Buzz
Alfred Hitchcock stands as one of the greatest directors of all time. Yet, his genius came with a dark side, one that often caused those around him to suffer. Pushing boundaries and testing the limits of his cast and crew, Hitchcock's eccentric personality was as captivating as his films.
10. The iconic North By Northwest almost took place in a much more unusual location: the nose of Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore.
In Alfred Hitchcock's thriller, North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant, the film was nearly concluded with a drastically different outcome. The plot follows an advertising executive from New York who becomes the target of foreign agents, with them mistakenly thinking he's a government agent, leading to a thrilling chase as he attempts to elude them.
One of the key settings in the film is the majestic Mount Rushmore, an unmistakable symbol of American grandeur. However, the original plan for a key scene involved Cary Grant hiding inside Lincoln's nose after being pursued by foreign spies across the faces of the Presidents. The writers even visited the actual site, only to be understandably unnerved by the overwhelming task they faced.
The National Parks Commission tried to dissuade Hitchcock from filming there, deeming it disrespectful to the monument. Hitchcock reluctantly agreed to the suggestion of filming a scene where Lincoln himself would hide inside Cary Grant's nose instead.
The debate didn't end there. The Parks Commission prohibited any violent scenes at the monument, prompting Hitchcock to get creative. He solved the dilemma by having his production team recreate Mount Rushmore in Hollywood.
9. The Lost Film: The Mountain Eagle
According to Alfred Hitchcock himself, The Mountain Eagle was nothing short of a disastrous film. It tells the story of a schoolteacher, a local Justice of the Peace who pursues her, and a strange hermit who comes to her rescue. While it was praised for its direction, it was overall regarded as slow and tedious.
Released in Germany in 1925, the film had a limited run. It was never shown in England, and film historians remain uncertain whether it was ever screened in the United States (where it was supposed to be titled Fear o' God). Recently, a few production stills have been discovered, but the actual film itself is missing.
The movie, set in Kentucky, was filmed in the small Austrian village of Obergurgl, far from civilization. Filming began with a few complications. The night before shooting, a snowstorm hit, so Hitchcock had fire hoses sprayed over the set to clear the snow. The set, which was made up of the villagers' homes, suffered a mishap when the roof of one house collapsed. Hitchcock paid the owner twice what the mayor had asked for to repair the roof. On top of that, Hitchcock was not making friends with the locals. After waking up ill, he blamed his sickness on the 'ungodly dialects' of the villagers.
Hitchcock selected Obergurgl as the location for his film after seeing it on a postcard. During the production, his treatment of the village and its people was quite harsh—he not only refused to stay in the local inn but also criticized the villagers' accents. Despite this, Obergurgl's 400 or so residents now hope that the movie filmed in their small village will someday be rediscovered.
8. The Odd Filming of Marnie’s Horseback Riding Scenes
Marnie tells the tale of a deeply troubled woman, haunted by the trauma of her past. One of the few things that brings her solace is her horse, Forio. However, when it came to filming the riding scenes, Hitchcock refused to shoot outdoors. Instead, he secured a massive 10-meter (30 ft) treadmill, on which the horse playing Forio was trained to walk. So, if the riding scenes in Marnie seem slightly unusual, that’s the reason behind it.
The horseback scenes were meant to symbolize a rare moment of freedom and safety in the life of a woman who otherwise had neither. However, actress Tippi Hedren felt neither freedom nor safety during the process. The horse's handlers were horrified by the idea of using a treadmill. Despite this, the scenes were monitored by the Humane Society, and the AHA director approved as long as Forio’s off-screen fate was kept discreet and the riding was done responsibly.
During the pivotal hunting scene, Hitchcock still refused to film his actress riding a real horse outdoors. While close-ups were filmed indoors, he turned to Walt Disney to borrow a mechanical horse for the exterior scenes. Later, Hedren would recall the live horse as one of the few positive experiences she had while working on the set.
7. The Real-Life Bird Attack in California
In 1961, thousands of birds suddenly descended upon Monterey Bay in California. They were disoriented, crashing into buildings, vomiting fish, and eventually collapsing dead in the streets. The birds, specifically sooty shearwaters, made the headlines on August 18. Soon after, Hitchcock reached out to the newspaper, intrigued by the bizarre bird behavior that had plagued the city. This event inspired him to create The Birds, which was released in 1963.
At first, it seemed like a one-time occurrence. But thirty years later, the phenomenon struck again, this time with the area’s brown pelicans attacking people and objects seemingly without reason.
Biologists at Louisiana State University have since identified the cause of the birds' erratic behavior. The toxin responsible is called domoic acid, produced by a type of algae known as Pseudo-nitzschia. During the attacks, Pseudo-nitzschia made up approximately 79 percent of the stomach contents of the zooplankton in the area.
Domoic acid is a dangerous substance, not only for birds. As it moves up the food chain, it becomes more concentrated in animals that consume it. It has been linked to shellfish poisoning in humans. In 1987, over 100 people fell ill after consuming mussels contaminated with the toxin, and four died from complications. In humans, symptoms include short-term memory loss, while in animals, including birds, it causes disorientation, seizures, and ultimately death.
6. The Bathroom Scenes
Hitchcock is famously known for featuring the first on-screen flushing toilet in Psycho, but his fascination with bathrooms didn’t stop there. The bathroom became one of Hitchcock’s signature settings, appearing consistently throughout his work. He often used it as a confined, enclosed space, a place for characters to hide or conceal something. It became a setting for spies and voyeurs to open secret letters or uncover hidden truths.
Additionally, Hitchcock had a penchant for bathroom humor.
When a film didn’t naturally call for a bathroom scene, or if there simply wasn’t enough bathroom space available, Hitchcock found creative ways to incorporate the essence of a bathroom. The letters 'B.M.' are scattered throughout his films. For example, in Lifeboat, John Kovac has a 'BM' tattoo. In Shadow of a Doubt, the letters appear engraved on a ring.
What does 'BM' stand for? Bowel movement.
5. Hitchcock's First Film
In 2011, the film world was stunned when three reels of an old melodrama were discovered in a New Zealand archive.
The White Shadow tells the tale of twin sisters—one virtuous, one wicked—whose lives intertwine with cabarets, mistaken identities, mysterious disappearances, passionate romances, and cryptic encounters. While the concept of a good vs. evil twin movie faced criticism for being both predictable and implausible, it was acknowledged for its acting and direction.
Hitchcock is credited as an assistant director, art director, writer, and editor. His directorial influence was so apparent that even with only half the film's reels surviving and no obvious links to him, the film was unmistakably associated with him.
The reels were discovered in the personal collection of projectionist Jack Murtagh. After Murtagh's passing, his collection was sent to New Zealand’s Film Archive. Labeled 'Twin Sisters,' it wasn't linked to Hitchcock until an archivist noticed it had an uncanny resemblance to his work. Further investigation uncovered reviews of the film, which had long been considered lost. While half of the movie is still missing, the three reels that were recovered are now preserved.
At the time of filming, Hitchcock was just 24 years old. He had only been in the film industry for about four years, starting out with a job designing title cards.
4. The True Story Behind Rear Window
Rear Window, a standout among Hitchcock’s legendary films, is often associated with real-life inspiration. While the infamous Ed Gein is credited as the muse for Psycho, this film, too, draws from a true event.
Taking place almost entirely within the confines of a single apartment building, the film stars James Stewart as a photographer immobilized by a broken leg. He begins observing his neighbors and grows suspicious that one of them has committed a murder and is trying to cover it up. This storyline was inspired by a bizarre and tragic murder case from the 1920s.
On May 2, 1924, London police detained a man named Patrick Mahon at a train station after he was found carrying a suspicious suitcase. Inside were bloody clothes and a knife. His explanation that he was carrying meat for dogs raised doubts, and when questioned further, he gave an almost confessional response. The full truth emerged only later during his trial.
Mahon had a criminal history, including an assault with a hammer that nearly killed a woman, as well as being involved in a series of burglaries and minor crimes. Despite this, he held a cover as a Sunday school teacher. It was during his time as a teacher and typist that he met Emily Kaye. Her bloodstained clothes were found in the suitcase, part of his efforts to dispose of her body after he murdered her.
Mahon's court testimony claimed that Emily first threw an axe at him, leading to her accidental death, but it was the gruesome details of how he disposed of her body that caught Hitchcock’s attention. Mahon dismembered her body, transporting the pieces to the train station where he was caught. Some of the remains were later discovered burned in his fireplace, but her head was never recovered.
The concept of discreetly transporting a dismembered body in a suitcase, piece by piece, captivated Hitchcock and served as the inspiration behind his film, Rear Window.
3. Hitchcock’s Cameo Appearances
One of Hitchcock’s signature moves was making cameo appearances in his films. As these cameos grew in popularity, he strategically placed them earlier in the film to prevent audiences from becoming too distracted by searching for him. However, the director’s plan didn’t always succeed as intended.
In his brief appearance in Notorious, Hitchcock is seen at a party with a glass of champagne. Initially, he had envisioned a more elaborate cameo where he would walk down the street with a woman, playing the role of a deaf-mute. He had planned for his character to sign something inappropriate, prompting the woman to slap him. When word of this idea spread, Hitchcock received an overwhelming number of disapproving letters, which led him to alter the cameo.
Several of his cameos come with their own interesting backstories. In The Birds, Hitchcock not only appears, but also features his two beloved dogs, Stanley and Geoffrey. In The Wrong Man, he departs from his usual cameo, opting instead to provide a voice-over narration at the beginning of the film, marking the only time he speaks in one of his movies. Meanwhile, Lifeboat posed a unique challenge due to its confined setting, so Hitchcock appeared as both the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos in a newspaper ad. These were unaltered real-life photos of him: one from when he weighed over 135 kilograms (300 lb) and the other when he weighed around 90 kilograms (200 lb). Hitchcock’s lifelong struggle with his weight was evident in these images.
Throughout his career, Hitchcock made an appearance in 37 of his own films.
2. The Murder That Halted Psycho's Production
In 1960, Psycho was released in theaters, but it was scheduled to air on CBS in September 1966. The network had paid $800,000 for the rights to broadcast it twice, yet it never aired. This was due to a murder eerily resembling the one in the movie that occurred just days before the scheduled broadcast of Psycho.
Chuck Percy, a popular and accomplished senator from Chicago, faced a tragedy on September 18, 1966, when his daughter, Valerie, was murdered in the upper floor of their grand 17-room home. Reports suggest the killer was familiar with the house, targeting the 21-year-old with brutal intent. Despite Valerie’s mother witnessing the attacker, the killer was never brought to justice.
The timing of the murder mirrored the events in Psycho, leading CBS to cancel the scheduled airing of the film. The network decided that, in light of the recent tragedy, it would be in poor taste to broadcast the movie.
CBS never rescheduled Psycho, and the film didn’t make its television debut until June 1967, nearly six months after the original broadcast date. A New York station finally aired the movie, but edited the infamous shower scene, cutting it down to show only three stabs.
1. The Obsessive Fans of Janet Leigh
Several of Alfred Hitchcock’s actresses had unsettling experiences as a result of their roles in his films. Janet Leigh’s portrayal of Marion Crane in Psycho led to an especially strange aftermath, one tied to one of the most iconic scenes in movie history—the shower scene.
Leigh revealed that for 35 years, she was forced to frequently change her phone number after receiving disturbing calls. Some callers would claim that Marion Crane deserves to die again, referencing her character's death, while others sent threatening letters, vowing to kill her in the shower, just as it occurred on screen. Though Leigh forwarded the letters to the FBI, no action was ever taken, but she admitted that the constant stream of threats left her genuinely fearful.
The threats fueled a lasting terror in Leigh, especially when it came to bathrooms. After working on and watching the movie, she refused to take showers, saying that while filming was terrifying, seeing the finished film only deepened her fear. In her own home, she only had baths, and showering in hotels or at friends’ places caused overwhelming panic. She could only shower with the door and the shower curtain open and couldn’t turn her back to the door.
