Stage Fright (1950) | Presenting Hitchcock Podcast

Gooooood evening. In this month’s episode of Presenting Hitchcock, Cory and Aaron give you the plain and simple truth as they discuss Stage Fright… or do they?

Written by: 

Screenplay by Whitfield Cook

Adaptation by Alma Reville

With uncredited contribution by James Bridie and Ranald MacDougall

Based on the novel “Man Running” by Selwyn Jepson

Starring: Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd, Alastair Sim, Sybil Thorndike and Kay Walsh

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Trailer:

Our Favourite Trivia:

Director Cameo: A man on the street turning to look at Eve as she rehearses her scripted introduction speech

Alfred Hitchcock said that this movie is more than a murder mystery, it is a critical examination of the acting craft. He said that this is a subject that long fascinated him, and this movie provided him with the opportunity to explore it.

Part of the reason that Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make this movie was so that he could spend time with his daughter Patricia Hitchcock. Hitchcock had been based in California for several years, and his daughter had been enrolled as a drama student in the Royal Academy in London. After completing the movie, Hitchcock didn’t work in Britain again until Frenzy (1972). However, Hitchcock did film the climactic scenes of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) in London.

In an extraordinary move for the normally controlling director, Alfred Hitchcock allowed Marlene Dietrich an exceptional amount of creative control for this movie, particularly in how she chose to light her scenes. Hitchcock knew that Dietrich had learned a great deal of the art of cinematography from Josef von Sternberg and Günther Rittau and let her work with Cinematographer Wilkie Cooper to light and set her scenes the way that she wished. Marlene Dietrich’s costumes were als designed by (an uncredited) Christian Dior.

According to Alfred Hitchcock, he ran into great difficulties with Jane Wyman who was required to appear frumpy and inelegant when incognito as a maid, and was reluctant to appear so plain when Marlene Dietrich appeared so glamorous. Hitchcock recounted that Wyman would cry when she would see Dietrich looking glamorous on-set when she was in her maid disguise. Hitchcock said that she could not accept the idea of her character being frumpy or dowdy. Much to Hitchcock’s chagrin, Wyman secretly put on make-up or otherwise tried to improve her appearance, thus failing to maintain her character.

Alfred Hitchcock gave his daughter Patricia Hitchcock’s character the decidedly unflattering name “Chubby Bannister”. In addition to the joke, the name was a term of endearment according to Hitchcock. Alfred said that he liked calling Patricia “Chubby Bannister” because she was “a girl you could always lean on.”

This movie is significant because it broke a long-established cinematic convention that flashbacks were always a true account of earlier events. In this movie, though, the opening flashback turns out to be a lie, a device which at first baffled then enraged cinemagoers who felt that they had in some way been cheated. Hitchcock repeated the idea of a false story without using flashbacks in his popular movies, such as Vertigo (1958) (where Gavin Elster tells Scottie about his wife in the beginning) and Psycho (1960) (Norman Bates telling his family history to Marion Crane). Hitchcock  chose to build the plot of this movie based on lies, one after another. The characters tell one lie after another from the beginning. Then Hitchcock built up the last part by revealing the truths, one after another. Truths that the major characters and the audience didn’t know.

Cole Porter’s song, “The Laziest Gal in Town”, ran afoul of censors for its sexual innuendo, and for being too risqué. Several lines from the song were reworded, and the tamer version appears in this movie.

One of the songs that Marlene Dietrich sings in this movie is Édith Piaf’s signature song, “La Vie en Rose”. Dietrich and Piaf were close personal friends, and Piaf granted Dietrich permission to use the song.

The Random Draw for Next Picture:

Next up, we’ll be discussing Easy Virtue (1928)

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