Alfred Hitchcock came to California in 1939 to film his first American production, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1940) starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier. Most people know he lived near Hollywood in Bel Air with his wife, Alma, and daughter, Pat, and it is well known the he found inspiration in and around the Bay Area as a backdrop location for several of his films.
The scene fades up on a simple line-drawing* of Alfred Hitchcock's rotund profile (the word rotund seems to have been invented to describe Hitchcock, imagine finding this caricature next to the word in the dictionary); The "Funeral March of a Marionette" plays, and Hitchcock emerges in silhouette from the right side of the screen. Walking to the center of the frame his bulk fills in the caricature. He turns to the camera and says – “Good Eeevening.”
I love a good mystery. So do millions of other readers, and some of them don’t mind paying a premium price in order to acquire a particular volume. The 34th annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, held recently at St. Petersburg’s handsome 1920s vintage Coliseum Ballroom was, as usual, a veritable literary feast. A hundred dealers from around the country displayed their wares in well lighted, neatly piped and draped booths, and mysteries were prominently featured in many of them.
The Visalia Players welcomes the New Year with the hilarious farce The 39 Steps. The show is based “loosely” on Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The 39 Steps and includes quips, puns, and allusions to other Hitchcock films such as North by North West, Rear Window, Vertigo, and Psycho.
Film directing in the 1930s was a series of peaks and valleys for British-born Alfred Hitchcock. By 1939, the Master of Suspense had directed twenty-three films in his homeland; but with success came frustration. He was under contract with British International Pictures, and forced to accept film projects that were not to his liking. Many were simply adaptations of novels and plays, and his creativity was stifled by restrictions placed upon him by studio executives.
The staff here at KRL decided it would be fun to share with our readers their favorite mystery, suspense or horror film! Feel free to comment and share yours with us too!
Our winners for top pics are Silence of the Lambs & The Sixth Sense!
