Evan Hunter (born Salvatore Albert Lombino ; October 15, 1926 – July 6, 2005) was an American author of crime and mystery fiction . He is best known as the author of 87th Precinct novels, published under the pen name Ed McBain , which are considered staples of police procedural genre.
127-558: His other notable works include The Blackboard Jungle , a semi-autobiographical novel about life in a troubled inner-city school, which was adapted into a hit 1955 film of the same name . He also wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock ’s 1963 film The Birds , based on the Daphne du Maurier short story . Hunter, who legally adopted that name in 1952, also used the pen names John Abbott , Curt Cannon , Hunt Collins , Ezra Hannon and Richard Marsten , among others. Salvatore Lombino
254-442: A dream sequence designed by Salvador Dalí . The dream sequence as it appears in the film is ten minutes shorter than was originally envisioned; Selznick edited it to make it "play" more effectively. Gregory Peck plays amnesiac Dr. Anthony Edwardes under the treatment of analyst Dr. Peterson ( Ingrid Bergman ), who falls in love with him while trying to unlock his repressed past. Two point-of-view shots were achieved by building
381-597: A fish-and-chip shop and fishmongers' respectively; they lived above the former. Hitchcock attended his first school, the Howrah House Convent in Poplar , which he entered in 1907, at age 7. According to biographer Patrick McGilligan , he stayed at Howrah House for at most two years. He also attended a convent school, the Wode Street School "for the daughters of gentlemen and little boys" run by
508-503: A novel by English novelist Daphne du Maurier . Selznick insisted on a faithful adaptation of the book, and disagreed with Hitchcock with the use of humour. The film, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine , concerns an unnamed naïve young woman who marries a widowed aristocrat. She lives in his large English country house , and struggles with the lingering reputation of his elegant and worldly first wife Rebecca, who died under mysterious circumstances. The film won Best Picture at
635-699: A British spy posing as a governess, disappears on a train journey through the fictional European country of Bandrika . The film saw Hitchcock receive the 1938 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director. Benjamin Crisler of The New York Times wrote in June 1938: "Three unique and valuable institutions the British have that we in America have not: Magna Carta , the Tower Bridge and Alfred Hitchcock,
762-536: A Hollywood feature. Teens flocked to the film, dancing in theatre aisles as the song played over the opening credits. Parents may have been shocked by such uninhibited behavior, but things got worse when screenings also inspired violence and vandalism around the world. Thanks to BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, the song hit number one on the Billboard charts, eventually selling 25 million copies and becoming what Dick Clark called 'The National Anthem of Rock 'n' Roll'. The film marked
889-740: A Train (1951), Dial M for Murder (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), The Trouble with Harry (1955), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964), all of which were also financially successful and are highly regarded by film historians. Hitchcock made a number of films with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, including four with Cary Grant , four with James Stewart , three with Ingrid Bergman and three consecutively with Grace Kelly . Hitchcock became an American citizen in 1955. In 2012, Hitchcock's psychological thriller Vertigo , starring Stewart, displaced Orson Welles ' Citizen Kane (1941) as
1016-434: A cell for a few minutes, saying, "This is what we do to naughty boys." The experience left him with a lifelong phobia of law enforcement, and he told Tom Snyder in 1973 that he was "scared stiff of anything ... to do with the law" and that he would refuse to even drive a car in case he got a parking ticket. When he was six, the family moved to Limehouse and leased two stores at 130 and 175 Salmon Lane, which they ran as
1143-410: A complete grasp of all the different branches of film technique that he is able to take far more control of his production than the average director of four times his experience." Production of The Pleasure Garden encountered obstacles which Hitchcock would later learn from: on arrival to Brenner Pass , he failed to declare his film stock to customs and it was confiscated; one actress could not enter
1270-399: A confined environment, as he had done earlier with Lifeboat . The film appears as a very limited number of continuous shots, but it was actually shot in 10 ranging from 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 to 10 minutes each; a 10-minute length of film was the most that a camera's film magazine could hold at the time. Some transitions between reels were hidden by having a dark object fill the entire screen for
1397-585: A film, where he sat in a newsroom. Continuing to market his brand following the success of The Lodger , Hitchcock wrote a letter to the London Evening News in November 1927 about his filmmaking, participated in studio-produced publicity, and by December 1927 he developed the original sketch of his widely recognised profile which he introduced by sending it to friends and colleagues as a Christmas present. On 2 December 1926, Hitchcock married
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#17327933889181524-461: A film, which recorded the experiences of the survivors of a German U-boat attack. Steinbeck began work on the script for what would become Lifeboat (1944). However, Steinbeck was unhappy with the film and asked that his name be removed from the credits, to no avail. The idea was rewritten as a short story by Harry Sylvester and published in Collier's in 1943. The action sequences were shot in
1651-420: A flat, hard, springy tool made of gutta-percha and known as a "ferula" which struck the whole palm; punishment was always at the end of the day, so the boys had to sit through classes anticipating the punishment if they had been written up for it. He later said that this is where he developed his sense of fear. The school register lists his year of birth as 1900 rather than 1899; biographer Donald Spoto says he
1778-453: A freelancer who signed a one-picture deal with the studio, both known for their work in comedies and light dramas. The story depicts a confrontation between a suspected saboteur (Cummings) and a real saboteur ( Norman Lloyd ) atop the Statue of Liberty . Hitchcock took a three-day tour of New York City to scout for Saboteur ' s filming locations. He also directed Have You Heard? (1942),
1905-765: A job, for 15 shillings a week (£91 in 2023), as a technical clerk at the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company in Blomfield Street, near London Wall . He continued night classes, this time in art history, painting, economics and political science. His older brother ran the family shops, while he and his mother continued to live in Salmon Lane. Hitchcock was too young to enlist when the First World War started in July 1914, and when he reached
2032-580: A large teenage audience for the film, and their exuberant response to it sometimes overflowed into violence and vandalism at screenings. In this sense, the film has been seen as marking the start of a period of visible teenage rebellion in the latter half of the 20th century. The film was banned in Memphis, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia , with the Atlanta Review Board claiming that it was "immoral, obscene, licentious and will adversely affect
2159-399: A large wooden hand (which would appear to belong to the character whose point of view the camera took) and out-sized props for it to hold: a bucket-sized glass of milk and a large wooden gun. For added novelty and impact, the climactic gunshot was hand-coloured red on some copies of the black-and-white film. The original musical score by Miklós Rózsa makes use of the theremin , and some of it
2286-485: A light inside a glass of milk, perhaps poisoned, that Grant is bringing to his wife; the light ensures that the audience's attention is on the glass. Grant's character is actually a killer, according to the book, Before the Fact by Francis Iles , but the studio felt that Grant's image would be tarnished by that. Hitchcock would have preferred to end with the wife's murder. Instead, the actions that she found suspicious are
2413-735: A low profile, and were not interested in attending parties or being celebrities. Hitchcock discovered his taste for fine food in West Hollywood, but still carried on his way of life from England. He was impressed with Hollywood's filmmaking culture, expansive budgets and efficiency, compared to the limits that he had often faced in Britain. In June that year, Life called him the "greatest master of melodrama in screen history". Although Hitchcock and Selznick respected each other, their working arrangements were sometimes difficult. Selznick suffered from constant financial problems, and Hitchcock
2540-407: A melodramatic impact that hits hard at a contemporary problem. The casting, too, is exceptionally good." Harrison's Reports called the film: "...a stark, powerful melodrama, sordid, tense, and disturbing. The picture no doubt will stir up considerable controversy, but at the same time it probably will prove to be a top box-office grosser." John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote: "While
2667-463: A moment. Hitchcock used those points to hide the cut, and began the next take with the camera in the same place. The film features James Stewart in the leading role, and was the first of four films that Stewart made with Hitchcock. It was inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case of the 1920s. Critical response at the time was mixed. Under Capricorn (1949), set in 19th-century Australia, also uses
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#17327933889182794-589: A name director with his first thriller, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927). The film concerns the hunt for a Jack the Ripper -style serial killer who, wearing a black cloak and carrying a black bag, is murdering young blonde women in London, and only on Tuesdays. A landlady suspects that her lodger is the killer, but he turns out to be innocent. Hitchcock had wanted the leading man to be guilty, or for
2921-493: A novel he wrote would sell more copies if credited to Evan Hunter than to S. A. Lombino. Thereafter, he used the name Evan Hunter both personally and professionally. As Evan Hunter, he gained notice with his novel The Blackboard Jungle (1954) dealing with juvenile crime and the New York City public school system. The film adaptation followed in 1955. During this era, Hunter also wrote a great deal of genre fiction. He
3048-505: A pact that neither would quit if the other stayed. Dadier's expression makes clear he has no intention of breaking the agreement. Cast notes: Hunter's novel was based on his early job as a teacher at Bronx Vocational High School, now known as Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School in the South Bronx . Hunter, then known as Salvatore Lombino, took the teaching job in 1950 after graduating from Hunter College . He
3175-455: A painter, who died in 2006. A heavy smoker for many decades, Hunter had three heart attacks over a number of years (his first in 1987) and needed heart surgery. A precancerous lesion was found on his larynx in 1992. This was removed, but the cancer later returned. In 2005, Hunter died in Weston, Connecticut from laryngeal cancer . He was 78. Blackboard Jungle Blackboard Jungle
3302-478: A photographic dramatisation for Life magazine of the dangers of rumours during wartime . In 1943, he wrote a mystery story for Look , "The Murder of Monty Woolley ", a sequence of captioned photographs inviting the reader to find clues to the murderer's identity; Hitchcock cast the performers as themselves, such as Woolley, Doris Merrick and make-up man Guy Pearce. Back in England, Hitchcock's mother Emma
3429-417: A police drama called 87th Precinct during the 1961–62 season, based on McBain's work. From 1978 to 1998, McBain published a series about lawyer Matthew Hope; books in this series appeared every year or two, and usually had titles derived from well-known children's stories. For about a decade, from 1984 to 1994, Hunter published no fiction under his own name. In 2000, a novel called Candyland appeared that
3556-680: A rebellious yet musically talented student. In 2016, Blackboard Jungle was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In the mid-1950s, Richard Dadier is a new teacher at North Manual Trades High School, an inner-city school of diverse ethnic backgrounds. Led by student Gregory Miller, most engage in anti-social behavior. The school principal, Mr. Warneke, denies there are discipline issues, but
3683-424: A reflection of his own despair and his plan to commit suicide. Fontaine won Best Actress for her performance. Saboteur (1942) is the first of two films that Hitchcock made for Universal Studios during the decade. Hitchcock wanted Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck or Henry Fonda and Gene Tierney to star, but was forced by Universal to use Universal contract player Robert Cummings and Priscilla Lane ,
3810-652: A second film in Munich, The Mountain Eagle (1926), based on an original story titled Fear o' God . The film is lost, and Hitchcock called it "a very bad movie". A year later, Hitchcock wrote and directed The Ring ; although the screenplay was credited solely to his name, Elliot Stannard assisted him with the writing. The Ring garnered positive reviews; the Bioscope critic called it "the most magnificent British film ever made". When he returned to England, Hitchcock
3937-480: A short film, An Elastic Affair (1930), featuring two Film Weekly scholarship winners. An Elastic Affair is one of the lost films. In 1933, Hitchcock signed a multi-film contract with Gaumont-British , once again working for Michael Balcon. His first film for the company, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), was a success; his second, The 39 Steps (1935), was acclaimed in the UK, and gained him recognition in
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4064-553: A small boat in the studio water tank. The locale posed problems for Hitchcock's traditional cameo appearance; it was solved by having Hitchcock's image appear in a newspaper that William Bendix is reading in the boat, showing the director in a before-and-after advertisement for "Reduco-Obesity Slayer". He told Truffaut in 1962: At the time, I was on a strenuous diet, painfully working my way from three hundred to two hundred pounds. So I decided to immortalize my loss and get my bit part by posing for "before" and "after" pictures. ... I
4191-566: A small boy as he reads a book on the London Underground . In the PBS series The Men Who Made The Movies , Hitchcock explained how he used early sound recording as a special element of the film to create tension, with a gossipy woman ( Phyllis Monkman ) stressing the word "knife" in her conversation with the woman suspected of murder. During this period, Hitchcock directed segments for a BIP revue , Elstree Calling (1930), and directed
4318-513: A technical clerk and copywriter before entering the film industry in 1919 as a title card designer. His directorial debut was the British–German silent film The Pleasure Garden (1925). His first successful film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), helped to shape the thriller genre, and Blackmail (1929) was the first British " talkie ". His thrillers The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938) are ranked among
4445-494: A trade paper that Famous Players–Lasky , the production arm of Paramount Pictures , was opening a studio in London. They were planning to film The Sorrows of Satan by Marie Corelli , so he produced some drawings for the title cards and sent his work to the studio. They hired him, and in 1919 he began working for Islington Studios in Poole Street, Hoxton , as a title-card designer. Donald Spoto wrote that most of
4572-655: A weekly column in the Hunter College newspaper as "S.A. Lombino". In 1981, Lombino was inducted into the Hunter College Hall of Fame, where he was honored for outstanding professional achievement. While looking to start a career as a writer, Lombino took a variety of jobs, including 17 days as a teacher at Bronx Vocational High School in September 1950. This experience would later form the basis for his novel The Blackboard Jungle (1954), written under
4699-420: A year salary (equivalent to $ 45,496 in 2023), as compared with congressmen and judges at US$ 9.25 (equivalent to $ 105 in 2023), policemen and firemen at US$ 2.75 (equivalent to $ 31 in 2023), carpenters at US$ 2.81 (equivalent to $ 32 in 2023), plumbers at US$ 2.97 (equivalent to $ 34 in 2023), and plasterers at US$ 3.21 an hour (equivalent to $ 37 in 2023). In March 2005, the 50th anniversary of
4826-433: Is a 1955 American social drama film about an English teacher in an interracial inner-city school, based on the 1954 novel The Blackboard Jungle by Evan Hunter and adapted for the screen and directed by Richard Brooks . It is remembered for its innovative use of rock and roll in its soundtrack, for casting grown adults as high school teens, and for the unique breakout role of a black cast member, Sidney Poitier , as
4953-714: Is not definitive proof: Meredith almost certainly forwarded novels to Hamling by any number of authors, claiming these novels were by Hunter simply to make a sale. Ninety-three novels were published under the Hudson name from 1961 to 1969, and even the most avid proponents of the Hunter-as-Hudson theory do not believe Hunter is responsible for all 93. He had three sons: Richard Hunter, an author, speaker, advisor to chief information officers on business value and risk issues, and harmonica player; Mark Hunter, an academic, educator, investigative reporter, and author; and Ted Hunter,
5080-475: Is the Dead End kids , the gangster melodrama, in another setting." The Monthly Film Bulletin delivered a mixed to negative assessment: "Contrived situations and some rather thin characterisation reduce the impact and effectiveness of Blackboard Jungle , both as an exposé of a current American educational problem and a plea for more strenuous efforts by teachers at similar institutions. Characters such as
5207-530: The 13th Academy Awards ; the statuette was given to producer Selznick. Hitchcock received his first nomination for Best Director , his first of five such nominations. Hitchcock's second American film was the thriller Foreign Correspondent (1940), set in Europe, based on Vincent Sheean 's book Personal History (1935) and produced by Walter Wanger . It was nominated for Best Picture that year. Hitchcock felt uneasy living and working in Hollywood while Britain
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5334-768: The British Film Institute 's greatest film ever made based on its world-wide poll of hundreds of film critics. As of 2021 , nine of his films had been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry , including his personal favourite, Shadow of a Doubt (1943). He received the BAFTA Fellowship in 1971, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1979, and was knighted in December of that year, four months before his death on 29 April 1980. Alfred Joseph Hitchcock
5461-602: The Faithful Companions of Jesus . He then attended a primary school near his home and was for a short time a boarder at Salesian College in Battersea . The family moved again when Hitchcock was eleven, this time to Stepney , and on 5 October 1910 he was sent to St Ignatius College in Stamford Hill , a Jesuit grammar school with a reputation for discipline. As corporal punishment, the priests used
5588-559: The Journal of Transnational American Studies published a study with a focus on the film's reception in West Germany and Japan. The influential Jamaican reggae album Blackboard Jungle Dub (1973) by The Upsetters references the film's title. The film touches on the still-current issue of teacher pay . The dialog states that in 1955, the pay for teachers was US$ 2.00 an hour (equivalent to $ 23 in 2023), or about US$ 4,000
5715-675: The Motion Picture Production Code at the time. In September 1940, the Hitchcocks bought the 200-acre (0.81 km ) Cornwall Ranch near Scotts Valley , California, in the Santa Cruz Mountains . Their primary residence was an English-style home in Bel Air , purchased in 1942. Hitchcock's films were diverse during this period, ranging from the romantic comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) to
5842-702: The greatest British films of the 20th century. By 1939, he had international recognition and producer David O. Selznick persuaded him to move to Hollywood. A string of successful films followed, including Rebecca (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Suspicion (1941), Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and Notorious (1946). Rebecca won the Academy Award for Best Picture , with Hitchcock nominated as Best Director. He also received Oscar nominations for Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Rear Window (1954) and Psycho (1960). Hitchcock's other notable films include Rope (1948), Strangers on
5969-450: The pen names Evan Hunter and Hunt Collins. The name Evan Hunter is generally believed to have been derived from two schools he attended, Evander Childs High School and Hunter College, although the author himself would never confirm that. (He did confirm that Hunt Collins was derived from Hunter College.) Lombino legally changed his name to Evan Hunter in May 1952, after an editor told him that
6096-475: The rock and roll revolution by featuring Bill Haley & His Comets ' " Rock Around the Clock ", initially a B-side , over the film's opening credits (with a lengthy drum solo introduction, unlike the originally released single), as well as in the first scene, in an instrumental version in the middle of the film, and at the close of the movie, establishing that song as an instant hit. The record had been released
6223-435: The " Master of Suspense ", Hitchcock became as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, his cameo appearances in most of his films, and his hosting and producing the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–65). His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations, including six wins, although he never won the award for Best Director , despite five nominations. Hitchcock initially trained as
6350-516: The 1950s previously attributed to other pseudonyms were reissued under the McBain byline. Hunter stated that the division of names allowed readers to know what to expect: McBain novels had a consistent writing style, while Hunter novels were more varied. Under the Hunter name, novels steadily appeared throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, including Come Winter (1973) and Lizzie (1984). Hunter
6477-458: The Beanstalk " which sparks discussion about moral choices. Anne goes into premature labor caused by the stress of the phone calls about Dadier's alleged affair. When a neighbor shows Dadier the anonymous letters, he angrily decides to quit. Mr. Murdock encourages him to stay, telling Dadier he is making progress and has inspired him too. Anne apologizes for doubting Dadier's fidelity and says she
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#17327933889186604-507: The Big Producer. ... Producer was king. The most flattering thing Mr. Selznick ever said about me—and it shows you the amount of control—he said I was the 'only director' he'd 'trust with a film'." Hitchcock approached American cinema cautiously; his first American film was set in England in which the "Americanness" of the characters was incidental: Rebecca (1940) was set in a Hollywood version of England's Cornwall and based on
6731-626: The Clock " was included in the film, making the recording an anthem for rebellious 1950s youth. It was Number 1 on the pop charts for two months and went to Number 3 on the R&;B chart. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "fresh" rating of 76%. On their best of Sidney Poitier list, it says: "This was the role that put Poitier on the map. The struggles of educators and students are well documented in this violent and controversial film, based on Evan Hunter's seminal novel about inner-city school conditions. Modern audiences might struggle to sympathize with
6858-652: The English screenwriter Alma Reville at the Brompton Oratory in South Kensington . The couple honeymooned in Paris, Lake Como and St. Moritz, before returning to London to live in a leased flat on the top two floors of 153 Cromwell Road , Kensington. Reville, who was born just hours after Hitchcock, converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, apparently at the insistence of Hitchcock's mother; she
6985-634: The German firm Emelka at the Geiselgasteig studio near Munich. Reville, by then Hitchcock's fiancée, was assistant director-editor. Although the film was a commercial flop, Balcon liked Hitchcock's work; a Daily Express headline called him the "Young man with a master mind". In March 1926, the British film magazine Picturegoer ran an article entitled "Alfred the Great" by the film critic Cedric Belfrage , who praised Hitchcock for possessing "such
7112-566: The London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar. In a book-length interview in 1962, he told François Truffaut that he had studied "mechanics, electricity, acoustics, and navigation". Then, on 12 December 1914, his father, who had been suffering from emphysema and kidney disease, died at the age of 52. To support himself and his mother — his older siblings had left home by then — Hitchcock took
7239-605: The MacGuffin is a stolen set of design plans. Hitchcock released two spy thrillers in 1936. Sabotage was loosely based on Joseph Conrad 's novel, The Secret Agent (1907), about a woman who discovers that her husband is a terrorist, and Secret Agent , based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent (1928) by W. Somerset Maugham . At this time, Hitchcock also became notorious for pranks against
7366-626: The Sun (1946). Notorious stars Bergman and Grant, both Hitchcock collaborators, and features a plot about Nazis, uranium and South America. His prescient use of uranium as a plot device led to him being briefly placed under surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation . According to Patrick McGilligan, in or around March 1945, Hitchcock and Hecht consulted Robert Millikan of the California Institute of Technology about
7493-409: The UK. Upon its release, the trade journal Bioscope wrote: "It is possible that this film is the finest British production ever made". Hitchcock told Truffaut that the film was the first of his to be influenced by German Expressionism : "In truth, you might almost say that The Lodger was my first picture." In a strategy for self-publicity, The Lodger saw him make his first cameo appearance in
7620-497: The US. It also established the quintessential English "Hitchcock blonde" ( Madeleine Carroll ) as the template for his succession of ice-cold, elegant leading ladies. Screenwriter Robert Towne remarked: "It's not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapist entertainment begins with The 39 Steps ". John Buchan , author of The Thirty-Nine Steps on which the film is loosely based, met with Hitchcock on set, and attended
7747-574: The United States Navy during World War II and wrote several short stories while serving aboard a destroyer in the Pacific. However, none of these stories was published until after he had established himself as an author in the 1950s. After the war, Lombino returned to New York and attended Hunter College , where he majored in English and psychology, with minors in dramatics and education, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1950. He published
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#17327933889187874-512: The advertising department, where he wrote copy and drew graphics for electric cable advertisements. He enjoyed the job and would stay late at the office to examine the proofs; he told Truffaut that this was his "first step toward cinema". He enjoyed watching films, especially American cinema, and from the age of 16 read the trade papers; he watched Charlie Chaplin , D. W. Griffith and Buster Keaton , and particularly liked Fritz Lang 's Der müde Tod (1921). While still at Henley's, he read in
8001-413: The age of 93. Reville became her husband's closest collaborator; Charles Champlin wrote in 1982: "The Hitchcock touch had four hands, and two were Alma's." When Hitchcock accepted the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1979, he said that he wanted to mention "four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor,
8128-577: The bleak film noir Shadow of a Doubt (1943). Suspicion (1941) marked Hitchcock's first film as a producer and director. It is set in England; Hitchcock used the north coast of Santa Cruz for the English coastline sequence. The film is the first of four in which Cary Grant was cast by Hitchcock, and it is one of the rare occasions that Grant plays a sinister character. Grant plays Johnnie Aysgarth, an English conman whose actions raise suspicion and anxiety in his shy young English wife, Lina McLaidlaw ( Joan Fontaine ). In one scene, Hitchcock placed
8255-501: The cast and crew. These jokes ranged from simple and innocent to crazy and maniacal. For instance, he hosted a dinner party where he dyed all the food blue because he claimed there weren't enough blue foods. He also had a horse delivered to the dressing room of his friend, actor Gerald du Maurier . Hitchcock followed up with Young and Innocent in 1937, a crime thriller based on the 1936 novel A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey . Starring Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney ,
8382-590: The classroom. West encounters Dadier during his gang's robbery of a newspaper truck. West tells Dadier his classroom is on the streets and to leave him alone. Several students, led by West, assault Edwards in his classroom and destroy his music record collection. Dadier's wife, Anne, who is pregnant, begins receiving anonymous letters and phone calls telling her Dadier and Miss Hammond are having an affair. Dadier discovers Miller can play piano and sing, and wonders why Miller can show such talent but also be so rebellious. Dadier shows his class an animated film about " Jack and
8509-481: The contractual obligations or thought the projects were repellent. However, producer David O. Selznick offered him a concrete proposal to make a film based on the sinking of RMS Titanic , which was eventually shelved, but Selznick persuaded Hitchcock to come to Hollywood . In July 1938, Hitchcock flew to New York, and found that he was already a celebrity; he was featured in magazines and gave interviews to radio stations. In Hollywood, Hitchcock met Selznick for
8636-592: The development of a uranium bomb. Selznick complained that the notion was "science fiction", only to be confronted by the news of the detonation of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945. Hitchcock formed an independent production company, Transatlantic Pictures , with his friend Sidney Bernstein . He made two films with Transatlantic, one of which was his first colour film. With Rope (1948), Hitchcock experimented with marshalling suspense in
8763-401: The differences between tourists and locals. Describing himself as a well-behaved boy — his father called him his "little lamb without a spot" — Hitchcock said he could not remember ever having had a playmate. One of his favourite stories for interviewers was about his father sending him to the local police station with a note when he was five; the policeman looked at the note and locked him in
8890-410: The director aggressively promoting himself during this period. In a 1925 London Film Society meeting he declared directors were what mattered most in making films, with Donald Spoto writing that Hitchcock proclaimed, " We make a film succeed. The name of the director should be associated in the public's mind with a quality product. Actors come and go, but the name of the director should stay clearly in
9017-401: The false allegations made to both Mr. Warneke and Anne. Dadier subdues West, and the other students join in to subdue Belazi, who has picked up the knife to escape. Miller then leads the class in helping Dadier take West and Belazi to the principal's office. In the final scene, Miller and Dadier ask if the other is quitting at the end of the school year. Miller says no, because the two of them had
9144-523: The film at least to end ambiguously, but the star was Ivor Novello , a matinée idol , and the " star system " meant that Novello could not be the villain. Hitchcock told Truffaut: "You have to clearly spell it out in big letters: 'He is innocent.'" (He had the same problem years later with Cary Grant in Suspicion (1941).) Released in January 1927, The Lodger was a commercial and critical success in
9271-431: The film has a good many faults (the acting at times is a bit shaky and the conclusion is rather unbelievable), it nevertheless confronts its subject matter head on, and in the circumstances it is an unsettling piece of work." Not all reviews were positive. Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post slammed the film as "so sensationalized as to negate any laudable purpose its supporters claim", further explaining: "Yes,
9398-464: The film was relatively enjoyable for the cast and crew to make. To meet distribution purposes in America, the film's runtime was cut and this included removal of one of Hitchcock's favourite scenes: a children's tea party which becomes menacing to the protagonists. Hitchcock's next major success was The Lady Vanishes (1938), "one of the greatest train movies from the genre's golden era", according to Philip French , in which Miss Froy ( May Whitty ),
9525-453: The film was shown. The 1982 crime action thriller film Class of 1984 serves as a loose remake of The Blackboard Jungle , with Perry King , Timothy Van Patten and Michael J. Fox in the roles of Glenn Ford , Vic Morrow , and Sidney Poitier , respectively. In 2007, the Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture published an article that analyzed the film's connection to crime theories and juvenile delinquency. In 2015,
9652-518: The first time. Selznick offered him a four-film contract, approximately $ 40,000 for each picture (equivalent to $ 870,000 in 2023). Selznick signed Hitchcock to a seven-year contract beginning in April 1939, and the Hitchcocks moved to Hollywood. The Hitchcocks lived in a spacious flat on Wilshire Boulevard , and slowly acclimatised themselves to the Los Angeles area. He and his wife Alma kept
9779-433: The flirtatious woman teacher and the pregnant wife are fictitious trimmings which only emphasise the artificiality in the handling of the main theme. There are several tense and hard-hitting sequences, and a general atmosphere of strident earnestness, but only in the tiny part of the trade school headmaster, played with considerable force by John Hoyt, is there any real suggestion of complexity or depth." The song " Rock Around
9906-479: The greatest director of screen melodramas in the world." The film was based on the novel The Wheel Spins (1936) written by Ethel Lina White , and starred Michael Redgrave (in his film debut) and Margaret Lockwood . By 1938, Hitchcock was aware that he had reached his peak in Britain. He had received numerous offers from producers in the United States, but he turned them all down because he disliked
10033-536: The high-profile premiere at the New Gallery Cinema in London. Upon viewing the film, the author said it had improved on the book. This film was one of the first to introduce the " MacGuffin " plot device, a term coined by the English screenwriter and Hitchcock collaborator Angus MacPhail . The MacGuffin is an item or goal the protagonist is pursuing, one that otherwise has no narrative value; in The 39 Steps ,
10160-431: The impact and the influence of the movie: MGM brought Hollywood into the rock'n'roll era with BLACKBOARD JUNGLE. In search of the kind of music teens like the film's potential delinquents were listening to, director Richard Brooks borrowed a few records from star Glenn Ford's son Peter. When he heard Bill Haley and his Comets perform 'Rock Around the Clock', he found the perfect theme song -- the first rock song ever used in
10287-701: The liberation of Nazi concentration camps . The film was assembled in London and produced by Sidney Bernstein of the Ministry of Information, who brought Hitchcock (a friend of his) on board. It was originally intended to be broadcast to the Germans, but the British government deemed it too traumatic to be shown to a shocked post-war population. Instead, it was transferred in 1952 from the British War Office film vaults to London's Imperial War Museum and remained unreleased until 1985, when an edited version
10414-408: The mind of the audience." Visually, it was extraordinarily imaginative for the time, most notably in the scene in which Hitchcock installed a glass floor so that he could show the lodger pacing up and down in his room from below, as though overheard by his landlady. — BFI entry for Hitchcock's first thriller, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) Hitchcock established himself as
10541-685: The names S. A. Lombino, Evan Hunter, Richard Marsten, D. A. Addams, and Ted Taine. Ed McBain, his best known pseudonym, was first used with Cop Hater (1956), the first novel in the 87th Precinct crime series. Hunter revealed that he was McBain in 1958 but continued to use the pseudonym for decades, notably for the 87th Precinct series and the Matthew Hope detective series. He retired the pen names Addams, Cannon, Collins, Marsten, and Taine around 1960. From then on crime novels were generally attributed to McBain and other sorts of fiction to Hunter. Reprints of crime-oriented stories and novels written in
10668-610: The nickname "Nellie". His parents were both Roman Catholics with English and Irish ancestry. His father was a greengrocer, as his grandfather had been. There was a large extended family, including uncle John Hitchcock with his five-bedroom Victorian house on Campion Road in Putney , complete with a maid, cook, chauffeur, and gardener. Every summer, his uncle rented a seaside house for the family in Cliftonville , Kent. Hitchcock said that he first became class-conscious there, noticing
10795-446: The novel's rape scene, and the writer was sacked. Hunter's other screenplays included Strangers When We Meet (1960), based on his own 1958 novel; and Fuzz (1972), based on his eponymous 1968 87th Precinct novel, which he had written as Ed McBain. After having thirteen 87th Precinct novels published from 1956 to 1960, further 87th Precinct novels appeared at a rate of approximately one a year until his death. Additionally, NBC ran
10922-484: The number of the scene and the number of takes, and Hitchcock would often take the two numbers on the clapperboard and whisper the London tram route names. For example, if the clapperboard showed "Scene 23; Take 3", he would whisper " Woodford , Hampstead "—Woodford being the terminus of the route 23 tram, and Hampstead the end of route 3. Hitchcock told his parents that he wanted to be an engineer, and on 25 July 1913, he left St Ignatius and enrolled in night classes at
11049-451: The papers regularly have news about shocking conditions in the schools. Vandalism certainly is more rampant than it was only a few years ago. Sex crimes and thuggery do occur. Even murder is not beyond our young. But to pile these things and more into a few months within one classroom surely does not show 'courage' on the part of the moviemakers. This approach simply is one more dodge at making a box office buck to anyone with his eyes open. This
11176-533: The peace, health, morals and good order of the city". The film marked a watershed in the United Kingdom and was originally refused a cinema certificate before being passed with heavy cuts. When shown at a south London cinema in Elephant and Castle in 1956 the teenage Teddy Boy audience began to riot, tearing up seats and dancing in the aisles. After that, riots took place around the country wherever
11303-593: The pen name Evan Hunter, which was adapted into the film Blackboard Jungle (1955). In 1951, Lombino took a job as an executive editor for the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, working with authors such as Poul Anderson , Arthur C. Clarke , Lester del Rey , Richard S. Prather , and P.G. Wodehouse . He made his first professional short story sale the same year, a science-fiction tale titled "Welcome, Martians!", credited to S. A. Lombino. Soon after his initial sale, Lombino sold stories under
11430-496: The previous year, gaining only limited sales. But, popularized by its use in the film, "Rock Around the Clock" reached number one on the Billboard charts and remained there for eight weeks. In some theaters, when the film was in the first release, the song was not heard at all at the beginning of the film because rock and roll was considered a bad influence. Despite this, other instances of the song were not cut. The music led to
11557-481: The release of the film, which had influenced the subsequent upsurge in the general popularity of rock and roll, was marked by a series of "Rock Is Fifty" celebrations in Los Angeles and New York City , involving the surviving members of the original Bill Haley & His Comets. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress . The film
11684-538: The required age of 18 in 1917, he received a C3 classification ("free from serious organic disease, able to stand service conditions in garrisons at home ... only suitable for sedentary work"). He joined a cadet regiment of the Royal Engineers and took part in theoretical briefings, weekend drills and exercises. John Russell Taylor wrote that, in one session of practical exercises in Hyde Park , Hitchcock
11811-459: The rest of my life — Alfred Hitchcock (1967) Hitchcock returned to the UK for an extended visit in late 1943 and early 1944. While there he made two short propaganda films , Bon Voyage (1944) and Aventure Malgache (1944), for the Ministry of Information . In June and July 1945, Hitchcock served as "treatment advisor" on a Holocaust documentary that used Allied Forces footage of
11938-415: The school faculty, particularly Mr. Murdock, warn Dadier otherwise. Dadier befriends two other new teachers, Joshua Edwards and Lois Hammond. Dadier's class includes Miller and Artie West, a rebellious bully and gang leader. The class shows no respect for Dadier. Dadier encourages Miller to lead the class in the right direction. After Dadier subdues a student who attacks Miss Hammond, the class gives Dadier
12065-505: The second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter, Pat, and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen. And their names are Alma Reville." Reville wrote or co-wrote on many of Hitchcock's films, including Shadow of a Doubt , Suspicion and The 39 Steps . Hitchcock began work on his tenth film, Blackmail (1929), when its production company, British International Pictures (BIP), converted its Elstree studios to sound . The film
12192-476: The short-lived technique of long takes, but to a more limited extent. He again used Technicolor in this production, then returned to black-and-white for several years. Transatlantic Pictures became inactive after the last two films. Hitchcock filmed Stage Fright (1950) at Elstree Studios in England, where he had worked during his British International Pictures contract many years before. He paired one of Warner Bros. ' most popular stars, Jane Wyman , with
12319-454: The silent treatment and are even more uncooperative. Dadier and Edwards are mugged by West's gang. Reluctant to quit, Dadier seeks advice from his former teacher, Professor Kraal, the principal of an academically superior school with disciplined students. Kraal offers Dadier a job, but he declines. After chastising his class for calling each other racially divisive names, Dadier is himself falsely accused by Mr. Warneke of using racial epithets in
12446-515: The staff were Americans with strict job specifications, but the English workers were encouraged to try their hand at anything, which meant that Hitchcock gained experience as a co-writer, art director and production manager on at least 18 silent films. The Times wrote in February 1922 about the studio's "special art title department under the supervision of Mr. A. J. Hitchcock". His work included Number 13 (1922), also known as Mrs. Peabody; it
12573-465: The tactics employed by Poitier's character, Gregory Miller, but the cultural impact his performance had on both society and education are undeniable." According to MGM records the film earned $ 5,292,000 in the US and Canada and $ 2,852,000 elsewhere. In 2010, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) listed the soundtrack of the movie on its list of the Top 15 Most Influential Movie Soundtracks of all time. TCM described
12700-505: The water for a scene because she was on her period ; budget overruns meant that he had to borrow money from the actors. Hitchcock also needed a translator to give instructions to the cast and crew. In Germany, Hitchcock observed the nuances of German cinema and filmmaking which had a big influence on him. When he was not working, he would visit Berlin's art galleries, concerts and museums. He would also meet with actors, writers and producers to build connections. Balcon asked him to direct
12827-529: Was geography and he became interested in maps and the timetables of trains, trams and buses; according to John Russell Taylor , he could recite all the stops on the Orient Express . He had a particular interest in London trams . An overwhelming majority of his films include rail or tram scenes, in particular The Lady Vanishes , Strangers on a Train and Number Seventeen . A clapperboard shows
12954-474: Was advised by his agents that publishing too much fiction under the Hunter byline, or publishing any crime fiction as Evan Hunter, might weaken his literary reputation. Consequently, during the 1950s Hunter used the pseudonyms Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, and Richard Marsten for much of his crime fiction. A prolific author in several genres, Hunter also published approximately two dozen science fiction stories and four science-fiction novels between 1951 and 1956 under
13081-475: Was also successful as screenwriter for film and television. He wrote the screenplay for the Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds (1963), loosely adapted from Daphne du Maurier 's eponymous 1952 novelette . Following The Birds , Hunter was again hired by Hitchcock to complete an in-progress script adapting Winston Graham 's novel Marnie . However, Hunter and the director disagreed on how to treat
13208-409: Was at war ; his concern resulted in a film that overtly supported the British war effort. Filmed in 1939, it was inspired by the rapidly changing events in Europe, as covered by an American newspaper reporter played by Joel McCrea . By mixing footage of European scenes with scenes filmed on a Hollywood backlot , the film avoided direct references to Nazism , Nazi Germany and Germans, to comply with
13335-426: Was baptised on 31 May 1927 and confirmed at Westminster Cathedral by Cardinal Francis Bourne on 5 June. In 1928, when they learned that Reville was pregnant, the Hitchcocks purchased "Winter's Grace", a Tudor farmhouse set in eleven acres on Stroud Lane, Shamley Green , Surrey, for £2,500. Their daughter and only child, Patricia (Pat) Alma Hitchcock , was born on 7 July that year. Pat died on 9 August 2021 at
13462-523: Was born and raised in New York City. He lived in East Harlem until age 12, when his family moved to the Bronx. He attended Olinville Junior High School (later Richard R. Green Middle School #113), then Evander Childs High School (now Evander Childs Educational Campus ), before winning a New York Art Students League scholarship. Later, he was admitted as an art student at Cooper Union . Lombino served in
13589-555: Was born on 13 August 1899 in the flat above his parents' leased greengrocer 's shop at 517 High Road in Leytonstone , which was then part of Essex (now on the outskirts of east London ). He was the son of greengrocer and poulterer, William Edgar Hitchcock (1862–1914) and Emma Jane (née Whelan; 1863–1942). The household was "characterised by an atmosphere of discipline". He had an older brother named William John (1888–1943) and an older sister named Ellen Kathleen (1892–1979) who used
13716-528: Was broadcast as an episode of PBS Frontline , under the title the Imperial War Museum had given it: Memory of the Camps . The full-length version of the film, German Concentration Camps Factual Survey , was restored in 2014 by scholars at the Imperial War Museum. Hitchcock worked for David Selznick again when he directed Spellbound (1945), which explores psychoanalysis and features
13843-404: Was cancelled because of financial problems - the few finished scenes are lost — and Always Tell Your Wife (1923), which he and Seymour Hicks finished together when Hicks was about to give up on it. Hicks wrote later about being helped by "a fat youth who was in charge of the property room ... [n]one other than Alfred Hitchcock". When Paramount pulled out of London in 1922, Hitchcock
13970-721: Was credited to John Abbott. Hunter gave advice to other authors in his article "Dig in and get it done: no-nonsense advice from a prolific author (aka Ed McBain) on starting and finishing your novel". In it, he advised authors to "find their voice for it is the most important thing in any novel". Hunter was long rumored to have written an unknown number of pornographic novels, as Dean Hudson, for William Hamling's publishing houses. Hunter adamantly and consistently denied writing any books as Hudson until he died. However, apparently his agent Scott Meredith sold books to Hamling's company as Hunter's work (for attribution as "Dean Hudson") and received payments for these books in cash. While notable, it
14097-409: Was credited to both Hunter and McBain. The two-part novel opened in Hunter's psychologically based narrative voice before switching to McBain's customary police procedural style. Aside from McBain, Hunter used at least two other pseudonyms for his fiction after 1960: Doors (1975), which was originally attributed to Ezra Hannon before being reissued as a work by McBain, and Scimitar (1992), which
14224-577: Was deliberately enrolled as a ten-year-old because he was a year behind with his schooling. While biographer Gene Adair reports that Hitchcock was "an average, or slightly above-average, pupil", Hitchcock said that he was "usually among the four or five at the top of the class"; at the end of his first year, his work in Latin, English, French and religious education was noted. He told Peter Bogdanovich : "The Jesuits taught me organisation, control and, to some degree, analysis." Hitchcock's favourite subject
14351-399: Was flamboyant. Eventually, Selznick generously lent Hitchcock to the larger film studios. Selznick made only a few films each year, as did fellow independent producer Samuel Goldwyn , so he did not always have projects for Hitchcock to direct. Goldwyn had also negotiated with Hitchcock on a possible contract, only to be outbid by Selznick. In a later interview, Hitchcock said: "[Selznick] was
14478-501: Was hard to maintain; Donald Spoto wrote that his weight fluctuated considerably over the next 40 years. At the end of 1943, despite the weight loss, the Occidental Insurance Company of Los Angeles refused his application for life insurance. I felt the need to make a little contribution to the war effort, and I was both overweight and over-age for military service. I knew that if I did nothing, I'd regret it for
14605-611: Was hired as an assistant director by a new firm run in the same location by Michael Balcon , later known as Gainsborough Pictures . Hitchcock worked on Woman to Woman (1923) with the director Graham Cutts , designing the set, writing the script and producing. He said: "It was the first film that I had really got my hands onto." The editor and "script girl" on Woman to Woman was Alma Reville , his future wife. He also worked as an assistant to Cutts on The White Shadow (1924), The Passionate Adventure (1924), The Blackguard (1925) and The Prude's Fall (1925). The Blackguard
14732-411: Was later adapted by the composer into Rozsa's Piano Concerto Op. 31 (1967) for piano and orchestra. The spy film Notorious followed next in 1946. Hitchcock told François Truffaut that Selznick sold him, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Ben Hecht 's screenplay, to RKO Radio Pictures as a "package" for $ 500,000 (equivalent to $ 7.8 million in 2023) because of cost overruns on Selznick's Duel in
14859-401: Was literally submerged by letters from fat people who wanted to know where and how they could get Reduco. Hitchcock's typical dinner before his weight loss had been a roast chicken, boiled ham, potatoes, bread, vegetables, relishes, salad, dessert, a bottle of wine and some brandy. To lose weight, his diet consisted of black coffee for breakfast and lunch, and steak and salad for dinner, but it
14986-425: Was often unhappy about Selznick's creative control and interference over his films. Selznick was also displeased with Hitchcock's method of shooting just what was in the script, and nothing more, which meant that the film could not be cut and remade differently at a later time. As well as complaining about Hitchcock's "goddamn jigsaw cutting", their personalities were mismatched: Hitchcock was reserved whereas Selznick
15113-534: Was one of the early members of the London Film Society, newly formed in 1925. Through the Society, he became fascinated by the work by Soviet filmmakers: Dziga Vertov , Lev Kuleshov , Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin . He would also socialise with fellow English filmmakers Ivor Montagu , Adrian Brunel and Walter Mycroft . Hitchcock recognised the value in cultivating his own brand, with
15240-538: Was produced at the Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam, where Hitchcock watched part of the making of F. W. Murnau 's The Last Laugh (1924). He was impressed with Murnau's work, and later used many of his techniques for the set design in his own productions. In the summer of 1925, Balcon asked Hitchcock to direct The Pleasure Garden (1925), starring Virginia Valli , a co-production of Gainsborough and
15367-439: Was quickly disillusioned and quit in frustration after two months. In a positive review, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote: "As a straight melodrama of juvenile violence this is a vivid and hair-raising film. Except for some incidental romance, involving the teacher and his wife and a little business about the latter having a baby, it is as hard and penetrating as a nail." Variety called it: "...a film with
15494-492: Was released on DVD in North America on May 10, 2005, by Warner Home Video. Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 feature films, many of which are still widely watched and studied today. Known as
15621-410: Was required to wear puttees . He could never master wrapping them around his legs, and they repeatedly fell down around his ankles. After the war, Hitchcock took an interest in creative writing. In June 1919, he became a founding editor and business manager of Henley's in-house publication, The Henley Telegraph (sixpence a copy), to which he submitted several short stories. Henley's promoted him to
15748-448: Was severely ill; she died on 26 September 1942 at age 79. Hitchcock never spoke publicly about his mother, but his assistant said that he admired her. Four months later, on 4 January 1943, his brother William died of an overdose at age 52. Hitchcock was not very close to William, but his death made Hitchcock conscious about his own eating and drinking habits. He was overweight and suffering from back aches. His New Year's resolution in 1943
15875-682: Was the first British " talkie "; this followed the rapid development of sound films in the United States, from the use of brief sound segments in The Jazz Singer (1927) to the first full sound feature Lights of New York (1928). Blackmail began the Hitchcock tradition of using famous landmarks as a backdrop for suspense sequences, with the climax taking place on the dome of the British Museum . It also features one of his longest cameo appearances, which shows him being bothered by
16002-562: Was to take his diet seriously with the help of a physician. In January that year, Shadow of a Doubt was released, which Hitchcock had fond memories of making. In the film, Charlotte "Charlie" Newton ( Teresa Wright ) suspects her beloved uncle Charlie Oakley ( Joseph Cotten ) of being a serial killer. Hitchcock filmed extensively on location, this time in the Northern California city of Santa Rosa . At 20th Century Fox , Hitchcock approached John Steinbeck with an idea for
16129-547: Was wrong for telling him to quit. Their premature baby boy, though weak, eventually thrives. When Dadier observes West openly copying from another student, he demands that West bring his paper to the front to have it docked five points. West rebuffs his repeated request, but Dadier is unrelenting. The conflict quickly escalates, and West pulls out a switchblade. Dadier does not back down. Miller stops West's sidekick and classmate Belazi from jumping Dadier from behind. The rest of West's gang fails to assist. Dadier accuses West of
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