Oakland Tribune (22/Oct/1939) - Paramount Director Sets Filmdom Agog

Details

• article: Paramount Director Sets Filmdom Agog
• newspaper: Oakland Tribune (22/Oct/1939)
• keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, Charles Laughton, Jamaica Inn (1939), Madeleine Carroll, Margaret Lockwood, Maureen O'Hara, The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Article

PARAMOUNT DIRECTOR SETS FILMDOM AGOG

If all of Hollywood's pretty, aspiring actresses, are shining up their coiffures, powdering their noses, and perking up their postures, the answer is not hard to find. Alfred Hitchcock, England's premier director, is in Hollywood, and if what they say about him is true, all he has to do is turn his camera on a girl to make her a star.

The roly-poly Briton, whose latest thrill-film, "Jamaica Inn," is at the Parmount did it first with lovely Madeleine Carroll.

Hitchcock repeated that performance with "The Lady Vanishes," whose star, Margaret Lockwood, immediately received urgent requests that she come to Hollywood to assume the feminine lead in Prank Lloyd's "Rulers of the Sea."

And now, it's Maureen O'Hara, who receives her summons to Hollywood and screen fame as a result of Hitchcock's genius. With virtually no previous screen experience, she was selected to play the feminine lead in the new Charles Laughton film "Jamaica Inn." The acclaim of the London critics, plus Hitchcock's reputation for finding them both beautiful and talented, galvanized Hollywood into action. Even before the American release of the picture, Maureen was summoned across the sea to take her place with Hollywood's galaxy of stars.