Hitchcock Chronology: 1970

Overview

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30th - Actor Malcolm Keen, who starred in The Mountain Eagle, The Lodger and The Manxman, dies aged 82.

14th - Cinematographer Harry Stradling, Sr., who worked with Hitchcock on Jamaica Inn, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Suspicion, dies aged 68.

6th - Hitchcock undergoes a thorough physical examination. He spends much of the year recuperating after the rigours of filming Topaz.^[1]

19th - BBC Television broadcasts an hour-long interview between Hitchcock and Bryan Forbes, recorded at the National Film Theatre in London.^[2]

17th - Actor Naunton Wayne, who memorably appeared alongside Basil Radford in The Lady Vanishes, dies aged 69.

10th - Hitchcock meets with Universal heads Lew Wasserman and Edd Henry to pitch Frenzy as his next project, based on Arthur La Bern's 1966 novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square. Wasserman and Henry agree, but with a budget cap of $2.8m.^[3]
21st - Paving the way for pre-production on Frenzy to begin, Universal's Vice President Edd Henry succeeds in acquiring the film fights to Arthur La Bern's Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square for $25,000.^[3]
22nd - Universal Studios staff writer Estelle Conde provides Hitchcock with a 42 page synopsis of Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square. Conde's more concise 3 page précis of the novel's plot and main characters is delivered to Hitchcock on the 30th.^[4]
Hitchcock sends a copy of Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square to playwright Anthony Shaffer in New York, hoping to tempt him into writing the adaptation for Frenzy. Shaffer responds quickly to say that he "likes the story".^[5]
31st - Hitchcock telephones Anthony Shaffer on New Years Eve and the playwright agrees to write the screenplay for Frenzy.^[5]