BFI (2012) - Hitchcock writes home
Details
- article: Hitchcock writes home
- author(s): Nathalie Morris
- publisher: British Film Institute (26/Jun/2012)
- keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, British Film Institute, Carmelita Geraghty, The Genius of Hitchcock (BFI), The Pleasure Garden (1925), The Prude's Fall (1924), Virginia Valli
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Hitchcock writes home from the making of his first film.
Alfred Hitchcock directed more than 50 feature films over the course of his 60 year film career. This letter was penned by the novice director while he was busy working on the first of these, The Pleasure Garden, in Munich in 1925. Writing back to his friend and colleague, the director and editor Adrian Brunel, Hitch is sparing of the details of what he later described as ‘a nightmare’ which gave him ‘some of the nastiest shocks of [his] whole life’.
<indent>Hotel Bayerischer Hof
München
My Dear Adrian,
I expect that you have given up all hope of ever hearing of me, that is to say if you ever did want to. However, when I tell you that I haven’t written my own mother but twice since I have been away, you will see how I am entirely concentrated on The Pleasure Garden.
I am very pleased to hear that The Prude’s Fall has come out of your ‘film hospital’ a new being.
How did the Blunderland picture turn out? Was the native guide a success in the form of Jock Orton?
Of course you have heard that I have two stars under my banner – quite a handful as a matter of fact.
I have seen very little of Munich since I have been out here – only the studio and my hotel room are the ‘sights’ of this beautiful city I have been permitted to see.
Have you seen any new good films at the Tivoli? I shall be interested to hear from you of any new developments in screen art because I am fairly isolated here.
How is Christopher – has he cracked any new one...
