Celebrating the Master of Suspense
Today is National Alfred Hitchcock Day and if that isn’t cause for celebration, I don’t know what is. We all have our personal favorites — mine are The Birds, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, North by Northwest, Shadow of a Doubt and Notorious. But honestly, I’ve never seen a movie of his that I didn’t like — and I’ve seen ‘em all.
Hitchcock was as strange, fascinating, startling, complex, mysterious, enigmatic, unpredictable and dark as his films. For instance, did you know that he:
- was, at the age of five, sent by his father to the police station with a note telling the sergeant to lock him up for being a bad boy? (He spent ten minutes in a cell, which was long enough to give him a morbid fear of cops that lasted his entire life.)
- was so afraid of the police that he never learned to drive?
- loved the number 7 and used it frequently in his films?
- enjoyed playing weird and scary practical jokes on his various casts and crews? (He’d find out their phobias and then gift them with a beautifully wrapped package of snakes or spiders or mice.)
- had forebodings of his own death? (Having received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1979, he told friends that he must be about to die very soon. He passed away in 1980.)
- tossed his teacup over his shoulder instead of setting it down properly?
- occasionally wore dresses on movie sets and to parties?
- couldn’t stand to look at his wife while she was pregnant with their only child?
- had a severe egg phobia? (”That round white thing without any holes — have you ever seen anything more revolting than an egg yolk breaking?”)
- also suffered from a fear of small children and high places?
- gave the shortest acceptance speech in Oscar Award history? (”Thank you.”)
- loved the movies “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Benji”?
- once said, “The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them”?
Perhaps the most interesting thing Hitchcock said was, “I’ve become a body of films, not a man. I am those films.” The very best creative achievements – be they literary or musical or artistic or cinematic — are imbued with the psyche of who created them. They are unique because they are so deeply personal. They are the heart and soul of their creator, turned inside out for the world to see.
And that is the essence of pure genius, which remains forever timeless.
~ phoebe kate
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