Hitchcock Chronology: Paramount Pictures
Entries in the Hitchcock Chronology relating to Paramount Pictures...
1953
March
- Financial woes at Warner Bros. result in the studio halting production on all new projects for 90 days and studio executives are later asked to take a salary cut of up to 50%. This prompts Hitchcock to ask his agent Lew Wasserman to shop around for a new contract with a different studio — Wasserman eventually secures a lucrative deal with Paramount Studios on the proviso that Hitchcock adapts a story from a collection they've optioned by writer Cornell Woolrich as his first film.[1]
June
- 8th - Screenwriter John Michael Hayes is formally contracted by Paramount to write Rear Window on a salary of $750 per week.[2]
September
- Hitchcock begins assembling a new team of key personnel for his first Paramount film, Rear Window, including assistant director Herbert Coleman, production manager C.O. "Doc" Erickson, cinematographer Robert Burks, editor George Tomasini, costume designer Edith Head, production designer Hal Pereira and his team of Joseph McMillan Johnson, John P. Fulton and John Goodman.[3]
November
- 27th - Principal photography begins Hitchcock's first film for Paramount, Rear Window, starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly. The first sequence to be filmed is the complex opening title sequence — 10 takes are required before Robert Burks is happy.[4][5][6]
1954
June
- 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.[7]
July
- Studio-based filming for To Catch a Thief commences on the Paramount sound stages.[8]
August
- Paramount Pictures approves a $1,000,000 budget for The Trouble with Harry.[9]
October
- 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."[10]
1956
May
- 22nd - Paramount hosts a charity gala permiere for The Man Who Knew Too Much in California. Hitchcock attends, along with James Stewart and Doris Day.[11]
1961
January
- Sensing that it had cinematic possibilities, Hitchcock instructs Paramount to try and secure the rights to Daphne du Maurier's short story The Birds. After nearly six month of negotiations, the rights are secured for $25,000.[12]
1962
June
- Paramount Pictures' screen rights to J.M. Barrie's play Mary Rose expire. Hitchcock eventually secures the rights in August 1963.[13]
1963
August
- 23rd - Agent Herman Citron writes a memo to Hitchcock to confirm that he can purchase the story rights to J.M. Barrie's play Mary Rose from Paramount Pictures.[14]
References
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 6
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 11
- ↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, pages 483-85
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 43
- ↑ American Cinematographer (1990) - Hitchcock's Techniques Tell Rear Window Story
- ↑ Patrick McGilligan states filming began in October, but this is likely an error.
- ↑ "Hitchcock and France: The Forging of an Auteur" - by James M. Vest (2003), page 59
- ↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, page 499
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 354
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 143
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 379
- ↑ The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds (2013) by Tony Lee Moral, pages 26-27
- ↑ Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie (2013) by Tony Lee Moral, page 207
- ↑ Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie (2013) by Tony Lee Moral, page 208
