Hitchcock Chronology: 1954
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Overview
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Month by Month
January
- François Truffaut's controversial article "Une Certaine Tendance du Cinéma Français" is published in the January edition of Cahiers du cinéma. Truffaut criticises the current state of French film and argues the case for auteurs de films — filmmakers who are responsible for all aspects and stages of the film — being the future of cinema. The article opens up the ongoing discussion about auteur theory and anticipates the French New Wave (La Nouvelle Vague) style of filmmaking. Truffaut himself will be in the vanguard of the New Wave, along with fellow Cahiers contributors Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette and Claude Chabrol.[1][2]
- 5th - John Michael Hayes submits a new ending for Rear Window, which is the one used in the released film.[3]
- 9th - BBC Radio broadcasts an adaptation of Josephine Tey's novel A Shilling for Candles.
- 13th - Principal photography on Rear Window is completed, 15 days behind schedule. One of the final scenes to be filmed is Hitchcock's cameo appearance in the songwriter's apartment.[4][5]
- 24th - At the 3rd annual Screen Director's Guild awards dinner-dance, Hitchcock presented an award to director Charles Walters and assistant director James Jennings for Lili (1953).[6]
February
- 7th - The Los Angeles Times reports that the Hitchcocks have left to spend time at the ranch at Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz.[7]
- The Production Code Administration office rejects the initial cut of Rear Window, in particular raising objections to scenes where Miss Torso appears to be topless. According to John Michael Hayes, Hitchcock had done this on purpose to divert their attention from other parts of the film that he had suspected they might object to. The scene is easily replaced with an alternative non-topless take.[8]
- 23rd - John Michael Hayes and Hitchcock complete a 9 page story outline of To Catch a Thief.[9]
- 26th - Several retakes are filmed for Rear Window.[10]
March
- 16th - Hitchcock sends a memo to Paramount's Hugh Brown asking his department to research if there will be any street carnivals taking place in Nice after May 15th that they could incorporate into the filming of the flower market scene in To Catch a Thief.[11]
- 23rd - John Michael Hayes completes his first draft of To Catch a Thief. Hayes is then required to work with a translator to translate the draft screenplay into French in order to obtain the necessary filming permits and work permits for the American cast and crew.[12]
- 28th - The Aberdeen Film Appreciation Group holds a "Hitchcock Night" at the News Cinema in Aberdeen, Scotland, where they screen The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and Rebecca.[13]
- 30th - The Production Code Administration office issues a certificate of approval for Rear Window.[14]
- By the end of March, key crew contracts are finalised for To Catch a Thief and work begins on scheduling and budgeting the film.[15]
April
- With the budget for To Catch a Thief escalating towards $3,000,000, Hitchcock begins cutting unnecessary scenes from the script, including a planned police chase through a street carnival.[16][17]
May
- 3rd - John Michael Hayes completes the script for To Catch a Thief, although further rewrites will be required to tighten it and remove parts that the Production Code Administration object to.[18]
- Hitchcock dispatches a second unit, headed by Herbert Coleman, to the south of France to photograph background scenes and auto chase footage for To Catch a Thief.[19]
- On his way to France, Hitchcock announces The Trouble With Harry to the press in New York City, telling them that, "It's the story of a body found by a 4-year-old boy and what happens to it thereafter. It's set in England but I hope to shoot it in New England this fall."[20]
- 10th - Hitchcock arrives into Southampton from New York aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth. He is listed as staying in London at Claridge's hotel.[21]
- The prinipal cast members of To Catch a Thief — Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis and John Williams — arrive in Cannes where they stay at the Carlton Hotel. John Michael Hayes joins them where he works with Hitchcock to tighten the screenplay.[22][23]
- 31st - Principal photography on To Catch a Thief commences with scenes set in Robie's villa in Saint-Jeannet. The shooting is delayed by intermittent rain showers.[24]
June
- 10th - John Michael Hayes completes changes to the To Catch a Thief shooting script.[25]
- 12th - John Michael Hayes' writing contract for To Catch a Thief is formally completed.[26]
- 14th - John Michael Hayes' writing contract for The Trouble with Harry formally begins.[27]
- André Bazin, co-founder of Cahiers du Cinéma, visits Hitchcock during the filming of To Catch a Thief's flower market scene, and interviews him for the journal.[28]
- 19th - Cary Grant is treated at Saint Nicolas Clinic for back and shoulder injuries sustained during the filming of the To Catch a Thief flower market scene.[29]
- 21st - Paramount studio executives demonstrate the studio's new VistaVision format at a press and industry event at the newly refurbished Paramount Cinema in Paris. Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief is one of the first VIstaVision films.[30]
- 25th - First unit location filming for To Catch a Thief is completed and the cast and most of the crew return to Hollywood to begin studio-based filming. Producer Herbert Coleman stays on in Cannes with the second unit team to shoot footage for the car chases, including aerial shots from a helicopter.[31][32] French film critic André Bazin, holidaying nearby in Tourrettes-sur-Loup, later writes of the helicopter shots, "That sequence must have been expensive!"[33]
- 28th - The Hitchcocks fly from Paris, France, to New York aboard TWA flight 951/28. The flight lands in New York on the 29th.
July
- Film censor Joseph Breen continues to object to certain planned scenes in To Catch a Thief, including the dropping of a casino chip down a woman's cleavage, the symbolic firework display and some of Cary Grant's more risqué dialogue.[34]
- 2nd - Teresa O'Connell, daughter of Joseph E. O'Connell, Jr. and Patricia Hitchcock, and granddaughter of Alfred and Alma Hitchcock, is born.
- Studio-based filming for To Catch a Thief commences on the Paramount sound stages.[35]
- 10th - Escape broadcasts a radio adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's short story The Birds, starring Ben Wright and Virginia Gregg.[36]
- 12th - John Michael Hayes submits his first draft of The Trouble With Harry.[37]
- 13th - Filming of To Catch a Thief's Hotel Carlton raft sequence with Cary Grant, Grace Kelly and Brigitte Auber begins in Paramount's "A" water tank on Set #12.[38]
- 27th - Following discussions with Hitchcock over the draft script, John Michael Hayes submits a revised 134-page green script for The Trouble With Harry.[39]
August
- 3rd - John Michael Hayes' latest version of the The Trouble With Harry script is submitted to the Production Code Administration office. Joe Breen of the PCA responds two days later with concerns about the line "Do you realize you'll be the first man to cross her threshold?", implications that Arnie is illegitimate, and discussions about Jennifer's wedding night.[40]
- 4th - Rear Window is premiered in New York City at the Rivoli Theater.[41]
- The To Catch a Thief masquerade ball scene is filmed during the second week of August. During filming the dangerous rooftop scenes, actress Brigitte Auber is concerned she might accidentally fall and kill herself — when she then spies four Catholic priests who were visiting the set, she jokes, "Mon Dieu! You Americans think of everything!"[42][43]
- 12th - Rear Window receives its Los Angeles premiere at the Paramount Hollywood Theater.[44]
- 13th - Filming on To Catch a Thief is temporarily halted to celebrate Hitchcock's birthday. Costume designer Oleg Cassini later recalled that Hitchcock's secretary announced, "Could I have your attention for a moment please? Would you all come into the other room, please, and have a piece of Mr. Hitchcake's cock!"[45]
- 16th - Rear Window receives it's Los Angeles premiere.[46]
- Paramount Pictures approves a $1,000,000 budget for The Trouble with Harry.[47]
- Hitchcock dispatches Herbert Coleman to New York to look for a suitable lead actress for The Trouble with Harry, where he watches Shirley MacLaine standing in for Carol Haney in musical The Pajama Game. The following day, Coleman arranges a screen test for MacLaine.[48]
- 30th - After considering several options for To Catch a Thief's final scene with Hitchcock, John Michael Hayes submits the ending used in the film and it becomes one of the final scenes to be filmed.[49]
September
- Rear Window is released nationally in the United States.[50]
- In early September, a storm blows through parts of Vermont, forcing The Trouble with Harry producer Herbert Coleman to scout for alternative filming locations. By late September, the area around East Craftsbury and Craftsbury Common had been deemed suitable.[51][52]
- 4th - Principle photography on To Catch a Thief is completed and the film moves into post-production. Hitchcock boards the 8pm Santa Fe Super Chief at Los Angeles's Union Station to New York via Chicago. Once in New York, Hitchcock stays at the St. Regis Hotel where he meets Shirley MacLaine for the first time — when MacLaine admits to her lack of acting experience, Hitchcock says "All this simply means that I shall have fewer bad knots to untie."[53]
- 10th - The crew of The Trouble with Harry travel to Stowe, Vermont.[54]
- 12th - TV show What's My Line? features Hitchcock as the mystery celebrity guest.[55]
- 14th - Hitchcock and John Michael Hayes complete changes requested by the Production Code Administration to the script for The Trouble with Harry.[56]
- Casting for The Trouble with Harry is completed by mid-September.[57]
- 20th - Principal photography begins on The Trouble with Harry, Paramount production #10332. begins in East Craftsbury, Vermont.[58]
- 22nd - Location filming on The Trouble with Harry moves to Morrisville, Vermont.[59]
October
- The October edition of Cahiers du Cinéma is devoted entirely to Hitchcock.[60]
- The law suit originally filed by Irving Fiske in 1947, which claimed Hitchcock and Cary Grant had plagiarised Fiske's concept of a modern-language version of Hamlet, is heard at New York Federal Court with Judge William Bondy presiding. Fiske sought $750,000 in damages. After 11 days of detailed testimony, including key statements by Maurice Evans, Judge Bondy halted the trial and directed the jury to find the case "not proven". Hitchcock, who was busy filming The Trouble with Harry, did not attend the trial. Fiske was later ordered to pay $5,000 towards the director's legal costs.
- Unseasonal heavy rainstorms cause delays to the shooting of exterior scenes in East Craftsbury, forcing the filming of The Trouble with Harry to use a indoor set in a local school gymnasium.[61]
- 13th - Whilst shooting in the indoor school gymnasium set, a 850lb crane-mounted VistaVision camera crashes to the floor grazing Hitchcock's shoulder and pinning crew member Michael Seminerio to the ground. Fortunately neither the director or Seminerio are seriously injured.[62]
- 13th - John Michael Hayes completes his final script revisions for The Trouble with Harry.[63]
- 14th - Due to the unpredictable weather, Hitchcock decides to end location shooting and film the remaining scenes back on the Paramount sound stages, leaving behind Herbert Coleman and the second unit to capture the remaining exterior landscape shots, using stand-in doubles for the actors. The News & Citizen, the local newspaper for Morrisville, Vermont, reported that "Hollywood's experiment with making an entire motion picture in Vermont ended Thursday as director-producer Alfred Hitchcock and his cast leave for their home studios after bucking Vermont's unpredictable weather for more than a month."[64]
- 18th - Production on The Trouble with Harry resumes back at the Paramount sound stages. At short notice, Paramount art director John B. Goodman had constructed a set with artificial foam rubber trees and replicated the hillock on which Harry's body is found. The trees are dressed with leaves the crew have brought back from Vermont.[65][66]
- 27th - Principal photography is completed on The Trouble with Harry.[67]
November
- After many years of trying to hire Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock finally secures the composer to create the score for The Trouble with Harry.[68]
- 12th - With John Michael Hayes unavailable, studio records indicate that Alec Coppel was hired for a week to write a small number of dialogue changes for To Catch a Thief which were then redubbed over the existing footage.[69]
December
- 1st-2nd - The opening title sequence for To Catch a Thief is reshot. Footage of an open jewel case in a moonlit hotel room, with black-gloved hands reaching into frame to steal them, is dropped and new footage of a New York travel agent's window ("If you love life, you'll love France") is filmed.[70]
- With the filming of The Trouble with Harry complete, Alma and Alfred Hitchcock travel to St. Moritz for their annual Christmas holiday.[71] On route to Switzerland, they stop off for a week in London where they take in several West End plays. Asked by the press if he intends to ski, he replied "I hope not. No, definitely no. I'll watch some skiing but I just like sitting in my room at the hotel and looking at the snow."[72]
See Also...
- articles from 1954
- births in 1954
- deaths in 1954
Notes & References
- ↑ "Hitchcock and France: The Forging of an Auteur" - by James M. Vest (2003), pages 53-54
- ↑ French New Wave
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, pages 45-46
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 46
- ↑ American Cinematographer (1990) - Hitchcock's Techniques Tell Rear Window Story
- ↑ "Fred Zinnemann wins Directors' Guild Award" in Los Angeles Times (25/Jan/1954)
- ↑ "Los Angeles Times" in Los Angeles Times (07/Feb/1954)
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 46
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 92
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 46
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, pages 97-98
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, pages 96 & 101-2
- ↑ Aberdeen Evening Express (29/Mar/1954).
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 47
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 102
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 102
- ↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, page 493
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 104
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 351
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 128-29
- ↑ See passenger list.
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 351
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 105
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 109
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 111
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 111
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 111
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 351
- ↑ "Hitchcock and France: The Forging of an Auteur" - by James M. Vest (2003), page 58
- ↑ "Hitchcock and France: The Forging of an Auteur" - by James M. Vest (2003), page 59
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, pages 114-15
- ↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, page 499
- ↑ Hitchcock Annual (2010) - Reflections on the Making of To Catch a Thief
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 116
- ↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, page 499
- ↑ Radio: The Birds (Escape, 10/Jul/1954)
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 130
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 116
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, pages 134-35
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 135
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 51
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 352
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, 117-18
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 118
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 118
- ↑ American Cinematographer (1990) - Hitchcock's Techniques Tell Rear Window Story
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 354
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 354
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, pages 119-21
- ↑ American Cinematographer (1990) - Hitchcock's Techniques Tell Rear Window Story
- ↑ Hitchcock at Work (2000) by Bill Krohn, page 150
- ↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, pages 505-6
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, pages 121 & 138
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 138
- ↑ What's My Line (12/Sep/1954)
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, pages 138-39
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 354
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 141
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 141
- ↑ "Hitchcock and France: The Forging of an Auteur" - by James M. Vest (2003), pages 84-87
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 355
- ↑ "Camera Drops, Hits Hitchcock" in Los Angeles Times (14/Oct/1954). However, Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 143, says the accident happened on the 12th.
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, pages 141-42
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 143
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 144
- ↑ The Trouble with Harry Isn't Over (2001)
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 144
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 355
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 121
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 121-22
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 356
- ↑ Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury (14/Dec/1954)
| Hitchcock Chronology | ||||||||||||
| 1890s | 1890 | 1891 | 1892 | 1893 | 1894 | 1895 | 1896 | 1897 | 1898 | 1899 | ||
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| 2000s | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | ||
| 2010s | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | ||
| months | - | - | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | - | - | ||
| months | - | - | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | - | - | ||
