On this day in movie history - Rope (1948)

Rope

directed by Alfred Hitchcock,

written by Arthur Laurents and Hume Cronyn, and based on the novel by Patrick Hamilton,

was released in the United States on September 25, 1948.

Music by David Buttolph, Francis Poulenc and Leo F. Forbstein.

Cast:

James Stewart, Dick Hogan, John Dall, Farley Granger, Edith Evanson, Douglas Dick, Joan Chandler, Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier, Alfred Hitchcock.

Born on this day – Alfred Hitchcock:

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE

Director

Known for Psycho, Vertigo, Notorious, Dial M for Murder, The Birds, and more.

August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980

#AlfredHitchcock #Psycho #Vertigo #Notorious #DialMForMurder #TheBirds

On this day in movie history - Marnie (1964)

Marnie

directed by Alfred Hitchcock,

written by Jay Presson Allen,

based on the novel by Winston Graham,

was released in the United States on July 17, 1964.

Music by Bernard Herrmann.

Cast:

Tippi Hedren, Martin Gabel, Sean Connery, Louise Latham, Diane Baker, Alan Napier, Bob Sweeney, Milton Selzer, Henry Beckman, Edith Evanson, Mariette Hartley, Bruce Dern, S. John Launer, Meg Wyllie, Alfred Hitchcock.

Recommended reading – Psycho (novel & book of the movie):

 

Psycho

by Robert Bloch.

Filmed as Psycho (1960), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Published by The Overlook Press.
First published 1959.

ISBN-10: 1590203356
ISBN-13: 9781590203354

Description:

"Psycho all came from Robert Bloch's book." – Alfred Hitchcock.
"Icily terrifying!" – The New York Times.
"Robert Bloch is one of the all-time masters." – Peter Straub.

Norman Bates loves his mother. She has been dead for the past 20 years, or so people think. Norman knows better, though.

Ever since leaving the hospital, he has lived with Mother in the old house up on the hill above the Bates Motel. One night, after a beautiful woman checks into the motel, Norman spies on her as she undresses. Norman can’t help but spy on her.

Mother is there, though. She is there to protect Norman from his filthy thoughts. She is there to protect him with her butcher knife.

If you love to be scared, or are a fan of classic movies, then you know the story of Norman Bates, his mother, and the dark and frightening Bates Motel. Alfred Hitchcock’s taut, shocking scare-fest starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh is a classic movie, as scary today as it was in 1960 when it was first released, and this is the 1959 novel upon which the movie is based.

It was here that the legend of the Bates Motel was born.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho
Edited by Richard J. Anobile.

The Film Classics Library.
Published by Universe Books.
First Edition.
Published 1974.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0876631898
ISBN-13: 978-0876631898

Description:

The Film Classics Library present the most accurate and complete reconstruction of a film in book over 1,300 frame blow-up photos shown sequentially and coupled with the complete dialogue from the original soundtrack, allow you to recapture this film classic in its entirety – at your leisure.

On this day in movie history - Psycho (1960)

Psycho

directed by Alfred Hitchcock,

written by Joseph Stefano,

based on the novel by Robert Bloch,

was released in the United States, on June 16, 1960.

Music by Bernard Herrmann.

Inspired by the true 1957 Ed Gein murder case.

Cast:

Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Simon Oakland, Frank Albertson, Pat Hitchcock, Vaughn Taylor, Lurene Tuttle, John Anderson, Mort Mills, Virginia Gregg, Paul Jasmin, Jeanette Nolan.

Recommended reading – Vertigo (novel & book of the movie)

D’entre les morts, translation: From Among the Dead

by Boileau-Narcejac (Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac).

Filmed as Vertigo (1958), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Published by Pushkin Vertigo.
First published 1954.

ISBN-10: 1782279741
ISBN-13: 978-1782279747
 
Description:
 

In World War II-era Paris, a troubled-ex policeman is entangled in a web of deceit and lies when he investigates a woman’s strange behavior.

 

Flavières doesn’t really want to investigate his old’s friend’s wife, but he doesn’t feel he has much of a choice. Madeleine has been behaving strangely, and her husband wants answers – answers that she isn’t willing to give him.

 

As WWII rages around him, Flavières is drawn into an obsessive cat-and-mouse chase across Paris. Soon his intrigue is replaced by obsession and his dreams by nightmares, as he edges towards discovering a dark, terrible secret.

 

The most celebrated collaboration of a ground-breaking crime-writing duo, Vertigo is the timeless story of morality and revenge, and the inspiration for Hitchcock’s iconic film.

 

Vertigo

by Charles Barr.

Published by British Film Institute.
Published 2012.
2nd edition.

ISBN-10: 1844574989
ISBN-13: 9781844574988
 
Description:

Vertigo (1958) is widely regarded as not only one of Hitchcock's best films, but one of the greatest films of world cinema. Made at the time when the old studio system was breaking up, it functions both as an embodiment of the supremely seductive visual pleasures that 'classical Hollywood' could offer and – with the help of an elaborate plot twist – as a laying bare of their dangerous dark side. The film's core is a study in romantic obsession, as James Stewart's Scottie pursues Madeleine / Judy (Kim Novak) to her death in a remote Californian mission. Novak is ice cool but vulnerable, Stewart – in the darkest role of his career – genial on the surface but damaged within.

Although it can be seen as Hitchcock's most personal film, Charles Barr argues that, like Citizen Kane, Vertigo is at the same time a triumph not so much of individual authorship as of creative collaboration. He highlights the crucial role of screenwriters Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor and, by a combination of textual and contextual analysis, explores the reasons why Vertigo continues to inspire such fascination.

In his foreword to this special edition, published to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the BFI Film Classics series, Barr looks afresh at Vertigo alongside the recently-rediscovered 'lost' silent The White Shadow (1924), scripted by Hitchcock, which also features the trope of the double, and at the acclaimed contemporary silent film The Artist (2011), which pays explicit homage to Vertigo in its soundtrack.

On this day in movie history - Vertigo (1958)

Vertigo

directed by Alfred Hitchcock,

written by Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor,

based on the novel D’entre les morts,

translation: From Among the Dead, by Boileau-Narcejac (Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac),

was released in the United States on May 28, 1958.

Music by Bernard Herrmann.

Cast:

James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Henry Jones, Raymond Bailey, Ellen Corby, Konstantin Shayne, Lee Patrick, David Ahdar, Isabel Analla, Jack Ano, Margaret Bacon, John Benson, Danny Borzage, Margaret Brayton, Paul Bryar, Boyd Cabeen, Steve Conte, Jean Corbett, Bruno Della Santina, Roxann Delman, Harry Denny, Molly Dodd, Bess Flowers, Raoul Freeman, Joe Garcio, Joanne Genthon, Kenneth Gibson, Don Giovanni, Roland Gotti, Victor Gotti, Fred Graham, Robert Haines, Buck Harrington, Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmie Horan, Art Howard, Catherine Howard, June Jocelyn, Perk Lazelle, John Marlin, Miliza Milo, Lyle Moraine, Forbes Murray, Julian Petruzzi, Ezelle Poule, Kathy Reed, William Remick, Jack Richardson, Jeffrey Sayre, Nina Shipman, Dori Simmons, Ed Stevlingson, Sara Taft.

On this day in movie history - Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story (2015)

Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story

a documentary directed and written by Daniel Raim,

was released at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 23, 2015.

Music by David Lebolt.

Cast:

Lillian Michelson, Harold Michelson, Bill Krohn, Stuart Cornfeld, Mel Brooks, Danny DeVito, Jim Bissell, Norman Newberry, Rick Carter, Francis Ford Coppola, Gene Allen, Alfred Hitchcock, Gabriel Hardman, Marc Wanamaker, Thomas A. Walsh, Alan Michelson, Anahid Nazarian, Tom Waits, Richard Sylbert, Patrick Mate, Tish Hicks, Will Vought, Dennis Michelson.

On this day in movie history - The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

The Man Who Knew Too Much

directed by Alfred Hitchcock,

written by John Michael Hayes,

based on a story by Charles Bennett and D. B. Wyndham-Lewis,

was released in the United States on May 16, 1956.

Music by Bernard Herrmann.

Song: Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be), performed by Doris Day.

Cast:

Doris Day, James Stewart, Brenda de Banzie, Bernard Miles, Ralph Truman, Daniel Gélin, Mogens Wieth, Alan Mowbray, Hillary Brooke, Christopher Olsen, Reggie Nalder, Richard Wattis, Noel Willman, Alix Talton, Yves Brainville, Carolyn Jones, London Symphony Orchestra, Bernard Herrmann, Covent Garden Chorus, Barbara Howitt, Patrick Aherne, Frank Albertson, Frank Atkinson, Walter Bacon, Frank Baker, John Barrard, Betty Baskcomb, Hyma Beckley, Paul Beradi, Eumenio Blanco, Arline Bletcher, Alexis Bobrinskoy, Lovyss Bradley, Janet Bruce, Naida Buckingham, Clifford Buckton, Barbara Burke, Nora Bush, Peter Camlin, Albert Carrier, Jimmy Charters, Abdelhaq Chraibi, Oliver Cross, Pauline Farr, Harry Fine, Alex Frazer, Wolf Frees, Milton Frome, Leo Gordon, Walter Gotell, Victor Harrington, Sam Harris, George Hilsdon, Alfred Hitchcock, Gladys Holland, Jimmie Horan, George Howe, Allen Jaffe, Philip Johns, Barbara Jones, Harold Kasket, Barry Keegan, Lou Krugman, Anne Kunde, Lloyd Lamble, Anthony Lang, Donald Lawton, Marion Lessing, Carl M. Leviness, Enid Lindsey, Mayne Lynton, Janet Macfarlane, Edward Manouk, Richard Marner, John Marshall, Lewis Martin, Louis Mercier, Lee Miller, Lola Morice, Ralph Neff, Leslie Newport, John O'Malley, Elsa Palmer, Liddell Peddieson, Jean Ransome, Arthur Ridley, Lucile Sewall, Alma Taylor.