Hitchcock Chronology: 1950

Overview

15th - The Hitchcocks fly from Paris, France, to New York aboard TWA flight 971/15. The flight lands in New York on the 16th.

Hitchcock begins regular script meetings for Strangers on a Train with Raymond Chandler at the novelist's house in La Jolla in early August. The meetings become increasingly awkward, party due to Chandler's alcoholism. When Chandler breaks into a drunk rant about the script, Hitchcock walks out telling his associate producer Barbara Keon that "he's through" and begins looking for a replacement writer.^[1]
11th - Alma Reville swears American citizenship.^[2]
Although the film's script isn't completed, Hitchcock shoots second-unit footage for Strangers on a Train at Forest Hills, New York City, including Davis Cup sequences.^[3]
30th - Hitchcock returns to Los Angeles after filming is completed at Forest Hills.^[4]

10th - Hitchcock appears alongside composer Bernard Herrmann on New York radio station WCBS's Invitation to Music, presented by James Fassett. Amongst the music played were Chopin's Piano Concerto no. 2 and selections from William Walton's score for the film Hamlet (1948).^[5]
13th - Irish actress Sara Allgood, who appeared in Blackmail, Juno and the Paycock, and Sabotage, dies of a heart attack aged 70.

Hitchcock hires Czenzi Ormonde to write script for Strangers on a Train. At their first script meeting, Hitchcock pinched his nose, picked up Raymond Chandler's script for the film with his thumb and forefinger and then theatrically dropped it into the nearest waste paper basket. After spending a couple of weeks working with Ormonde, Barbara Keon takes over and the two women work non-stop to complete the script.^[6]

Czenzi Ormonde and Barbara Keon complete their rewrite of the Strangers on a Train script.^[7]
16th - The Screen Directors' Playhouse broadcasts a radio adaptation of Lifeboat, starring Tallulah Bankhead and Jeff Chandler. Hitchcock provides a short introduction to the adaptation.^[8]

With filming on Strangers on a Train completed, the Hitchcocks celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary by spending Christmas at St. Mortiz.^[9]

↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, page 445
↑ Alma signed her name as Alma Lucy Reville Hitchcock.
↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, page 446
↑ "Sol Lesser Tells Plans for Quartet of Films, Buys 'Black Chiffon'" in Los Angeles Times (31/Aug/1950)
↑ Radio listing from the New York Times (10/Sep/1950).
↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, pages 446-49
↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, page 449
↑ Radio: Lifeboat (Screen Directors' Playhouse, 16/Nov/1950)
↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, page 453