Alfred Hitchcock: a theoretical thread - please contribute in The Psycho Ward Forum

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Alfred Hitchcock: a theoretical thread - please contribute

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davlghry		#21	[-]
Jul 23 12 10:10 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Ted Newsom wrote: Imagine how much better LOVE THAT BOB would've been with the Hitchcock touch? I mean, Robert Cummings worked so well in SABOTEUR and DIAL M FOR MURDER. Why, can't you just see Barbara bel Geddes in the Schultzie role... with Grace Kelly popping in now and then in the Joi Lansing part? Yessir, it'd be terrific... I can see ALFRED HITCHOCK'S LOVE THAT BOB as a cross between SHADOW OF A DOUBT and PEEPING TOM with adoring teenager Chuck (Dwayne Hickman) discovering that his picture snapping playboy idol Uncle Bob (Robert Cummings) is murdering his models.
delgadosaur		#22	[-]
Sep 29 12 8:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Rick wrote: Wellllllll, like most things in this world, it's not really that simple. The whole convoluted, twisted, confusing story is told in the fascinating and typo-ridden book The Battle for Bond. Unfortunately, I'm out of town so I can't double-check with the book, but I think I can get the basic facts right. THUNDERBALL was originally written to be a movie, not a novel. The ideas were Kevin McClory's and he partnered with Ian Fleming who turned out the first-draft screenplay. I'm pretty sure this was, indeed, in the late '50s. Later, the movie still unmade, Fleming was struggling to write his next Bond and the publisher was beseeching him. So, with no better ideas, Fleming "borrowed" the story, the title, the EVERYTHING from the script and turned it into the novel. This set off years and years of lawsuits and recriminations and name-calling. Ultimately, McClory was awarded a producer credit on THUNDERBALL and certain rights to the characters and story, eventually leading to NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Meanwhile, back in the '50s (I think) Fleming was interested in having Hitchcock direct the movie (as who wouldn't be?) According to the book, someone close to Fleming knew Hitchcock and got the script to him. The script was returned with a terse comment basically saying "not interested." So, yes, Hitchcock was sought as the director of THUNDERBALL, and I think it was the '50s. As for Jimmy Stewart-- well, I dunno. According to the book, Hitch just wasn't interested in making the movie, so why he'd start thinking of casting, I don't know. edit: Plus -- Hitch was supposedly convinced that VERTIGO failed because Stewart was too old, so I think he was a little soured on Jimmy. And Bond, of course, is awfully British. It certainly seems that Hitch would have turned to his other favorite leading man and fellow Brit Cary Grant -- who right at that same time managed a sort of civilian-Bond turn quite admirably in NORTH BY NORTHWEST. I would replace Topaz, a picture I like, with From Russia With Love, a film I love and the most... Hitchcockian Bond film in the series.
jjonathanbarnett		#23	[-]
Sep 30 12 2:13 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	"No westerns, no musicals, no outright gothic horror movies, and costume/period dramas weren't really his thing either. I don't think he'd have touched Bond, Indiana Jones, any super hero movies, or ghost stories either. So what's left? Plenty...Fatal Attraction? Basic Instinct? The Silence Of The Lambs? (oh yes to that last one!) " Westerns? Well he used a lot of the same actors as John Ford. Psycho and North by Northwest and Saboteur have the influence of the American West. if it was the right one he could have done it. 5 Card Stud come to mind. It's a murder mystery set up as a western and comes complete with Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin and a serial killer. Breakheart Pass is an espionage thriller set on a train in the Wild West. Musicals? Well not by Gene Kelly standards but music was such a part of his vocabulary. The two that come to mind are Psycho and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Even Torn Curtain has a ballet driven sequence. So what movie would fill the bill? Well it would have to something in the direction of Charade or the Red Shoes. I could see him mounting as version of the Phantom of the Opera, Faust, The Nutcracker or at least incorporating it into one of his movies. The thing is by the mid seventies the musical was going the way of the western. So what would have worked? How about Foul Play with Goldie Hawn. the movie does feature an opera. except he would played it straight and it would have had more laughs. I could see him taking a stab at the stage-play Deathtrap. Gothic horror movies? Well he did make Psycho. Imagine what he would have done Theatre of Death or Madhouse. Remember anthologies were popular in the early 70s. Could he have made the House That Dripped Blood or Asylum tied into his tv show. I suspect Hitch would been able to make due with some cop thrillers. It was not his favorite type of genre but I could see him doing at as an assignment. I thinking Brannigan with John Wayne only because it takes place in England. On the international front Cuba with Sean Connery could have worked. hitch was open to some political intrigue and romance. Costume dramas? Well remember Rebecca flirts with that as does To Catch a Thief. So what would he have done? Well like westerns and musicales that was on the way out. On a realistic level Hitch would have been trying to movies like Missing or Z or Perhaps the Mackintosh Man.

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