Shortcuts
[PSYCHO] [STRANGERS ON A TRAIN] [FAMILY PLOT] [THE BIRDS] [MARNIE] [NORTH BY NORTHWEST] [FRENZY] [TOPAZ] [REAR WINDOW]

PSYCHO

• The shower scene has over 90 splices in it, and did not involve Anthony Perkins at all. Perkins was in New York preparing for a play.
• The sound that the knife makes penetrating the flesh is actually the sound of a knife stabbing a casaba melon.
• Hitchcock originally envisioned the shower sequence as completely silent, but Bernard Herrmann went ahead and scored it anyway and Hitch immediately changed his mind.
• The blood in the shower scene is actually chocolate sauce.
• Hitchcock tested the ``fear factor'' of Mother's corpse by placing it in Leigh's dressing room and listening to how loud she screamed when she discovered it.
• There is a rumour that the this film was not passed for release because it was claimed that Janet Leigh's nipple was visible during the shower scene. Hitchcock didn't edit it out, but merely sent it back, (correctly, it seems) assuming that they either wouldn't bother to watch it, or miss it the second time.
• After the film's release Hitchcock received an angry letter from the father of a girl who refused to have a bath after seeing "Diaboliques, Les (1954)" and now refused to shower after seeing Psycho. Hitchcock sent a note back simply saying ``Send her to the dry cleaners''.
• Considered for the role of Marion were: Eva Marie Saint, Piper Laurie, Martha Hyer, Hope Lange, Shirley Jones, and Lana Turner.
• Hitchcock bought the rights to the novel anonymously from Bloch for just $9,000. He then bought up as many copies of the novel as he could to keep the ending a secret.
• Hitchcock's cameo: about 4 minutes in, wearing a cowboy hat outside Marion's office
• More trivia can be found at the Internet Database

THE BIRDS

• Hitchcock tried to hire Joseph Stefano, from Psycho fame, to write the script, but he wasn't interested in the story. The final screenplay was written by Evan Hunter, best known to detective story fans under his pen name "Ed McBain".
• Hitchcock spotted Tippi Hedren in a diet drink commercial.
• The scene where Hedren is ravaged by birds near the end of the movie took a week to shoot. The birds were attached to her clothes by long nylon threads so they couldn't get away.
• The film does not finish with the usual "THE END" title because Hitchcock wanted to give the impression of unending terror.
• An intended final shot with the Golden Gate bridge covered in birds was not filmed because of cost.
• The poster for the movie read "THE BIRDS IS COMING", irritating English teachers nationwide.
• Hitchcock's cameo: At the start of the film walking two dogs past the pet shop (The dogs were actually his own).

NORTH BY NORTHWEST

• James Stewart was very interested in starring in this movie, begging Hitchcock to let him play Thornhill. Hitchcock claimed that Vertigo's lack of financial success was because Stewart "looked too old".
• Roger O. Thornhill claims that the "O" stands for "nothing". This is a reference to David O. Selznick, who's "O" also signified nothing.
• Jessie Royce Landis played Thornhill's mother, yet he (Cary Grant) was 10 months older than her.
• The shot of Thornhill entering the UN building had to be filmed with a hidden camera as Hitchcock was unable to get permission to shoot there.
• The song that's playing in the lobby of the hotel before Thornhill enters the Oak Bar is "It's a Most Unusual Day".
• The final chase scene was not shot on Mount Rushmore; Hitchcock couldn'y gain permission to shoot a murder on a national monument. The scene was shot in the studio on a replica of Mount Rushmore. Furthermore, the murders themselves are shot carefully, as to avoid associating faces of the monument with murder or death.
• Hitchcock's cameo: missing a bus at the end of the opening credits

MARNIE

• The production company created for the film, "Geoffrey Stanley", was named after Hitch's pet dogs.
• Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren had a major falling out during filming and by the end he directed her through intermediaries.
• Bruce Dern can be seen briefly as the sailor in Marnie's flashback.
• Hitchcock wanted Grace Kelly to make her screen comeback in the title role, but the people of Monaco were not happy with the idea of their princess playing a compulsive thief.
• After rehearsing just a few scenes with co-star Sean Connery, Tippi Hedren asked "Marnie is supposed to be frigid...have you seen him?" referring to the young Connery. Hitchcock's reply was reportedly "Yes my dear, it's called acting."
• Hitchcock's cameo: 5 minutes into the film, in the hotel corridor as Marnie walks by.

TOPAZ

• According to Hitchcock, this was another of his "experimental" movies. In addition to the dialouge, the plot is revealed through the use of colors, predominantly red, yellow, and white. He admits that this did not work out.
• Hitchcock shot two versions with completely different endings. Both of them are included in the Laserdisc reissue.
• Leon Uris wrote the first draft of the screenplay, but Hitchcock declared it unshootable at the last minute and called in Samuel Taylor, from "Vertigo" fame, to rewrite it from scratch. Some scenes were written just hours before they were shot.
• Hitchcock's cameo: about 30 minutes in at the airport getting out of a wheelchair.

FRENZY

• This was the first film Hitchcock shot in England since 1950's "Stage Fright".
• Elsie Randolph (who plays a worker at the hotel) last appeared in a Hitchcock film 40 years earlier as the old maid in "Rich and Strange".
• Oscar-winning composer Henry Mancini wrote the original musical score, but Hitchcock had Ron Goodwin rewrite it because he wanted a "pop" score.
• Hitchcock originally wanted to use an exact replica of his head, (which was made) attached to a dummy floating down a river for his cameo. Instead it was used only in the promotional trailers.
• Hitchcock's cameo: in the first moments of the film in the crowd-he is the only one not applauding the speaker.

FAMILY PLOT

• Roy Thinnes was originally hired to play Arthur Adamson, but Hitchcock was dissatisfied with his performance and fired him one month into the filming.
• Nicholas Colassanto, who played Constantine, went on to play the role of "Coach" in the hit sitcom "Cheers".
• Universal attempted to lure Hitchcock into hiring more "bankable" and "bigger" stars, such as Liza Minnelli as the fey spiritualist, but he wouldn't budge from the "low-budget" cast he had.
• The name of the film, "Family Plot" wasn't concieved until just days before the final shoot. Hitchcock jokingly claimed the film could be titled "Alfred Hitchcock's Wet Drawers."
• Hitchcock's cameo: in silhouette 45 minutes into the film behind the door at the registrar of births and deaths.

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

• Hitchcock bought the rights to the original novel anonymously to keep the price down, and got it for just $7,500.
• The stunt where the man crawled under the carousel was not done with trick photography. Hithcock claimed that this was the most dangerous stunt ever performed under his direction, and would never allow it to be done again.
• Raymond Chandler is credited as the author of the script, but it was almost completely written by Czenzi Ormonde who was credited as second author.
• As many know, Hitchcock was a master of the smallest details. So much so that for the scene where a lighter was picked out of a sewer, Hitchcock handpicked an orange peel, a chewing gum wrapper, wet leaves, and a bit of crumpled paper that was used for sewer debris.
• William Holden was Hitchcock's first choice to play Guy Haynes.
• Hitch's daughter, Pat, who had a role in Strangers on a Train definitly didn't recieve preferential treatment from her father. Her agent told her about the part. She then had to come in, as if a stranger, for testing.
• Hitchcock's Cameo: Early in the film boarding a train carrying a double bass fiddle as Guy gets off of the train.

• At the time the set was the largest indoor set built at Paramount Studios. It consisted of 32 apartments, with twelve of them fully furnished.
• The song "To See You is to Love You" is playing when Jeff toasts Miss Lonelyhearts.
• Hitchcock supposedly hired Raymond Burr to play Lars Thorwald because he could be easily made to look like his old producer David O. Selznick, whom Hitch felt interfered too much.
• Grace Kelly had to choose between Rear Window and On the Waterfront, which was offered to her at the same time.
• James Stewart was so convinced this movie would be a hit that he agreed to receive a percentage of the films profits rather than a salary.
• An example of Hitchcock's attention to detail was a close-up shot of Kelly's shoes that he spent a full half-hour directing...a shot he never used in the finished film.
• Other than a couple of shots near the end and the discovery of the dead dog, all the shots in the movie originate from Jeff's apartment.
• The film was unavailable for decades because it's rights (together with four other pictures of the same periods) were brought back by Hitchcock and left as part of his legacy to his daughter. They've been known for long as the infamous "5 lost Hitchcocks" amongst film buffs, and were re-released in theaters around 1984 after a 30-year abscence. They are Rear Window, Trouble With Harry, Rope, Vertigo, and The Man Who Knew Too Much.
• Hitchcock's Cameo: About an hour into the film, winding a clock in the songwriters apartment.