Hitchcock and The Girl

A Few years ago a friend made a comment on my IMDB profile that my nickname is Hitchcock Yes I am Hitchcock. That is the character that I play in movies is that is named Hitchcock. I felt the need to clear that up because as a filmmaker I am way out of Hitchcock’s league.

 

The Origin of the character was that when I was in High School I made a bad Zombie Movie where I took scenes from Return of the Living Dead parts One and Two and edited them in with scenes that I shot and directed and in the opening of the film I have a brief cameo appearance in the film and a friend of mine referred to the character as “Hitchcock”.

Eventually my friend Rick and I were putting together a film and we had a scene where he and I made a cameo as Hitchcock and Slick.

Now Rick said that the characters were rip-offs of Jay and Silent Bob, The characters made famous by Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes. In reality I think that the characters are more like C-3P0 and R2-D2.

Needless to say the characters never appeared on Screen together however we did write the scenes but they were eventually cut from the films that we made together. However the Cameos persisted and in my film The Park the lead actor who was my friend Sean Michael Holmes officially christened the character as Hitchcock when I made my cameo in the scene.

Hitchcock made appearances in a few Lost Films as well as a couple of films produced by some of my friends a couple of years ago.

You can usually spot the character in the movies when he is wearing his distinctive leather driver’s cap and a pair of sunglasses. In scripts that I have written the character also has small roles such as a web series that I am developing the character is in fact the cameraman and the man that uploads the movie.

To be perfectly honest the character is a Tribute to the Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock.

I was first introduced to the director when I was in elementary school and Alfred Hitchcock Presents was playing on Nick at Nite. A couple of years later I discovered Psycho and The Birds.

 

Hitchcock has always and always will be one of my favorite Directors.

Alfred Hitchcock was a director that upon seeing him the audience knew what they were in store for. At many points the trailer for the movie consisted of Alfred Hitchcock on the screen speaking about the movie.

In the trailer for Psycho all that the audience got to see was Hitchcock walking around the set talking about the film in the past tense before pulling back the shower curtain revealing Vera Miles screaming at the camera.

The trailer for the Birds featured a similar premise where Hitch speaks the audience of the history of Bird’s relationship with humankind and showing us why birds would attack. Then Tippi Hedren bursts into the room screaming that the Birds are coming.  

Today there are few filmmakers that can pull that off.

Needless to say I regard Hitchcock as one of my heroes as a filmmaker. I am not alone in this. He is regarded by many film viewers as the greatest director to make movies. Many filmmakers today regard him as the man that inspired them into being filmmakers; I myself am included in that list.

 

In the past few months two films have been released about the famed director.

The first film was released in October titled The Girl.

The Girl is the story of the relationship between Tippi Hedren and Hitchcock.

The film shows Hedren being picked off a Television commercial to play the lead in Hitchcock’s new film The Birds. At first all goes well until one day after shooting where Hitchcock makes a highly aggressive pass at Hedren in the car and the incident goes unreported. Hitchcock then proceeds to place Hedren in  many dangerous situations including smashing a glass window in the scene where her character of Melanie Daniels hides in a phone both during an attack by the birds.

While they are filming the scene where her character is attacked by the birds in the attack Hitchcock informs Hedren that they are using fake birds for the scene.

However real birds are used in the scene and are thrown at Hedren for days eventually driving her to a nervous breakdown. Eventually she recovers and The Birds is a huge hit and Tippi Hedren is made into a Star and begins working with Hitchcock on his new film Marnie.

 

While Marnie is in production Hitchcock begins making other advances at Hedren even going as far to declare his love for her. All of this in front of Hitchcock’s wife Alma, who eventually leaves Hitch only to return and help him finish the movie that they are working on. Hitchcock refuses to allow Hedren out of her contract essentially ruining her career.

Now I have to talk about this dark side of Hitchcock, and that is just that it is the Dark side of Hitchcock. As I stated earlier Hitchcock was a genius filmmaker but the man had his demons.

When we talk about our heroes we need to take their faults into consideration because they are only human. I am by no means condoning what he did to Tippi Hedren It is not cool and I have issues with them but I will continue to watch the movies and the Birds remains one of my favorites.

The Girl’s claims were authenticated by Tippi Hedren herself and HBO had some special features where she is interviewed in great length about the events of the The Girl. It was also no secret that Hitchcock often fell in love with his lead actresses.

Toby Jones plays the role of Hitchcock in The Girl and maintains the drull and creepy performance that Hitchcock was known for, especially with his habits to tell inappropriate jokes.

 

Showing a slightly lighter side of Alfred Hitchcock is Anthony Hopkins in the title role in the film Hitchcock.

Now first off Hitchcock takes a lot of creative liberties in the making of his most famous work Psycho.

After reading Robert Bloch’s novel Psycho Hitchcock decides that he must make this his next movie and after Paramount refuses to finance the film Hitchcock Mortgages his and his wife’s home and finances the film himself and shoots the production on a lower budget.

 

The film also showcases the contrasting relationships that Hitchcock has with his actresses such as his relationship with Vera Miles who at the time was under contract to Hitchcock and he remains angry with her over her decision to have a family as opposed to being the Movie Star that he wanted her to be.

Both movies really show Hitchcock’s desire to recreate Grace Kelly.

Hitchcock’s relationship with Janet Leigh is far more professional except for the Shower scene where he freaks out on her while giving direction to the murderer.

 

The film focuses on the relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma with his suspicions of her infidelity with her writing partner Whitfield Cook.

I don’t know what to say about Hopkins’ performance. His Hitchcock I enjoyed better than Jones’ performance in The Girl and  there were other scenes where I felt like I was watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents particularly in the opening and closing of the movie where Hitchcock addresses the audience talking about Ed Gein and the reference to the Birds as his next picture. Especially with the inclusion of the Funeral March of a Marionette which many will consider to be Alfred Hitchcock’s official theme song.

 

James D'Arcy gave an outstanding performance as Anthony Perkins, and Scarlett Johansson was amazing as Janet Leigh.

 

Many of the actors in Hitchcock should receive honorable mentions for their performances in the film if not award nominations.

These films are of the same man but different sides to him.

Both movies are worth checking out.