List of unproduced Hitchcock projects
Encyclopedia
The following is a partial list of unproduced Hitchcock projects, in roughly chronological order. During a career that spanned more than half a century, Alfred Hitchcock
directed over fifty films
, and worked on a number of others which never made it beyond the pre-production
stage.
, and he felt that Greenmantle
by John Buchan was a superior book. He proposed that the film would star Cary Grant
and Ingrid Bergman
, but the rights from the Buchan estate proved too expensive.
, Robert Taylor
, and Conrad Veidt
in one of the first World War II
dramas, Escape
. Hitchcock, a long-time admirer of Shearer's acting, had sought for years to find a suitable project for her. However, Hitchcock was shut out of the project when the novel Escape by Ethel Vance (pen name of Grace Zaring Stone
) was purchased by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
. Hitchcock knew he could never work for the notorious MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer
, who selected Mervyn LeRoy
to produce the film. Years later, Hitchcock made the statement about the lack of true Hollywood leading ladies with the quote, "Where are the Norma Shearers?"
about a disaffected Communist
agitator, who on the run from the police, is forced to adopt the identity of a murder suspect. The story would be adapted to take place in Mexico
and San Francisco.
The project, originally to come after I Confess
(1953) as a Transatlantic Pictures
production to be released by Warner Brothers, had a high budget which made it a difficult project. Hitchcock did not feel that any of the scripts lifted the movie beyond an ordinary chase story, and Warner Brothers allowed him to kill the project and move on to Dial M for Murder
(1954).
The theme of the hero assuming a dangerous new identity would become the kernel of the script for North by Northwest
(1959). Michelangelo Antonioni
's film The Passenger
(1975) tells a similar story, but is not based on Duncan's book. The 1960 film The Bramble Bush
, starring Richard Burton
and Barbara Rush
, and released by Warner Brothers, was based on a Charles Mergendahl novel, and had no relation to Duncan's book.
's novel of political intrigue in Southern Africa
. James Stewart
was expected to take the lead role of an adventurer who discovers a concentration camp for Communist agents; Hitchcock wanted Grace Kelly
to play the love interest.
After a disappointing research trip to South Africa
where he concluded that he would have difficulty filming, especially on a budget – and with confusion of the story's politics and the seeming impossibility of casting Kelly, Hitchcock deferred the project and instead cast Stewart in The Man Who Knew Too Much
(1956
). Hitchcock travelled to Livingstone at The Victoria Falls and was a guest of Harry Sossen one of the prominent inhabitants of this pioneer town. Hitchcock and Sossen were photographed together at the newly opened Livingstone Airport and the event was recorded in the local papers. Sossen was also in communication with Laurens van der Post who gave him a signed copy of the book Flamingo Feather during a visit to the Falls (staying at the Victoria Falls Hotel
). Sossen's daughter Marion is in possession of the book today and a number of letters between her father and van der Post.
about a barrister
who, with the assistance of a gentleman thief, has to defend her father, a High Court
judge, when he is accused of murdering a prostitute. In a change of pace from his usual blonde actresses, Audrey Hepburn
would have played the barrister, with Laurence Harvey
as the thief, and John Williams
as the Hepburn character's father. Some sources, including Writing with Hitchcock author Steven DeRosa say that Hitchcock's interest in the novel started in the summer of 1954 while filming To Catch a Thief
, and that Hitchcock hoped to have John Michael Hayes
write the screenplay. Hepburn was an admirer of Hitchcock's work and had long wanted to appear one of his films.
Samuel A. Taylor
, scenarist for Vertigo
and Topaz
, wrote the screenplay after Ernest Lehman
rejected it. The Taylor screenplay included a scene, not in the original novel, where the heroine disguises herself as a prostitute and has to fend off a rapist
. Hepburn left the film, partly because of the near-rape scene, but primarily due to a pregnancy. (Hepburn suffered a miscarriage during the filming of the 1960 film The Unforgiven
then gave birth to son Sean Ferrer in July 1960.) Laurence Harvey still ended up working with Hitchcock in 1959, however, on an episode that Hitchcock directed of Alfred Hitchcock Presents
.
Without Hepburn, the project didn't have the same appeal for Hitchcock. Changes in British law concerning prostitution and entrapment - changes which took place after the novel was published - made some aspects of the screenplay implausible. Hitchcock told Paramount Pictures
it was better to write off $200,000 already spent on the film's development than to spend another $3 million for a film he no longer cared for. In the fall of 1959, a Paramount publicity brochure titled "Success in the Sixties!" had touted No Bail for the Judge as an upcoming feature film starring Hepburn, to be filmed in Technicolor
and VistaVision
.
novel was optioned by MGM
with the intention of having Hitchcock direct and Gary Cooper
star. Hitchcock had long wanted to work with Cooper, but after developing the script with Ernest Lehman
for several weeks, they concluded that it couldn't be done without turning the movie into "a boring courtroom drama".
Hitchcock and Lehman made an appearance before MGM executives telling the story of North by Northwest
, and said that MGM would get two films out of Hitchcock under his contract with MGM. However, eventually Hitchcock abandoned the idea of Mary Deare and went ahead with North by Northwest instead.
, Hitchcock re-united with Ernest Lehman
for an original screenplay idea: A blind pianist, Jimmy Shearing (a role for James Stewart
), regains his sight after receiving the eyes of a dead man. Watching a Wild West show at Disneyland with his family, Shearing would have visions of being shot and would come to realize that the dead man was in fact murdered and the image of the murderer is still imprinted on the retina of his eyes. The story would end with a chase around the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary
. Walt Disney
reputedly barred Hitchcock from shooting at Disneyland after seeing Psycho
. Stewart left the project, Lehman argued with Hitchcock, and the script was never shot.
(written under the pen name Paul Stanton) after The Blind Man project was canceled. The book follows a RAF V-Bomber crew given an order to drop a nuclear bomb, only to have the order aborted. Unfortunately, the bomb is resisting attempts to defuse it and the plane can only stay in flight for a limited time.
s: Honeymoon With a Stranger (ABC
, 1969), One Of My Wives Is Missing (ABC, 1976) and Vanishing Act (CBS
, 1986). It had previously been broadly adapted (without attribution) as the 1958 Associated British-Pathé feature Chase a Crooked Shadow
.
's 1920 play Mary Rose
into a film. In 1964, after working together on Marnie
, Hitchcock asked Jay Presson Allen
to adapt the play into a screenplay. Hitchcock would later tell interviewers that his contract with Universal
allowed him to make any film, so long as the budget was under $3 million, and so long as it was not Mary Rose. Whether or not this was actually true, Lew Wasserman
was not keen on the project, though Hitchcock never gave up hope of one day filming it.
novel by John Buchan, The Three Hostages
, with a mind to adapting it. As with Greenmantle a quarter of a century earlier, the rights were elusive. But also the story was dated, very much rooted in the 1930s, and the plot involved a villain whose blind mother hypnotizes
the hero. Hitchcock, in interviews, said that he felt that the portrayal of hypnosis did not work on film, and that films that attempted this portrayal, in Hitchcock's opinion, turned out poorly.
in 1972, that film's title and some plot points came from an idea Hitchcock had a few years earlier for a prequel
to Shadow of a Doubt
. Hitchcock approached many writers including Samuel Taylor
and Alec Coppel
, but in the end engaged an old friend, Benn Levy
to flesh out his sketchy idea.
The story would have revolved around a young, handsome bodybuilder (inspired by Neville Heath
) who lures young women to their deaths, a version of the character known as 'Merry Widow Murderer' in Shadow of a Doubt. The New York police set a trap for him, with a policewoman posing as a potential victim. The script was based around three crescendos
dictated by Hitchcock: the first was a murder by a waterfall; the second murder would take place on a mothballed warship; and the finale, which would take place at an oil refinery with brightly colored drums.
Hitchcock showed his script to his friend François Truffaut
. Though Truffaut admired the script, he felt uneasy about its relentless sex and violence. Unlike Psycho
, these elements would not be hidden behind the respectable veneer of murder mystery and psychological suspense
, and the killer would be the main character, the hero, the eyes of the audience.
Universal vetoed the film, despite Hitchcock's assurances that he would make the film for under $1 million with a cast of unknowns, although David Hemmings
, Robert Redford
, and Michael Caine
had all been suggested as leads. The film – alternately known as Frenzy or the more "sixties"-esque Kaleidoscope – would not be made.
Test footage from this project is included in the 1999 Encore cable TV documentary
Dial H For Hitchcock: The Genius Behind the Showman.
and Furio Scarpelli
(Age & Scarpelli
), writers of Big Deal on Madonna Street
, to write a screenplay around an original idea Hitchcock had carried in his head since the late 1930s. A New York City
hotel run by an Italian immigrant and his family who, unknown to him, are using the hotel as cover for crimes, including the theft of a valuable coin from a guest of the hotel. (R.R.R.R. is the highest value of coin.)
The Italian screenwriters struggled with the story, and were not helped by the language barrier. Universal Studios
were not keen on the idea and persuaded Hitchcock to move on to something else.
an adaptation of the spy thriller of the same name by Ronald Kirkbride
. A British double agent (loosely based on George Blake
) escapes from prison and flees to Moscow
via Finland
, where his wife and children are waiting. An American agent – whose brother was one of the traitor's victims – heads to Finland to intercept him but ends up falling for the wife. It would be Hitchcock's third attempt – after Torn Curtain
and Topaz
– to produce a "realistic Bond
film". Clint Eastwood
, and Sean Connery
were possible male leads. Liv Ullman was asked to play the double agent's wife. Catherine Deneuve
was also asked to star. Walter Matthau
was considered for the villain role. Ed Lauter
was also discussed for a role as one of Matthau's prison mates.
The first writer assigned to the picture, James Costigan
, quarreled with the director, who asked for him to be paid off. Then Ernest Lehman
agreed to work on the script. Lehman felt the story should focus on the American spy and left out the double agent's jailbreak. Lehman left the film, too, and Hitchcock asked old friend Norman Lloyd
to help him write a long treatment
. Lloyd, like Universal, was concerned that Hitchcock's failing health meant that the movie might not get made. When Hitchcock suggested moving straight on to the screenplay, Lloyd objected saying they were unprepared. Hitchcock reacted angrily, fired Lloyd, and worked on the treatment himself.
After a while, Hitchcock accepted that he needed another writer to work with him, and Universal suggested David Freeman. Freeman helped Hitchcock complete the treatment and wrote the screenplay. He wrote about his experiences in the 1999 book The Last Days of Alfred Hitchcock, which includes his completed screenplay. The circumstances surrounding Hitchcock's retirement were given by producer Hilton A. Green
during the documentary Plotting "Family Plot". According to Green, during pre-production
for The Short Night Hitchcock met with Green to tell him that his poor health would prevent him from making the film that was to be the follow-up to Family Plot
. After trying to talk Hitchcock out of his decision, Green agreed to Hitchcock's request to bring the news of his decision to retire to studio head Lew Wasserman
, a long-time friend of Hitchcock.
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
directed over fifty films
Alfred Hitchcock filmography
The filmography of Alfred Hitchcock encompasses the earliest silent films on which he worked as a title designer through to his last directorial effort in 1976. Hitchcock started his illustrious career in his native Britain, and after achieving success there, he moved to Hollywood, where he made...
, and worked on a number of others which never made it beyond the pre-production
Pre-production
Pre-production or In Production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- In film :...
stage.
Number 13 (1922)
This was to be Hitchcock's directorial debut, but budgetary problems canceled the production after only a few scenes were shot.Greenmantle (1939–1942)
Hitchcock very much wanted to direct a follow-up to The 39 StepsThe 39 Steps (1935 film)
The 39 Steps is a British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the adventure novel The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan. The film stars Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll....
, and he felt that Greenmantle
Greenmantle
Greenmantle is the second of five novels by John Buchan featuring the character of Richard Hannay, first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London...
by John Buchan was a superior book. He proposed that the film would star Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
and Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
, but the rights from the Buchan estate proved too expensive.
Escape (1940)
Hitchcock desperately wanted to direct Norma ShearerNorma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...
, Robert Taylor
Robert Taylor (actor)
Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...
, and Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Man Who Laughs , The Thief of Bagdad and Casablanca...
in one of the first World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
dramas, Escape
Escape (1940 film)
Escape is a 1940 drama film about an American in pre-World War II Nazi Germany who discovers his mother is in a concentration camp and tries desperately to free her. It starred Norma Shearer, Robert Taylor, Conrad Veidt and Alla Nazimova...
. Hitchcock, a long-time admirer of Shearer's acting, had sought for years to find a suitable project for her. However, Hitchcock was shut out of the project when the novel Escape by Ethel Vance (pen name of Grace Zaring Stone
Grace Zaring Stone
Grace Zaring Stone was an American novelist and short story writer. She is perhaps best known for having three of her novels made into films: The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Winter Meeting, and Escape. She also used the pseudonym of Ethel Vance.-Biography:Stone was the great-great-granddaughter of...
) was purchased by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
. Hitchcock knew he could never work for the notorious MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
, who selected Mervyn LeRoy
Mervyn LeRoy
Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director, producer and sometime actor.-Early life:Born to Jewish parents in San Francisco, California, his family was financially ruined by the 1906 earthquake...
to produce the film. Years later, Hitchcock made the statement about the lack of true Hollywood leading ladies with the quote, "Where are the Norma Shearers?"
The Bramble Bush (1951-1953)
The Bramble Bush would have been an adaptation of a 1948 novel by David DuncanDavid Duncan (writer)
David Duncan, an American screenwriter and novelist, was born February 17, 1913 and died December 27, 1999 in Everett, Washington. He began writing professionally at the age of 33 after about ten years in government. His screenwriting career began in 1953 with the release of his first film and...
about a disaffected Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
agitator, who on the run from the police, is forced to adopt the identity of a murder suspect. The story would be adapted to take place in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and San Francisco.
The project, originally to come after I Confess
I Confess (film)
I Confess is a drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Montgomery Clift as Fr. Michael William Logan, a Catholic priest, Anne Baxter as Ruth Grandfort, and Karl Malden as Inspector Larrue. This was the only film Hitchcock made with these three actors...
(1953) as a Transatlantic Pictures
Transatlantic Pictures
Transatlantic Pictures was founded by Alfred Hitchcock and longtime associate Sidney Bernstein at the end of World War II in preparation for the end of Hitchcock's contract with David O. Selznick in 1947...
production to be released by Warner Brothers, had a high budget which made it a difficult project. Hitchcock did not feel that any of the scripts lifted the movie beyond an ordinary chase story, and Warner Brothers allowed him to kill the project and move on to Dial M for Murder
Dial M for Murder
Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American thriller film adapted from a successful stage play by Frederick Knott, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and Robert Cummings. The movie was released by the Warner Bros...
(1954).
The theme of the hero assuming a dangerous new identity would become the kernel of the script for North by Northwest
North by Northwest
North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau...
(1959). Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...
's film The Passenger
The Passenger (film)
The Passenger is a film directed and co-written by Michelangelo Antonioni, released in 1975, in which Jack Nicholson stars as a television reporter in Africa who assumes the identity of a dead stranger. The film competed for the "Palme d'Or" award at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:*Jack...
(1975) tells a similar story, but is not based on Duncan's book. The 1960 film The Bramble Bush
The Bramble Bush
The Bramble Bush is a 1960 American drama film directed by Daniel Petrie and starring Richard Burton, Angie Dickinson and Jack Carson....
, starring Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
and Barbara Rush
Barbara Rush
Barbara Rush is an American stage, film, and television actress.-Career:A student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Barbara Rush performed on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse before signing with Paramount Pictures...
, and released by Warner Brothers, was based on a Charles Mergendahl novel, and had no relation to Duncan's book.
Flamingo Feather (1956)
This was to be a big-budget adaptation of Laurens van der PostLaurens van der Post
Sir Laurens Jan van der Post, CBE was a 20th century Afrikaner author of many books, farmer, war hero, political adviser to British heads of government, close friend of Prince Charles, godfather of Prince William, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer, and...
's novel of political intrigue in Southern Africa
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
. James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
was expected to take the lead role of an adventurer who discovers a concentration camp for Communist agents; Hitchcock wanted Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
to play the love interest.
After a disappointing research trip to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
where he concluded that he would have difficulty filming, especially on a budget – and with confusion of the story's politics and the seeming impossibility of casting Kelly, Hitchcock deferred the project and instead cast Stewart in The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956 film)
The Man Who Knew Too Much is a suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. The film is a remake in widescreen VistaVision and Technicolor of Hitchcock's 1934 film of the same name....
(1956
1956 in film
The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...
). Hitchcock travelled to Livingstone at The Victoria Falls and was a guest of Harry Sossen one of the prominent inhabitants of this pioneer town. Hitchcock and Sossen were photographed together at the newly opened Livingstone Airport and the event was recorded in the local papers. Sossen was also in communication with Laurens van der Post who gave him a signed copy of the book Flamingo Feather during a visit to the Falls (staying at the Victoria Falls Hotel
Victoria Falls Hotel
The Victoria Falls Hotel is a historic hotel at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The hotel is dramatically situated, with a view of the Second Gorge and the Victoria Falls Bridge from its terrace....
). Sossen's daughter Marion is in possession of the book today and a number of letters between her father and van der Post.
No Bail for the Judge (1958–1961)
No Bail for the Judge was to be an adaptation of a thriller novel by Henry CecilHenry Cecil Leon
Henry Cecil Leon , who wrote under the pen-names Henry Cecil and Clifford Maxwell, was a judge and a writer of fiction about the British legal system. He was born near London in 1902 and was called to the Bar in 1923. Later in 1949 he was appointed a County Court Judge, a position he held until 1967...
about a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
who, with the assistance of a gentleman thief, has to defend her father, a High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
judge, when he is accused of murdering a prostitute. In a change of pace from his usual blonde actresses, Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
would have played the barrister, with Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.- Early life :Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh Skikne. He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and...
as the thief, and John Williams
John Williams (actor)
John Williams was an English stage, film and television actor. He is remembered for his role as chief inspector Hubbard in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder, and as portraying the second "Mr...
as the Hepburn character's father. Some sources, including Writing with Hitchcock author Steven DeRosa say that Hitchcock's interest in the novel started in the summer of 1954 while filming To Catch a Thief
To Catch a Thief
To Catch a Thief is a 1952 thriller novel by David Dodge. John Robie is a retired American jewel thief, formerly known as Le Chat , who now spends his time tending to the rose garden in his villa on the Côte d'Azur. Following a series of recent jewel robberies on the Riviera that resemble his...
, and that Hitchcock hoped to have John Michael Hayes
John Michael Hayes
John Michael Hayes was an American screenwriter, who scripted several of Alfred Hitchcock's films in the 1950s, and subject of the book "" by Steven DeRosa.-Early life:...
write the screenplay. Hepburn was an admirer of Hitchcock's work and had long wanted to appear one of his films.
Samuel A. Taylor
Samuel A. Taylor
Samuel A. Taylor was an American playwright and screenwriter.Born Samuel Albert Tanenbaum, in a Jewish family, in Chicago, Illinois, Taylor made his Broadway debut as author of the play The Happy Time in 1950. He wrote the play Sabrina Fair in 1953 and co-wrote its film adaptation the following year...
, scenarist for Vertigo
Vertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
and Topaz
Topaz (1969 film)
Topaz is a 1969 suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is a Cold War and spy story, adapted from the book of the same name by Leon Uris and closely based on the 1962 Sapphire Affair involving French SDECE spy Philippe Thyraud de Vosjoli who "ha[d] played a considerable part in helping...
, wrote the screenplay after Ernest Lehman
Ernest Lehman
Ernest Lehman was an American screenwriter. He received 6 Academy Award nominations during his screenwriting career...
rejected it. The Taylor screenplay included a scene, not in the original novel, where the heroine disguises herself as a prostitute and has to fend off a rapist
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
. Hepburn left the film, partly because of the near-rape scene, but primarily due to a pregnancy. (Hepburn suffered a miscarriage during the filming of the 1960 film The Unforgiven
The Unforgiven (1960 film)
The Unforgiven is a 1960 American western film filmed in Durango, Mexico released in 1960. The film was directed by John Huston and starred Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, Charles Bickford and Lillian Gish...
then gave birth to son Sean Ferrer in July 1960.) Laurence Harvey still ended up working with Hitchcock in 1959, however, on an episode that Hitchcock directed of Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
.
Without Hepburn, the project didn't have the same appeal for Hitchcock. Changes in British law concerning prostitution and entrapment - changes which took place after the novel was published - made some aspects of the screenplay implausible. Hitchcock told Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
it was better to write off $200,000 already spent on the film's development than to spend another $3 million for a film he no longer cared for. In the fall of 1959, a Paramount publicity brochure titled "Success in the Sixties!" had touted No Bail for the Judge as an upcoming feature film starring Hepburn, to be filmed in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
and VistaVision
VistaVision
VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35mm motion picture film format which was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954....
.
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959)
The Hammond InnesHammond Innes
Ralph Hammond Innes was a British novelist who wrote over 30 novels, as well as children's and travel books....
novel was optioned by MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
with the intention of having Hitchcock direct and Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
star. Hitchcock had long wanted to work with Cooper, but after developing the script with Ernest Lehman
Ernest Lehman
Ernest Lehman was an American screenwriter. He received 6 Academy Award nominations during his screenwriting career...
for several weeks, they concluded that it couldn't be done without turning the movie into "a boring courtroom drama".
Hitchcock and Lehman made an appearance before MGM executives telling the story of North by Northwest
North by Northwest
North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau...
, and said that MGM would get two films out of Hitchcock under his contract with MGM. However, eventually Hitchcock abandoned the idea of Mary Deare and went ahead with North by Northwest instead.
The Blind Man (1960)
Following PsychoPsycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
, Hitchcock re-united with Ernest Lehman
Ernest Lehman
Ernest Lehman was an American screenwriter. He received 6 Academy Award nominations during his screenwriting career...
for an original screenplay idea: A blind pianist, Jimmy Shearing (a role for James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
), regains his sight after receiving the eyes of a dead man. Watching a Wild West show at Disneyland with his family, Shearing would have visions of being shot and would come to realize that the dead man was in fact murdered and the image of the murderer is still imprinted on the retina of his eyes. The story would end with a chase around the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary
RMS Queen Mary
RMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed primarily in the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line...
. Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
reputedly barred Hitchcock from shooting at Disneyland after seeing Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
. Stewart left the project, Lehman argued with Hitchcock, and the script was never shot.
Village of Stars (1962)
Hitchcock bought the rights to the 1960 novel Village of Stars by David BeatyArthur David Beaty
Arthur David Beaty was a British writer, pilot and psychologist notable as a pioneer in the field of Human Factors, now an integral branch of aviation medicine, which he argued played a central role in aviation accidents attributed to pilot error.-Early life:Beaty was born in Hatton, Ceylon on 28...
(written under the pen name Paul Stanton) after The Blind Man project was canceled. The book follows a RAF V-Bomber crew given an order to drop a nuclear bomb, only to have the order aborted. Unfortunately, the bomb is resisting attempts to defuse it and the plane can only stay in flight for a limited time.
Trap for a Solitary Man (1963)
Trap for a Solitary Man was scheduled to be directed by Hitchcock in widescreen by Twentieth Century-Fox. The story, based on the French play Piege Pour un Homme Seul by M. Robert Thomas, follows a young married couple on holiday in the Alps. The wife disappears, and after a prolonged search the police bring back someone they claim to be her; she even says she is the man's wife, but the man has never seen her before. The play was later adapted three times as TV movieTelevision movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
s: Honeymoon With a Stranger (ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, 1969), One Of My Wives Is Missing (ABC, 1976) and Vanishing Act (CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, 1986). It had previously been broadly adapted (without attribution) as the 1958 Associated British-Pathé feature Chase a Crooked Shadow
Chase a Crooked Shadow
Chase a Crooked Shadow is a suspense film in which a woman has trouble convincing anybody that a complete stranger has taken her dead brother's identity...
.
Mary Rose (1964)
Hitchcock had long desired to turn J. M. BarrieJ. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
's 1920 play Mary Rose
Mary Rose (play)
Mary Rose is a play by J.M. Barrie, who is best known for Peter Pan. It first played in London in May 1920.It tells the fictional story of a girl who vanishes twice. As a child, Mary Rose's father takes her to a remote Scottish island. While she is briefly out of her father's sight, Mary Rose...
into a film. In 1964, after working together on Marnie
Marnie (film)
Marnie is a 1964 psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and based on the novel of the same name by Winston Graham. The film stars Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery. The original film score was composed by Bernard Herrmann.-Plot:...
, Hitchcock asked Jay Presson Allen
Jay Presson Allen
Jay Presson Allen was an American screenwriter, playwright, stage director, television producer and novelist. Known for her withering wit and sometimes-off-color wisecracks, she was one of the few women making a living as a screenwriter at a time when women were a rarity in the profession...
to adapt the play into a screenplay. Hitchcock would later tell interviewers that his contract with Universal
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
allowed him to make any film, so long as the budget was under $3 million, and so long as it was not Mary Rose. Whether or not this was actually true, Lew Wasserman
Lew Wasserman
Lewis Robert "Lew" Wasserman was an American talent agent and studio executive, sometimes credited with creating and later taking apart the studio system in a career spanning more than six decades...
was not keen on the project, though Hitchcock never gave up hope of one day filming it.
The Three Hostages (1964)
In 1964, Hitchcock re-read another Richard HannayRichard Hannay
Major-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, Legion of Honour, is a fictional secret agent created by Scottish novelist John Buchan. In his autobiography, Memory Hold-the-Door, Buchan suggests that the character is based, in part, on Edmund Ironside, from Edinburgh, a spy during the Second Boer...
novel by John Buchan, The Three Hostages
The Three Hostages
The Three Hostages is the fourth of five Richard Hannay novels by Scottish author John Buchan, first published in 1924 by Hodder & Stoughton, London....
, with a mind to adapting it. As with Greenmantle a quarter of a century earlier, the rights were elusive. But also the story was dated, very much rooted in the 1930s, and the plot involved a villain whose blind mother hypnotizes
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
the hero. Hitchcock, in interviews, said that he felt that the portrayal of hypnosis did not work on film, and that films that attempted this portrayal, in Hitchcock's opinion, turned out poorly.
Frenzy (a.k.a. Kaleidoscope) (1964–1967)
Although Hitchcock made a film called FrenzyFrenzy
Frenzy is a 1972 British thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and is the penultimate feature film of his extensive career. The film is based upon the novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Arthur La Bern, and was adapted for the screen by Anthony Shaffer. La Bern...
in 1972, that film's title and some plot points came from an idea Hitchcock had a few years earlier for a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
to Shadow of a Doubt
Shadow of a Doubt
Shadow of a Doubt is a 1943 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story for Gordon McDonell...
. Hitchcock approached many writers including Samuel Taylor
Samuel A. Taylor
Samuel A. Taylor was an American playwright and screenwriter.Born Samuel Albert Tanenbaum, in a Jewish family, in Chicago, Illinois, Taylor made his Broadway debut as author of the play The Happy Time in 1950. He wrote the play Sabrina Fair in 1953 and co-wrote its film adaptation the following year...
and Alec Coppel
Alec Coppel
Alec Coppel was an Australian born screenwriter, novelist and playwright. He spent the majority of his career in London and Hollywood, specialising in light thrillers, mysteries and sex comedies...
, but in the end engaged an old friend, Benn Levy
Benn Levy
Benn Wolfe Levy was a Labour Party Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
to flesh out his sketchy idea.
The story would have revolved around a young, handsome bodybuilder (inspired by Neville Heath
Neville Heath
Neville George Clevely Heath was an English killer who was responsible for the murders of at least two young women. He was executed in London in 1946.-Early career:Heath was born in Essex, England...
) who lures young women to their deaths, a version of the character known as 'Merry Widow Murderer' in Shadow of a Doubt. The New York police set a trap for him, with a policewoman posing as a potential victim. The script was based around three crescendos
Setpiece
In film production, a setpiece is a scene or sequence of scenes the execution of which requires serious logistical planning and considerable expenditure of money. The term setpiece is often used more broadly to describe any important dramatic or comedic highpoint in a film or story, particularly...
dictated by Hitchcock: the first was a murder by a waterfall; the second murder would take place on a mothballed warship; and the finale, which would take place at an oil refinery with brightly colored drums.
Hitchcock showed his script to his friend François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
. Though Truffaut admired the script, he felt uneasy about its relentless sex and violence. Unlike Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
, these elements would not be hidden behind the respectable veneer of murder mystery and psychological suspense
Suspense
Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead-up to a big event or dramatic...
, and the killer would be the main character, the hero, the eyes of the audience.
Universal vetoed the film, despite Hitchcock's assurances that he would make the film for under $1 million with a cast of unknowns, although David Hemmings
David Hemmings
David Edward Leslie Hemmings was an English film, theatre and television actor as well as a film and television director and producer....
, Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
, and Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
had all been suggested as leads. The film – alternately known as Frenzy or the more "sixties"-esque Kaleidoscope – would not be made.
Test footage from this project is included in the 1999 Encore cable TV documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
Dial H For Hitchcock: The Genius Behind the Showman.
R.R.R.R. (1965)
Hitchcock approached Italian comedy-thriller writers Agenore IncrocciAgenore Incrocci
Agenore Incrocci , best known as Age, was an Italian screenwriter, considered one of the fathers of the commedia all'italiana as one of the two members of the duo Age & Scarpelli, together with Furio Scarpelli....
and Furio Scarpelli
Furio Scarpelli
Furio Scarpelli , also called Scarpelli, was an Italian screenwriter, famous for his collaboration on numerous Commedia all'italiana films with Agenore Incrocci, forming the duo Age & Scarpelli....
(Age & Scarpelli
Age & Scarpelli
Age & Scarpelli is the stage name used by the pair of Italian screenwriters Agenore Incrocci and Furio Scarpelli . Together, they wrote the script for about a hundred movies, mainly satirical comedies....
), writers of Big Deal on Madonna Street
Big Deal on Madonna Street
Big Deal on Madonna Street is a 1958 Italian criminal-comedy film, directed by Mario Monicelli, and considered to be among the masterpieces of Italian cinema. Its original title translates as "the usual unknown persons", a journalistic and bureaucratic euphemism for "unidentified criminals" or...
, to write a screenplay around an original idea Hitchcock had carried in his head since the late 1930s. A New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
hotel run by an Italian immigrant and his family who, unknown to him, are using the hotel as cover for crimes, including the theft of a valuable coin from a guest of the hotel. (R.R.R.R. is the highest value of coin.)
The Italian screenwriters struggled with the story, and were not helped by the language barrier. Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
were not keen on the idea and persuaded Hitchcock to move on to something else.
The Short Night (1976–1979)
Hitchcock's last, unfinished project was The Short NightThe Short Night
The Short Night was a film planned by Alfred Hitchcock. The project was originally announced in the late 1960s at the time of Topaz and Hitchcock scouted locations in Finland...
an adaptation of the spy thriller of the same name by Ronald Kirkbride
Ronald Kirkbride
Ronald de Levington Kirkbride was a writer of escapist romances, Westerns, and mystery novels. He was probably best known for his novel A Girl Named Tamiko, first published in 1959; it sold one million copies worldwide and a screenplay based on that novel become a 1962 film of the same name,...
. A British double agent (loosely based on George Blake
George Blake
George Blake is a former British spy known for having been a double agent in the service of the Soviet Union. Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and fled to the USSR...
) escapes from prison and flees to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
via Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, where his wife and children are waiting. An American agent – whose brother was one of the traitor's victims – heads to Finland to intercept him but ends up falling for the wife. It would be Hitchcock's third attempt – after Torn Curtain
Torn Curtain
Torn Curtain is a 1966 American political thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews.-Plot:On a cruise ship en route to Copenhagen, Michael Armstrong , an esteemed American physicist and rocket scientist, is to attend a scientific conference...
and Topaz
Topaz (1969 film)
Topaz is a 1969 suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is a Cold War and spy story, adapted from the book of the same name by Leon Uris and closely based on the 1962 Sapphire Affair involving French SDECE spy Philippe Thyraud de Vosjoli who "ha[d] played a considerable part in helping...
– to produce a "realistic Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film". Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
, and Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
were possible male leads. Liv Ullman was asked to play the double agent's wife. Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
was also asked to star. Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears...
was considered for the villain role. Ed Lauter
Ed Lauter
Edward Lauter is an American actor. He has appeared in numerous movies and was a stand up comic before getting into acting.Lauter was born in Long Beach, Long Island, New York...
was also discussed for a role as one of Matthau's prison mates.
The first writer assigned to the picture, James Costigan
James Costigan
James Costigan was an American television actor and Emmy Award-winning television screenwriter. His writing credited included the Eleanor and Franklin and Love Among the Ruins television movies....
, quarreled with the director, who asked for him to be paid off. Then Ernest Lehman
Ernest Lehman
Ernest Lehman was an American screenwriter. He received 6 Academy Award nominations during his screenwriting career...
agreed to work on the script. Lehman felt the story should focus on the American spy and left out the double agent's jailbreak. Lehman left the film, too, and Hitchcock asked old friend Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd is an American actor, producer, and director with a career in entertainment spanning more than seven decades. Lloyd, who currently resides in Los Angeles, has appeared in over sixty films and television shows....
to help him write a long treatment
Film treatment
A film treatment is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play. It is generally longer and more detailed than an outline , and it may include details of directorial style that an outline omits...
. Lloyd, like Universal, was concerned that Hitchcock's failing health meant that the movie might not get made. When Hitchcock suggested moving straight on to the screenplay, Lloyd objected saying they were unprepared. Hitchcock reacted angrily, fired Lloyd, and worked on the treatment himself.
After a while, Hitchcock accepted that he needed another writer to work with him, and Universal suggested David Freeman. Freeman helped Hitchcock complete the treatment and wrote the screenplay. He wrote about his experiences in the 1999 book The Last Days of Alfred Hitchcock, which includes his completed screenplay. The circumstances surrounding Hitchcock's retirement were given by producer Hilton A. Green
Hilton A. Green
Hilton A. Green is an American producer and assistant director best known for assistant directing the original Psycho and many episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents...
during the documentary Plotting "Family Plot". According to Green, during pre-production
Pre-production
Pre-production or In Production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- In film :...
for The Short Night Hitchcock met with Green to tell him that his poor health would prevent him from making the film that was to be the follow-up to Family Plot
Family Plot
Family Plot is a 1976 American dark comedy/thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, his fifty-third and final film. It stars Barbara Harris, Bruce Dern, William Devane, and Karen Black....
. After trying to talk Hitchcock out of his decision, Green agreed to Hitchcock's request to bring the news of his decision to retire to studio head Lew Wasserman
Lew Wasserman
Lewis Robert "Lew" Wasserman was an American talent agent and studio executive, sometimes credited with creating and later taking apart the studio system in a career spanning more than six decades...
, a long-time friend of Hitchcock.