Hitchcock Chronology: Month of November

Entries in the Hitchcock Chronology for the month of November...

1910

• Following his studies at the London County Council School of Marine Engineering and Navigation, Hitchcock begins working for W.T. Henley's Telegraph Works Company Ltd on Bromfield Street, London, where he is initially employed in the sales department.

1922

• 15th - The Times reviews Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush and says that there "is a wholly pleasant flavour about this mid-Victorian story [and] some excellent characterizations of Scottish village types".

1923

• 12th - The Times reviews Woman to Woman and says the story is "admirably told, and its finer points are never underlined. The acting, too, is excellent".

1925

• Hitchcock retuns to Munich to begin studio filming for The Mountain Eagle with Nita Naldi.

1927

• Several British and Australian newspapers report on Hitchcock's new contact with British National Pictures (which soon becomes British International Pictures) on a salary that is set to rise to £17,000 a year. Presumably based information contained in a studio press handout, they claim Hitchcock entered the film industry as a teenager — in reality he began working for Famous Players-Lasky in 1921, aged 21.

1928

• British International Pictures announces that Alfred Hitchcock's next production will be an adaptation of Charles Bennett's play Blackmail.

1929

• Principal photography begins on Juno and the Paycock, starring Barry Fitzgerald, Maire O'Neill, Edward Chapman and Sara Allgood.

1930

• Principal photography begins on The Skin Game, starring Edmund Gwenn, Helen Haye, C V France and Jill Esmond.

1931

• 4th - The Times reports that Hitchcock will be directing a screen adaptation of Jefferson Farjeon's play Number Seventeen for British International Pictures.
• 16th - Actress Phyllis Konstam marries in London. The Hitchcocks are among the wedding guests and their daughter Patricia is Konstam's trainbearer.

1932

• 4th - Lord Camber's Ladies is previewed to the trade press at the Prince Edward Theatre, London.
• 5th - The Manchester Guardian reviews the trade preview of Lord Camber's Ladies and laments the trend of having the top-billed actors appear in minor roles — "Gerald du Maurier only comes into the picture half-way through" — but praises Benita Hume as being "admirably unsympathetic as the nurse."
• 15th - Variety reports that when Hitchcock's contract at British International Pictures expires in March 1933, the studio will not be renewing it.

1933

• 9th - The Times reports that Hitchcock has nearly completed filming on Waltzes from Vienna.

1934

• Hitchcock and Charles Bennett spend the winter of 1934 working on the script for The 39 Steps.

1935

• 9th - Although the script for Sabotage is still under development, Hitchcock sends a second unit out to capture footage of the Lord Mayor's procession to the Law Courts for use in the film.

1936

• With filming on Secret Agent falling behind schedule, John Gielgud has to juggle filming insert shots and starring alongside Laurence Olivier in Romeo and Juliet on the London stage.
• Principal photography commences on Sabotage, starring Sylvia Sidney, Oskar Homolka and John Loder.

1938

• After much press speculation that Hitchcock's first American film will be about the Titanic disaster, David O. Selznick formally announces it will be an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.

1940

• Alma and Joan Harrison complete an initial treatment of Francis Iles' 1932 book Before the Fact. Screenwriter Samson Raphaelson then spends the next 5 weeks fashioning the full script for what would become Suspicion. Raphaelson would later recall it as being "the easiest and most pleasant" experience he had working in the film industry.

1941

• Hitchcock signs Robert Cummings and Priscilla Lane as the leads for Saboteur.
• 26th - The New York Times reports that the Hitchcocks have arrived into New York by plane for a short visit.

1942

• 19th - Hitchcock moves to his new offices at Twentieth Century-Fox. With Darryl F. Zanuck away on active service in North Africa, Hitchcock meets with William Goetz and staff producer Kenneth Macgowan where he pitches the idea for a "lifeboat film". Nine months later, Lifeboat would begin filming.

1943

• Filming on Lifeboat completes in early-November. On the last day of shooting, Hitchcock presents Tallulah Bankhead with a Sealyham Terrier puppy.
• An early edit of Lifeboat is screened for Twentieth Century-Fox's studio head Darryl Zanuck, who "raved about [it] as an outstanding film with awards potential".

1944

• 21st - Eliot Stannard, one of England's most prolific screenwriters, dies aged 56. He wrote (or co-wrote) the scenarios for Hitchcock's The Pleasure Garden (1925), The Mountain Eagle (1926), Downhill (1927), The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), The Ring (1927), Champagne (1928), Easy Virtue (1928), The Farmer's Wife (1928) and The Manxman (1929).

1945

• Spellbound opens to positive reviews and recoups eight times it's production costs within weeks.

1948

• 2nd - The Hitchcocks host a dinner at their Bellagio Road home for Whitfield Cook and Hume Cronyn, whilst listening to the results of the election — Harry Truman is reelected.
• 27th - The Hitchcocks spend the Thanksgiving weekend at their Scotts Valley ranch, accompanied by Whitfield Cook.

1950

• Czenzi Ormonde and Barbara Keon complete their rewrite of the Strangers on a Train script.
• 16th - The Screen Directors' Playhouse broadcasts a radio adaptation of Lifeboat, starring Tallulah Bankhead and Jeff Chandler. Hitchcock provides a short introduction to the adaptation.

1953

• 13th - Cinematographer Robert Burks begins photography tests on the complex studio set of Rear Window to ensure each part can be lit independently for both day and night scenes.
• The cast for Rear Window is finalised by mid-November.
• 16th - Patricia Hitchcock plays a supporting role in the first part of two-part radio adaptation of Wilkie Collins' novel "The Moonstone", broadcast as part of the Suspense series.
• 27th - Principal photography begins Hitchcock's first film for Paramount, Rear Window, starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly. The first sequence to be filmed is the complex opening title sequence — 10 takes are required before Robert Burks is happy.

1954

• After many years of trying to hire Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock finally secures the composer to create the score for The Trouble with Harry.
• 12th - With John Michael Hayes unavailable, studio records indicate that Alec Coppel was hired for a week to write a small number of dialogue changes for To Catch a Thief which were then redubbed over the existing footage.

1955

• The Hitchcocks tour Asia to promote The Trouble with Harry, visiting Inida, Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong.
• 13th - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Breakdown", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.

1957

• 4th - Hitchcock hosts an Alfred Hitchcock Presents party at the Coconut Grove (part of the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles) for TV magazine editors.
• 6th - Hitchcock hosts a "Chuckwagon Diner" party at Republic Studios for newspaper columnists.
• 14th - Over lunch, Hitchcock offers Vertigo actress Barbara Bel Geddes the staring role in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Lamb to the Slaughter".

1959

• Actress Janet Leigh meets Hitchcock for the first time at his home on Bellagio Road where he outlines his plans for Psycho. She later wrote, "He outlined his modus operandi. The angles and shots of each scene were predetermined, carefully charted before the picture began. There could be no deviations. His camera was absolute. Within the boundary of the lens circumference, the player was given freedom, as long as the performance didn't interfere with the already designed move [...] This was the way the man worked. And since I had profound respect for his results, I would earnestly comply."
• 11th - Principal photography begins on Psycho, starring Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, John Gavin, Vera Miles and Martin Balsam.

1961

• 6th - A discarded cigarette butt starts a fire in Bel Air that eventually destroys over 500 houses and causes $30,000,000 damage. The Hitchcocks store their valuables in the wine cellar and seek temporary shelter.
• 8th - Tippi Hedren takes part in a screen test with Martin Balsam. Hitchcock directs them both in scenes from Rebecca, Notorious and To Catch a Thief.
• 10th - Evan Hunter submits his second draft of The Birds screenplay before flying back to New York with his family.
• 21st - The Production Code Administration's Geoffrey Shurlock writes to Peggy Robertson with a list of concerns over the script for The Birds.
• 28th - Over dinner at Chasen's Restaurant with Alma and Lew Wasserman, Hitchcock offers Tippi Hedren the lead role in The Birds.
• 30th - Hitchcock sends Evan Hunter five pages of notes and amendments based on Hunter's second draft of The Birds screenplay.

1962

• Reels of footage are sent to Remi Gassmann and Oskar Sala in Germany to record the electronic tratonium soundtrack for The Birds.

1968

• 18th - Producer Walter Wanger, who worked with Hitchcock on Foreign Correspondent, dies of a heart attack aged 74.

1970

• 17th - Actor Naunton Wayne, who memorably appeared alongside Basil Radford in The Lady Vanishes, dies aged 69.

1971

• 5th - Composer Henry Mancini is sent a copy of the Frenzy script and he begins working on his score for the film.
• 10th - Hitchcock's trusted assistant Peggy Robertson leaves London to fly back to Los Angeles. Also safely stowed on the plane are the camera negatives of Frenzy.
• 11th - Hitchcock begins work with editor John Jympson to create a work print of Frenzy that can be sent to composer Henry Mancini. Whilst overseeing the editing, Hitchcock begins conducts several interviews with journalists and film critics.
• 29th - Editor John Jympson flies out to London with the film to prepare for the recording sessions with Henry Mancini. Hitchcock has supplied him with copious notes on further refinements to both the film and it's soundtrack.

1972

• 16th - Hitchcock attends George Cukor's luncheon honouring the visiting Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel.

1975

• Universal's music executive Harry Garfield recommends composer John Williams to Hitchcock after the director rejects the studios suggestion of Henry Mancini, who had written the rejected score to Frenzy (1972). Williams first seeks approval from his friend Bernard Herrman and then spends several weeks meeting with Hitchcock over lunch to discuss the score and classical music in general.

1976

• 7th - As part of a season celebrating the 50th anniversary of Elstree Studios, BBC Television broadcasts Blackmail (1929) with a specially recorded introduction by Hitchcock.

1977

• Grace Kelly visits the Hitchcocks.
• 4th - Actress Betty Balfour, who starred in Champagne (1928), dies aged 74.

1979

• 11th - Composer Dimitri Tiomkin, who worked with Hitchcock on Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, I Confess and Dial M for Murder, dies aged 85.

1984

• 5th - Ivor Montagu, who edited three of Hitchcock's earliest films and acted as a producer on four more, dies aged 80.

1986

• 19th - Actor Cary Grant, who starred in Suspicion, Notorious, To Catch a Thief and North by Northwest, dies aged 82.

1987

• 20th - Helen Scott, who acted as the translator during François Truffaut's interviews with Hitchcock, dies aged 72.

2001

• 6th - Dramatist Anthony Shaffer, who wrote the screenplay for Frenzy, dies aged 75.

2002

• 29th - Actor Daniel Gélin, who appeared in The Man Who Knew Too Much, dies aged 81.

2003

• 12th - Writer Whitfield Cook, who worked on the films Stage Fright and Strangers on a Train, dies aged 94.

2004

• 22nd - Assistant director Daniel McCauley, who worked To Catch a Thief, The Wrong Man and Vertigo, dies aged 88.

2006

• 23rd - French actor Philippe Noiret, who appeared in Topaz, dies aged 76.

2012

• 18th - The New York premiere of "Hitchcock" takes place at the Ziegfeld Theater, Manhattan.
• 20th - The Los Angeles premiere of "Hitchcock" takes place at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

References

Hitchcock Chronology
1890s	1890	1891	1892	1893	1894	1895	1896	1897	1898	1899
1900s	1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905	1906	1907	1908	1909
1910s	1910	1911	1912	1913	1914	1915	1916	1917	1918	1919
1920s	1920	1921	1922	1923	1924	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929
1930s	1930	1931	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936	1937	1938	1939
1940s	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
1950s	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
1960s	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969
1970s	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979
1980s	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
1990s	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
2000s	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
2010s	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
months	-	-	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	-	-
months	-	-	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	-	-