Alassio, Savona, Italy
Alassio is a town and comune in the province of Savona situated in the western coast of Liguria, northern Italy, approximately 50 miles from the French border.
Alassio is known for its natural and scenic views. The town centre is crossed by a pedestrianized cobbled road known as the Budello.
Hitchcock's Films
The Pleasure Garden (1925)
According to articles written by Hitchcock in the 1930s, the scene in which Levett drowns the Native Girl was filmed on the beach at Alassio.[1][2]
When it came to filming the scene, Elizabeth Pappritz, the German actress playing the Native Girl, was unwilling to enter the water and a local hotel waitress was hired at short notice to standing in for Pappritz.[3]
Hitchcock also recalled that the quiet beach they had planned to film the scenes on suddenly filled up with onlookers and managing the crowd proved problematic...
I looked at Mander, dripping, shivering from rehearsal after rehearsal, carrying the "dead" body of his victim out of the sea. The girl looked grand. I thought the scene was a wow when an Italian woman walked straight across the camera-line. I shouted. She took no notice. I waved my arms. She didn't see me. I rushed up to her, just bursting. I opened my mouth... And I'd nothing to say. I realized whatever I said she wouldn't understand. I shut my mouth. I felt the biggest fool ever.[4]
Several sources state that Hitchcock also shot scenes in the garden of the Villa della Pergola in Alassio, but it's unclear exactly which scenes these are in the final film.[5][6]
Hitchcock returned to the the Riviera coastline 29 years later to film To Catch a Thief — this time across the French border in the area surrounding Cannes and Nice.
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Notes & References
- ↑ Film Weekly (1936) - My Screen Memories
- ↑ News Chronicle (1937) - Life among the Stars
- ↑ In the 1930s, Hitchcock said Pappritz refused because she was suffering from a cold, but according to more recent sources it seems she was menstruating. Apparently Hitchcock was unaware of such things and the cameraman had to give the director a crash course description of the workings of the female body.
- ↑ News Chronicle (1937) - Life among the Stars
- ↑ www.villadellapergola.com
- ↑ According to Hitchcock, Alma and the two American actress didn't join them until later on at Lake Como, so it can't have been any of the scenes with Valli or Geraghty.
