Hitchcock Trivia

[MrWriteLA]

>Also wasn't "Deathtrap" a little late

> for him? By the time it finally came out he had been

> dead for 2 years.

 

The play opened on Broadway to rave reviews in 1979, the year before he died. It's conceivable he turned it down partly for health reasons, though this is mere conjecture on my part.

[RobertEmmettHarron]

May I play too?

 

Unique to Hermann's Vertigo score is the fact it is in the only one he did not conduct himself. It was conducted by Muir Matheson.

[MrWriteLA]

You got it!

 

There was a musician's strike at the time, and Herrmann was prohibited from conducting anywhere in the world. The weird thing is that part of the score was recorded in London in stereo, and the rest in France in mono.

 

Welcome to the thread, Robert. Your turn to think one up.

[MarkMiller]

You guys are good. See if you know this one. As Hitch started to direct his final film, "Family Plot," he became frustrated with one of the actors and fired him. Who was this unfortunate player and who replaced him?

[RobertEmmettHarron]

Roy Thinnes was the actor sacked. He was replaced by William Devane.

 

All right, here's a toughie. Among Hitchcock's favorite actors were Leo G. Carroll (with whom he did five films), and James Stewart, Cary Grant, and Edmund Gwenn with whom he did four apiece.

Everyone knows this (wink, wink). But who is the fifth actor who belongs in this select company? Hitchcock also made four films with this British actor, who typically was cast as a heroic sort, but whose image tended to curdle as the films unspooled.

[MrWriteLA]

Herbert Marshall?

[RobertEmmettHarron]

Excellent guess. Not correct, though.

[path40a]

John Longden

[MarkMiller]

Norman Lloyd is not the answer. Could he qualify?

Maybe Cedric Hardwicke?

[RobertEmmettHarron]

Gotta doff my cap to the chap who said John Longdon. That's exactly correct. The films, of course, are Blackmail, Juno and the Paycock, The Skin Game, and Young and Innocent. Bloody good job on that answer!

[path40a]

Thanks! My first guess was going to be Ian Hunter, but I could only think of three.

 

What actor in a Hitchcock film wrote a thriller of his own (that was made into a movie) in addition to another that was made into a movie starring Bette Davis?

[RobertEmmettHarron]

Is it Emlyn Williams?

[path40a]

Yes it is; boy, that was fast! FWIW, he appeared in Jamaica Inn (1939) and wrote the plays: "Night Must Fall" and "The Corn is Green".

 

Your turn ...

[RobertEmmettHarron]

Yes, but you had me scratching my head for a minute. Curiously, one doesn't really think of Emlyn Williams as a Hitchcock actor. From what I've read though, they got along quite well on the set of Jamaica Inn. All right, this one is pretty easy, I'm afraid.

Who am I?

" I am an actor. My unique claim to fame in the Hitchcock canon is the fact that I have more dialogue in the coming attractions trailer than I do in the feature film in which my character appears. What's my name?

[MarkMiller]

Maybe it's not so easy. Any hints?

[MrWriteLA]

It's Dick Hogan, who plays the murder victim in "Rope."

 

The trailer featured a scene cut from the finished film, in which he walks and talks with his girl. In the actual movie, his dialogue consists solely of something like "Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhhh..."

[RobertEmmettHarron]

Bravo, Mr. Write for the right answer. Dick Hogan is correct, and that trailer is just fantastic. I love how it tells the story by indirection rather than just recapping the plot with the scenes from the film itself. Hitch was a master of the trailer, and its too bad more people don't copy this technique today. I do question, though, whether the scene in the trailer was ever intended to be part of the film itself. Doesn't Hogan tell Joan Chandler that he's on his way over to Brandon and Philip's apartment? Perhaps I misremember this, but if I am correct, it does seem like Joan might have mentioned it to the other party-goers, especially when they're all standing around going "where's David?" Anyhow, it is pretty interesting to see Hogan walking and talking, rather than just slumped over. You'd never know it from the film itself, but he and Douglas Dick (who played Kenneth) really did have more than a passing resemblance to each other.

So, on with the next question, please:

[bansi4]

Reduco?

[MrWriteLA]

Very good, Mongo. "Reduco" it was.

 

Your go.

[bansi4]

What was the name of the film that Hitchcock had intentions of making after his last movie "Family Plot"?

[MrWriteLA]

"The Short Night"

[bansi4]

Way to go, MrWrite. Your turn.

[MrWriteLA]

What two characters in a Hitchcock film later turn up in a Carol Reed film?

[CineSage_jr]

Charters and Caldicott, the Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne characters from Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES, turn up in Reed's NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH.

[MrWriteLA]

Very well done, cinesage! Exactly right.

 

Over to you...