Alfred Hitchcock, in Britain and the USA

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) was born over his family’s foodshop in Leytonstone, East London. Little remains of his early life there, other than a Blue Plaque on the wall. But there is still evidence of the director’s links with the area: two blocks of flats, Marnie Court and Topaz Court, take their names from his films, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hotel on the edge of Ep­ping Forest was also named in his honour. The most attractive mem­orials are Alfred Hit­chcock mosaics in Ley­tonstone Tube Station in East Lon­don, featur­ing scenes from the director’s life and his films.

Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock married filmie Alma Reville at Brompton Oratory in Ken­sington in Dec 1926 and they lived in Earls Court. Beginning his film career as a designer in silent films, Hitchcock starting directing the films themselves within five years. For the rest of his life, he used London as the setting for many of his films. Even after he moved to the US and was working in Hollywood!

He wanted to show the rough bits of his city, like the fair dinkum Cock­ney he was. Hitchcock’s first big success came with The Lodger (1927), a serial killer. Some scenes were filmed inside his st­ud­io, but Hitchcock filmed on location where it was practical eg in Westminster and Charing Cross.

Another location which appeared often in The Lodger was Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan London Police. Hitchcock was a regular visitor to Scotland Yard, visiting the Police Crime Mus­eum for inspiration. This Victorian museum was home to a grisly selection of criminal evidence from Jack the Ripper and Dr Crippen.

The Lodger was a serial killer loose in London, targ­et­ing young women with gold­en curls. Hitchcock knew all the mystery genre trop­es and he filled his film with them. Presum­ably this was to subvert exp­ec­tations, twist­ing the incred­ib­ly suspicious lodger into a rom­an­t­ic hero! This film prov­ided a blue­print for the rest of his filmography.

The British Mus­eum played a direct role in Hitch­cock’s final sil­ent film Blackmail (1929). The climactic chase scene occurred across the domed glass roof of the mus­eum’s old reading room. Blackmail’s other scenes occ­ur­red in Trafalgar Square and Whitehall.

Much of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) was set in London. The diction of the players was very English, but none the less pl­eas­ing and suitable to the NY reviews. Only the photo­graphy was thought to be below American norms.

The film The 39 Steps (1935) showed Robert Donat’s character, while vacat­ioning in London, befriending a scared woman; she told him that she was a spy and made a cryptic reference to the 39 steps. The woman was later murd­ered, so Donat fled on a train to Scotland.

The 39 Steps, 1935

Sabotage (1936) one of the final films Alfred made before moving to the US in 1939. Opening at the then-newly-built Battersea Power Station, the film celebrated the city’s tourist favourites eg Traf­algar Square and Piccadilly Circus.

Although Hitchcock’s sense of humour was a constant in his Holly­wood films, it was more pronounced in the British films, which felt more like comic capers than slasher flicks. The Lady Vanishes (1938) in­it­ially resembled a typical British farce, as troubled travellers filled up cramped corners at a crowded inn. This film also made regional re­ferences, discussing life in Oxford.

David Selznick signed Alfred to a 7-year contract from March 1939, and the Hitchcocks moved to Hollywood. Although he was clear­ly an established filmmaker with many credits before his move to LA, Hitchcock had to transition from British curiosity to Hollywood mainstay. The films he made in the UK contained themes and style choices that he constantly re­v­isited, but they also stood apart for their comic tone and special British focus on class and internat­ional conflict. Eventually the director filmed 20 feature films over­seas, films that turned him into an object of fascination for the US press.

The film that best showed Hitchcock’s changed from London to Hollywood was his second American project, Foreign Correspondent (1940). When the film was released, UK and the US had very diff­er­ent opinions about the war devastating Europe. It opened with a title card praising for­eign correspondents as brave people who saw war devastation .. while many Americans didn’t. They then focused on a New York crime reporter sent abroad to cover the chaos in Eur­ope. He arrived a scep­tic, be­came a true believer and event­ually urged complacent fellow Amer­icans to hear the live broadcast from The Blitz. Even though Hitchcock frequently ret­urned to London to film, WW2 made this trip impossible. So Foreign Correspondent was filmed by a second unit.

The Lady Vanishes, 1938

One of Hitchcock’s very last films was Frenzy (1972), featuring some of the most beautiful buildings in London, including the Royal Albert Hall and Covent Garden Market, The Globe Pub in Bow St and the Nell of Old Drury Pub in Cath­er­ine St. This story of a rapist-murderer, whose distinct murder weapon was a necktie, brought Al­fred full circle, back to the London of his 1927 film, The Lodger.

Alfred died in 1980. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the Pacific, halfway between his two loved nations. His mem­orial service was in the Cath­olic Westminster Cathedral London and his memorial stone is in Hollywood Forever Cemetery, California.

Read Hunting for Alfred Hitchcock in London.