Grace Kelly

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^ Aww that's just too cute!

 

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Thanks!

penn.edu

 

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corbis

 

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interfoto

 

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from the exhibit

rapho

 

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from the exhibit

rapho

 

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chesham
acked full of great songs and with some terrific acting and singing, Big Dog theatre company's adaptation of High Society proved and overwhelming success.
I have to admit that am dram is not normally something I usually rush to see...

but after writing a preview for the musical I felt I ought to go along and see the show for myself - and I am glad that I did.

After a slightly nervous start from Anna Williamson in the Grace Kelly role of Tracy Lord it was a pleasure to sit back and watch her grow in confidence and, by then end, actually enjoying herself.
It seems mean to pick out individuals but Lloyd Morris, who played Dexter Haven, gave a fantastic performance as did Amersham and Wycombe College student Anne Marsh as Liz whose comic timing was perfect.

It was hard to believe that the role of Dinah was played by a 14-year-old, Amy Carmichael. Her confidence, her voice and the way she took to the stage showed maturity and skill beyond her years.

The live orchestra added to the performance along with an impressive set design.
I thoroughly enjoyed the preview evening on Tuesday, Septmber 16 and will definitely be keeping an eye out for future production from Big Dog.

The show runs until Sunday, September 21 and tickets are available from the Box Office on 01494 778884 or The Elgiva on 01494 582900.

 

[scriptgirl]

lockergnome
Grace Kelly was born in Philadelphia, on November 12, 1929 into a
wealthy family. With two sisters
and a brother, she spent her childhood in the Kelly
home on the hill above East Falls, 3901 Henry Avenue.

She started school in the autumn of 1934,
at the Academy of the Assumption, Ravenhill, Philadelphia, in
the parish of St. Bridget's, and attended it in the
next nine years. In 1943 she transferred to the Stevens School
in Germantown, where she completed her high school
education and graduated in May 1947. Then she left for
New York City where she was attending American
Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked as a model and
TV player.

Grace Kelly made her stage debut in 1949 in
the Broadway production of The Father by A.Strindberg.
Her first film appearance was in 1951 in Fourteen
Hours. The following year she played Gary Cooper's wife
in the classic western High Noon. In 1953 MGM signed
her and gave her the second lead in Mogambo. She
received an Academy Award nomination as Best
Supporting Actress for the role.

Dial M for Murder , an excellent thriller
set in a claustrophobic London apartment and shot in 1953,
was the beginning of the fascinating co-operation
with the best director of all time - Alfred Hitchcock. Grace
Kelly personified the essence of his cool blonde and
he made the most brilliant use of her regal, sophisticated
and aristocratic beauty.

Their next movie, Rear Window, with the
camera which almost didn't leave the New York apartment,
was the most successful experiment of the genious
director. Grace Kelly as Lisa Fremont was unique.
Magnificent. Unforgettable. She became a star.

In 1954 The Country Girl, with the
unglamorous, depressive and so opposite of Lisa Fremont role,
won her an Oscar.

In the spring Grace Kelly arrived to the
French Riviera to play Frances Stevens, the part Hitchcock
designed for her in the stylish To Catch a Thief .
This beautiful, elegant, wise, sparkling cool blonde, active
and ambiguous, was one of her best performances.

High Society, a musical adaptation of The
Philadelphia Story, was her last movie. The song
True Love, a beautiful duet with Bing Crosby, earned
Platinum record.

In 1956 Grace Kelly married Prince Raineir
III of Monaco, retired from film, became Princess Grace
of Monaco and the best ambassador of her new
country. She had three children.

In 1962 Alfred Hitchcock offered her the
leading role in Marnie but she had to refuse that. In 1977
she narrated a documentary The Children of Theatre
Street.

On September 13, 1982, Grace Kelly suffered a
stroke while driving and was killed.

 

[scriptgirl]

bladeblog
he March edition of Vanity Fair, the venerable magazine’s annual “Hollywood Issue,” is a particularly delicious tinseltown-themed bon mot that had me salivating for several reasons — mostly for its brilliantly executed Hitchcock gallery homage.

There’s also an excerpt from Charlotte Chandler’s new Joan Crawford biography which, refreshing though it is to see Joan get a fair shake, is a fourth-rate hack job, far too inferior to be deserving of the lavish preview Vanity Fair gives it.

But that’s another blog. I’ll give you my take on the Crawford legend one of these days but I’m too busy now gushing about classic Hitchcock iconography which invariably includes that irresistible cinematic archetype, the Hitchcock blonde.

Hitch fans, of course, know immediately of that which I speak but in case your Hitchcock touchstones are a little rusty, the Hitchcock blonde is the type the famous director used as leading lady in several of his most well-known films. Conceptually it’s become so well-known, both in fashion and pop culture, that a 1999 play by Terry Johnson used the conceit for both theme and title.

Some argue that British actress Madeleine Carroll, who starred in Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” (1935) and “Secret Agent” (1936) was the first such blonde and, indeed, a good case could be made that she was.
Others, though (and I’m of this mindset), say Grace Kelly deserves the credit, though she came much later starring in three Hitchcock movies: “Dial M for Murder” (1953), “Rear Window” (1954) and “To Catch a Thief” (1955). Hitch often said Kelly was his favorite leading lady and it’s easy to see that it was true, for not only did he use her in three consecutive films, actresses in several post-1955 Hitchcock leads were clearly cast with Kelly in mind.

It has been oft-noted that Kim Novak (1958’s “Vertigo”), Eva Marie Saint (1959’s “North By Northwest”) and Tippi Hedren (1963’s “The Birds” and 1964’s “Marnie”) were probably offered those parts only because Kelly, who by that time had married into Monaco royalty, had retired from the screen and wasn’t considering scripts (though she did consider making a comeback in “Marnie,” she ultimately declined).

And even though Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane in “Psycho” (1960) isn’t a particularly glamorous or regal character like the blonde leads in the aforementioned films, she earns her place in the pantheon of classic Hitchcock blondes not only for her golden tresses but also for the way she suffers (the famously grisly shower stabbing) and Hitchcock blondes always suffer — seeing these hypnotically beautiful screen sirens under duress is part of what makes us squirm so maddeningly in the best Hitchcock thrillers.

There were other blonde actresses who appeared in Hitchcock movies but they didn’t fit this type: Peroxide blonde Marlene Dietrich was too campy glam in “Stage Fright” (1950) to fit the bill; Doris Day too wholesome and motherly in “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956); Dany Robin too matronly and fleeting in “Topaz” (1969); and Barbara Leigh-Hunt and Barbara Harris, too plain Jane and common in “Frenzy” (1972) and “Family Plot” (1976), respectively.

For the lead role in “Torn Curtain” (1966), it’s almost as though Hitch had normally blonde Julie Andrews dye her hair to frosted brown to emphasize that her Sarah Sherman wasn’t to be confused with the Kelly archetype as Andrews, while undoubtedly appealing, was (and is!) a much different type.

So while some may quibble, my canonical Hitchcock blonde list is comprised of Kelly, Novak, Saint, Leigh and Hedren. And they’re all represented in the Vanity Fair photo essay, though, as with any great Hitchcock movie, there are a few unexpected twists along the way. For my money, today’s starlets pale in comparison to their Hitchcock-era predecessors, but the project’s still tremendous fun and mostly well done.

Charlize Theron recreates Kelly’s Margot Wendice in the murder scene from “Dial M.” It’s beautifully recreated by photographer Norman Jean Roy.

Scarlett Johansson takes over for Kelly in the “Rear Window” shot, also photographed by Roy. Johansson, shot in profile, pulls off the look pretty well but it’s a shame the Isaac Mizrahi gown she wears is of only vague resemblance to the black and white Edith Head original Kelly wears in the film, one of the most glamorous and memorable gowns ever worn on film, in my opinion. Even the length is wrong — the Mizrahi here is full-length while Head’s came just below the knee. It’s one of the few instances where the Vanity Fair crew opted for couture over replication, a shame.

Naomi Watts becomes Marnie Edgar Rutland in the dinner party scene from “Marnie.” Her upswept hairdo is more of a bun than the complex chignon Hedren donned for the original scene, but the look is certainly there. It’s the one shot in the portfolio Vanity Fair didn’t bother to build a set for. Instead Julian Broad shoots her against a plain background.

Gwyneth Paltrow stands in for Kelly in a recreation of the fireworks scene from “To Catch a Thief.” I’ve never though Paltrow quite had the gravitas to pull off old Hollywood glamour but she does a decent-enough simulation of it with Robert Downey Jr. in the Cary Grant role in this shot, also by Roy.

The laziness pops up again, though, in the “Psycho” shower scene recreation by Mark Seliger with actress Marion Cottilard: several frames from the 45-second montage are recreated but Cottilard isn’t even blonde. Surely they didn’t choose this little-known French actress only because she shared a first name with the heroine of the original, did they?

The most unconvincing recreation, though, is Jodie Foster standing in for Hedren in the phone booth attack scene from “The Birds.” Yes, the feel of the shot is there, but Foster is too tough and ball-busting to evoke even a smidge of Hedren’s porcelain class and fragility. She’s not helped by the fact that the costumer didn’t even bother to match up the green of Head’s original suit or the stylist the lemon-blonde French twist Hedren sported.

The best of the batch, by far, is the flawless recreation of the climactic tower scene from “Vertigo” with Renee Zellweger gloriously evoking Novak’s bravura turn in the original. The gown, Carlotta’s necklace (a pivotal plot point), the set and Zellweger combine to form a haunting reflection of the classic inspiration. I even hear Bernard Herrmann’s swirling score whirl through my mind as I look at the photo, another by Roy.

There are two unexpectedly nice touches. Although the “North by Northwest” crop-dusting scene recreated by Art Streiber doesn’t require a Hitchcock blonde, actress Eva Marie Saint, who played Eve in the 1959 movie, instead appears in another scene, sitting in for Tallulah Bankhead in the brilliant “Lifeboat” recreation shot by Mark Seliger two pages before. It’s a bit jarring to see a “for real” Hitchcock blonde make an appearance in this series, but it feels refreshingly appropriate.

It also feels wonderfully dead on to have actress Joan Fontaine (a Hitchcock leading lady, if not particularly a blonde, in the director’s “Rebecca” and “Suspicion”) answer the Proust questionnaire on the back page of this month’s issue. Sister Olivia de Havilland answered it a few years ago, so it’s nice to read Joan’s responses.

Scenes from “Rebecca” and “Strangers on a Train” round out the Hitch montage. The “Train” shot, with actors Emile Hirsch and James McAvoy, is especially well done. The film that inspired it is one of several movies in which Hitch used a brunette leading lady — in that case, Ruth Roman. One of the director’s favorites, who pre-dates Kelly in the Hitchcock canon, was brunette Ingrid Bergman, who made three films with the Master.

I have to share one sidenote to all this from several years ago that irritates me to this day. I don’t recall what year it was offhand, but in a previous Hollywood issue, Vanity Fair almost got a great shot of the surviving Hitchcock blondes together. Janet Leigh gathered with Tippi Hedren and Eva Marie Saint for the almost-historic shot but instead of including Kim Novak (Kelly died in an accident in 1982), they included Suzanne Pleshette who not only wasn’t blonde, she wasn’t even a Hitchcock leading lady (she played only a supporting part in “The Birds”). I love Pleshette and was saddened by her recent death, but it was clear she must have been dragged in at the last minute.

At first I thought Novak may have refused to participate (for surely she was invited). Her relationship with Hitchcock hadn’t been spectacular during “Vertigo.” They clashed over his insistence that her character’s suit be gray and she found him aloof and unwilling to discuss motivation during filming.
But during a 2003 appearance on “Larry King Live” that featured Hedren, Saint, Leigh and Hitch’s daughter, Pat Hitchcock O’Connell, Novak called in to the telecast, gushed about how excited she was to see “all my favorite people” together and recalled Hitchcock as her favorite director.

So surely she would have been willing to pose for the Vanity Fair photo with her fellow Hitch alums. Perhaps she was unavailable though even that’s a bit hard to fathom. She hasn’t exactly been igniting the screen with a flurry of recent parts. And unless she was saving face, why couldn’t the King team manage to get her for that appearance?

It’s tragic to think that, to my knowledge, nobody managed to get a shot of Novak, Saint, Leigh and Hedren together. Before Kelly died, Hitchcock legend hadn’t grown enough to have likely inspired such a shot. Kelly only outlived Hitch by two years.

If you know of a Novak/Leigh/Saint/Hedren photo, please let me know or send me a copy. I’d love to have it. It’s too late to do it now as Leigh died in 2004.

 

[scriptgirl]

hemlock books
Hitchcock's Blonde
John Hamilton
272 pages, illustrated
£17.95
Available soon
He was the most celebrated director of his generation, but his murder mysteries and thrillers hid the secrets of his own sexual repression. She was the most beautiful female star of her day, known on-screen for her glacial aloofness and off-screen for her sexual appetites. Together, they made three celebrated movies and Grace Kelly’s influence on Alfred Hitchcock was as profound as it was disturbing..
For the first time in print, their work together is examined in detail, their relationship with each other is explored in depth and Hitchcock’s darkest fantasies are revealed..

 

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who2

Hitchcock's Blondes
Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert once wrote that ALFRED HITCHCOCK's female characters "reflected the same qualities over and over again: They were blonde. They were icy and remote. They were imprisoned in costumes that subtly combined fashion with fetishism. They mesmerized the men, who often had physical or psychological handicaps."

Critics have hooted at Hitchcock's 'obsession' with cool blondes, which began in the 1940s and reached a climax with the troubled, secretive women of Psycho (1960) and Marnie (1964). Still, the director must have been on to something: three of his 'blonde' flicks were listed among the top 100 American movies of all time by the American Film Institute in 1998. Here's a look at the most famous of Hitchcock's Blondes.



INGRID BERGMAN starred in three Hitchcock films: Spellbound (1944), Notorious (1945) and the not-so-famous Under Capricorn (1949). In Spellbound she's an early prototype of the cool Hitchcock blonde: a brainy Freudian psychiatrist who falls for a confused Gregory Peck. (The film also featured dream sequences by Salvador Dali.) Notorious is one of Hitchcock's best-known films, with a more passionate Bergman juggling love, duty and uranium with Cary Grant.

GRACE KELLY may have been elegant and reserved, but icy she wasn't. The star of three Hitchcock films, she's an aggressive suitor in two, pursuing Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief (1955) and Jimmy Stewart in 1954's Rear Window (in which Stewart's unlikely resistance to Kelly's advances is played for comic effect). Kelly also starred as an adulterous wife and victim-to-be in Dial M For Murder (1954). Hitchcock is responsible in a roundabout way for Kelly's departure from Hollywood: it was while visiting the Cannes film festival, after filming To Catch A Thief on the French Riviera in 1955, that Kelly met Prince Rainier of Monaco. After their marriage the next year she became Princess Grace and retired from the silver screen.


KIM NOVAK's appearance in Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) was "less a performance than a helpless confession of herself," according to David Thomson in his Biographical Dictionary of Film. Vertigo was #61 on the AFI's top 100 list; the film features Jimmy Stewart as John 'Scottie' Ferguson, a detective obsessed with Novak's mysterious femme fatale. As noted in a 1996 review by James Berardinelli, "Hitchcock scholars are in general agreement that John is a subconscious representation of the director -- a man constantly striving for his own image of perfect female beauty."


EVA MARIE SAINT made one film with Hitchcock, but it was a doozy: North By Northwest. Saint plays an innocent girl -- or is she? -- who gets romantically tangled with on-the-run ad man Cary Grant. (Grant wins a prize for appearing in films with three different Hitchcock blondes.) The film ends with a famous chase across the face of Mt. Rushmore, with the players clinging to the heads of the presidents as shots ring out. (Legend has it that one suggested title for the film was "The Man in Lincoln's Nose.") North by Northwest was #40 on the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 films of all time.


Psycho is possibly Hitchcock's best-known film, and it put JANET LEIGH in the front rank of Hitchcock's actresses. Leigh plays Marion Crane, a runaway secretary who is attacked in the famous shower sequence in the Bates Motel. Leigh was a major star (and married to another big star, Tony Curtis) at the time -- which made her demise halfway through the story all the more shocking. (Nearly forgotten in all the hubbub is the film's other cool blonde, Vera Miles.) Psycho was #18 on the AFI's all-time list -- and was named the #1 "heart-pounding film" of all time on another AFI list in 2001.


Hitchcock used TIPPI HEDREN twice, in The Birds (1963) and the psychodrama Marnie (1964). As the title character in Marnie she is perhaps the iciest of all Hitchcock blondes: a habitual thief driven by a secret trauma, who nonetheless fascinates a young Sean Connery. Hedren proved to be more warm-hearted in real life, founding the Shambala Preserve to care for lions and other wildlife. She is also the mother of actress Melanie Griffith.

 

[scriptgirl]

suite101
ooking at Alfred Hitchcock's career, it is quite obvious that he was one gentleman who definitely preferred blondes. These beautiful women feature so prominently in his films that they have even earned their own affectionate title - the Hitchcock blonde.

Blonde, Bold, and Brilliant

No blonde jokes can be based off of these women, though. Hitchcock's icy, sexy heroines boast beauty, brains, and bravery. They aren't afraid to mix it up with the men when times get rough and the bullets start flying. Often, they're the ones risking their lives to save the men. And through it all, they manage to stay perfectly coiffed and radiant. There's nothing wrong with that.

Leading Ladies with Luscious Locks

Here are the five best and most memorable golden goddesses of Hitchcock's silver screen:

1. Ingrid Bergman: While not as platinum as the others, Bergman still qualifies as a Hitchcock blonde. The Swedish bombshell is the most talented of the group and one of Hitchcock's most frequent collaborators, starring in three films during the 1940s. He was devastated when she moved Italy to marry Roberto Rossellini.

Must-see blonde role: Alicia Huberman, secret agent, in Notorious (1946). She's opposite Cary Grant, and both achieve career milestones. It's one of Hitchcock's best films.

2. Tippi Hedren: This blonde had the most contentious off-screen relationship with Hitchcock. Her characters also (coincidentally?) took the most abuse of the Hitchcock blondes (barraged by birds in The Birds and psychologically-imbalanced, to put it delicately, in 1964's Marnie). Still, Hedren proved her worth as an actress, and her blonde characters are some of the strongest because they have the most to overcome.

Must-see blonde role: Melanie Daniels, who almost single-handedly fends off the apocalypse, in The Birds (1963).

3. Grace Kelly: The fairest and the loveliest of all his blondes, Kelly was the epitome of elegance, and the most beloved by audiences and the director. She starred in three Hitchcock films within two years during the 1950s. Kelly is another actress he lost to Europe when she became Princess Grace of Monaco.

Must-see blonde role: Without question, Lisa Carol Fremont in Rear Window (1954). She's a fearless sleuth in fabulous designer dresses.

 

[scriptgirl]

accidental blogger
Alfred Hitchcock's films are among my all time favorites. I have seen quite a few. Even with modern cinema's technological advances and the modern mind's ability to calmly process the gruesome, Hitchcock movies remain hypnotically chilling, rising above the unnecessary blood and gore commonly associated with the genre of horror and suspense films. Hitchcock's magic did not rely on using fear as a blunt instrument but rather on shrewdly employing it as a vehicle for causing extreme anxiety in the minds of viewers. I rate Psycho as one of the best horror films. I have seen it several times at different stages of maturity, the first time as a teenager (and no, the shower scene was not what scared me the most) and it still gives me goosebumps.

Hitchcock fans know about his fascination with a certain type of women - most of his leading ladies fit the prototype. Hitchcock liked blondes but he did not go for the overtly voluptuous, fun loving bombshells. His golden women were cool, crisp and reserved - almost aristocratic in their demeanor. They gave off an aura of slightly repressed but simmering passions. In his movies, Hitchcock would submit his ladies to unspeakable physical and psychological horrors that shattered their elegant equilibrium and exposed their vulnerability. It is also common knowledge that Hitchcock's taste for the macabre spilled over from the silver screen into real life. In fact the slightly comical, egg shaped, harmless looking old man was a bit of a manipulative sadist in real life and he never got over Grace Kelly, the perfect blonde ice maiden whom he lost to her high profile royal matrimony. (I knew much of this already. The latest unsavory details didn't change my opinion of his classic films.)

Alfred Hitchcock had a thing for blondes -- especially the cool, regal kind whose pristine exterior might mask startling depths of passion.

"We're after the drawing-room type," he told Francois Truffaut (in his interview book Hitchcock). ". . . An English girl, looking like a schoolteacher, is apt to get into a cab with you and, to your surprise, she'll probably pull a man's pants open."

He relished placing his heroines in jeopardy. He broke them down emotionally, and even physically. Preoccupied with manipulating their screen images -- dictating the tiniest details of costume, coiffure, makeup and shoes -- Hitchcock eventually strove to control their private lives as well.

"I always believe in following the advice of the playwright (Victorien) Sardou," Hitchcock once confessed. "He said, 'Torture the women!' The trouble today is that we don't torture women enough."

Renowned as the Master of Suspense, Hitchcock made 53 films -- most of them thrillers, and many classics of the genre.

First through sly cameos in his own films, then in his increasingly hammy introductions as the host of a popular TV anthology series, Hitchcock constructed the public persona he relished: the rotund eccentric with a macabre sense of humor. In this play-acting, his fascination with the dark side was a joke; terrifying audiences, a mischievous prank. He pretended to take it lightly, as in his oft-repeated declaration: "Some films are slices of life; mine are pieces of cake."

But anyone who has experienced the dark depths of Hitchcock masterworks such as Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt or Vertigo knows that their themes -- fear, guilt, sex and death -- were anything but light.

Film fans easily recognize Hitchcock's signatures: The "wrong man," falsely accused, fleeing both the law and the bad guys; Terror arising in places thought to be safe (a cornfield in North by Northwest, a motel shower in Psycho); Voyeurism (in Rear Window, it's the whole movie); The oft-repeated advice to take a drink because "it's just like medicine." And the sense that (as Truffaut noted) Hitchcock "filmed his love scenes like murders and his murders like love scenes." But of all the director's trademarks, perhaps the most alluring and enduring -- and the most disturbing in real life -- is the Hitchcock Blonde.

Hitchcock was married to Alma Reville from 1926 until his death in 1980. She was a crucial collaborator, especially in refining screenplays. Their only child, Patricia Hitchcock, acted in several of the director's films. Alfred and Alma, by all accounts, shared a stable, satisfying marriage.

Hitchcock's fantasy life, as explored in his films, was something else again. He directed his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in 1925, and a year later created his first suspense movie, The Lodger; he considered it the first "Hitchcock film." Its endangered heroine, June Tripp, was a blonde -- but the type hadn't yet coalesced. Early heroines such as Madeleine Carroll in The 39 Steps and Priscilla Lane in Saboteur were unwilling sidekicks, handcuffed to the hero-on-the-run. Though of questionable loyalty, they were not yet objects of obsession.

The type evolved into the mystery woman whose duplicity endangered the hero: Ingrid Bergman in Notorious, or Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest. Yet her treachery usually proved the result of the villain's control over her.

The Hitchcock Blonde reached her apex in three films with Grace Kelly (Dial 'M' for Murder, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief). Kelly epitomized his idée fixe: the ice goddess who could unleash unexpected flames of passion. The camera, standing in for Hitchcock, clearly worships her.

He described his modus operandi to Richard Schickel (in The Men Who Made the Movies "In To Catch a Thief, I kept cutting to Grace Kelly in profile, very still and not much expression -- until Cary Grant sees her up to her room. And suddenly, in the doorway, she turns and plunges her lips onto his. Bowls him over completely. The cool blonde does give you somewhat of a surprise if she does turn out to be very sexy."

Hitchcock's attitude toward this ideal darkened after what he perceived as betrayals: Kelly's abandoning acting to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco; and Vera Miles' opting for pregnancy rather than starring in Vertigo, which Hitchcock had planned as her breakthrough role.

Vertigo was his most autobiographical work. James Stewart played Scottie, a man obsessed with Kim Novak's Madeleine, who was herself haunted. After her death, Scottie forces an unwilling second woman (Judy, also played by Novak) to duplicate every aspect of the dead woman's attire and hairstyle. The plot creepily echoed Hitchcock's domination of his female stars. Vertigo's recurring shot of a tightly wound coil of ash-blonde hair atop Novak's head encapsulates the theme of obsession. It's a hypnotic vortex into which Stewart (or Hitchcock) could fall and disappear forever.

In Psycho, Hitchcock treated his blonde viciously, killing off Janet Leigh's pert embezzler less than halfway through the film. The shower murder was widely regarded as the most shocking act in film history up to that point.

With Tippi Hedren, star of The Birds and Marnie, his obsession finally spun out of control, like the berserk carousel at the climax of Strangers on a Train. He discovered Hedren in a TV commercial. A model, she had no plans for an acting career. Signing her to an exclusive contract, he launched his most intensive and intrusive campaign to play Pygmalion, as detailed in Donald Spoto's biography The Dark Side of Genius.

Because Hedren was an unknown, Hitchcock could take his proclivities to extremes he would never have dared with stars such as Bergman or Kelly. "It was really very clear, wasn't it?" Vertigo screenwriter Samuel Taylor observed years later. "He was doing Vertigo with Tippi Hedren."

He dictated conditions of both her professional and personal life. He sent her inappropriately personal notes and expensive presents, including jewelry. To Hedren's daughter, Hitchcock sent a doll of Hedren, resting in a small pine box shaped like a coffin. The gift traumatized the 5-year-old (who grew up to be actress Melanie Griffith).

To film The Birds final attack, Hedren crouched in a corner as animal handlers hurled seagulls and ravens at her. Toward the end of the week's shooting, Hitchcock decided the birds were backing off too soon. He had stagehands wire some of them to Hedren's costume, so the confused animals would continue flapping and scratching against her. When Hedren sustained a gash near her lower left eyelid, shooting had to be suspended.

He'd planned Marnie as Grace Kelly's comeback to the screen. When she refused the role, he cast Hedren and resumed his cat-and-mouse game with her: notes, gifts, suggestive remarks.

As he told Truffaut (in Hitchcock), Marnie was based on "the fetish idea -- a man wants to go to bed with a thief, because she's a thief." Hedren played a deeply troubled woman, her thieving and sexual frigidity rooted in childhood trauma.

Sean Connery's Mark blackmails Marnie into marrying him, then essentially rapes her on their wedding night. Hitchcock's notes in preparing the film made it clear he wanted to make that scene as explicit as possible.

Perhaps the scenario emboldened him. During the latter part of shooting, he crossed the line (even for the amazingly patient Hedren He sexually propositioned her in her trailer. After she refused, he turned against her and lost interest in the film. He disparaged the performance he'd previously touted as Oscar-worthy, and never spoke her name again. His disinterest led to sloppy handling of the film's technical aspects. The result was a critical and box-office disaster.

"He was never the same after Marnie," Truffaut wrote. "Not so much due to the financial failure of the film, but the failure of his professional and personal relationship with Tippi Hedren." The discreet Truffaut called it only a "disastrous falling out." But Spoto's biography is specific about the details.

Hitchcock made four more films. While some contained blonde characters (notably Barbara Leigh-Hunt's murder victim in Frenzy), none centered on the director's fantasy ideal. There was never another true Hitchcock Blonde.

 

[scriptgirl]

rachel crane
shall suffer nothing as great as dying with a lack of grace.
Sophocles, Antigone
The 1958 film, Vertigo, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, demonstrates the Freudian idea of the uncanny. The plot of the film centers on a woman's apparent return from the dead unmasked as a murder plot. Through the use of doubling and the return of the repressed, Vertigo demonstrates the "arousing gruesome fear" of the familiar becoming frightening (Freud 224). Yet the film and its production can also be seen as Hitchcock's attempt to double, and thus immortalize the act of directing his favorite actress, Grace Kelly.

In Vertigo, Scottie Ferguson (played by James Stewart) is hired by his old friend, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), to watch over Elster's wife Madeleine (Kim Novak). Madeleine appears to be possessed by a suicidal ancestor's spirit, and kills herself by jumping from a tower. Scottie, having fallen in love with Madeleine, becomes severely depressed by her death until he meets another girl, Judy Barton (also Kim Novak), who bares a striking resemblance to Madeleine. After making over his new girl to look like his dead love, Scottie discovers that Judy was Elster's mistress and accomplice in the murder of the true Madeleine Elster, whom Judy had pretended to be so that Scottie could bear witness to Madeleine's apparent suicide. Upon being confronted with Scottie's revelation, Judy's guilt overcomes her. Judy falls to her death.

Director Alfred Hitchcock is well known for his victimization of fair-haired female characters. The phrase "Hitchcock Blonde" has even been coined. Hitchcock's favorite of the many blonde actresses he directed was Grace Kelly. A screenwriter who often worked with Hitchcock believed that the director "would have used Grace in the next ten pictures he made" (Hayes qtd. in Englund 61). Yet, once Grace Kelly became Princess of Monaco in 1956, she could no longer pursue her acting career. In 1962, Hitchcock "acquired the rights [to Marnie] especially for Grace Kelly" (Truffaut 325). To Hitchcock's dismay, many in Monaco felt that Her Serene Highness Princess Grace "would be demeaning herself by appearing in a commercial film" (Bradford 207). Tippi Hedren was instead cast as the title thief of Marnie, as Hitchcock "entertained the notion of transforming her into another Grace Kelly" (Truffaut 327). According to "screenwriter John Michael Hayes, who worked closely with Hitchcock in [the late 1950s] . . . 'all the actresses he cast subsequently were attempts to retrieve the image and feeling that Hitch carried around so reverentially about Grace" (Englund 61-62).

Before Marnie, in 1956, actress Vera Miles drew Hitchcock's notice. "[E]veryone was led to expect [Miles to become] Hitchcock's new Grace Kelly" (Spoto, Dark Side 373). Hitchcock began his transformation of Miles by hiring costume designer "Edith Head [to] design a complete [personal] wardrobe" for Miles. Hitchcock paid for the wardrobe "so she [Miles] wouldn't go around in slacks looking like a Van Nuys housewife" (Hitchcock qtd. in Spoto, Dark Side 373), instead of the tailored, Bryn Mawr, "immaculate scrubbed look" of Kelly (Head, Dress Doctor 143).

By October of 1956, Hitchcock planned for Miles to co-star with James Stewart in his adaptation of D'Entre les Morts (From Amongst the Dead), the film that became Vertigo. Miles, however, become pregnant after the completion of her "wardrobe and the final tests" (Hitchcock qtd. in Truffaut 247). A substitute for Grace Kelly's alternate therefore became necessary. Kim Novak was agreed upon with Harry Cohn, who had her under contract at a different studio. Oddly enough, Novak was already Cohn's planned "replacement for Rita Hayworth" within his studio (Spoto Dark Side, 389).

In Vertigo, Judy displays reluctance at Scottie's desire to make her over into Scottie's obsession, Madeleine. Similarly, Novak resisted the changes in her appearance that costume designer Edith Head instituted on Hitchcock's behalf. As Head recalls in The Dress Doctor, Kim Novak "told me [Head] at our first meeting, 'I'll wear anything - so long as it isn't a suit; any color - so long as it isn't gray'" (15). Since Madeleine's central costume is a gray suit, as specified in the script, Hitchcock's reply was that he did not "care what she [wore] . . . as long as it . . . [was] a gray suit" (Head Hollywood, 116). Upon meeting his leading lady, Hitchcock spoke down to Novak, and "succeeded in making her feel like a helpless child . . . by the end of the afternoon he had her right where he wanted her, docile and obedient" (Coleman qtd. in Spoto Dark Side, 390).

When Scottie makes over Judy in Madeleine's image, he keeps his affections from Judy until she bends to his will. Even after buying a new wardrobe and changing her hair and make up, Judy tries to maintain a semblance of her own personality by keeping her hair down. Scottie wants Judy to wear her platinum blonde hair in a bun, as Madeleine had. Judy acquiesces, entering the bathroom to put her hair up. Scottie waits outside. According to Hitchcock, what Scottie "is really waiting for is for the woman to emerge totally naked this time, and ready for love" (Truffaut 244). In dressing Judy up, Scottie is actually undressing her; stripping Judy of her identity and power.

Here we see not only the doubling of the Judy and Madeleine characters that Novak plays, but also a parallel between the relationship of Novak, Hitchcock and Kelly with that of Judy, Scottie and Madeleine. These doubles and parallels persist within Vertigo, continually turning in on themselves. Gavin Elster, the true Madeleine's murderous husband, transformed Judy into a vision of his wife for Scottie to admire. After Elster literally "elsed her" (Brill 208) as Judy's destroyed confession note explains, for her, falling in love with Scottie "wasn't part of the plan." The viewer is left to fill in the idea that Elster's plan did involve Scottie falling for Madeleine after she acted out falling into San Francisco Bay for him. This parallels Elster with Hitchcock, directing Novak for the viewers of Vertigo. The audience, like Scottie, is intended to believe "those beautiful phony trances" Madeleine enacts for Scottie.

In his position as the hero with which the audience identifies, Scottie also has two separate roles within Vertigo. Once Scottie can no longer enjoy Judy's Madeleine performance, he becomes obsessed with trying to view the possessed, mysterious woman again. Therefore, when Scottie finds the naturally brunette Judy, he sees a chance to re-play his times with Madeleine. Judy first appears to Scottie in kelly green. She is wearing a loose shirt, and a sweater with white polka-dotted collar. Green, in Vertigo, is "the colour of death" (Krohn 194). In the first half of the film, green often accompanies Madeleine. At Elster's office, there is always a green plant in the shots wherein Elster explains his troubled wife to Scottie. Scottie first sees Madeleine at Ernie's Restaurant, when she is wearing a black and green evening gown. The incredibly red walls at Ernie's serve to accentuate this green costume.

The next day, Scottie follows Madeleine's green car into her world of plants and flowers. The pair first visits the flower shop, in which the profuse abundance of floral arrangements gives the scene a funerary tone. Scottie shadows Madeleine to Carlotta's tombstone, standing amongst a mass of vegetation. After admiring the portrait of the long deceased Carlotta, Madeleine and Scottie come to the McKittrick Hotel and the rubber plant of the hotel manageress. Later, Scottie and Madeleine travel together to the Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The evergreen redwoods (another contrast of complimentary colors), "the oldest living things," encapsulate Freud's theory on why the familiarity of a double feels frightening.

Freud claims that the idea of the double originated in a desire to survive beyond death. The theory derives from the notion that if another version of a person exists, that person cannot completely die. The frightful nature of a double enters when one realizes that doubling does not in fact secure immortality. Doubling's failure at immortality only highlights one's finite life span, thus transfiguring the double into "the uncanny harbinger of death." (Freud 235)

Of the "always green, ever-living" trees, Madeleine states, "I don't like them . . . [k]nowing I have to die." The fact that the trees will outlive her only reminds Madeleine of her own mortality. Even in a lush, verdant forest, an air of death hangs over Madeleine.

When Scottie meets once more with Elster, the two sit in a men's club that has just as much greenery as Elster's office. After Scottie pulls Madeleine from the bay, he takes her to his apartment, where she has nothing to wear but Scottie's robe; bright red with little white polka dots, the opposite of Judy's green polka-dotted collar. The red not only creates another sharp contrast to the previous greens, it also adds a distinct element of sexuality. We are led to believe that Scottie undressed Madeleine himself, as all of her clothing is drying in his kitchen when she awakens. Madeleine, Scottie and the audience are quite aware of Madeleine's near nudity. The shot of Madeleine entering Scottie's living room foreshadows Judy's later re-transformation into Madeleine while bathed in a green halo of light. The actress stands in the same pose in both shots, and is framed by an open doorway. In the latter, one cannot imagine Scottie being more aroused by Judy's appearance. Stark nudity is not nearly as important to him as seeing a living recreation of his dead lover.

Fresh from the San Francisco Bay, wearing nothing but Scottie's red robe, Madeleine sits before the fire on a couple of yellow cushions. Scottie later recreates this same scene with Judy. In his apartment, Scottie tosses the two yellow cushions in front of the fire. Scottie's gaze remains fixated on Judy while she, also aware of the repetition being enacted, sits once more before the fire. This scene begins Scottie's change from the role of a spectator of Madeleine's possession act, to that of Judy's director.

Just as Hitchcock carefully arranged every aspect of Novak's appearance in Vertigo, so too does Scottie set Judy into scenes he needs to see performed. Scottie begins by dressing Judy in Madeleine's clothes. Like an addict, Scottie needs just a bit more of Madeleine, and so forces Judy to undergo a complete make over. Echoing the frightened, cinematically disconnected face appearing in the opening credits, Judy is stripped further of her identity during the make over montage. Judy's trip to the beauty salon is the only other time that Bernard Herrmann's main title music returns, solidifying Judy's association with the red, severed face of the opening title sequence.

Once Judy's make up and wardrobe are complete, Scottie positions her within the most emotionally charged settings available. The couple frequents Ernie's Restaurant, and Scottie ends the relationship at Mission San Juan Bautista, by forcing Judy to truly live out Madeleine's life. Scottie goes so far as to repeat for Judy the last words Madeleine said to him.

In the church tower, Scottie even becomes upset in a Svengali fashion, when he realizes that another director has already had Judy. Climbing the tower stairs, Scottie attacks Judy with his revelation about Elster's manipulations:

He made you over, didn't he? He made you over just like I made you over. Only better! Not only the clothes and the hair, but the looks and the manner and the words! And those beautiful phony trances! And you jumped into the Bay, didn't you? I'll bet you're a wonderful swimmer, aren't you! Aren't you! Aren't you!

Scottie is disappointed in his own poor directorial abilities. It never occurred to Scottie to complete Madeleine's resurrection by scripting her dialogue or coaching her dramatic presentation. Scottie is so overcome by Madeleine's betrayal that he can only return to his single coping mechanism: repetition. While repeating their journey to the top of the bell tower, Scottie can often think of nothing new to say. Scottie echoes himself to Judy:

"Once more. Just once more . . . I need you . . . Too late . . . Go up the stairs . . . Aren't You! . . . You were a very apt pupil! . . . I was the set-up . . . What happened to you? . . . It's too late."


Scottie's reiterations continue the earlier symptoms of his obsession. Upon Scottie's release from the sanitarium, many women he comes across remind Scottie of Madeleine. The fact that Scottie insists on revisiting the places where he spent time with Madeleine only heightens his memories. Cinematic techniques are also employed to strengthen the possibility of Madeleine's return from the dead. For this, Hitchcock uses body doubles. Just as he later did in the famous shower scene of Psycho, Hitchcock confuses the issue of identity, as well as leading the audience to question their perceptions, through the use of multiple bodies playing the same role. Most shots of Madeleine driving through San Francisco are not of Kim Novak, but of her double, Jean Corbett. The first shot of the woman who bought Madeleine's green car shows Corbett, then cuts to an older actress after Scottie's reaction. Similarly, the woman in Ernie's Restaurant whom Scottie mistakes for Madeleine is first Novak herself. Yet Hitchcock only allows Novak to be seen out of focus and from a distance before substituting yet another blonde actress for the vision of Madeleine. Corbett also played the true Madeleine Elster, whom the viewer only sees after her death. Finally, the nun who startles Judy into falling from the bell tower speaks with Novak's voice, further confusing the viewer. (Krohn 194)

 

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