Alfred Hitchcock

Presenter0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Alfred Hitchcock0:08

I'm a very good listener. Uh uh from an early age I was a devotee of uh symphonic music. Uh

Alfred Hitchcock0:17

uh, you know, the Albert Hall on Sunday and the Queen's Hall and

Presenter0:20

Yeah.

Alfred Hitchcock0:22

so forth. You know, uh I'm a Londoner and uh I was uh quite uh a devotee of the theatre at a very early age, a first nighter, I think probably at the age of sixteen or seventeen, maybe earlier.

Alfred Hitchcock0:40

Uh

Presenter0:40

Were films an ambition from your school days, or or like most of us, did you just happen to get into the job you like?

Presenter0:46

Um

Alfred Hitchcock0:47

I would say that, um, uh

Alfred Hitchcock0:51

Apart from being a devotee of the theatre,

Alfred Hitchcock0:54

And the concert, of course, films also had an important part.

Alfred Hitchcock0:59

in one's uh amusements. Uh but uh my interest became a little more deep beyond, shall we say, the fan magazine stage. I think my reading at that time, where films were concerned, was the trade magazine. So I really got deeply interested in pictures. Were films your first job? No, no. My first job was a technical engineering job actually. I had studied engineering and I was in the uh

Alfred Hitchcock1:31

um estimating department of a cable company.

Alfred Hitchcock1:35

And um

Alfred Hitchcock1:37

Eventually then I gravitated to the advertising department where having taken a course of art at the University of London I was able to uh express myself there and through that I went into the designing of what were in those days of silent films the art title. Uh they were rather naïve affairs when I look back on them. You know the title would say uh John was leading a very fast life and I would draw a candle with a flame at both ends underneath, you know.

Alfred Hitchcock2:10

And that brought you there into script writing, writing scripts and then art direction and

Alfred Hitchcock2:16

And eventually interdirection. Yes. What was the first picture you directed?

Alfred Hitchcock2:20

The very first picture I directed was called The Pleasure Garden. It was a melodrama and it was made in Munich, Germany, and I had to uh direct it in Germany.

Alfred Hitchcock2:31

Mhm. Was that difficult? Was your German pretty good or? Did you have a single picture? But it was silent pictures so that uh one wasn't involved in the finer points of dialogue or anything like that.

Presenter2:35

I provide a

Presenter2:46

Well, then, a few years later, you directed the very first British sound film. That's right.

Alfred Hitchcock2:49

That's right, that was called blackmail, yes.

Presenter2:53

If you were to make quite a number of varied films before you settled down to s to specialize in suspense pictures, which film was was the turning point? Which one made you say, This is what I can do and and what I want to do?

Alfred Hitchcock3:07

Well, I really think that, um

Alfred Hitchcock3:10

Uh

Alfred Hitchcock3:12

The film

Alfred Hitchcock3:14

The lady vanishes. Pretty well set the pattern. Um I w I would say this, I think it's more uh since one's been in America that one's been what is called quote typed unquote.

Alfred Hitchcock3:28

There, much more than in England, uh standardization, as you well realize, is a very important part of the national life.

Presenter3:39

Yes. When you went to work in Hollywood, did you find any major adjustment necessary? Your films had always been very British in in background and character.

Alfred Hitchcock3:46

Uh

Presenter3:46

Uh

Alfred Hitchcock3:48

Uh no, the none not at all, because you see, the first film I ever made in America was an English film. It was called Rebecca. And I have made many English films since. The second film I made was called Foreign Correspondent. That was all laid in London and and Holland.

Alfred Hitchcock4:07

Um no, the thing that I began to learn

Alfred Hitchcock4:11

was the fact of

Alfred Hitchcock4:13

Uh an audience is the same the world over.

Alfred Hitchcock4:17

And not to make films for one audience, but to make them for a world audience.

Presenter4:22

You work as a freelance, don't you?

Alfred Hitchcock4:24

Yes, yes.

Presenter4:25

So that you have complete freedom from interference to work just the way you want to from the first idea right up to the finish phase. Yes, yes.

Alfred Hitchcock4:28

Mathematics.

Alfred Hitchcock4:29

Yes, right up to the finish fields, yes.

Presenter4:31

Which has been your favourite film?

Alfred Hitchcock4:33

From what you

Presenter4:33

Yeah.

Alfred Hitchcock4:33

Well, um I actually make many types of films.

Alfred Hitchcock4:39

In other words, the adventure story or the psychological thriller.

Alfred Hitchcock4:45

Um, I think my favorite

Alfred Hitchcock4:48

is called um Shadow of a Doubt because this film combined many elements, the element of suspense, the element of the of the local atmosphere of a small town.

Alfred Hitchcock5:02

And and quite an amount of character, and also the enjoyment of having worked with Thornton Wilder. Yes, I remember it.

Presenter5:09

It will.

Alfred Hitchcock5:11

Uh

Presenter5:11

The pattern of the film industry is changing very fast. Um audiences, they say, are losing the cinema habit. There are fewer films. What do you think will be the the future pattern?

Alfred Hitchcock5:21

I think that um audiences now having become selective.

Alfred Hitchcock5:27

uh when the assembly line has gone. Uh I think each film stands on its own merits. I think one has to tackle it in terms of making a film that will attract audiences for its special virtues, not just another movie. Yes. As you as you say, uh the habit has gone. The nearest I could compare it would be, say, the publishing of a new book.

Alfred Hitchcock5:54

or a play.

Alfred Hitchcock5:56

Now if it's successful it has a good run.

Alfred Hitchcock6:00

If it isn't successful, then it's gone.

Presenter6:01

To cut out this present rather ridiculous release system where every film, whether it's a masterpiece or or a piece of tripe, always plays one week.

Alfred Hitchcock6:10

That's ridiculous as you know. I mean, uh why shouldn't a film have its uh run uh if there are people who are willing to

Presenter6:10

Yeah, you

Alfred Hitchcock6:18

Pay to see it over a period of weeks. Mhm. Just as a stage play. Yes. You've moved into the television field as well, haven't you?

Alfred Hitchcock6:26

A little sideline, yes. Of course that doesn't compare at all with the making of pictures in any way.

Presenter6:32

But you've told us about th the last film you you've been making. Are are you planning another one?

Presenter6:36

I'm

Alfred Hitchcock6:37

I'm planning a psychological film. It's called uh Psycho.

Alfred Hitchcock6:42

and uh is in the nature, shall we say, of a rather gentle horror picture. Splendid. And as usual, are you going to be in it yourself for just a a brief appearance? Oh, I always make the brief appearance, but now, of course, uh especially in America,

Presenter6:52

Oh I owe it.

Alfred Hitchcock6:57

One's uh visit is so familiar now that I have to get into the picture and out as quickly as possible so as not to spoil the story. You have a reputation in the studios for being a practical joker. Would you say that's justified? Um not today. Uh as a matter of fact, um the practical jokes that I used to enjoy were always benevolent ones. They were never uh burning the seat of another person's parents. Not that kind of thing.

Alfred Hitchcock7:23

As a matter of fact, um I gave it up because they were rather too generous and they were expensive and costly, so I couldn't do it anymore.