Hitchcock Chronology: Samuel A. Taylor

Entries in the Hitchcock Chronology relating to Samuel A. Taylor...

1957

February

• Hitchcock, still recuperating at home from colitis, holds initial face-to-face meetings with Samuel A. Taylor to discuss the script for Vertigo. Hitchcock also reads The Wreck of the Mary Deare, a property MGM are interested in adapting.

May

• Hitchcock holds Vertigo script meetings with Samuel A. Taylor during the first week of May.

June

• Over lunch in late June, at Hitchcock's home on Bellagio Road, Kim Novak voices her concerns about playing Madeleine in Vertigo. Samuel A. Taylor is also present.

August

• Hitchcock holds final script meetings with Samuel A. Taylor to refine the script for Vertigo.

1959

April

• Hitchcock, Herbert Coleman, Henry Bumstead and Samuel Taylor travel to London to scout locations for No Bail for the Judge.

May

• Hitchcock, Herbert Coleman, Henry Bumstead and Samuel Taylor return to Los Angeles from London in late May. Despite the careful pre-production work, No Bail for the Judge is soon abandoned, partly due to Audrey Hepburn's concern about the rape scene.

1966

December

• Together with Samuel A. Taylor and his wife, the Hitchcocks spend Christmas in St. Moritz. Hitchcock begins to plan his next project, the tale of a necrophiliac serial killer.

1968

July

• Hitchcock hires playwright Herb Gardner to work on Topaz, but Gardner soon leaves after differences of opinion. With the start of filming looming, writer Samuel A. Taylor then becomes attached to the project.

September

• Hitchcock begins production on Topaz with European location filming, but without a completed script. Writer Samuel A. Taylor hastily works on the upcoming scenes.

2000

May

• 26th - Playwright and screenwriter Samuel A. Taylor, who worked on the screenplays of Vertigo and Topaz, dies aged 87.