Alfred Hitchcock

In addition to his fear of police, Alfred Hitchcock had another phobia: eggs. He was especially disgusted by runny yolks and would never eat them on their own. This phobia was part of his complicated relationship with food and affected his eating habits throughout his life.

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When he was not making films, Hitchcock hardly socialized at all; he spent most of his evenings quietly at home with his wife Alma Reville and his daughter Patricia Hitchcock. This introverted lifestyle allowed him to focus on his creative process and to work in depth on his film career. Off set, Hitchcock preferred a modest, family-oriented life.

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When he won the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1979, Hitchcock joked to friends, hinting that he would soon die. This humorous prediction came true a year later, when he died in 1980. Hitchcock's death caused deep sorrow in the film world and left behind an unforgettable legacy.

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For Psycho (1960), Hitchcock gave up his usual $250,000 salary and agreed to take 60% of the film's net profit. This bold financial move earned him more than $15 million personally from the film; adjusted for inflation, that amount exceeded $150 million as of 2006. Hitchcock's deal went down in history as one of the most profitable decisions of his producing and directing career.

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Hitchcock determined the most frightening sounds in films through a statistical survey he conducted among audiences. According to the survey, the sound that scared moviegoers most was a police patrol car's siren, followed in order by a traffic accident collision, the crackle of a burning forest, horses galloping in the distance, howling dogs, the scream of a stabbed woman and the footsteps of someone limping in the dark. These findings show Hitchcock's mastery at creating tension and how well he understood the psychological effect of sound.

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As a child, Hitchcock was sent by his father to the local police station with a letter. When the sergeant at the desk read the letter, he locked little Alfred in a cell for ten minutes and, releasing him, said, 'That is what happens to people who do bad things.' This traumatic experience led Hitchcock to develop a lifelong morbid fear of the police. Because of this phobia he never even learned to drive, since someone who did not drive could never be pulled over and fined by a police officer.

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Patricia Hitchcock, the only child of Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville, appeared in three of her father's films: Stage Fright (1950), Strangers on a Train (1951) and Psycho (1960). Patricia's performances in these productions were an indication of how Hitchcock reflected his family ties in his film career. Patricia also became an important figure in protecting his legacy after her father's death.

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In the early 1960s, Walt Disney refused to let Hitchcock shoot at Disneyland. Disney's reason was that Hitchcock had made Psycho (1960), which he described as 'that disgusting film.' The incident lays bare the creative and personal conflict between the two legendary figures.

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Although Hitchcock was nominated five times for the Oscar for Best Director, six times for a Directors Guild of America (DGA) award and three times at the Cannes Film Festival, he never won in any of these competitive categories. This remains a surprising fact for his fans and film critics even today. Given Hitchcock's enormous contributions to cinema, this lack of awards suggests that his genius was not fully appreciated by competition juries.

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Hitchcock worked in close collaboration with screenwriters and conveyed to them in detail the scenes he wanted to see in his films. In this way he kept strict control over storytelling, which he regarded as the most important element of the filmmaking process. Although the screenwriters wrote the dialogue and scene arrangements, most of the scripts were based on Hitchcock's vision.

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According to Hitchcock's own account, as a child he had to stand at the foot of his mother's bed every evening and tell her everything that had happened to him that day. This ritual shows his relationship with his family and his respect for authority figures. It is also thought that these experiences may have influenced his psychological depth and the themes he worked into his characters.

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On set, when he finished a cup of tea, Hitchcock often tossed the cup and saucer carelessly over his shoulder, indifferent to where they landed or whether they broke. This behavior was an indication of his relaxed and carefree manner on set. It also reveals how messy he could be in daily life, in contrast to his identity as a perfectionist director.

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Hitchcock became a citizen of the United States in 1956. This step helped him consolidate his career in Hollywood and become one of the most important names in American cinema. His naturalization also demonstrated the British-born director's commitment to America.

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Hitchcock is known as the voice of the 'Jaws' ride at Universal Studios. This amusement park attraction lets visitors experience his iconic voice and his ability to create tension. This contribution by Hitchcock shows how he secured a place in popular culture beyond cinema as well.

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Entertainment Weekly named Hitchcock the greatest director of all time. On the magazine's '100 Best Films of All Time' list, four films directed by Hitchcock appeared: Psycho (1960) at No. 11, Vertigo (1958) at No. 19, North by Northwest (1959) at No. 44 and Notorious (1946) at No. 66. This achievement once again proves Hitchcock's unique place in film history.

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Hitchcock never won the Academy Award for Best Director in a competitive category, but at the 1967 Academy Awards he was honored with the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award. This award was a special honor recognizing his extraordinary contributions to cinema. Even so, many people feel that even this award was less than he deserved.

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During the production of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), Hitchcock is said to have hidden from the producer Joan Harrison whenever there was any problem with the production. His favorite hiding place was behind the couch in his office. This behavior shows Hitchcock's tendency to avoid responsibilities and his humorous side.

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Hitchcock had difficulty devising his signature cameo for Lifeboat (1944), because the film is about a group of people trying to survive on a small boat. In the end, he decided to use his photograph in a newspaper advertisement floating among the debris around the boat. He had lost a good deal of weight on a diet at the time, so the advertisement featured both a 'Before' and an 'After' photo; the ad's slogan was 'The Obesity Killer.'.

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Hitchcock gave the shortest acceptance speech in the history of the Academy Awards: accepting the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award in 1967, he said only 'Thank you.' This brief and concise speech shows his modesty and the importance he attached to awards. This attitude of Hitchcock's was a reflection of his indifference to fame and awards.

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Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville was only one day younger than him; Hitchcock, born on 13 August 1899, was born just the next day, on 14 August 1899. These close birth dates made the bond between the couple even more special. Alma played an important role in Hitchcock's life as both his wife and his closest collaborator.

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Hitchcock was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for his motion pictures at 6506 Hollywood Boulevard and another for his television work at 7013 Hollywood Boulevard. The two stars represent his success in both film and television. With them, Hitchcock cemented his place among Hollywood's legends.

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Most of Hitchcock's films have one-word titles: Blackmail (1929), Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Saboteur (1942), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), Marnie (1964), Topaz (1969) and Frenzy (1972). Hitchcock preferred one-word titles because he considered them plain, clean and easy for audiences to remember. These titles reflected his minimalist and effective storytelling style.

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Hitchcock is regarded as one of the most influential directors in cinema history; many famous directors, including Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, M. Night Shyamalan, Martin Scorsese, George A. Romero, Peter Bogdanovich, Dario Argento, William Friedkin, David Cronenberg and Quentin Tarantino, have cited him as an inspiration. These filmmakers carried Hitchcock's mastery of suspense and psychological depth into their own films. Hitchcock's legacy is still strongly felt in modern cinema.

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At a press conference held for Family Plot (1976), Hitchcock stated that Champagne (1928) was his least favorite of all the films he directed. The admission shows his critical view of his own work. Hitchcock considered some of his early films weak compared with the masterpieces of his mature period.

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Hitchcock was famous for the practical jokes he played on actors and crew. While some of his jokes drew laughter (for example, suddenly appearing in a dress), most were more scarring than amusing. He would often learn someone's phobia, such as a fear of mice or spiders, and send them a boxful in return. These behaviors reveal his dark sense of humor and his tendency to play on people's weaknesses.

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Hitchcock once dressed in women's clothing for a party he gave. Footage of the moment was kept in his office, but when the office was cleared after his death the footage could not be found. Whether it still exists is unknown, leaving a mysterious detail about Hitchcock's private life.

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Hitchcock often said that his favorite among the films he directed was Shadow of a Doubt (1943). The film was an important turning point in his career and dealt with the dark side of small-town life. Hitchcock's preference shows the depth of his storytelling and the importance he placed on character analysis.

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In interviews, Hitchcock made it clear that he would not allow any questions about his private life. This stance shows the importance he placed on privacy and the distance he kept from the media. Hitchcock preferred to draw a clear line between his art and his personal life.

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Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, which bears his name, is one of his most successful tie-in products. The magazine became a respected publication in mystery literature and one of the longest-running anthologies. That it was still being published nearly a quarter of a century after Hitchcock's death proves how strong his name and legacy are.

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Hitchcock is said to have declined the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1962. The exact reason for the refusal is not known, though it may relate to Hitchcock's distant attitude toward British institutions. The episode shows his stance toward honors.

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Hitchcock's education was quite varied: after attending St. Ignatius College in London, he studied mechanics, electricity, acoustics and navigation at the School of Engineering and Navigation, and then took art courses at the University of London. This combination of technical and artistic knowledge shaped his approach to cinema and his visual storytelling skills. With an education stretching from engineering to art, Hitchcock skillfully combined the technical and aesthetic sides of filmmaking.

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On April 29, 1974, the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York held a major gala in honor of Hitchcock's contributions to cinema. That night three hours of film clips were shown, and François Truffaut presented two brilliant sequences drawn from the Hitchcock interview book he had published a few years earlier: the cymbal crash in the second version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and the airplane attack on Cary Grant in North by Northwest (1959). The gala once again demonstrated Hitchcock's standing and influence in the film world.

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Hitchcock first visited Hollywood in the late 1930s, but nearly all the major studios turned him down because they thought he could not make a Hollywood-style film. Eventually producer David O. Selznick offered him a seven-year directing contract. His first project was to be a film about the Titanic, but Selznick canceled it because he 'couldn't find a ship that would sink' and instead put Hitchcock on Rebecca (1940), which won the Best Picture Oscar.

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Hitchcock became legendary for gently needling his sponsors during his television program, as W.C. Fields and Arthur Godfrey had before him. In a typical example, he would allude to the sponsors by saying, 'We're interrupting our story now for an important announcement. I needn't tell you who it will be most important to.' This humorous approach shows his creativity and sense of humor in the world of television.

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In the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, Hitchcock was the most represented director, with 18 films. The list included films such as Blackmail (1929), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), Rebecca (1940), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), The Wrong Man (1956), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). This achievement shows Hitchcock's unique place in cinema history and the enduring quality of his work.

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Hitchcock had a love-hate relationship with food, which led him to alternate between overeating and rapid dieting for much of his life. He had a particular phobia of runny egg yolks and would never eat them on their own in any form. His other food fears included cheese and cold cuts. These eating habits contributed to his health problems and weight fluctuations.

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At a Hitchcock course given at the University of Southern California (USC) in the fall of 2000, guest speaker Patricia Hitchcock revealed that her father's two guilty pleasures were Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Benji (1974). The admission shows that, in contrast to his serious and dark films, Hitchcock also enjoyed light and sentimental productions. These tastes reveal how broad Hitchcock's cinematic palate was.

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From 1942 until his death, the Hitchcocks lived at 10957 Bellagio Road in Bel Air, California. Before that they resided at 609 St. Cloud Road in Bel Air, in a house they rented from their friends Carole Lombard and Clark Gable. These addresses show that Hitchcock lived in one of Hollywood's most desirable neighborhoods.

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Hitchcock directed nine films selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being 'culturally, historically or aesthetically' significant: Rebecca (1940), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Notorious (1946), Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963). These films are counted among the most valuable treasures of American cinema. Hitchcock's achievement proves his lasting impact on cinema history.

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Hitchcock was a close friend of Albert R. Broccoli, producer of the James Bond series. Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) inspired the helicopter scene in From Russia with Love (1963). Actors such as Sean Connery, Karin Dor, Louis Jourdan and Anthony Dawson appeared in both a Hitchcock film and a Bond film. These connections show the breadth of Hitchcock's influence in the film world.

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Hitchcock is famous for his brief cameo appearances in all of his films. In addition to the neon silhouette in Rope (1948), he can be seen walking in the street during the opening credits. Also, during the film, the characters Mrs. Atwater and Janet discuss a film whose one-word title they cannot remember; this was a plug for Hitchcock's other film Notorious (1946). These cameos were a playful bond Hitchcock formed with his audiences.

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On August 2, 1968, Hitchcock visited Finland to scout locations for his next film, 'The Short Night', but the film was never made. In an interview with Finnish reporters at the airport, when asked why his films were so popular, he replied, 'Everyone loves to be scared.' This brief, concise explanation sums up the secret of Hitchcock's success in the thriller genre.

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Hitchcock's fame rose greatly with the launch of the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) in 1955. As the program was broadcast into homes week after week, Hitchcock became far more visible to the public. With the program syndicated in the United States and overseas, Hitchcock became quite wealthy. The series was a major turning point for him both in popularity and financially.

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Hitchcock appeared in cameo roles in all but 18 of the 56 films he directed. These films include the unfinished Number 13 (1922), The Pleasure Garden (1925), The Mountain Eagle (1926), Downhill (1927), The Farmer's Wife (1928), Champagne (1928), The Manxman (1929), Juno and the Paycock (1930), Elstree Calling (1930), The Skin Game (1931), Mary (1931), East of Shanghai (1931), Number 17 (1932), Strauss' Great Waltz (1934), Secret Agent (1936), Jamaica Inn (1939), Lifeboat (1944) and Dial M for Murder (1954). However, he found special solutions to appear as a cameo in Lifeboat and Dial M for Murder; in Lifeboat his photograph appeared in a newspaper advertisement, and in Dial M he appeared in a photograph.

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Hitchcock directed Cary Grant in four films: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959). These collaborations formed one of the most memorable director-actor partnerships in cinema history. Grant's elegance and Hitchcock's mastery of suspense placed these films among the classics.

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According to many people who knew Hitchcock, he could not even bear to look at his wife Alma Reville while she was pregnant. The exact reason for this strange behavior is not known, but it may be related to Hitchcock's discomfort with subjects such as pregnancy and childbirth. This situation reveals some of the complex feelings in his personal life.

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Hitchcock was at his heaviest in the late 1930s, weighing over 300 pounds. Although he was always overweight, in the early 1950s he lost a significant amount of weight by dieting; photographs taken on the set of To Catch a Thief (1955) show a surprisingly thin Hitchcock. His weight continued to fluctuate throughout his life, a sign of his struggle with food.

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Hitchcock was a supporter of the English football club West Ham United. He told colleagues in Hollywood that he subscribed to English newspapers to follow his team's results. This shows his attachment to England and his passion for sport.

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Hitchcock was angered by Brian De Palma's decision to make Obsession (1976) because he considered it almost a remake of Vertigo (1958). Ironically, after Hitchcock's death in 1980, De Palma stopped making mystery and adventure films, with the exception of Body Double (1984). This incident shows how possessive Hitchcock was of his own work.

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As of 2024, six of Hitchcock's films are on Top 250 films list: Psycho (1960) at 34th, Rear Window (1954) at 52nd, North by Northwest (1959) at 103rd, Vertigo (1958) at 108th, Dial M for Murder (1954) at 161st and Rebecca (1940) at 244th. These films show his enduring popularity and influence in cinema history.

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In an interview, Hitchcock stated that working and training as a director in Germany was the best experience he could have had. This period in Germany helped him develop his understanding of cinema and his technical skills. Influenced by movements such as German Expressionism, Hitchcock created a distinctive visual style of his own.

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On August 11, 2009, Hitchcock appeared on a 44-cent commemorative stamp issued by the United States Postal Service. The stamp honored the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) as part of the 'Early TV Memories' series. This stamp immortalized Hitchcock's contributions to the world of television.

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Hitchcock's discomfort under the heavy control of producer David O. Selznick is clearly visible in the final scene of Rebecca (1940). Selznick wanted the director to show the smoke rising from the chimney of the burning house forming the letter 'R'; however, Hitchcock considered this touch lacking in subtlety. Instead, he showed flames licking a pillow embroidered with the letter 'R'. This scene symbolizes Hitchcock's creative vision and his resistance to authority.

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Hitchcock named Fritz Lang's Destiny (1921) as his favorite film. This German Expressionist production deeply influenced Hitchcock's understanding of cinema. Hitchcock's choice shows his artistic taste and the figures who inspired him.

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In 2005, Hitchcock ranked 2nd on Empire magazine's list of the 'Greatest Directors of All Time!'. This ranking once again proved his standing and influence in the world of cinema. Hitchcock is regarded as a pioneer of the thriller genre.

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Hitchcock deliberately designed most of the shots in Rear Window (1954) from a voyeuristic point of view. This technique made the audience spy on the neighbors along with the main character. In this way, Hitchcock drew the audience into the film and heightened the suspense.

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Hitchcock directed eight different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, Albert Bassermann, Michael Chekhov, Claude Rains, Ethel Barrymore and Janet Leigh. Fontaine won the Best Actress Oscar for Suspicion (1941). This achievement shows Hitchcock's mastery of directing actors.

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Hitchcock lent his name and character to the youth book series 'Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators'. The premise of the series was that the main character and crime-solver Jupiter Jones won the right to use Mr. Hitchcock's limousine in a contest. Hitch also wrote forewords for these books. After his death, his famous silhouette was removed from the spines of the books and the forewords became invisible.

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Hitchcock told François Truffaut that although he had made two films before The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), he considered this film to be his first real film. The Lodger was a turning point in his cinema career and revealed his mastery of the thriller genre. Hitchcock's assessment shows how critically he approached his own work.

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In the 1980 Queen's New Year Honours list, only a few months before his death, Hitchcock was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire because he was a United States citizen. This honor was a recognition of his contributions to British cinema. By receiving this title, Hitchcock once again proved his influence in both British and American cinema.

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Hitchcock praised Luis Buñuel as the best director who ever lived. The compliment shows how broad Hitchcock's taste in cinema was and his admiration for surrealist filmmaking. Buñuel's bold, experimental style may also have influenced Hitchcock's own work.

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Director Alexander Payne cannot imagine Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) in color, believing the black-and-white images are more chilling. The film was nonetheless remade in color in 1998, and the remake met with universal disapproval. This shows how strong and timeless Hitchcock's original film is.

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Hitchcock appeared on a 32-cent US postage stamp in the 'Hollywood Legends' series, released on August 8, 1998, in Los Angeles, California. The stamp honored his legendary status in the world of cinema. Through it, Hitchcock continued to be remembered after his death.

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Hitchcock was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director five times but never won; apart from Clarence Brown, he is the director most nominated in this category without a win. The films he was nominated for were Rebecca (1940), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Rear Window (1954) and Psycho (1960). This suggests Hitchcock was not appreciated by award juries as he deserved.

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Nine Hitchcock films appeared on the American Film Institute's '100 Most Thrilling Films' list: Psycho (1960) at No. 1, North by Northwest (1959) at No. 4, The Birds (1963) at No. 7, Rear Window (1954) at No. 14, Vertigo (1958) at No. 18, Strangers on a Train (1951) at No. 32, Notorious (1946) at No. 38, Dial M for Murder (1954) at No. 48 and Rebecca (1940) at No. 80. This achievement shows Hitchcock's unique mastery of the thriller genre.

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After Henri-Georges Clouzot moved faster to buy the rights to Diabolique (1955), Hitchcock asked authors Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac to write a novel for him. The novel they wrote, 'From Among the Dead', was later adapted for the screen as Vertigo (1958). The episode shows Hitchcock's competitive nature and his determination to find stories.

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'The Lodger' was the first of many Hitchcock films in which he made a cameo appearance. The tradition continued throughout his career and became a fun hunt for audiences. These Hitchcock cameos added a personal touch to his films.

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Although his wife Alma was an excellent cook, Hitchcock occasionally liked to dine out. His preferred restaurant in Hollywood was Chasen's, where he reserved a booth every Thursday night for more than 30 years. The ritual was a rare detail of his social life.

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Hitchcock directed the pilot episode of the radio series 'Suspense' (1942-1962) and made a brief appearance at the end of the episode. The episode was an adaptation of his film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) and starred Herbert Marshall and Edmund Gwenn; Gwenn reprised the role of Mr. Bunting, which his brother Arthur Chesney had played. This radio experience shows Hitchcock's versatility in storytelling.

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Before entering the film industry, Hitchcock had ambitions of becoming an engineer. This technical interest shaped his approach to cinema and his visual storytelling skills. Thanks to his engineering training, Hitchcock mastered the technical aspects of filmmaking, which helped him develop innovative shooting techniques.

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If you watch his films closely, especially their endings or their portrayals of police, you will see that if a policeman has to die, the death will be slow, horrible or uncompromisingly disgusting. If the police survive, they are almost always portrayed as the bad guys, whereas in reality they are the good guys. The reason is that Hitchcock had a lifelong phobia of policemen.

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Although Hitchcock made Frenzy (1972), the film's title and some of its plot points came from an idea Hitchcock had had several years earlier for the prologue of Shadow of a Doubt (1943). Hitchcock approached many writers, including Samuel A. Taylor and Alec Coppel, but eventually tasked an old friend, Benn W. Levy, with developing his draft idea. The story would have centered on a young, handsome bodybuilder (inspired by Neville Heath) who lured young women to their deaths; a version of the character was known as 'Merry Widow Mu...'.

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Because of his death in 1980, Hitchcock never saw Psycho II (1983). It remains unclear whether he was ever approached about a second film or another 'Psycho (1960) - Expansion' theatrical film.

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Hitch, a longtime friend of Sidney Bernstein (the two had founded the production company Transatlantic Pictures together in the 1940s), became the first celebrity visitor to the set of the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street (1960) during a June 1964 visit to the Manchester studios of Granada Television, which Bernstein had founded with his brother Cecil.

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Hitchcock very much wanted to direct Norma Shearer, Robert Taylor and Conrad Veidt in Escape (1940), one of the World War II dramas. A longtime admirer of Shearer's acting, Hitchcock had spent years trying to find a suitable project for her. When Ethel Vance's (the pen name of Grace Zaring Stone) novel Escape was bought by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, however, Hitchcock was shut out of the project. Hitchcock knew he could never work for the notoriously difficult MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer, who chose Mervyn LeRoy...

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Hitchcock hated surprises but loved springing them and playing practical jokes.

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Hitchcock was director William Girdler's idol. Girdler made Day of the Animals (1977) by borrowing elements from Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).

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Hitchcock was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Royal College of Art in Great Britain.

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After Psycho (1960), Hitchcock reunited with Ernest Lehman on an original screenplay idea: Jimmy Shearing (a role for James Stewart), a blind pianist, regains his sight after receiving a dead man's eyes. While watching a Wild West show at Disneyland with his family, Shearing has visions of being shot and realizes the dead man was in fact murdered and that the killer's image is still imprinted on the retinas of his eyes. The story would have ended with a chase around the ocean liner RMS Queen...

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Tippi Hedren and Norman Lloyd are the only actors who worked with both Alfred Hitchcock and Charles Chaplin, the two English geniuses of the silent era.

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From 1977 until his death, Alfred Hitchcock worked on a film that would become known as The Short Night with a series of writers. Most of the writing was done by David Freeman, who published the final screenplay after Hitchcock's death.

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Alfred Hitchcock was portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in the 2012 film Hitchcock.

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In the late 1940s, Hitchcock planned to make a modernized version of Hamlet. His vision of Shakespeare was a 'psychological melodrama' set in contemporary England and starring Cary Grant. The project was shelved when Hitchcock's studio heard of a potential lawsuit from a professor who had already written a modern version of Hamlet.

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Alfred Hitchcock suggested some improvements to a scene in Gone with the Wind (1939), but the shots containing his improvements were not used.

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Just before leaving for Hollywood, Hitchcock said in an interview with a British film magazine that he hoped to make a film about the tragic loss of the RMS Titanic, because the drama inherent in the ocean liner's sinking appealed to him. Instead, he made Rebecca (1940).

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Alfred Hitchcock was the first person to see a proof of Ira Levin's book Rosemary's Baby. He turned it down. It was later shown to producer/director William Castle, who jumped at the chance to buy it. The film adaptation, produced by Castle and directed by Roman Polanski, caused a sensation.

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Hammond Innes's novel The Wreck of the Mary Deare was optioned by MGM for Hitchcock to direct and Gary Cooper to star in. Hitchcock had long wanted to work with Cooper, but after developing the script with Ernest Lehman for several weeks, they concluded it could not be made without turning into a 'boring courtroom drama.' Hitchcock and Lehman went before MGM executives, pitched the story of North by Northwest (1959) and said MGM would get two films from Hitchcock...

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Dial M for Murder (1954) was re-released in 3D in 1980.

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In 1963, Twentieth Century-Fox planned for Hitchcock to direct Trap for a Solitary Man in widescreen. Based on M. Robert Thomas's French play Piege Pour un Homme Seul, the story follows a young married couple on holiday in the Alps. The wife disappears, and after a long search the police bring back someone they claim is her; the woman even says she is the man's wife, but the man has never seen her before.

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Alfred Hitchcock's final years were overshadowed by health problems, which affected his film output.

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Alfred Hitchcock was the grandfather of Mary Stone, Tere Carrubba and Katie Fiala.

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Donald Spoto wrote that after the Torn Curtain (1966) falling-out, Hitchcock hid behind a door when Bernard Herrmann came to see him. Herrmann's third wife, Norma, denied this in a June 2006 interview with Gunther Kogebehn. In that June 2006 interview with Kogebehn, Norma Herrmann states that she and Bernard Herrmann visited Alfred Hitchcock 'together.'.

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Hitchcock's last, unfinished project was The Short Night, an adaptation of Ronald Kirkbride's spy thriller of the same name. A British double agent (loosely based on George Blake) escapes from prison and flees through Finland to Moscow, where his wife and children await him. An American agent whose brother was one of the traitor's victims goes to Finland to stop him, but ends up falling in love with his wife. It was Hitchcock's third attempt, after Torn Curtain (1966) and Topaz (1969), to make a 'realistic...' film.

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Even when Hitch had to go to the hospital for tests, Alma insisted on going with him and staying with him.

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Alfred Hitchcock was so dependent on his wife Alma and valued her comments on his work so much that he would be upset if she did not like something.

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After the dispute in early 1964 during the making of Marnie (1964), Hitchcock tried to rebuild bridges with Tippi Hedren. They had business lunches on 30 June, 19 August and 16 December 1964. The idea was to have her star in 'Mary Rose.' When that project was rejected by Universal, Hitchcock considered casting Hedren in Torn Curtain (1966) opposite Paul Newman, but Hedren was adamant that she would never work with him again, so Julie Andrews was cast.

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In the late 1950s, Hitchcock planned an adaptation of Henry Cecil's novel No Bail for the Judge, about a London lawyer who, with the help of a gentleman thief, must defend his father, a High Court judge accused of murdering a prostitute. As a change from his usual blonde actresses, Audrey Hepburn was to play the lawyer, Laurence Harvey the thief and John Williams the father of Hepburn's character. Some sources, including Steven DeRosa,...

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In 1964, Hitchcock reread The Three Hostages, another Richard Hannay novel by John Buchan, considering adapting it. As with Greenmantle a quarter of a century earlier, the rights could not be obtained. The story was also dated, tied too closely to the 1930s, and its plot involved a villain who hypnotizes the hero's blind mother. In interviews, Hitchcock said that depicting hypnosis did not work on film and that films which tried it, in his view, turned out badly.

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