Alfred Hitchcock at MoMA

MoMA’s evening of rare materials from the Alfred Hitchcock Collection

On Thursday, June 10, 1999, as part of its Hitchcock retrospective, the Museum of Modern Art presented an evening of rarely seen footage from the Alfred Hitchcock Collection housed in the archives of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The program was organized by Ellen M. Harrington, Special Events and Exhibitions Coordinator of the Academy, and was hosted by filmmaker/author Peter Bogdanovich.

Bogdanovich kicked off the program telling the story of how Hitchcock had invited him to his suite at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan when the director was in New York to promote the release of Marnie in 1964. Bogdanovich then told the familiar story of how Hitchcock got him drunk with frozen daiquiris, and then baited a captive audience of elevator passengers with his graphic description of a bloody scene, and then left them hanging on in silence eager to hear how the story turned out when indeed there was no story at all. This was Hitchcock’s humor.

The clips began with the video-only portion of the SEGO diet drink commercial, in which Hitchcock first ‘discovered’ Tippi Hedren. A portion of the commercial, with sound, was used in the BBC’s Omnibus, showing Hedren window shopping when an off-screen whistle draws her attention. She turns, and it’s her son who whistled. Had the spot been shown with sound, Bogdanovich might have pointed out that Hitchcock borrowed that moment from the commercial when he introduced Hedren to the movie-going public. In The Birds a boy whistles at Hedren as she walks toward the pet store.

The program continued with Tippi Hedren’s screen test. Here along with actor Martin Balsam, Hedren recreated the picnic scene from To Catch a Thief. Interestingly, the scene as played in the screen test used all of the dialogue from the scene in the script, as opposed to the finished film with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant. Bogdanovich pointed out that while it’s hard to imagine the scene being played by anyone but Cary Grant, Hedren also had some pretty big shoes to fill.

This was followed by Tippi Hedren’s wardrobe/make-up/hair tests also with Martin Balsam. Some of this footage has been shown elsewhere over the years, including BBC’s Omnibus and Entertainment Tonight. The gas station explosion sequence from The Birds followed.

An interesting specially produced short-subject called “The Westcliff Address” was next on the program. This was something of a filmed speech/tour of the Universal lot which Hitchcock gave to an English cine club circa 1962. Most of Hitchcock’s portion of the film was done in a single take, much like the trailer for The Birds.

Rare footage of Alfred Hitchcock directing Frenzy was next on the bill. Again, BBC’s Omnibus had used some of this footage before. In one section, Hitchcock discusses a scene with Billie Whitelaw. A longer, and more enlightening section shows Hitchcock at work on an exterior scene where Jean Marsh, who played Brenda Blaney’s secretary Monica Barling, is returning to the Matrimonial Agency from her lunch hour. The scene in question is a dolly shot, with the camera first leading Jean Marsh down an alley, then panning her over to the building which she enters. During the action, Marsh has to look off-screen, and Hitchcock tells his director of photography that he intends to cut at that point to show that she sees her employer’s ex-husband, Richard Blaney, exiting the office. After several takes, Hitchcock asks his longtime assistant, Peggy Robertson, whether he should replace the two extras seen at the end of the shot because their costumes may be out of fashion when the film is released. The director of photography disagrees with Hitchcock saying that the audience would understand that it’s 1971, and that miniskirts are in fashion. But Hitchcock says that the film won’t be released until mid-1972, and that it’s always been the problem of the wardrobe department to stay ahead of fashion. Despite the DP’s disagreement, Hitchcock mutters an aside to Robertson, about “getting two normal ones in there.” The scene as it appears in Frenzy was then shown, and, just as the director wished, the two mini-skirted extras had been replaced by two women in more sensible, business-like attire.

For me, the highlight of the evening was Hitchcock’s home movies. Again, some of this footage has been shown on the A&E Biography series, AMC’s Family Portraits, Entertainment Tonight, and elsewhere. But I had never before seen footage of Hitchcock’s mother, Emma, and his brother William.

Following this, Peter Bogdanovich spoke of his first meeting with Hitchcock which took place several months after Psycho had been released. Bogdanovich said he told the director that his latest effort was not among his favorites. Hitchcock explained that Bogdanovich probably didn’t understand the humor with which the film was intended, and asked if he had seen the trailer for the film. Bogdanovich told Hitchcock that he hadn’t. According to Bogdanovich, Hitchcock had Peggy Robertson arrange to have the trailer shown in Hitchcock’s screening room. Of course the trailer, while amazingly revealing of the film’s major plot points, is often quite funny. The Psycho trailer was then shown, and followed by the exhibition “policy” trailer for Psycho, a filmed press-book which instructed theater-owners and their employees how to make the experience of seeing the film as enjoyable as possible.

Sadly, there were no outtakes or scenes cut from any of Hitchcock’s films. For instance it might have been interesting to see the factory sequence from Torn Curtain where Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman) meets up with Gromek’s brother (both Gromek and his brother were played by Wolfgang Kieling).

To read this scene from Torn Curtain, click HERE.