecture. 29 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:31,280 It is about the birds and their age -long relationship with man. 30 00:03:37,260 --> 00:03:40,860 Oh, there were a lot of Hitchcocks involved with Mr. Hitchcock. 31 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:45,520 He used to think of himself as being a very simple man. He was extremely 32 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:46,520 complicated. 33 00:03:47,300 --> 00:03:48,300 Extremely complicated. 34 00:03:56,140 --> 00:03:57,140 That's a great question. 35 00:03:57,500 --> 00:04:04,460 Is this man a technician, or is he a genius with soul and spirit, and if he 36 00:04:04,460 --> 00:04:06,220 be the greatest filmmaker of all time? 37 00:04:07,540 --> 00:04:09,740 This is Alfred Hitchcock speaking. 38 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:15,100 In the past, I have introduced you to many kinds of people. 39 00:04:16,019 --> 00:04:21,640 Murderers, thieves, swindlers, many of them geniuses at the business of crime. 40 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:30,060 Cruelty, fear, loneliness, paranoia, dark feelings. 41 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:37,920 Big stars, outstanding supporting cast, brilliant color, 42 00:04:38,300 --> 00:04:42,360 imaginative settings, great locations. 43 00:04:43,940 --> 00:04:49,880 Murder, mayhem, violence, sex, beautifully 44 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:51,680 pictorially expressed. 45 00:04:52,910 --> 00:04:55,770 Lovely costumes, perfect cutting. 46 00:04:57,250 --> 00:05:00,250 And a joke or two. 47 00:05:23,850 --> 00:05:28,230 Hitchcock's 1936 thriller, Sabotage, is set in a world of street markets, 48 00:05:28,550 --> 00:05:30,930 shopkeepers, and bobbyed on the beat. 49 00:05:31,670 --> 00:05:32,810 Don't you know that's very dangerous? 50 00:05:33,390 --> 00:05:35,110 What? Leaving stuff like that lying about. 51 00:05:35,350 --> 00:05:37,970 Supposing you or me were to break our leg on that? You'd be very pleased with 52 00:05:37,970 --> 00:05:38,769 yourself, I suppose. 53 00:05:38,770 --> 00:05:40,210 That would depend whether it was your leg or mine. 54 00:05:40,670 --> 00:05:43,490 Can't tempt you, I suppose? Oranges. Very nice today. Good for the feet. 55 00:05:43,730 --> 00:05:45,610 It was a world that Hitchcock knew well. 56 00:05:47,690 --> 00:05:49,610 It was the world in which he had grown up. 57 00:05:57,320 --> 00:06:01,360 Hitchcock is often described as having working -class company origins. 58 00:06:02,580 --> 00:06:07,300 He wasn't really working class. I mean, his father was a greengrocer, wholesale 59 00:06:07,300 --> 00:06:08,300 and retail. 60 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:13,580 And there was a very important distinction between being lower middle 61 00:06:13,660 --> 00:06:17,580 having your own business, being a shopkeeper and something, and being 62 00:06:17,580 --> 00:06:18,600 working class. 63 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:22,360 And Hitchcock was definitely on the middle -class side of this divide. 64 00:06:23,060 --> 00:06:25,720 And I think they were always conscious of it. 65 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:33,680 Born in August 1899 above the family's high street shop in the London suburb of 66 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:38,920 Leytonstone, Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was the youngest of the three children of 67 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:40,300 Emma and William Hitchcock. 68 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:46,520 The father seems to have been, in certain respects, a fairly strict 69 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:53,420 disciplinarian, but his mother seems to have been the tougher of the two 70 00:06:53,420 --> 00:06:55,560 parents, and he remained. 71 00:06:56,170 --> 00:06:57,870 in awe of her throughout her life. 72 00:07:00,810 --> 00:07:05,410 My grandmother, my father's mother, Emma, was a wonderful character. 73 00:07:05,710 --> 00:07:06,710 I mean, absolutely. 74 00:07:07,370 --> 00:07:09,470 She was very forceful. 75 00:07:09,750 --> 00:07:14,410 You can imagine a young person would be scared of her, you know, a son, because 76 00:07:14,410 --> 00:07:16,790 she, you know, she made them toe the line. 77 00:07:31,150 --> 00:07:36,990 The Hitchcocks were devout Catholics, a fact that film critics of the future 78 00:07:36,990 --> 00:07:38,250 would make much of. 79 00:07:43,010 --> 00:07:47,490 Do you accept to be regarded as a Catholic 80 00:07:47,490 --> 00:07:50,890 artist? 81 00:07:51,710 --> 00:07:54,010 It does come in, it's true. 82 00:08:19,090 --> 00:08:24,090 But perhaps the biggest influence on the future filmmaker was an incident that 83 00:08:24,090 --> 00:08:26,970 became an essential part of the Hitchcock legend. 84 00:08:29,740 --> 00:08:33,140 At a very tender age, I was frightened by a policeman. 85 00:08:36,299 --> 00:08:41,280 I don't remember now what it was I'd done, but my father sent me along to the 86 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:42,480 police station with a note. 87 00:09:06,030 --> 00:09:10,310 He locked me in a cell for five minutes and finally said, that's what we do to 88 00:09:10,310 --> 00:09:11,310 naughty boys. 89 00:09:15,830 --> 00:09:20,430 Hitchcock's education in the ways of the world continued at the age of 11 when 90 00:09:20,430 --> 00:09:24,710 he was sent to St Ignatius College, a fee -paying school run by Jesuits. 91 00:09:26,090 --> 00:09:30,590 The Jesuits were notorious for their approach to discipline, as a 92 00:09:30,590 --> 00:09:31,590 of Hitchcock recalled. 93 00:09:34,060 --> 00:09:36,100 We didn't get up and go straight away. 94 00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:38,160 The wages of class ended. 95 00:09:38,700 --> 00:09:43,700 Then, instead of going down into the playground, we went along the corridor 96 00:09:43,700 --> 00:09:48,840 the end and joined a queue of about, what, ten or twelve boys, we think, I 97 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:50,840 suppose, coming from the different classes. 98 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:55,120 And you went in one by one. 99 00:09:55,880 --> 00:10:00,360 Master, on duty that day, did set two. 100 00:10:01,740 --> 00:10:02,980 Three, six. 101 00:10:03,500 --> 00:10:06,860 Nine, twelve, twice nine, eighteen. 102 00:10:07,900 --> 00:10:10,700 Nine on one hand and nine on the other, you see. 103 00:10:14,680 --> 00:10:20,180 Going to the Jesuit school, you know, you're taught that you have to live life 104 00:10:20,180 --> 00:10:22,520 in fear and guilt. 105 00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:28,680 You're told that, you know, you have to be very cautious in life. 106 00:10:29,610 --> 00:10:34,370 You have to be very cautious, because you have evil within you, other people 107 00:10:34,610 --> 00:10:40,810 You know, good and evil are not separate, but they are inextricably 108 00:10:40,810 --> 00:10:41,810 and the same person. 109 00:10:51,590 --> 00:10:56,890 Hitchcock would stand up for himself, quite naturally, boys calling cocky. 110 00:10:57,360 --> 00:10:59,160 He wouldn't have it. He would hitch. 111 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:04,140 I remember that quite well, because he punched a boy in the nose for going in 112 00:11:04,140 --> 00:11:05,140 cocky. 113 00:11:17,860 --> 00:11:22,220 In 1914, when Hitchcock was just 15, his father died. 114 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:24,940 Forth to lead, Prince Ignatius. 115 00:11:25,370 --> 00:11:27,290 He found work in an engineering company. 116 00:11:27,930 --> 00:11:31,330 But Hitchcock was never the average nine -to -five office worker. 117 00:11:32,950 --> 00:11:39,610 When he was a teenager, I think he was working in the city, he didn't, at 118 00:11:39,610 --> 00:11:45,950 lunchtime, he didn't go to a pub and stand around with a glass of beer in his 119 00:11:45,950 --> 00:11:50,250 hand and a sandwich. He went to a proper restaurant, dressed properly, went to a 120 00:11:50,250 --> 00:11:53,010 proper restaurant, ordered a proper lunch. 121 00:11:54,090 --> 00:11:55,570 had a cigar afterwards. 122 00:11:55,910 --> 00:12:01,370 In other words, he knew the kind of human being and the kind of character he 123 00:12:01,370 --> 00:12:02,690 going to be even then. 124 00:12:05,670 --> 00:12:08,890 Were you, or did you tend to be fairly solitary? 125 00:12:09,390 --> 00:12:10,870 I was pretty solitary. 126 00:12:11,570 --> 00:12:17,570 As a child, I was a great first -nighter, you know, to the theatre, used 127 00:12:17,570 --> 00:12:22,990 alone, and also to the movies, theatre and movies, I suppose, were ones. 128 00:12:23,630 --> 00:12:24,650 Hobby, more or less. 129 00:12:26,610 --> 00:12:32,330 In 1920, Hitchcock's hobby took him to a former power station in Islington, 130 00:12:32,530 --> 00:12:33,530 North London. 131 00:12:34,130 --> 00:12:37,450 Alfred Hitchcock was about to enter the movie. 132 00:12:41,110 --> 00:12:47,110 I heard that an American company were coming to London to open a studio. 133 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:53,260 So I applied for the job of designing their titles, because those were the 134 00:12:53,260 --> 00:12:59,340 silent days, and titles were an important part of the picture. 135 00:13:21,740 --> 00:13:25,480 It was at the Islington Studios that Hitchcock would meet the most important 136 00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:26,520 person in his life, 137 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:32,400 Alma Revel, a talented film editor in her own right, and the future Mrs. 138 00:13:32,580 --> 00:13:33,580 Hitchcock. 139 00:13:36,020 --> 00:13:42,680 She was really smart and extremely knowledgeable 140 00:13:42,680 --> 00:13:43,680 about film. 141 00:13:44,460 --> 00:13:45,800 And they were... 142 00:13:46,220 --> 00:13:47,840 They were so close. 143 00:13:48,060 --> 00:13:53,180 They were, you know, they were a pair for all those years. 144 00:13:53,780 --> 00:13:57,100 And, you know, they read each other's minds. 145 00:14:14,830 --> 00:14:17,090 She actually was born in Nottingham. 146 00:14:17,330 --> 00:14:19,850 And then I think the family moved to Twickenham. 147 00:14:21,990 --> 00:14:26,770 When she was in school, I know she was afflicted with a disease called St. 148 00:14:26,790 --> 00:14:31,630 Vitus's Dance and had to miss two years of school. 149 00:14:31,950 --> 00:14:36,770 And, you know, she was so bright, too, that it was such a shame. And that's why 150 00:14:36,770 --> 00:14:39,470 I think she went straight into the picture business. 151 00:14:39,710 --> 00:14:43,170 I think when she went to work there, it became her life. 152 00:14:45,740 --> 00:14:51,700 She was already in the quite important position of film editor, whereas he was 153 00:14:51,700 --> 00:14:52,960 just a general dog's body. 154 00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:58,700 And he was immediately attracted to her, but he said he didn't dare ask her to 155 00:14:58,700 --> 00:15:04,040 come out with him until he was of a commensurate position himself. So as 156 00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:08,540 he had become actually an assistant director, he dared to ask her out. 157 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:12,080 Sometimes she could be very sharp. 158 00:15:12,740 --> 00:15:13,880 I mean, she... 159 00:15:14,540 --> 00:15:16,160 Just said it right out. 160 00:15:16,920 --> 00:15:21,260 If she didn't like somebody, you knew it and he knew it. And if she didn't like 161 00:15:21,260 --> 00:15:23,140 something he did, she said it. 162 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:25,960 Never, she was never shrewish. 163 00:15:26,260 --> 00:15:29,220 She was simply a woman with opinions that she voiced. 164 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:30,700 I liked her for that. 165 00:15:31,620 --> 00:15:34,180 She was totally unpredictable, totally independent. 166 00:15:34,700 --> 00:15:37,600 And I think he enjoyed this and rather feared it. 167 00:15:39,210 --> 00:15:44,310 It was the most extraordinary image of sort of an elephant being martyred by a 168 00:15:44,310 --> 00:15:51,310 sparrow Though he liked to say that he 169 00:15:51,310 --> 00:15:57,670 had no particular ambition Hitchcock rose rapidly at the Islington studios 170 00:15:57,670 --> 00:16:02,070 the film industry still in its infancy his innate self -confidence made him an 171 00:16:02,070 --> 00:16:06,110 unstoppable force I was very content when 172 00:16:07,050 --> 00:16:09,410 I was going to get the job in as assistant director. 173 00:16:10,070 --> 00:16:15,070 Then they said, well, do you know of a good writer we can get? I said, I'll 174 00:16:15,070 --> 00:16:16,070 write it. 175 00:16:16,270 --> 00:16:21,070 And then my friend, who was going to be the art director on the picture, he said 176 00:16:21,070 --> 00:16:22,070 he couldn't come. 177 00:16:22,670 --> 00:16:24,130 He had another job. 178 00:16:24,350 --> 00:16:27,370 He said, what are we going to do for an art director? I said, I'll do the art 179 00:16:27,370 --> 00:16:28,370 direction. 180 00:16:31,370 --> 00:16:33,550 But Hitchcock was still serving his apprenticeship. 181 00:16:35,210 --> 00:16:40,810 In 1925, he received the education of a lifetime, but he was sent to work on an 182 00:16:40,810 --> 00:16:44,430 Anglo -German co -production at the Ufa Studios in Berlin. 183 00:16:47,670 --> 00:16:53,050 Ufa, the world's largest studio, was the home of German Expressionist cinema. 184 00:16:56,490 --> 00:17:01,950 Watching the lives of Murnau and Lange at work, Hitchcock learned much about 185 00:17:01,950 --> 00:17:02,950 power of the director. 186 00:17:09,130 --> 00:17:10,609 And there were other lessons, too. 187 00:17:12,050 --> 00:17:17,230 He learned so much about the use of shadow, the use of camera angles that 188 00:17:17,230 --> 00:17:23,109 unconventional, off -center framing, shots from above, shots from below. 189 00:17:23,109 --> 00:17:28,270 kind of things were part and parcel of the style of German Expressionism, and I 190 00:17:28,270 --> 00:17:32,630 think Hitchcock adapted those very neatly into his cinematic grammar. 191 00:18:15,500 --> 00:18:20,220 German expressionism may have exerted a stylistic influence on Hitchcock, but 192 00:18:20,220 --> 00:18:22,520 the lessons of Soviet cinema went deeper. 193 00:18:23,780 --> 00:18:28,720 Soviet filmmakers showed Hitchcock that meaning in a film could be conveyed by 194 00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:33,020 the dynamic juxtaposition of images, a technique known as montage. 195 00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:45,820 In a montage sequence, Acting becomes a matter of stylized gestures and 196 00:18:45,820 --> 00:18:51,080 expressions, which become significant only when placed alongside other images. 197 00:18:59,860 --> 00:19:03,860 It was a principle that Hitchcock would apply throughout his career to the 198 00:19:03,860 --> 00:19:05,860 dismay of many of his actors. 199 00:19:06,380 --> 00:19:10,860 The medium of pure cinema is what I believe in. 200 00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:19,300 The assembly of pieces of film to create fright is the essential part of my 201 00:19:19,300 --> 00:19:20,300 job. 202 00:19:28,180 --> 00:19:34,260 He took me to dinner one night and he said, Ernie, what we're doing is we're 203 00:19:34,260 --> 00:19:39,960 sitting at an organ and we're pressing this chord. 204 00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:42,840 which makes an audience go, ooh. 205 00:19:43,300 --> 00:19:47,020 And then we press this chord, which makes them laugh. 206 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:53,740 And we're just playing on them. And he said, someday we won't need the movie. 207 00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:59,640 We'll be able to wire them so that we can just sit at the organ and make them 208 00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:03,400 have all the sensations that they have seeing the picture. 209 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:07,520 And he believed that, create an effect on the audience. 210 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:24,960 Hitchcock created his first effects early in 1927, with the release of his 211 00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:29,540 films The Pleasure Garden, The Mountain Eagle, and The Lodger. 212 00:20:30,620 --> 00:20:35,680 The Pleasure Garden performed respectably, The Mountain Eagle less 213 00:20:35,680 --> 00:20:37,220 Lodger was a sensation. 214 00:20:38,980 --> 00:20:44,180 For once, British critics had a homegrown product to rave about, and for 215 00:20:44,180 --> 00:20:48,420 public, there was a sensational storyline coupled with the charms of 216 00:20:48,420 --> 00:20:50,020 idols, Ivor Novello. 217 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,640 But for Hitchcock, it had been a tough initiation. 218 00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:02,740 All three films had been shelved for months, condemned by the distributor as 219 00:21:02,740 --> 00:21:09,120 unshowable. The Lodger, in particular, was suspected of being arty, a kiss of 220 00:21:09,120 --> 00:21:11,720 death in the British film industry at that time. 221 00:21:16,910 --> 00:21:21,650 He used to tell me that when he first started in the industry, you actually 222 00:21:21,650 --> 00:21:26,510 distributors on the doorsteps in Water Street shouting, have I got a film for 223 00:21:26,510 --> 00:21:27,770 you, have I got a film for you? 224 00:21:28,150 --> 00:21:35,010 And I think he realised early on, even if he wanted to be artistic himself, 225 00:21:35,010 --> 00:21:39,690 you couldn't let this be seen too much, that it would be a great mistake because 226 00:21:39,690 --> 00:21:41,710 people wouldn't take you seriously if you did. 227 00:21:43,870 --> 00:21:47,620 Throughout his career, Hitchcock would grouse about the craftiness of 228 00:21:47,620 --> 00:21:52,780 distributors and the stupidity of studio executives, but rarely would he rebel 229 00:21:52,780 --> 00:21:53,780 against them. 230 00:21:53,980 --> 00:21:58,060 He never felt comfortable asserting the claims of the artist over the 231 00:21:58,060 --> 00:21:59,700 responsibilities of the businessman. 232 00:22:01,100 --> 00:22:04,780 You can't indulge yourself for 5 .9 million. 233 00:22:04,980 --> 00:22:08,900 A lot of people's jobs attach to this figure. 234 00:22:09,710 --> 00:22:14,570 I used to look at the men lining up at Warner Brothers, carrying their dinner 235 00:22:14,570 --> 00:22:15,930 pails, clocking on. 236 00:22:16,290 --> 00:22:20,330 In a long line, I said to myself, is this an art form? 237 00:22:22,170 --> 00:22:26,850 And that is, therein lies the whole problem between the artistic and the 238 00:22:26,850 --> 00:22:29,090 commercial. It's the cost of expression. 239 00:22:33,130 --> 00:22:36,750 What Hitchcock looked for from a studio was a simple understanding. 240 00:22:37,610 --> 00:22:40,810 He would turn out popular films on time and on budget. 241 00:22:41,310 --> 00:22:46,270 In return, he expected to be left alone to make his own films in his own way. 242 00:22:46,950 --> 00:22:50,890 This was the deal on which his life as a filmmaker would be based. 243 00:22:54,710 --> 00:22:57,830 But Hitchcock had more to offer studios than just his talent. 244 00:22:58,490 --> 00:23:03,170 In the opening scenes of The Lodger, sharp -eyed critics spotted an extra who 245 00:23:03,170 --> 00:23:04,450 looked strangely familiar. 246 00:23:05,550 --> 00:23:08,390 It was the first of the celebrated Hitchcock cameos. 247 00:23:29,260 --> 00:23:32,620 My mother wasn't born a Catholic, but she became a Catholic when she married 248 00:23:32,620 --> 00:23:35,420 father, and they were married at Brompton Oratory in London. 249 00:23:36,860 --> 00:23:43,580 We lived in London. We lived on Cromwell Road, number 153, and then on 250 00:23:43,580 --> 00:23:49,480 weekends we would go down to Surrey near Guildford, a place called Shamley 251 00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:54,980 Green, and we had a place called Shamley Cottage, and I had horses down there, 252 00:23:55,140 --> 00:23:56,500 and I loved it. 253 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:05,920 He loved making the home movies and, you know, hammed it up all the time and had 254 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:10,380 a wonderful time. But that was his great sense of humour and that's what he had 255 00:25:10,380 --> 00:25:11,380 in everything. 256 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:17,580 And the sort of staid person that everybody thought he was was purely an 257 00:25:20,460 --> 00:25:23,340 Hitchcock's career, meanwhile, continued to blossom. 258 00:25:24,740 --> 00:25:28,740 Wooed away from Islington by British international pitchers at Elstree, 259 00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:33,140 Britain's hottest young director was the natural choice to direct the first 260 00:25:33,140 --> 00:25:35,500 British talkie, Blackmail. 261 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:43,340 Every conceivable kind of problem happened, all of which Hitchy took in 262 00:25:43,340 --> 00:25:50,220 stride. But he had one big problem, and that was Annie Ondra, who was 263 00:25:50,220 --> 00:25:51,540 the little star of the picture. 264 00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:57,260 Annie Ondra was supposed to be a little English girl, a little London girl. 265 00:25:58,120 --> 00:26:00,020 the daughter of a tobacconist. 266 00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:03,120 And Annie Ondra was Czech. 267 00:26:04,980 --> 00:26:08,700 Czechoslovakian. And Annie Ondra had a very, very strong accent. 268 00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:17,100 Now, Ondra, you asked me to let you hear your voice on the talking picture. 269 00:26:18,120 --> 00:26:20,080 But, Heath, you mustn't do that. 270 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:21,320 Why not? 271 00:26:21,420 --> 00:26:23,780 Well, because I can speak well. 272 00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:28,660 Do you realize a squad band will be here any moment? No, really. Oh, my God, I'm 273 00:26:28,660 --> 00:26:29,619 terribly frightened. 274 00:26:29,620 --> 00:26:31,900 Why? Have you been a bad woman or something? 275 00:26:32,180 --> 00:26:35,080 Well, not this bad, but... But you've slept with men. 276 00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:36,239 Oh, no. 277 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:40,420 You have not. Come here. Stand in your place. Otherwise, it will not come out 278 00:26:40,420 --> 00:26:42,320 right, as the girl said to the soldier. 279 00:26:43,300 --> 00:26:44,300 That's enough. 280 00:26:45,540 --> 00:26:49,340 Well, Annie Andre, naturally, with a Czech accent. 281 00:26:50,190 --> 00:26:55,350 She couldn't possibly continue, but too much had been photographed. 282 00:26:55,850 --> 00:27:02,610 So I got another young actress, whose name was Joan Barry, to sit on the 283 00:27:02,610 --> 00:27:04,570 side with her own mic. 284 00:27:05,250 --> 00:27:11,790 And Annie Under the Check Girl just mouthed her words so that they both 285 00:27:11,790 --> 00:27:13,010 synchronized. 286 00:27:14,110 --> 00:27:16,530 Frank, I've changed my mind. 287 00:27:18,290 --> 00:27:19,310 What about? 288 00:27:20,500 --> 00:27:21,920 About going to the pictures. 289 00:27:23,740 --> 00:27:25,260 You mean you don't want to go again? 290 00:27:26,700 --> 00:27:27,920 No, not particularly. 291 00:27:31,100 --> 00:27:33,640 Blackmail was hailed as another Hitchcock triumph. 292 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:37,040 But after this, the director lost his way. 293 00:27:37,980 --> 00:27:42,560 Leaving VIP at the height of the Depression, he ended up directing a 294 00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:46,660 His first and only venture into the genre. 295 00:27:55,880 --> 00:28:00,360 He was rescued by Michael Balkan, the producer who had given him his first 296 00:28:00,360 --> 00:28:01,820 as a director at Islington. 297 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:13,560 The man 298 00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:20,540 who knew too much was the first of the so -called thriller cycle. 299 00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:23,100 Six films in four years. 300 00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:27,620 which Hitchcock made for Balkan's Gaumont British Studio, and which would 301 00:28:27,620 --> 00:28:30,240 him the title The Master of Suspense. 302 00:28:49,700 --> 00:28:52,200 Suspense was the key to the Hitchcock thriller. 303 00:28:53,100 --> 00:28:56,960 Working with screenwriter Charles Bennett and with Alma contributing to 304 00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:01,720 treatments and continuity, Hitchcock turned suspense into an exact science. 305 00:29:03,580 --> 00:29:08,040 The element of suspense is giving an audience information. 306 00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:10,860 Now, you and I are sitting here. 307 00:29:11,860 --> 00:29:13,640 Suddenly a bomb goes off. 308 00:29:15,260 --> 00:29:17,820 Up we go, blown to smithereens. 309 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:20,320 What have the audience had watching this scene? 310 00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:22,880 five or ten seconds of shock. 311 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:30,380 Now, we do the scene over again, but we tell the audience there's a bomb 312 00:29:30,380 --> 00:29:33,240 underneath this table and it's going to go off in five minutes. 313 00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:45,680 Now, this innocuous conversation about football becomes very potent. They say, 314 00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:49,100 don't talk about football, there's a bomb under there. That's what they want 315 00:29:49,100 --> 00:29:50,100 tell us. 316 00:29:54,890 --> 00:29:58,610 then their anxieties will be as long as that clock ticks away. 317 00:30:09,890 --> 00:30:12,710 But the bomb must never go off. 318 00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:42,680 I once committed a grave error in having a bomb from which I'd extracted a great 319 00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:43,680 deal of suspense. 320 00:30:45,100 --> 00:30:50,660 And I had the thing go off, which I should never have done, because they 321 00:30:50,660 --> 00:30:52,580 the relief from their suspense. 322 00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:56,420 Somebody should have said, oh, my goodness, look, there's a bomb. 323 00:30:56,980 --> 00:30:58,840 Pick it up, throw it out the window. Bang! 324 00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:03,960 I made the mistake. I let the bomb go off and kill someone. 325 00:31:06,220 --> 00:31:07,220 Bad technique. 326 00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:27,900 In a Hitchcock thriller, the thing which seems to be of primary importance 327 00:31:27,900 --> 00:31:33,060 generally turns out to be what he called the MacGuffin, the least important 328 00:31:33,060 --> 00:31:34,060 thing of all. 329 00:31:35,470 --> 00:31:41,950 a matter of days perhaps hours before the secret is out of the country 330 00:31:41,950 --> 00:31:47,870 I don't care about content at all the film can be about anything you like so 331 00:31:47,870 --> 00:31:53,790 long as I'm making that audience react in a certain way to whatever I put on 332 00:31:53,790 --> 00:32:00,610 screen and if you begin to worry about the details of what are 333 00:32:00,610 --> 00:32:04,510 the papers about that the spies are trying to 334 00:32:05,419 --> 00:32:09,240 Well, that's a lot of knowledge. I can't be bothered with what the papers are, 335 00:32:09,260 --> 00:32:13,940 what the spies are after in Kipling's day with the plans of the fort. 336 00:32:14,220 --> 00:32:17,920 Well, how can you, you know, bring out the plans of the fort? Do you want the 337 00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:19,580 public to measure them or something? 338 00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:21,760 What are the 39 steps? 339 00:32:23,420 --> 00:32:26,080 Come on, answer up! What are the 39 steps? 340 00:32:26,740 --> 00:32:30,040 The 39 steps is an organisation of spies. 341 00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:33,940 collecting information on behalf of the Foreign Office of... 342 00:32:33,940 --> 00:32:41,400 Haven't 343 00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:43,780 you seen anyone with a twitch yet? Too many people. 344 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:46,860 You must find him. Can't ask more if they twitches, can I? 345 00:32:47,340 --> 00:32:51,020 He must be here somewhere. 346 00:32:52,660 --> 00:32:57,360 Hitchcock was indifferent to content because what really interested him was 347 00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:59,000 he called pure cinema. 348 00:32:59,920 --> 00:33:03,240 An elaborate montage sequence or a complex camera move. 349 00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:08,180 For him, these were the efforts of the filmmaker's heart. I'm right here to 350 00:33:08,180 --> 00:33:11,140 you, sister, no one can like the drummer man. 351 00:33:11,420 --> 00:33:15,640 Every man who plays in the band is wonderful too. 352 00:33:16,620 --> 00:33:20,640 I've got to give credit where credit is due. 353 00:33:21,100 --> 00:33:26,960 But when it comes to make that music up, make you give it all it's got, I'm 354 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:31,170 right here. to tell you mister no one can like the drummer man 355 00:34:09,190 --> 00:34:12,270 The British thrillers gave Hitchcock an international reputation. 356 00:34:12,929 --> 00:34:17,290 And by the end of the 1930s, he was ready for the biggest move in his 357 00:34:29,270 --> 00:34:35,590 Between 1939 and 1945, the biggest audience for American movies thus far 358 00:34:35,590 --> 00:34:37,110 happened. 359 00:34:38,020 --> 00:34:42,679 80 million Americans were going to movies week in, week out. 360 00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:47,460 And as far as technology goes, it was the best technology in the world that 361 00:34:47,460 --> 00:34:49,020 Hitchcock came to. 362 00:34:49,500 --> 00:34:53,239 Sound, which came in in 1927, was already licked. 363 00:34:54,179 --> 00:34:56,600 Camera and projection equipment was refined. 364 00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:02,520 And as for black and white, ah, ah, what the lacquers were developed, the dye 365 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:05,420 systems were developed to make the black velvety. 366 00:35:05,820 --> 00:35:09,040 You saw a black and white movie, the blacks were velvety and the whites, I 367 00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:11,580 it looked like the light was burning on the screen. 368 00:35:21,460 --> 00:35:25,640 Hitchcock had been circling Hollywood for a number of years, tempted by the 369 00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:28,380 resources that only the big American studios could offer. 370 00:35:31,380 --> 00:35:35,060 He knew that a move to Hollywood meant giving up the autonomy he had won in 371 00:35:35,060 --> 00:35:40,960 England. In return, he was looking for money, security, and prestige projects. 372 00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:49,460 In 1938, he signed a seven -year contract with producer David O. 373 00:35:49,460 --> 00:35:51,580 the following fateful year, 1939, 374 00:35:52,420 --> 00:35:55,120 the Hitchcocks left England for America. 375 00:35:57,230 --> 00:36:01,110 We always knew that it was a permanent move to coming over, you know. There's 376 00:36:01,110 --> 00:36:05,270 gamble at all because he had a seven -year contract with David Selznick. So 377 00:36:05,270 --> 00:36:07,410 knew, you know, he was going to be at least seven years. 378 00:36:08,490 --> 00:36:11,450 And pretty much after that, you would live there. 379 00:36:17,830 --> 00:36:23,030 Hitchcock's first American film was to be Rebecca, based on the popular novel 380 00:36:23,030 --> 00:36:24,030 Daphne du Maurier. 381 00:36:24,710 --> 00:36:28,110 It didn't take too long to discover what working for Selznick meant. 382 00:36:30,030 --> 00:36:34,730 David O. Selznick was born in 1902 and he died in 1965 at the age of 63. 383 00:36:35,190 --> 00:36:40,070 No wonder, for he was an obsessive, pill -popping workaholic. 384 00:36:40,390 --> 00:36:46,710 He is a very dogmatic and imperious sort of man. He controlled his films. 385 00:36:46,970 --> 00:36:52,630 No one else made them, no one else condemned them. He was always the 386 00:36:52,630 --> 00:36:53,630 person. 387 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:56,600 And with Hitchcock, this didn't go over so well. 388 00:36:57,660 --> 00:37:02,940 The two of them would fight about script mostly because David Selznick had great 389 00:37:02,940 --> 00:37:05,640 respect for the original material that he used. 390 00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:12,820 He demanded that the dialogue be from the book, that the settings should match 391 00:37:12,820 --> 00:37:14,980 the descriptions in the book. 392 00:37:15,380 --> 00:37:17,800 David insisted on... 393 00:37:18,170 --> 00:37:22,330 lifting the book right into the film. And Hitchcock wanted to make the film 394 00:37:22,330 --> 00:37:23,690 regardless of the book. 395 00:37:24,790 --> 00:37:27,870 How could I ask you to love me when I knew you loved Rebecca still? 396 00:37:29,690 --> 00:37:33,030 Whenever you touched me, I knew you were comparing me with Rebecca. 397 00:37:33,810 --> 00:37:37,470 What is the mystery of Rebecca? What dread secret is hidden within the silent 398 00:37:37,470 --> 00:37:38,590 walls of Manderley? 399 00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:45,560 David thought that Hitchcock's idea of casting was all wrong. 400 00:37:45,860 --> 00:37:50,640 The disagreements, of course, arose on the role of the young girl. 401 00:37:51,320 --> 00:37:53,560 Miss She, they called her. 402 00:37:54,180 --> 00:38:00,660 And she had a very important role to play in the success of the film. And the 403 00:38:00,660 --> 00:38:03,640 people we had been considering, we were not happy with. 404 00:38:04,100 --> 00:38:06,840 What do you mean? 405 00:38:07,780 --> 00:38:08,960 What? What do you mean? 406 00:38:09,710 --> 00:38:12,470 Well, I don't know. Why do you look at me that way? Who's been talking to you? 407 00:38:12,550 --> 00:38:15,150 No one, no one at all. Why do you look like that, Maxine? What's the matter? 408 00:38:16,210 --> 00:38:17,310 Why do you look like that? 409 00:38:18,050 --> 00:38:19,050 What's the matter? 410 00:38:20,230 --> 00:38:21,590 Why do you look like that? What's the matter? 411 00:38:22,370 --> 00:38:25,810 Why do you look like that? Who's been talking to you? No one, no one at all, 412 00:38:25,850 --> 00:38:26,850 Maxine. What's the matter? 413 00:38:27,350 --> 00:38:28,450 We're back at test 16. 414 00:38:32,590 --> 00:38:36,990 David Selznick at that time was truly in love with Joan Fontaine. 415 00:38:37,980 --> 00:38:42,960 And he demanded that she go into the role, so Hitchcock finally gave in on 416 00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:44,360 What do you mean? 417 00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:47,200 What? What do you mean? 418 00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:50,960 I don't mean anything. Why do you look at me like that? 419 00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:52,260 Who's been talking to you? 420 00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:53,860 No one, no one at all. 421 00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:55,480 What's the matter? 422 00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:57,000 She was just great. 423 00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:02,360 And Selznick, he was very satisfied, but he didn't gloat. 424 00:39:05,910 --> 00:39:10,190 Rebecca had one of Hitchcock's most popular pictures, but he felt it was 425 00:39:10,190 --> 00:39:14,810 more Selznick's than his, a feeling confirmed when the film won the 1940 426 00:39:14,810 --> 00:39:19,750 for Best Picture, an award that went to the producer, not the director. 427 00:39:20,870 --> 00:39:24,830 It was to be the first of several near -misses for Hitchcock, and he would end 428 00:39:24,830 --> 00:39:27,390 his career without a single Oscar to his name. 429 00:39:30,070 --> 00:39:34,110 But Selznick had other lessons to teach Hitchcock about the powerlessness of the 430 00:39:34,110 --> 00:39:35,110 contract director. 431 00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:41,020 After Rebecca, he began to loan him out to other studios, charging them double 432 00:39:41,020 --> 00:39:42,340 what he paid Hitchcock. 433 00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:45,820 He lived on Hitchcock. 434 00:39:46,620 --> 00:39:51,440 He had a seven -year contract with Hitchcock and sold him all over the 435 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:57,800 It was the profits from the Hitchcock contract that kept him alive. He didn't 436 00:39:57,800 --> 00:39:58,800 have any money. 437 00:39:59,020 --> 00:40:01,600 He didn't make any money on Gone with the Wind. 438 00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:04,620 But he... 439 00:40:05,240 --> 00:40:09,480 He had Hitchcock. That was his annuity for five or six years. 440 00:40:12,780 --> 00:40:14,960 Do you know the world is a foul sty? 441 00:40:15,980 --> 00:40:19,440 Do you know if you rip the fronts off houses, you'd find swine? 442 00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:24,660 Of the ten films Hitchcock made while under contract, only three were for 443 00:40:24,660 --> 00:40:29,780 Selznick. But the loan art films include some of his most powerful work, with 444 00:40:29,780 --> 00:40:33,200 memorable performances from the stars with whom he would be most closely 445 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:34,200 associated. 446 00:40:37,190 --> 00:40:38,190 How do you feel? 447 00:40:38,390 --> 00:40:39,490 A little bit dizzy. 448 00:40:39,950 --> 00:40:40,950 Take some deep breaths. 449 00:40:41,230 --> 00:40:42,230 Hurry, hurry. 450 00:40:53,090 --> 00:40:54,570 Now, just a minute. I must sit with her. 451 00:40:54,910 --> 00:40:55,910 No room, Sebastian. 452 00:40:56,150 --> 00:40:58,330 But you must take me there. Watch your back. It's your headache. 453 00:40:58,670 --> 00:40:59,770 Please take me. Please. 454 00:41:00,050 --> 00:41:01,050 Please. Please. 455 00:41:03,130 --> 00:41:05,550 There is no telephone in her room to call the hospital. 456 00:41:07,750 --> 00:41:09,190 Alex, will you come in please? 457 00:41:10,050 --> 00:41:11,290 I wish to talk to you. 458 00:41:34,420 --> 00:41:38,640 Hitchcock was by now a familiar, if rather unconventional, part of the 459 00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:39,640 landscape. 460 00:41:40,460 --> 00:41:44,720 On the home front, however, life at the Hitchcocks was, according to Alma, 461 00:41:44,940 --> 00:41:46,860 anything but unconventional. 462 00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:52,340 Our house is in Beverly Hills, no swimming pool. 463 00:41:52,660 --> 00:41:54,760 He says that would be too obvious. 464 00:41:55,420 --> 00:41:58,380 We have a very average home life, I should say. 465 00:41:59,050 --> 00:42:05,330 Most days, even non -working days, we go to bed early, around 9 .30, and we wake 466 00:42:05,330 --> 00:42:11,530 early. Hitch wakes about half past six, his masseur arrives at seven, pummels 467 00:42:11,530 --> 00:42:12,530 him around. 468 00:42:12,990 --> 00:42:15,150 When he gets home at night, we have dinner. 469 00:42:15,790 --> 00:42:20,110 Sitting in our breakfast nook, then read for a while, before you know it, it's 9 470 00:42:20,110 --> 00:42:21,570 .30 and time for bed again. 471 00:42:23,110 --> 00:42:27,610 He was curiously a homebody who enjoyed... 472 00:42:28,030 --> 00:42:33,950 his work, that was his life, and his wife, and he was mad about Pat. 473 00:42:38,150 --> 00:42:40,730 My parents were not social. 474 00:42:41,030 --> 00:42:46,310 They'd rather stay at home, and they would entertain, you know, at home. They 475 00:42:46,310 --> 00:42:49,650 would go to, you know, a couple of parties, but only if they were very 476 00:42:49,650 --> 00:42:50,650 friends. 477 00:42:51,590 --> 00:42:56,070 If Hitch liked you, you were invited to dinner. 478 00:42:56,570 --> 00:43:01,490 Family dinner, he said, and there I was in my 20s, and I go to family dinner, 479 00:43:01,510 --> 00:43:06,210 and there's Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, and Ingrid Bergman's husband 480 00:43:06,210 --> 00:43:12,010 jitterbugging with Pat Hitchcock, Hitch's teenage daughter. It wasn't my 481 00:43:12,010 --> 00:43:13,430 family life, but it was terrific. 482 00:43:16,510 --> 00:43:19,850 Hitchcock's contract with Selznick was due to run out in 1946. 483 00:43:21,150 --> 00:43:22,930 Selznick urged him to renew it. 484 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:26,260 but the director was already planning his bid for freedom. 485 00:43:26,900 --> 00:43:33,160 In 1946, the trade papers announced the setting up of Transatlantic Pictures, an 486 00:43:33,160 --> 00:43:37,140 independent production company headed by Hitchcock and producer Sidney 487 00:43:37,140 --> 00:43:38,140 Bernstein. 488 00:43:39,620 --> 00:43:46,440 Sidney was the producer, which I suppose meant that he took care of the 489 00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:51,100 money and anything Hitch wanted. 490 00:43:52,110 --> 00:43:54,210 was there before Hitch Aspert. 491 00:43:54,490 --> 00:43:59,370 And the reason was he thought Hitch was a consummate artist. 492 00:43:59,670 --> 00:44:04,490 He absolutely believed in him totally and thought he could never set foot 493 00:44:06,670 --> 00:44:11,970 Bolstered by Bernstein and a $5 million loan from an American bank, Hitchcock 494 00:44:11,970 --> 00:44:15,830 finally revealed the kind of filmmaker he was when left to his own devices. 495 00:44:16,570 --> 00:44:21,010 The master of suspense announced plans for Under Capricorn. 496 00:44:21,390 --> 00:44:26,530 a costume melodrama starring Ingrid Bergman, and a modern -day version of 497 00:44:26,530 --> 00:44:27,930 with Cary Grant. 498 00:44:29,310 --> 00:44:31,870 But first, claim rope. 499 00:44:37,730 --> 00:44:43,830 One of the reasons that Hitch was interested in rope 500 00:44:43,830 --> 00:44:48,270 was that he's interested in anything kinky. 501 00:44:50,190 --> 00:44:56,210 He was fascinated with homosexuality because that was the subject. 502 00:44:56,550 --> 00:45:00,950 Though the word homosexual was never used, I thought it was quite obvious. 503 00:45:03,230 --> 00:45:09,190 He did like to know what he considered perverse things about anyone. 504 00:45:09,550 --> 00:45:14,870 He had no moral judgment about it. He just kind of enjoyed knowing. He was 505 00:45:14,870 --> 00:45:17,470 more interested in people who were off -center. 506 00:45:18,730 --> 00:45:20,330 in every sense of the word. 507 00:45:22,010 --> 00:45:26,870 Reveling in his newfound independence, Hitchcock also devised a radical 508 00:45:26,870 --> 00:45:30,010 technique for Rope, the ten -minute take. 509 00:45:32,070 --> 00:45:36,630 He wanted to make a film that had no editing in it. 510 00:45:36,930 --> 00:45:41,210 He wanted to make it look as though it was all done in one take. 511 00:45:42,470 --> 00:45:46,110 This was the first film he had done... 512 00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:53,160 away from Selznick, who evidently he grew to loathe and despise. 513 00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:57,580 And so I think he wanted to do something, you know, quite different and 514 00:45:57,580 --> 00:45:58,580 interesting. 515 00:45:59,720 --> 00:46:04,040 Rope was the antithesis of Hitchcock's tried and trusted montage method. 516 00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:09,760 Rather than being made from the assembly of small pieces of film, it was shot in 517 00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:13,760 continuous ten -minute takes, the length of a single reel of film. 518 00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:19,130 To achieve this, the massive Technicolor camera had to be able to roam at will 519 00:46:19,130 --> 00:46:23,530 through a specially designed set crowded with actors, technicians, props and 520 00:46:23,530 --> 00:46:24,530 equipment. 521 00:46:24,910 --> 00:46:31,230 The walls moved and stage and snatch chairs away. It was all about cameras 522 00:46:31,230 --> 00:46:37,090 cables and moving walls all timed perfectly, except for the actors who 523 00:46:37,090 --> 00:46:38,090 it fend for themselves. 524 00:46:39,210 --> 00:46:46,210 We had to have a lot of prop men to move the furniture out of the way, or you'd 525 00:46:46,210 --> 00:46:49,770 go over and start to sit down and hope that he was going to put a chair under 526 00:46:49,770 --> 00:46:52,110 you, you know, if not you went on the floor. 527 00:46:53,670 --> 00:46:57,870 Undeterred by Rope's disappointing box office performance, Hitchcock pushed on 528 00:46:57,870 --> 00:46:59,590 with plans for Under Capricorn. 529 00:47:00,590 --> 00:47:04,970 Still wedded to the ten -minute take, Hitchcock struggled to adapt it to a 530 00:47:04,970 --> 00:47:06,270 sprawling costume drama. 531 00:47:07,980 --> 00:47:11,540 I remember one day when we were working, Hitch threw down his pencil and stood 532 00:47:11,540 --> 00:47:14,240 up and said, this film's going to be a flop. 533 00:47:15,720 --> 00:47:16,720 Oy. 534 00:47:17,460 --> 00:47:19,380 And he disappeared. 535 00:47:20,500 --> 00:47:22,140 Now, this wasn't like him. 536 00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:27,940 This really wasn't like him. It was like a temperamental outburst. 537 00:47:28,700 --> 00:47:32,220 And that haunted me. This film is going to be a failure. 538 00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:34,140 Yes. Bring it up here, please, quick. 539 00:47:35,540 --> 00:47:36,540 In there. 540 00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:37,560 On the end of my bed. 541 00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:39,500 Where did you say it was? 542 00:47:39,820 --> 00:47:43,120 There, on my bed. You can see it quite plainly. It won't move. 543 00:47:44,380 --> 00:47:49,000 For all its technical virtuosity, the ten -minute take proved an expensive way 544 00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:50,000 to make films. 545 00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:54,640 One mistake, however trivial, meant reshooting an entire reel. 546 00:47:57,280 --> 00:48:02,280 On Under Capricorn, Hitchcock finally admitted defeat, reserving the technique 547 00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:03,600 for a few set pieces. 548 00:48:06,410 --> 00:48:07,710 It won't worry you anymore. 549 00:48:09,710 --> 00:48:10,710 Thank you. 550 00:48:11,370 --> 00:48:13,050 I'm so sorry to bother you. 551 00:48:16,110 --> 00:48:18,130 I'm very much obliged to you, Charlie. 552 00:48:18,770 --> 00:48:20,050 You've been most kind. 553 00:48:21,690 --> 00:48:22,690 Good night. 554 00:48:23,770 --> 00:48:25,730 But by now the film was over budget. 555 00:48:26,070 --> 00:48:27,810 It died at the box office. 556 00:48:28,050 --> 00:48:30,430 And Transatlantic died with it. 557 00:48:31,170 --> 00:48:32,430 Driven into bankruptcy. 558 00:48:37,130 --> 00:48:38,410 You're bothered by rats, I see. 559 00:48:41,650 --> 00:48:47,970 What prompted Hitch to do any particular film in any fashion, 560 00:48:48,110 --> 00:48:50,610 I have no idea. 561 00:48:51,710 --> 00:48:58,470 He would get what became almost an idée fixe, and he 562 00:48:58,470 --> 00:48:59,510 would pursue it. 563 00:49:00,510 --> 00:49:06,050 And if you didn't approve of it, then you were free to walk away from it. 564 00:49:06,760 --> 00:49:08,340 if you wanted to be part of it. 565 00:49:09,100 --> 00:49:11,940 This was, after all, Alfred Hitchcock. 566 00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:18,940 The failure of Transatlantic was a watershed in Hitchcock's career. 567 00:49:19,940 --> 00:49:22,900 Never again would he venture outside the studio system. 568 00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:31,060 The system would make him one of the richest and most successful directors in 569 00:49:31,060 --> 00:49:32,060 Hollywood. 570 00:49:32,100 --> 00:49:35,700 It would support the creation of his most popular and enduring work. 571 00:49:36,560 --> 00:49:38,840 It would turn him into an international star. 572 00:49:39,660 --> 00:49:45,180 And ultimately, it would frustrate his ambitions and make him a prisoner of his 573 00:49:45,180 --> 00:49:46,180 own success. 574 00:49:57,360 --> 00:50:01,520 Tomorrow night, the Hitchcock blonde and box office flop. 575 00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:05,600 Reputations continues here on BBC4 at 12 .45. 576 00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:11,220 And before that, a murder mystery with great comedy performances from Alastair 577 00:50:11,220 --> 00:50:16,840 Simm and Joyce Grenfell alongside Marlena Dietrich and Jane Wyman. Stage 578 00:50:16,840 --> 00:50:17,840 is at 11.