William Kostlevy
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195377842
- eISBN:
- 9780199777204
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377842.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
In 1912, the MCA decided to stop production of the popular Gospel Art Calendar and establish a second community at Bullard, Texas. Never a financial success, the Bullard community would collapse in ...
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In 1912, the MCA decided to stop production of the popular Gospel Art Calendar and establish a second community at Bullard, Texas. Never a financial success, the Bullard community would collapse in 1919. World War I, the influenza epidemic and chronic debt hindered the movement. In 1918, Duke Farson and his sons left the MCA organizing the rival Immanuel Church in Chicago. Remarkable revivals continued especially in the winter of 1919–1920 in Boscobel, Wisconsin. A Shortly before Harvey’s death in 1926, W. S. Hitchcock became president. Under Hitchcock leadership debt reduction replaced evangelism as the moment’s central emphasis. As the MCA retreated in North America dynamic young leaders strengthened and established missions in India, South Africa and Europe.Less
In 1912, the MCA decided to stop production of the popular Gospel Art Calendar and establish a second community at Bullard, Texas. Never a financial success, the Bullard community would collapse in 1919. World War I, the influenza epidemic and chronic debt hindered the movement. In 1918, Duke Farson and his sons left the MCA organizing the rival Immanuel Church in Chicago. Remarkable revivals continued especially in the winter of 1919–1920 in Boscobel, Wisconsin. A Shortly before Harvey’s death in 1926, W. S. Hitchcock became president. Under Hitchcock leadership debt reduction replaced evangelism as the moment’s central emphasis. As the MCA retreated in North America dynamic young leaders strengthened and established missions in India, South Africa and Europe.
Tom Ryall
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719064524
- eISBN:
- 9781781703007
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719064524.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This is a comprehensive critical study of Anthony Asquith. The author sets the director's work in the context of British cinema from the silent period to the 1960s, and examines the artistic and ...
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This is a comprehensive critical study of Anthony Asquith. The author sets the director's work in the context of British cinema from the silent period to the 1960s, and examines the artistic and cultural influences within which his films can be understood. Asquith's silent films were compared favourably to those of his eminent contemporary Alfred Hitchcock, but his career faltered during the 1930s. However, the success of Pygmalion (1938) and French Without Tears (1939), based on plays by George Bernard Shaw and Terence Rattigan respectively, together with his significant contributions to wartime British cinema, re-established him as one of Britain's leading film makers. Asquith's post-war career includes several pictures in collaboration with Rattigan, and the definitive adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (1951), but his versatility is demonstrated effectively in a number of modest genre films including The Woman in Question (1950), The Young Lovers (1954) and Orders to Kill (1958).Less
This is a comprehensive critical study of Anthony Asquith. The author sets the director's work in the context of British cinema from the silent period to the 1960s, and examines the artistic and cultural influences within which his films can be understood. Asquith's silent films were compared favourably to those of his eminent contemporary Alfred Hitchcock, but his career faltered during the 1930s. However, the success of Pygmalion (1938) and French Without Tears (1939), based on plays by George Bernard Shaw and Terence Rattigan respectively, together with his significant contributions to wartime British cinema, re-established him as one of Britain's leading film makers. Asquith's post-war career includes several pictures in collaboration with Rattigan, and the definitive adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (1951), but his versatility is demonstrated effectively in a number of modest genre films including The Woman in Question (1950), The Young Lovers (1954) and Orders to Kill (1958).
Gregory Currie
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199282609
- eISBN:
- 9780191712432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199282609.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter provides an example of narration from an ironic point of view: Hitchcock's The Birds. It considers the roles of various devices in the expression of this point of view: the use of point ...
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This chapter provides an example of narration from an ironic point of view: Hitchcock's The Birds. It considers the roles of various devices in the expression of this point of view: the use of point of view shots, sound which is only ambiguously diegetic, careful placement of dialogue and action, and studied absence of explanatory material. From there an attack is launched on some of the ways in which this film has been interpreted, especially those ways that require us to attribute some symbolic significance to the birds. The chapter articulates a version of the view that the behaviour of the birds is related in informative ways to the psychological states of the characters, but concludes that the proposal does not work. A reflection is offered on the place of The Birds in the tradition of British horror narratives, with a brief discussion of relations to the work of M. R. James. It is suggested that Hitchcock and James exemplify an anti‐theoretical tendency in this tradition. The chapter concludes with speculation on the distinct cognitive profiles of scientific and supernatural ideas.Less
This chapter provides an example of narration from an ironic point of view: Hitchcock's The Birds. It considers the roles of various devices in the expression of this point of view: the use of point of view shots, sound which is only ambiguously diegetic, careful placement of dialogue and action, and studied absence of explanatory material. From there an attack is launched on some of the ways in which this film has been interpreted, especially those ways that require us to attribute some symbolic significance to the birds. The chapter articulates a version of the view that the behaviour of the birds is related in informative ways to the psychological states of the characters, but concludes that the proposal does not work. A reflection is offered on the place of The Birds in the tradition of British horror narratives, with a brief discussion of relations to the work of M. R. James. It is suggested that Hitchcock and James exemplify an anti‐theoretical tendency in this tradition. The chapter concludes with speculation on the distinct cognitive profiles of scientific and supernatural ideas.
Peter Buse, Núria Triana Toribio, and Andy Willis
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719071362
- eISBN:
- 9781781700952
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719071362.003.0038
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter provides a synoptic view on the contributions of Álex de la Inglesia, a unique filmmaker. Jordi Sánchez Navarro, in Freaks en acción notes that de la Iglesia's films address an audience ...
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This chapter provides a synoptic view on the contributions of Álex de la Inglesia, a unique filmmaker. Jordi Sánchez Navarro, in Freaks en acción notes that de la Iglesia's films address an audience fluent in television, superhero comics, the costumbrista humour of Bruguera's comic strips, the sense of adventure of Tintin, the cinema of genres, Hitchcock and Star Wars. De la Iglesia's two projects immediately after Crimen Ferpecto – the television movie La habitación del niño and the feature-length Oxford Crimes – appear to illustrate the bifurcation in the director's work. Oxford Crimes is a literary adaptation based on the novel The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martínez, and is to be filmed in English with a British cast. It is a thriller, and is therefore firmly rooted in a popular genre.Less
This chapter provides a synoptic view on the contributions of Álex de la Inglesia, a unique filmmaker. Jordi Sánchez Navarro, in Freaks en acción notes that de la Iglesia's films address an audience fluent in television, superhero comics, the costumbrista humour of Bruguera's comic strips, the sense of adventure of Tintin, the cinema of genres, Hitchcock and Star Wars. De la Iglesia's two projects immediately after Crimen Ferpecto – the television movie La habitación del niño and the feature-length Oxford Crimes – appear to illustrate the bifurcation in the director's work. Oxford Crimes is a literary adaptation based on the novel The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martínez, and is to be filmed in English with a British cast. It is a thriller, and is therefore firmly rooted in a popular genre.
Barbara Straumann
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748636464
- eISBN:
- 9780748651894
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748636464.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This comparative study of Alfred Hitchcock and Vladimir Nabokov makes an important contribution to cultural analysis by opening up the work of two canonical authors to issues of exile and migration. ...
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This comparative study of Alfred Hitchcock and Vladimir Nabokov makes an important contribution to cultural analysis by opening up the work of two canonical authors to issues of exile and migration. Questions about the contingencies of history and the rupture of the real are hardly ever brought to bear on their highly self-reflexive texts. This book counters this critical gap by reading real-life exile as the ‘absent cause’ of Alfred Hitchcock’s and Vladimir Nabokov’s brilliant virtuosity. Its ‘cross-mapping’ of the two seemingly disparate authors takes as its point of departure the conditions of exile in which they found themselves, and goes on to show how the relentless playfulness of their language and irony points to the creation of a new home in the world of signs. The book’s close reading of selected films and literary texts focuses on Speak, Memory, Lolita, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Suspicion, North by Northwest and Shadow of a Doubt, exploring the connections between language, imagination and exile.Less
This comparative study of Alfred Hitchcock and Vladimir Nabokov makes an important contribution to cultural analysis by opening up the work of two canonical authors to issues of exile and migration. Questions about the contingencies of history and the rupture of the real are hardly ever brought to bear on their highly self-reflexive texts. This book counters this critical gap by reading real-life exile as the ‘absent cause’ of Alfred Hitchcock’s and Vladimir Nabokov’s brilliant virtuosity. Its ‘cross-mapping’ of the two seemingly disparate authors takes as its point of departure the conditions of exile in which they found themselves, and goes on to show how the relentless playfulness of their language and irony points to the creation of a new home in the world of signs. The book’s close reading of selected films and literary texts focuses on Speak, Memory, Lolita, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Suspicion, North by Northwest and Shadow of a Doubt, exploring the connections between language, imagination and exile.
John Billheimer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813177427
- eISBN:
- 9780813177441
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The Motion Picture Production Code controlled the content and final cut on all films made and distributed in the US from 1934 to 1968. Code officials protected sensitive ears from the standard ...
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The Motion Picture Production Code controlled the content and final cut on all films made and distributed in the US from 1934 to 1968. Code officials protected sensitive ears from the standard four-letter words as well as a few five-letter words like tramp and six-letter words like cripes. They also scrubbed ‘excessively lustful’ kissing from the screen, and ensured that no criminal went unpunished. Censors demanded an average of twenty changes, ranging from trivial to mind-boggling, on each of Alfred Hitchcock’s films during his most productive years. No production escaped these changes, which rarely improved the finished film. Code reviewers dictated the ending of’ Rebecca, shortened the shower scene in’ Psycho, absolved Cary Grant of guilt in’ Suspicion, edited Cole Porter’s lyrics in’ Stage Fright, and decided which shades should be drawn in’ Rear Window. Nevertheless, Hitchcock still managed to push the boundaries of sex and violence permitted in films by charming (and occasionally tricking) the censors and by swapping off bits of dialogue, plot points, and individual shots (some of which had been deliberately inserted as trading chips) to protect cherished scenes and images. The director’s priorities in dealing with the censors highlight both his theories of suspense and the single-mindedness of Code officials. Hitchcock and the Censors’ traces the forces that led to the Production Code and describes Hitchcock’s interactions with Code officials on a film-by-film basis as he fought to protect his creations, bargaining with Code reviewers and sidestepping censorship to produce a lifetime of memorable films.Less
The Motion Picture Production Code controlled the content and final cut on all films made and distributed in the US from 1934 to 1968. Code officials protected sensitive ears from the standard four-letter words as well as a few five-letter words like tramp and six-letter words like cripes. They also scrubbed ‘excessively lustful’ kissing from the screen, and ensured that no criminal went unpunished. Censors demanded an average of twenty changes, ranging from trivial to mind-boggling, on each of Alfred Hitchcock’s films during his most productive years. No production escaped these changes, which rarely improved the finished film. Code reviewers dictated the ending of’ Rebecca, shortened the shower scene in’ Psycho, absolved Cary Grant of guilt in’ Suspicion, edited Cole Porter’s lyrics in’ Stage Fright, and decided which shades should be drawn in’ Rear Window. Nevertheless, Hitchcock still managed to push the boundaries of sex and violence permitted in films by charming (and occasionally tricking) the censors and by swapping off bits of dialogue, plot points, and individual shots (some of which had been deliberately inserted as trading chips) to protect cherished scenes and images. The director’s priorities in dealing with the censors highlight both his theories of suspense and the single-mindedness of Code officials. Hitchcock and the Censors’ traces the forces that led to the Production Code and describes Hitchcock’s interactions with Code officials on a film-by-film basis as he fought to protect his creations, bargaining with Code reviewers and sidestepping censorship to produce a lifetime of memorable films.
Bernard Berofsky
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199640010
- eISBN:
- 9780191738197
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199640010.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind
The critiques of the regularity theory by Fred Dretske, Michael Tooley, and D. M. Armstrong are shown to fail. A categorization of “accidental generalizations” is offered. The failures of the best ...
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The critiques of the regularity theory by Fred Dretske, Michael Tooley, and D. M. Armstrong are shown to fail. A categorization of “accidental generalizations” is offered. The failures of the best system analysis version of the regularity theory, for example, the failure to define simplicity and the failure to produce a measure to weigh the gain in simplicity against the loss of information strength, are cited. Various principles for distinguishing laws from accidental generalizations without invoking necessity are offered. Use is made of James Woodward and Christopher Hitchcock’s approach to explanation in terms of invariant generalizations. A charge of circularity resulting from the use of counterfactuals is rebutted by introducing the theory of counterfactuals of Eric Hiddleston. Results are summarized in the form of a systematicity analysis of three principles designed to distinguish laws from accidental generalizations.Less
The critiques of the regularity theory by Fred Dretske, Michael Tooley, and D. M. Armstrong are shown to fail. A categorization of “accidental generalizations” is offered. The failures of the best system analysis version of the regularity theory, for example, the failure to define simplicity and the failure to produce a measure to weigh the gain in simplicity against the loss of information strength, are cited. Various principles for distinguishing laws from accidental generalizations without invoking necessity are offered. Use is made of James Woodward and Christopher Hitchcock’s approach to explanation in terms of invariant generalizations. A charge of circularity resulting from the use of counterfactuals is rebutted by introducing the theory of counterfactuals of Eric Hiddleston. Results are summarized in the form of a systematicity analysis of three principles designed to distinguish laws from accidental generalizations.
Steven Rawle and K. J. Donnelly (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719095863
- eISBN:
- 9781526121066
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719095863.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
For a decade from 1955, Alfred Hitchcock worked almost exclusively with one composer: Bernard Herrmann. From The Trouble with Harry to the bitter spat surrounding Torn Curtain, the partnership gave ...
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For a decade from 1955, Alfred Hitchcock worked almost exclusively with one composer: Bernard Herrmann. From The Trouble with Harry to the bitter spat surrounding Torn Curtain, the partnership gave us some of cinema’s most memorable musical moments, taught us to stay out of the shower, away from heights and never to spend time in corn fields. Consequently, fascination with their work and relationship endures fifty years later. This volume of new, spellbinding essays explores their tense working relationship as well as their legacy, from crashing cymbals to the sound of The Birds.
The volume brings together new work and new perspectives on the relationship between Hitchcock and Herrmann. Featuring new essays by leading scholars of Hitchcock’s work, including Richard Allen, Charles Barr, Murray Pomerance, Sidney Gottlieb, and Jack Sullivan, the volume examines the working relationship between the pair and the contribution that Herrmann’s work brings to Hitchcock’s idiom. Examining key works, including The Man Who Knew Too Much, Psycho, Marnie and Vertigo, the collection explores approaches to sound, music, collaborative authorship and the distinctive contribution that Herrmann’s work with Hitchcock brought to this body of films.
Partners in Suspense examines the significance, meanings, histories and enduring legacies of one of film history’s most important partnerships. By engaging with the collaborative work of Hitchcock and Herrmann, the essays in the collection examine the ways in which film directors and composers collaborate, how this collaboration is experienced in the film text, and the ways such a partnership inspires later work.Less
For a decade from 1955, Alfred Hitchcock worked almost exclusively with one composer: Bernard Herrmann. From The Trouble with Harry to the bitter spat surrounding Torn Curtain, the partnership gave us some of cinema’s most memorable musical moments, taught us to stay out of the shower, away from heights and never to spend time in corn fields. Consequently, fascination with their work and relationship endures fifty years later. This volume of new, spellbinding essays explores their tense working relationship as well as their legacy, from crashing cymbals to the sound of The Birds.
The volume brings together new work and new perspectives on the relationship between Hitchcock and Herrmann. Featuring new essays by leading scholars of Hitchcock’s work, including Richard Allen, Charles Barr, Murray Pomerance, Sidney Gottlieb, and Jack Sullivan, the volume examines the working relationship between the pair and the contribution that Herrmann’s work brings to Hitchcock’s idiom. Examining key works, including The Man Who Knew Too Much, Psycho, Marnie and Vertigo, the collection explores approaches to sound, music, collaborative authorship and the distinctive contribution that Herrmann’s work with Hitchcock brought to this body of films.
Partners in Suspense examines the significance, meanings, histories and enduring legacies of one of film history’s most important partnerships. By engaging with the collaborative work of Hitchcock and Herrmann, the essays in the collection examine the ways in which film directors and composers collaborate, how this collaboration is experienced in the film text, and the ways such a partnership inspires later work.
Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036484
- eISBN:
- 9780252093517
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036484.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book explores the collaborative process between Alfred Hitchcock and the screenwriters he hired to write the scripts for three of his greatest films: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie. Drawing from ...
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This book explores the collaborative process between Alfred Hitchcock and the screenwriters he hired to write the scripts for three of his greatest films: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie. Drawing from extensive interviews with the screenwriters and other film technicians who worked for Hitchcock, this book illustrates how much of the filmmaking process took place not on the set or in front of the camera, but in the adaptation of the sources, the mutual creation of plot and characters by the director and the writers, and the various revisions of the written texts of the films. Hitchcock allowed his writers a great deal of creative freedom, which resulted in dynamic screenplays that expanded traditional narrative and defied earlier conventions. Critically examining the question of authorship in film, the book argues that Hitchcock did establish visual and narrative priorities for his writers, but his role in the writing process was that of an editor. While the writers and their contributions have generally been underappreciated, this book reveals that all the dialogue and much of the narrative structure of the films were the work of screenwriters Jay Presson Allen, Joseph Stefano, and Evan Hunter. The writers also shaped American cultural themes into material specifically for actors such as Janet Leigh, Tippi Hedren, and Tony Perkins. This book gives due credit to those writers who gave narrative form to Hitchcock's filmic vision.Less
This book explores the collaborative process between Alfred Hitchcock and the screenwriters he hired to write the scripts for three of his greatest films: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie. Drawing from extensive interviews with the screenwriters and other film technicians who worked for Hitchcock, this book illustrates how much of the filmmaking process took place not on the set or in front of the camera, but in the adaptation of the sources, the mutual creation of plot and characters by the director and the writers, and the various revisions of the written texts of the films. Hitchcock allowed his writers a great deal of creative freedom, which resulted in dynamic screenplays that expanded traditional narrative and defied earlier conventions. Critically examining the question of authorship in film, the book argues that Hitchcock did establish visual and narrative priorities for his writers, but his role in the writing process was that of an editor. While the writers and their contributions have generally been underappreciated, this book reveals that all the dialogue and much of the narrative structure of the films were the work of screenwriters Jay Presson Allen, Joseph Stefano, and Evan Hunter. The writers also shaped American cultural themes into material specifically for actors such as Janet Leigh, Tippi Hedren, and Tony Perkins. This book gives due credit to those writers who gave narrative form to Hitchcock's filmic vision.
John Billheimer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813177427
- eISBN:
- 9780813177441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter describes the interactions between Hitchcock and David O. Selznick when the director came to America to work for Selznick International. The two men were a mismatched pair, Selznick ...
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This chapter describes the interactions between Hitchcock and David O. Selznick when the director came to America to work for Selznick International. The two men were a mismatched pair, Selznick flamboyant and Hitchcock withdrawn, but they were united in their love of movies. Hitchcock resented Selznick’s memo-writing interference and welcomed his loan-outs to other studios, but Selznick gave the director his ticket to America and the financial support and star access he needed to make first-rate films. Subsequent chapters examine the impacts of censorship on each of the ten films Hitchcock made while under contract to Selznick.Less
This chapter describes the interactions between Hitchcock and David O. Selznick when the director came to America to work for Selznick International. The two men were a mismatched pair, Selznick flamboyant and Hitchcock withdrawn, but they were united in their love of movies. Hitchcock resented Selznick’s memo-writing interference and welcomed his loan-outs to other studios, but Selznick gave the director his ticket to America and the financial support and star access he needed to make first-rate films. Subsequent chapters examine the impacts of censorship on each of the ten films Hitchcock made while under contract to Selznick.
John Billheimer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813177427
- eISBN:
- 9780813177441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.003.0012
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines the impact of external forces on the film Hitchcock often claimed to be his personal favorite. The Production Code office found little fault with the tale of a serial killer ...
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This chapter examines the impact of external forces on the film Hitchcock often claimed to be his personal favorite. The Production Code office found little fault with the tale of a serial killer returning to his small-town roots. The War Production Board, by putting a limit of $5,000 on construction costs using new materials in Hollywood pictures, forced Hitchcock and screenwriter Thornton Wilder to shoot much of the film on location in Santa Rosa, California, adding greatly to the small-town feel of the film.Less
This chapter examines the impact of external forces on the film Hitchcock often claimed to be his personal favorite. The Production Code office found little fault with the tale of a serial killer returning to his small-town roots. The War Production Board, by putting a limit of $5,000 on construction costs using new materials in Hollywood pictures, forced Hitchcock and screenwriter Thornton Wilder to shoot much of the film on location in Santa Rosa, California, adding greatly to the small-town feel of the film.
John Billheimer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813177427
- eISBN:
- 9780813177441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.003.0017
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter traces the origins of Hitchcock’s own production company, Transatlantic Pictures, which he formed with his friend Sidney Bernstein. The director made two films for Transatlantic, Rope ...
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This chapter traces the origins of Hitchcock’s own production company, Transatlantic Pictures, which he formed with his friend Sidney Bernstein. The director made two films for Transatlantic, Rope and Under Capricorn. The failure of the latter film led to the downfall of the company itself.Less
This chapter traces the origins of Hitchcock’s own production company, Transatlantic Pictures, which he formed with his friend Sidney Bernstein. The director made two films for Transatlantic, Rope and Under Capricorn. The failure of the latter film led to the downfall of the company itself.
John Billheimer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813177427
- eISBN:
- 9780813177441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.003.0020
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter describes the relationship between Hitchcock and Jack L. Warner. Warner Bros. had agreed to serve as a distributor for pictures made by Transatlantic films with the proviso that ...
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This chapter describes the relationship between Hitchcock and Jack L. Warner. Warner Bros. had agreed to serve as a distributor for pictures made by Transatlantic films with the proviso that Hitchcock direct one Warner’s film for each Transatlantic film. When Transatlantic floundered, Jack L. Warner restructured the deal so that Hitchcock would direct four films for Warner Bros., receiving $3,000 a week as his own producer and points on those films that turned a profit. The deal worked out well for Hitchcock, earning him roughly $250,000 per film, a considerable increase over the $50,000 Selznick had paid him for Rebecca and making him one of the best-paid directors in Hollywood. Subsequent chapters discuss the impacts of censorship on each of the four films Hitchcock made for Warner Bros.Less
This chapter describes the relationship between Hitchcock and Jack L. Warner. Warner Bros. had agreed to serve as a distributor for pictures made by Transatlantic films with the proviso that Hitchcock direct one Warner’s film for each Transatlantic film. When Transatlantic floundered, Jack L. Warner restructured the deal so that Hitchcock would direct four films for Warner Bros., receiving $3,000 a week as his own producer and points on those films that turned a profit. The deal worked out well for Hitchcock, earning him roughly $250,000 per film, a considerable increase over the $50,000 Selznick had paid him for Rebecca and making him one of the best-paid directors in Hollywood. Subsequent chapters discuss the impacts of censorship on each of the four films Hitchcock made for Warner Bros.
John Billheimer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813177427
- eISBN:
- 9780813177441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.003.0025
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter describes Hitchcock’s working relationships during his most productive years as a director. Under terms negotiated by his agent, Lew Wasserman, ownership of the films he directed for ...
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This chapter describes Hitchcock’s working relationships during his most productive years as a director. Under terms negotiated by his agent, Lew Wasserman, ownership of the films he directed for Paramount reverted to Hitchcock eight years after their initial release, eventually pushing his earnings well beyond those of his peers. As Hitchcock’s star ascended, the influence of Joe Breen and the Production Code declined. Joe Breen’s health failed, and he was replaced in 1954 by his assistant, Geoffrey Shurlock, who was more accommodating than his predecessor with directors he admired, like Hitchcock. The Code itself received a major makeover in 1956 with the rescinding of flat bans on illegal drugs, abortion, white slavery, and kidnapping. Restrictions on such long-forbidden words as damn and hell were also lifted, and some directors, like Otto Preminger, openly challenged the Code and released films, notably The Moon Is Blue, without a Code Seal. Subsequent chapters include detailed discussions on the impacts of censorship on each of the eleven films Hitchcock made during his glory years.Less
This chapter describes Hitchcock’s working relationships during his most productive years as a director. Under terms negotiated by his agent, Lew Wasserman, ownership of the films he directed for Paramount reverted to Hitchcock eight years after their initial release, eventually pushing his earnings well beyond those of his peers. As Hitchcock’s star ascended, the influence of Joe Breen and the Production Code declined. Joe Breen’s health failed, and he was replaced in 1954 by his assistant, Geoffrey Shurlock, who was more accommodating than his predecessor with directors he admired, like Hitchcock. The Code itself received a major makeover in 1956 with the rescinding of flat bans on illegal drugs, abortion, white slavery, and kidnapping. Restrictions on such long-forbidden words as damn and hell were also lifted, and some directors, like Otto Preminger, openly challenged the Code and released films, notably The Moon Is Blue, without a Code Seal. Subsequent chapters include detailed discussions on the impacts of censorship on each of the eleven films Hitchcock made during his glory years.
John Billheimer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813177427
- eISBN:
- 9780813177441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.003.0028
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The Trouble with Harry represented a departure for Hitchcock; the film is a black comedy in which the consistently dry humor undercuts any suspense. The Code office objected to John Michael Hayes’s ...
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The Trouble with Harry represented a departure for Hitchcock; the film is a black comedy in which the consistently dry humor undercuts any suspense. The Code office objected to John Michael Hayes’s witty dialogue as well as the illegitimacy of the child of the Shirley MacLaine character and the description of an unsatisfactory wedding night. Hitchcock solved the problems by altering the script so that the boy’s parents were married before his father was killed and revised the objectionable description of the widowed Shirley MacLaine’s wedding night by having her new husband fail to show up because a horoscope warned him ‘not to start any new projects on that day.’ These changes satisfied the Production Code office, which allowed most of Hayes’s salty dialogue to remain as written.Less
The Trouble with Harry represented a departure for Hitchcock; the film is a black comedy in which the consistently dry humor undercuts any suspense. The Code office objected to John Michael Hayes’s witty dialogue as well as the illegitimacy of the child of the Shirley MacLaine character and the description of an unsatisfactory wedding night. Hitchcock solved the problems by altering the script so that the boy’s parents were married before his father was killed and revised the objectionable description of the widowed Shirley MacLaine’s wedding night by having her new husband fail to show up because a horoscope warned him ‘not to start any new projects on that day.’ These changes satisfied the Production Code office, which allowed most of Hayes’s salty dialogue to remain as written.
John Billheimer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813177427
- eISBN:
- 9780813177441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.003.0043
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
There is little in Hitchcock’s final film that could not have been filmed ten years earlier under the Production Code. Double entendres between two of the lead actors, Barbara Harris and Bruce Dern, ...
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There is little in Hitchcock’s final film that could not have been filmed ten years earlier under the Production Code. Double entendres between two of the lead actors, Barbara Harris and Bruce Dern, along with a smattering of swear words, are the only elements that might have been questioned by the Code censors. Critical reviews were mixed, but the film did well at the box office and ended with Barbara Harris winking at the camera, a wink that Hitchcock appropriated for his own image in the ad campaign, which featured him winking at the audience from inside a crystal ball, a fitting end to over fifty years of collaboration with a grateful audience.Less
There is little in Hitchcock’s final film that could not have been filmed ten years earlier under the Production Code. Double entendres between two of the lead actors, Barbara Harris and Bruce Dern, along with a smattering of swear words, are the only elements that might have been questioned by the Code censors. Critical reviews were mixed, but the film did well at the box office and ended with Barbara Harris winking at the camera, a wink that Hitchcock appropriated for his own image in the ad campaign, which featured him winking at the audience from inside a crystal ball, a fitting end to over fifty years of collaboration with a grateful audience.
Elisabeth Bronfen
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474427777
- eISBN:
- 9781474465083
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474427777.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The main elements of the Freudian uncanny - re-animation of the dead, doubles, repetition compulsion, omnipotence of thought - can also be seen as a catalogue of the key techniques of cinema, the ...
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The main elements of the Freudian uncanny - re-animation of the dead, doubles, repetition compulsion, omnipotence of thought - can also be seen as a catalogue of the key techniques of cinema, the magical thinking on which the affective effect of cinema is predicated. So as explore the Gothic at the heart of cinema's theorization of its own epistemological, psychological and aesthetic concerns, this chapter begins with the flashback scenes in the TV series Mad Men. Montage (and especially superimpositions) perform the spectral haunting at issue, notably how the past overshadows and encroaches upon the present and how the distinction between material and psychic reality, body and mind comes to blur. Given that, like much current cinema, Mathew Weiner's show is a genre mix, the chapter finally moves back into cinema history to explore the Gothic at the heart of film in Alfred Hitchcock's unique splice between film noir and melodrama.Less
The main elements of the Freudian uncanny - re-animation of the dead, doubles, repetition compulsion, omnipotence of thought - can also be seen as a catalogue of the key techniques of cinema, the magical thinking on which the affective effect of cinema is predicated. So as explore the Gothic at the heart of cinema's theorization of its own epistemological, psychological and aesthetic concerns, this chapter begins with the flashback scenes in the TV series Mad Men. Montage (and especially superimpositions) perform the spectral haunting at issue, notably how the past overshadows and encroaches upon the present and how the distinction between material and psychic reality, body and mind comes to blur. Given that, like much current cinema, Mathew Weiner's show is a genre mix, the chapter finally moves back into cinema history to explore the Gothic at the heart of film in Alfred Hitchcock's unique splice between film noir and melodrama.
Dan Callahan
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- August 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197515327
- eISBN:
- 9780197515358
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197515327.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Though he was known for saying, “Actors are cattle,” Alfred Hitchcock had highly specific ideas about film acting, which he saw in terms of contrast and counterpoint. Hitchcock was a theorist of ...
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Though he was known for saying, “Actors are cattle,” Alfred Hitchcock had highly specific ideas about film acting, which he saw in terms of contrast and counterpoint. Hitchcock was a theorist of acting, which he proved in some of his lesser-known 1930s interviews, and he has not been given his due as a director of actors. He felt that the camera was duplicitous and that it could be made to lie, and so he loved his actors to look one way and to be another, or to do one thing and suggest another. The best Hitchcock actor was one, the Master said, who could “do nothing well,” to which he always added that this was actually difficult to do. This book will analyze actors in Hitchcock films, exploring what acting for Hitchcock entailed and what acting is and can be in the cinema.Less
Though he was known for saying, “Actors are cattle,” Alfred Hitchcock had highly specific ideas about film acting, which he saw in terms of contrast and counterpoint. Hitchcock was a theorist of acting, which he proved in some of his lesser-known 1930s interviews, and he has not been given his due as a director of actors. He felt that the camera was duplicitous and that it could be made to lie, and so he loved his actors to look one way and to be another, or to do one thing and suggest another. The best Hitchcock actor was one, the Master said, who could “do nothing well,” to which he always added that this was actually difficult to do. This book will analyze actors in Hitchcock films, exploring what acting for Hitchcock entailed and what acting is and can be in the cinema.
Peter Franklin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195383454
- eISBN:
- 9780199897032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195383454.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, Western
The project of rethinking film music within a wider cultural history is now extended more explicitly into an analysis of the relation between film music, film “pleasure,” and film women. A passage ...
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The project of rethinking film music within a wider cultural history is now extended more explicitly into an analysis of the relation between film music, film “pleasure,” and film women. A passage from Claudia Gorbman is used as a route into a discussion of King Kong and its score (Max Steiner, 1933), which displays many levels of subtlety and music-historical allusion. The latter part of the chapter is devoted to extended analysis of The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and the musical/sexual politics of Hitchcock's Rebecca (Waxman).Less
The project of rethinking film music within a wider cultural history is now extended more explicitly into an analysis of the relation between film music, film “pleasure,” and film women. A passage from Claudia Gorbman is used as a route into a discussion of King Kong and its score (Max Steiner, 1933), which displays many levels of subtlety and music-historical allusion. The latter part of the chapter is devoted to extended analysis of The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and the musical/sexual politics of Hitchcock's Rebecca (Waxman).
Charles Barr
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266434
- eISBN:
- 9780191884191
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266434.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Silent films were commonly adapted for foreign markets not simply by translation of intertitles but, when desired, by more radical change, both to the titles and to the whole structure and thrust of ...
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Silent films were commonly adapted for foreign markets not simply by translation of intertitles but, when desired, by more radical change, both to the titles and to the whole structure and thrust of the narrative. The young Soviet Union systematically transformed films from the West in order to make them ideologically acceptable for its own public, as well as to train filmmakers in the craft of editing. The discovery in Moscow of the re-edited version of the 1922 Anglo-American production Three Live Ghosts—on which Alfred Hitchcock worked as title designer—enables an unprecedentedly full case study of this transformation process. Characters and their Great War context are ruthlessly reworked, in the service of a fresh anti-capitalist story. Finally, the same process is traced in reverse, in the sound period, through Hollywood’s own re-editing, for Cold War audiences, of its pro-Soviet wartime feature North Star into an anti-Soviet narrative.Less
Silent films were commonly adapted for foreign markets not simply by translation of intertitles but, when desired, by more radical change, both to the titles and to the whole structure and thrust of the narrative. The young Soviet Union systematically transformed films from the West in order to make them ideologically acceptable for its own public, as well as to train filmmakers in the craft of editing. The discovery in Moscow of the re-edited version of the 1922 Anglo-American production Three Live Ghosts—on which Alfred Hitchcock worked as title designer—enables an unprecedentedly full case study of this transformation process. Characters and their Great War context are ruthlessly reworked, in the service of a fresh anti-capitalist story. Finally, the same process is traced in reverse, in the sound period, through Hollywood’s own re-editing, for Cold War audiences, of its pro-Soviet wartime feature North Star into an anti-Soviet narrative.
