Hitchcock Chronology: Month of October

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

1910

• In the autumn of 1910, Alfred Hitchcock, aged 11, begins studying at St. Ignatius College, a Jesuit Catholic secondary school in Stamford Hill, London.

1921

• Dangerous Lies is screened for the press and trade.

1925

• The London Film Society launches itself with a viewing of the German file Waxworks, directed by Paul Leni.
• Location filming for The Mountain Eagle takes place in Tyrolean villages of Obergurgl and Umhausen.

1926

• 1st - The Mountain Eagle is screened for the trade at the London Hippodrome.
• 20th - In an article published in the Aberdeen Journal, J. Aubrey Rees of the British Film League names Hitchcock as a high calibre director.

1927

• 12th - The Times newspaper reviews Downhill and says that Hitchcock "tells the story clearly and with humour, and, in most cases, the characters are drawn with great skill."
• 14th - British International Pictures holds a press luncheon in London where chairman John Maxwell announces that actress Betty Balfour has signed a two-year contract to the company and her first role will be in Hitchcock's Champagne.
• 25th - The Ring is screened for trade and press at the Majestic Theatre in Leeds, Yorkshire.

1929

• British International Pictures announces that Hitchcock will direct a screen adaptation of Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, followed by an adaptation of the Clemence Dane/Helen Simpson book Enter Sir John.

1930

• A British International Pictures press release of upcoming productions names Hitchcock as the director of The Man at Six.

1933

• 25th - Actress Lillian Hall-Davis, who starred in The Ring and The Farmer's Wife, commits suicide at her home in Golders Green, London. She had been suffering from neurasthenia and bouts of depression.
• 27th - An inquest is held into the suicide of actress Lillian Hall-Davis. The coroner returns a verdict that she "died from a cut throat, and that she took her own life while of unsound mind".

1934

• 27th - The Gloucester Citizen reports that Michael Balcon, freshly returned from America, stated that the reception of his company's films had far exceeded his expectations. "On the night I left New York three cinemas on Broadway were showing Gaumont British films, and both Mr. Jack Hulbert and Miss Nova Pilbeam, who accompanied me, were hailed as stars of the first rank."

1936

• Principal photography begins on Secret Agent, starring John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll and Robert Young.

1937

• The October issue of the World Film News journal carries a short news item stating that Hitchcock is working with Joan Harrison and Alma Reville to adapt a short story by French author Marcel Achard, with the intention of beginning production in November. At present, no decision has been made on casting. Newspaper reports from October confirm the title as False Witness. Instead, Hitchcock eventually takes over the existing Lost Lady project which becomes The Lady Vanishes (1938).

1938

• A month later than originally planned, filming commences on Jamaica Inn, starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara.

1939

• The Hitchcocks begin renting 609 St. Cloud Road, Bel Air from actress Carole Lombard.

1942

• 28th - Principal photography on Shadow of a Doubt is completed.

1944

• 13th - Filming on Spellbound is completed. An end-of-shooting party is held, with Romanoff's providing the catering.
• 15th - Hitchcock arrives in London. Much to David O. Selznick's annoyance, Hitchcock uses up his 12 weeks of holiday to meet with Sidney Bernstein in order to continue their discussions about creating a new film company.

1945

• Principal photography begins on Notorious, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains.

1947

• The House Committee on Un-American Activities begins a series of hearings in Washington D.C. to root out Communist influences in Hollywood. Among those affected by the subsequent Hollywood blacklist with links to Hitchcock are writers Arthur Laurents and Dorothy Parker, actors Hume Cronyn, Norman Lloyd and Canada Lee, actress Barbara Bel Geddes, and composer Lyn Murray.

1948

• 9th - Hitchcock flies from London to New York aboard American Overseas Airlines flight 131/09. The plane lands in New York on the 10th.
• 23rd - Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman take part in a photoshoot in London.
• Principal photography on Under Capricorn is completed in October and Hitchcock flies back to Hollywood, having spent over 6 months in England.

1949

• 20th - The BBC Radio series Film Time includes a report on the soundtrack for Under Capricorn.

1950

• Hitchcock hires Czenzi Ormonde to write script for Strangers on a Train. At their first script meeting, Hitchcock pinched his nose, picked up Raymond Chandler's script for the film with his thumb and forefinger and then theatrically dropped it into the nearest waste paper basket. After spending a couple of weeks working with Ormonde, Barbara Keon takes over and the two women work non-stop to complete the script.

1951

• Agent Leland Hayward tries to interest Hitchcock in buying the screen rights to Cornell Woolrich's short story "It Had to Be Murder". Hitchcock passes and options David Dodge's "To Catch a Thief" instead.
• 29th - Hitchcock is one of several interviewees who appears in the Focus on Hollywood episode broadcast on BBC Radio.

1952

• Frederick Knott's play Dial M for Murder is staged for the first time in America on Broadway. During the run, Hitchcock sees a performance.
• 2nd - With location work completed, the filming of I Confess moves to the Warner studios.
• 20th - Actor Basil Radford, who memorably played the role of Charters in The Lady Vanishes, dies of a heart attack, aged 55.
• Filming on I Confess is completed by late October.

1953

• Grace Kelly's agent telephones her to let her know she has been offered the role of "Lisa" in Rear Window. Kelly has already been offered the lead role opposite Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront, but jumps at the chance to work with Hitchcock again.
• 8th - Actor Nigel Bruce, who appeared in Rebecca and Suspicion, dies of a heart attack, aged 58.
• 20th - Screenwriter John Michael Hayes submits the first 21 pages of his initial draft of the Rear Window screenplay. The remaining 146 pages are completed by November 30th.

1954

• The October edition of Cahiers du Cinéma is devoted entirely to Hitchcock.
• The law suit originally filed by Irving Fiske in 1947, which claimed Hitchcock and Cary Grant had plagiarised Fiske's concept of a modern-language version of Hamlet, is heard at New York Federal Court with Judge William Bondy presiding. Fiske sought $750,000 in damages. After 11 days of detailed testimony, including key statements by Maurice Evans, Judge Bondy halted the trial and directed the jury to find the case "not proven". Hitchcock, who was busy filming The Trouble with Harry, did not attend the trial. Fiske was later ordered to pay $5,000 towards the director's legal costs.
• Unseasonal heavy rainstorms cause delays to the shooting of exterior scenes in East Craftsbury, forcing the filming of The Trouble with Harry to use a indoor set in a local school gymnasium.
• 13th - Whilst shooting in the indoor school gymnasium set, a 850lb crane-mounted VistaVision camera crashes to the floor grazing Hitchcock's shoulder and pinning crew member Michael Seminerio to the ground. Fortunately neither the director or Seminerio are seriously injured.
• 13th - John Michael Hayes completes his final script revisions for The Trouble with Harry.
• 14th - Due to the unpredictable weather, Hitchcock decides to end location shooting and film the remaining scenes back on the Paramount sound stages, leaving behind Herbert Coleman and the second unit to capture the remaining exterior landscape shots, using stand-in doubles for the actors. The News & Citizen, the local newspaper for Morrisville, Vermont, reported that "Hollywood's experiment with making an entire motion picture in Vermont ended Thursday as director-producer Alfred Hitchcock and his cast leave for their home studios after bucking Vermont's unpredictable weather for more than a month."
• 18th - Production on The Trouble with Harry resumes back at the Paramount sound stages. At short notice, Paramount art director John B. Goodman had constructed a set with artificial foam rubber trees and replicated the hillock on which Harry's body is found. The trees are dressed with leaves the crew have brought back from Vermont.
• 27th - Principal photography is completed on The Trouble with Harry.

1955

• Maxwell Anderson submits his first draft of The Wrong Man.
• 2nd - Alfred Hitchcock Presents premiers on US TV, with the Hitchcock directed episode "Revenge".
• Alma and Alfred Hitchcock depart from New York aboard the RMS Queen Mary to travel to France, Germany and Italy to oversee the foreign language dubbing of The Trouble with Harry.
• 19th - Actor John Hodiak, who starred in Lifeboat, dies of coronary thrombosis, aged 41.
• 24th - The Hitchcocks arrive into Southampton from New York aboard the RMS Queen Mary. They are listed as then staying at Claridge's hotel in London.

1956

• With plans to film Flamingo Feather abandoned, Hitchcock turns his attention to the French novel D'Entre Les Morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, which will eventually be filmed as Vertigo. Maxwell Anderson is charged with adapting the book, and James Stewart and Vera Miles are expected to star.
• Maxwell Anderson submits his adaption of D'Entre Les Morts, entitled "Darkling I Listen". Hitchcock finds it deeply unsatisfactory, and two other writers will work on the screenplay before Vertigo is ready to be filmed.
• 18th-22nd - Hitchcock directs the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Mr. Blanchard's Secret".

1957

• 14th - Journalist Otis L. Guernsey, Jr. writes to Hitchcock handing over his idea of a innocent man who is mistaken for a fictional spy. Together with screenwriter Ernest Lehman, the director expands the concept into the screenplay for North by Northwest. Guernsey receives $10,000 from MGM for the transfer of story rights.
• 20th - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "The Perfect Crime", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.

1958

• 5th - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Poison", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.

1959

• 1st - The Hitchcocks depart from Los Angeles on an European publicity tour for North by Northwest, calling at London and Paris.
• 4th - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "The Crystal Trench", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.
• 19th - Hitchcock appears as a special guest on the popular BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs.
• 23rd - The Motion Picture Daily reports that Hitchcock has left New York, bound for London.

1960

• 4th - Whilst in Paris, Hitchcock is awarded a silver medal by Julien Tardieu in honour of the director's contribution to the film industry.
• 12th - Whilst in Milan, Italy, to promote Psycho, Hitchcock is pictured sitting in a go-cart.
• 29th - Hitchcock returns to New York from Europe.

1961

• Hitchcock directs the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Bang! You're Dead".
• 13th - The Hitchcocks spot model Tippi Hedren in a television commercial.
• 17th - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Bang! You're Dead", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.
• 18th - Model Tippi Hedren signs a seven-year contract with Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions.

1962

• 11th - The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode "I Saw the Whole Thing", which was the only episode to be directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.
• Hitchcock completes his notes for The Birds soundtrack. After hearing the tratonium test, he decides the film's soundtrack should be entirely electronic sounds and natural sounds, with no traditional orchestration. Bernard Herrmann is contracted to act as the sound consultant for the film, with Remi Gassmann and Oskar Sala recording the tratonium sounds in Germany.

1965

• The English writing team of Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall arrive in Hollywood to work with Hitchcock on final script changes to Torn Curtain. Waterhouse and Hall will continuing working on the shooting script during filming.
• 18th - Principal photography begins on Torn Curtain, starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews.
• 18th - Actor Henry Travers, who appeared in Shadow of a Doubt, dies aged 91.

1966

• 22nd - British spy and double agent George Blake escapes from Wormwood Scrubs prison and flees to Russia. The story is later fictionalised by author Ronald Kirkbride and Hitchcock purchases the story rights with the intention of filming it as The Short Night.

1968

• With most of the location based filming complete, production on Topaz returns the Universal sound stages. Filming continues until April.

1969

• 3rd - Hitchcock is interviewed by Bryan Forbes in front of an audience at the National Film Theater in London.

1971

• 4th-21st - The remainder of the filming on Frenzy is mostly taken up with shooting the sequences on the potato truck, although Hitchcock is again unwell on Monday 4th.
• 5th - Alma flies back to America, accompanied by office secretary Sue Gauthier. She returns to their Bel Air home to rest and recuperate.
• 26th - Hitchcock leaves London to return to America aboard TWA flight #761.
• 29th - Now back in America and reunited with Alma, Hitchcock sends the following memo to Universal Studios: "Principal photography has been completed on FRENZY"

1973

• Family Plot is announced to the press.

1974

• Ill health continues to dog Hitchcock — fever, colitis, kidney stones, arthritis and the first of several falls. Work on Deceit is put on hold whilst the director recovers.

1977

• Ernest Lehman begins helping Hitchcock on the pre-prodcution of The Short Night.
• 17th - Film producer Michael Balcon, who gave Hitchcock the chance to direct his first feature film and then later signed him to Gaumont-British, dies aged 81.

1978

• Actor Barry Foster pays Hitchcock a visit.
• 3rd - Bill Ingram resigns from Technicolor to set up Simba Film Ltd, "to buy and sell theatrical and television product".
• 19th - The American Film Institute's Board of Trustees announce that Hitchcock will the 1979 recipient of the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award.

1984

• 21st - François Truffaut dies, aged 52.

1986

• 3rd - BBC Television broadcasts the second part of a two-part "Omnibus" documentary about Hitchcock titled "Sex, Murder and Mayhem".

1987

• 2nd - Actress Madeleine Carroll, who starred in The 39 Steps and Secret Agent, dies from pancreatic cancer, aged 81.

1990

• 20th - Actor Joel McCrea, who starred in Foreign Correspondent, dies aged 84.

1997

• 29th - Actress Janet Leigh unveils a new 32 cent stamp featuring Hitchcock as part of their "Legends of Hollywood" series. The stamp is eventually released in August 1998.

2001

• 3rd - Assistant director and producer Herbert Coleman, who worked with Hitchcock on 8 films and produced 16 episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, dies aged 93.
• 17th - Composer and songwriter Jay Livingston, who wrote "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" for The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), dies aged 86.
• 21st - Actress Linden Travers, who appeared in The Lady Vanishes, dies aged 88.

2004

• 3rd - Actress Janet Leigh, who starred in Psycho, dies after suffering a heart attack, aged 77.

2005

• 11th - Photographer Arthur Schatz, who worked on the pre-production of the Kaleidoscope project, dies.

2013

• 2nd - Film producer and assistant director Hilton A. Green, who worked with Hitchcock on Psycho and Marnie, dies aged 84.

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	-	-