Peter Bogdanovich interviews Alfred Hitchcock

On the day we celebrate movies in the bizarre way we do in the States via the Academy Awards, it’s only fitting that we pull out two interviews with one of the great film writer and directors Alfred Hitchcock.

Writer, you say? Oh, you didn’t know Hitchcock started out as a screenwriter? Per IMDB, here are titles he’s associated with as a writer:

2006 Gas (short) (story)
 
2005 Don’t Give Me the Finger (short) (play / as Sir Alfred Hitchcock)
 
1993 Lifepod (TV movie) (short story)
 
1946 Notorious (screenplay contributor — uncredited)
 
1944 Lifeboat (story idea — uncredited)
 
1943 Forever and a Day (uncredited)
 
1942 Saboteur (story — uncredited)
 
1932 Number 17 (scenario)
 
1931 East of Shanghai (adaptation)
 
1931 The Skin Game (adaptation)
 
1930 Murder! (adaptation)
 
1930 The Shame of Mary Boyle (adaptation)
 
1929 Blackmail (adapted by)
 
1928 Champagne (writer)
 
1928 The Farmer’s Wife (uncredited)
 
1927/I The Ring (written by)
 
1927 The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (uncredited)
 
1925 Die Prinzessin und der Geiger
 
1924 The Passionate Adventure
 
1924 Dangerous Virtue
 
1924 White Shadows
 
1923 Woman to Woman (writer)

Beyond that, consider his collaboration with screenwriters. Here from an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, an excerpt about his story-crafting process:

PB: You’ve said that your pictures are finished before you set foot on the set–that is, once the script is completed. What is your working process with the writers?

AH: In the early days–way, way back in the English period, I would always work on a treatment with a writer who would be a plot maker, or story man. I would work weeks and weeks on this treatment and what it would amount to would be a complete narrative, even indicating shots, but not in the words of long-shot or close-up. It would have everything in it, all the details. Then I used to give it to a top writer to dialogue it. When he sent in his dialogue, I would sit down and dictate the shots in a complete continuity. But the film had to be made on paper in this narrative form. It would describe the film, shot by shot, beginning to end. Sometimes with drawings, sometimes without. I abandoned this method when I came to America. I found that American writers wouldn’t go for that sort of thing. I do it verbally now, with the writer, and then I make corrections and adjustments afterwards. I work many weeks with him and he takes notes. And I describe the picture for the production designers as well. Marnie has all been finished as far as the layout of the picture, but there’s no dialogue in it. I would say I apply myself two-thirds before he writes and one-third after he writes. But I will not and do not photograph anything that he puts in the script on his own, apart from words. I mean any cinematic method of telling it–how can he know? On North by Northwest, Ernie Lehman wouldn’t let me out of the office for a whole year. I was with him on every shot, every scene. Because it wasn’t his material.

It’s a great interview which you can read here.

But wait, I’ve got an even bigger treat for Hitchcock fans coming up in the next post.

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