Alfred Hitchcock On the Record
The Legal Files of Alfred Hitchcock
When William Jefferson Clinton quibbled in his video taped testimony over the meaning of the word “is”, I was reminded of how often Hitchcock used the word “dictate” when discussing the writing of his films with interviewers.
What if Hitchcock were ever pressed to disclose his definition of the word in a legal context?
Well, he was ... And we’ve got it here.
“There’s a point at which I dictate a complete script with the writer – which is the direction of the film beforehand.” Alfred Hitchcock to the Los Angeles Times
In May 1974, a law suit was filed against Alfred Hitchcock, James Stewart, MCA, and ABC by Sheldon Abend, who had acquired the rights to Cornell Woolrich’s story “It Had to Be Murder”, aka “Rear Window”. In the course of the proceedings Hitchcock was deposed, and again, he used the word “dictate”, but unlike an entertainment reporter satisfied with one of the director’s pat soundbites, Abend’s attorneys pressed their witness in the following exchange:
Hitchcock: I engaged a writer.
Question: Do you remember his name?
Hitchcock: John Michael Hayes, and the writing was done in my office, with his typewriter, in my office, and there are many witnesses if you need them. In other words, I dictate the picture. I did not hand that book to the writer and say, "Make a screenplay of this." which is a custom of the business. But it doesn't apply to me, because I make a specific type of film, and I dictate to him what I want to go into the story, and just as a matter of interest, the reason that is done is because I want it done my way, in my style, and I would say in that process there is twenty percent Cornell Woolrich and eighty percent Hitchcock. If you wish me to cite examples, I will be delighted to do so.
Question: Did you dictate this story to a stenographer?
Hitchcock: No. To the man sitting there at his typewriter.
Question: You mean to John Michael Hayes?
Hitchcock: To John Michael Hayes, certainly.
Question: The man who, in Plaintiff's Exhibit 3 for identification, which is in the main title billing for Rear Window is listed as the author of the screenplay?
Hitchcock: That is right.
Question: You say, you dictated that to him?
Hitchcock: I am actually a writer, producer and director. But I never take credit for it.
Question: Do you remember my last question, Mr. Hitchcock? Do you want me to put it again? You say you dictated that to him?
Hitchcock: Yes, but I must tell you that there is a certain meaning to the word "dictated".
Question: You tell me how you dictated this story?
Hitchcock: It is not like dictating to a stenographer.
Question: That is what I want to find out. Tell me how you dictated.
Hitchcock: Talked it over.
Question: Let me finish the question, please. The story you read to John Michael Hayes.
Hitchcock: Yes.
Question: Tell me how you did that.
Hitchcock: We talked over certain things. I said, "There's no woman in this story. We've got to put a woman in."
Question: Did you have the story in front of you while you talked about ...
Hitchcock: No, of course not. Threw it away.
Question: Threw it away?
Hitchcock: Yes.
Question: Didn't give it back to Mr. Wasserman? Threw it away?
Hitchcock: Didn't bother. I'm going to make a picture out of it. Out of the basic idea.
Question: I see. Continue to relate what you started to relate.
Hitchcock: Well, we added a woman to the innumerable characters in the various rooms. All created. None of which was in the book. We engaged a woman massuer who was played by Thelma Ritter. She was an additional character. I made the leading man a photographer.
Question: What was he in the story? Do you recall?
Hitchcock: I haven't the faintest. Can't remember.
Question: When did you read the story the last time?
Hitchcock: Oh, I would say about 1952.
Question: That was on the occasion when Mr. Wasserman sent it to you?
Hitchcock: Right.
Question: Since that date, to this very day, you have never read it again. Is that a fact? (No audible response) Is that a fact?
Hitchcock: Absolutely.
Question: Have you completed your answer to the question, or have I interrupted you? You told us about Thelma Ritter I believe.
Hitchcock: Yes, well, etcetera, etcetera and etcetera. Meaning, there were innumerable things put into the picture which were not in the short story.
Question: Well, give us some more examples. I would like to have these etceteras on the record.
Hitchcock: Well there's, we had a musician. We had a couple with a dog. A heavy in the story killed the dog. The murderer in other words, and I also included the essence of two famous English cases. One was the case of Dr. Crippen, the first man ever to be arrested by radio at sea. He was uncovered because he gave his wife's jewelry to his secretary and that was his uncovering. A wife doesn't go away and leave her jewelry behind. That was inserted into the story. There was also the case of Patrick Mahon.
Question: How do you spell that?
Hitchcock: M-a-h-o-n. Patrick Mahon murdered a woman, cut the body up into pieces and threw them out. Carried them in a suitcase and threw them out of the window of a train between Eastbourne and London, but he had a problem with the head. He put the head into the fire and burned it, and the heat of the fire caused the eyes to open, that indicated to me, that whatever this murder may be, the murderer would have a problem with the head. Therefore, I put that incident in and buried the head in the garden. And it was through the dog scratching on the garden where the head was that caused the murderer to kill the dog. That was taken from an actual case.
Question: Are there any other incidents that you can recall as you sit here today?
Hitchcock: Not offhand, no. Well the incident of the man, being the murderer, coming around and being held off by a flashlight, the photographer using his flashlight. You see, in a certain style, my particular style, if a man has a profession, I use it in the picture for dramatic purposes, that's the way these films are designed, talked over, and ultimately dictated.
Copyright 2001 Steven DeRosa
