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Some New Hitchcock Promotional Footage in a 1995 Doc

posted 7 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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I'm experimenting with streaming applications, and I found a 1995 documentary called "Alfred Hitchcock , The Master of Suspense." Creative title, huh?

Its about 1:43 minutes long, covers pretty much his entire career, and mainly does it simply by showing his trailers -- parts in some cases, all of them in other cases(famously Psycho; and also The Birds...which by keeping Hitchcock in one room seems to go on and on and on and on..)

The familiar trailers were the usual hoot to watch, but THIS documentary(put together in 1995) had a delightful handful of surprises...things I've never seen before.

To wit:

ONE: A TV commercial for The Birds. It starts with the footage of the film's credit sequence -- black birds flying through white air -- then one particular bird separates out, and flies towards US...and the TV screen shatters and goes dark, main tube sparking out.

Hitchcock appears: "There is nothing wrong with your TV. This is just to demonstrate to you that...the birds is coming!" (Hey, didn't that "there is nothing wrong with your TV" line turn up in Joe Stefano's The Outer Limits a year later?)

TWO: A TV commercial for Marnie. Hitchcock is stirring a giant pot of soup, he has giant shakers nearby, one marked: "Suspense" the other "Sex." He's talking about how to make Marnie, he had to add these two ingredients to the mix. He pours a LITTLE of the "Suspense" powder into the soup, and when he goes to pour the "Sex" in...a huge amount of powder -- the entire shaker, dumps out. "Oops," says Hitchcock, "that happened last time."

THREE: A TV commercial for the 1965 re-release of Psycho:

Words are on a black screen:
IF
You were too young

OR

You were too scared

OR

The box office lines were too long...

....Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO IS BACK!

(The documentary narrator intones that the 1965 re-release made "an astonishing $5 million dollars.)

FOUR: Several TV commercials for Topaz. I had thought that Hitchcock was only willing to make a brief appearance in one commercial, speaking briefly to answer "What is Topaz?" --"Its a code name for a secret spy organization." But no...here we get several commercials -- Hitchcock reading a newspaper in a dark room ("You must read behind the headlines"); Hitchcock framed in that weird round office mirror that opens Topaz, saying stuff. Evidently Hitchcock put a lot more into the Topaz trailers than I thought. They just weren't shown.

FIVE: Frenzy. There is one main "long trailer" for the film, but there were small TV trailers. One plays here: Hitchcock is wearing a very loud tie and says: "You may think that I am wearing an item of fashion apparel...but really I am wearing a murder weapon...the killer uses neckties to strangle young women." I also recall a trailer where Hitchcock is buying ties from a man behind the counter. Hitch says "I want to buy some neckties." The man says "for yourself?" Hitchcock says, "No, for my friend -- he uses them to strangle young women." Weirdly, the salesman's face turns rather evil and conspiratorial and guess what...its Gavin Elster! (Tom Helmore, 14 years after Vertigo.) In the summer of 1972, these TV commercials were strewn through a summer re-release(in syndication) of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Its a summer I remember well -- the Summer Hitch Came Back, if only in nostalgia. (Frenzy was the weird new British-set release; the Hitchcock Hours seemed like they were from long ago, even though some of them were only 6 years old!). The idea that "Hitchcock was back for good" proved as short-lived as The Return of Madeleine.

...nothing for Family Plot, though. And just the usual trailer for Torn Curtain.

This documentary also shows a number of short clips I've always wondered about: they are Hitchcock, in color, talking murder -- he was introducing packages of his TV shows for syndication. Probably around 1966.

Indeed, this doc used a LOT of clips of Hitchcock TV introductions, and then showed scenes from two significant episodes: "Man From the South"(with Steve McQueen, quite cool, his real wife Neile as his girlfriend, and Peter Lorre in the title role.) That's the one with the bet that Steve can light his lighter ten times in a row...or get a finger cut off with a cleaver.

And then they showed clips from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" -- the only half hour episode that was shot but never broadcast on network(it did go out in syndication.) Brandon deWilde plays a mentally slow young fellow who runs magician's assistant Diana Dors through a saw in a magic trick that goes quite wrong as you might guess. There's no blood, just a lot of screaming...and the feel of "Psycho" to much of it.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

This "documentary" was a fairly jerry-built contraption stitched together with trailers, but I would say about ten items(all, I suspect, from the Universal vaults ) were new to me and enjoyable. Best: that Birds TV commercial -- the way the one bird is "newly animated" to leave the credits pack and fly right at us, the smashing of the TV..Hitchcock suddenly appearing to tell us "the birds is coming!"(What a great, simple and memorable ad line that was, teased by Mad Magazine: "...and good grammar in advertising has went!") One feeling I had, watching that Birds commercial, is that excitement must have been high. It had been 3 years since Psycho, the TV show was riding high -- and here was a new Hitchcock shocker! You can sort of feel Hitchcock's hubris in the TV ad.

BTW, I'm not sure which application these productions are on(Hulu? Amazon Prime?) but they have a whole PACK of these movie documentaries. The one on Hitchcock, but mainly ones on movie stars: Cary Grant, Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, and a likeable one on Walter Matthau, where he is actually interviewed on many of his films(maybe in the 90s?)

He says of one "Oh, I like Charley Varrick. Its just that the script was infantile, stupid...not funny. But the director, Don Siegel said I could re-write it. So I did."

Oh, yeah?

[–] Doghouse (447) 7 years ago

A TV commercial for Marnie. Hitchcock is stirring a giant pot of soup, he has giant shakers nearby, one marked: "Suspense" the other "Sex." He's talking about how to make Marnie, he had to add these two ingredients to the mix. He pours a LITTLE of the "Suspense" powder into the soup, and when he goes to pour the "Sex" in...a huge amount of powder -- the entire shaker, dumps out. "Oops," says Hitchcock, "that happened last time."

I'm so glad that another living person I know has seen this with his own eyes!

I did, only once, many years ago and can't even recall where (it might have been at the LACMA festival in '72 or '73). Since the advent of the web with obscure videos swimming around everywhere, I've tried to find it, if only to confirm my own recollection. Now that I know I'm not delusional (about this, at least), I feel so much better.

[–] swanstep (2715) 7 years ago

@Doghouse. I feel the same way about the alternate Frenzy trailer w/ Tom Helmore/Elster that ecarle describes above: saw it once years ago somewhere online, have been looking for it ever since and primed to grab a copy.... but it's never popped up.

Apparently the trailer was on the Frenzy laserdisc, but for some reason has never been included again. This article has a full transcript and some framegrabs:
http://sensesofcinema.com/2005/feature-articles/hitchcocks_trailers_part2/

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

@Doghouse. I feel the same way about the alternate Frenzy trailer w/ Tom Helmore/Elster that ecarle describes above: saw it once years ago somewhere online, have been looking for it ever since and primed to grab a copy.... but it's never popped up.

---

ecarle, here:

I saw that commercial in 1972 -- they ran a lot of those commercials over and over(probably for free) in those Alfred Hitchcock Hours that summer. But I didn't know it was Tom Helmore -- nor did I remember his sinister, conspiratorial expression(as if he is HAPPY that Hitch is buying ties for a strangler to use, serves those women right!) -- until somebody sent me the clip years ago via e-mail -- and I eventually lost that e-mail system. As I recall, the version sent to me(I've combed Hitchcock sites for years, raised this commercial and -- voila! Sent to me.) had "For promotional purposes only" stenciled on the print, with a "running clock of time" on it. It must have been a "professional copy."

I might add that in both the long-form Frenzy trailer and the one commercial with Hitchcock alone that's on this documentary, the neckties worn by Hitchcock are ridiculously over-sized with loud patterns. I can't tell (yet again) if he was making fun of a deadly serious movie(during the murders) or felt that the ties had to "stand out."

----

Apparently the trailer was on the Frenzy laserdisc, but for some reason has never been included again. This article has a full transcript and some framegrabs:
http://sensesofcinema.com/2005/feature-articles/hitchcocks_trailers_part2/

---

How delicious...and as close as we can get for now.

As for never including it again, I wonder why. Was Helmore an actor who required royalties(for himself or his heirs?) Is the ad considered in bad taste now -- with Hitchcock and Helmore seeming to be on the side of the sexually predatory strangler? Perhaps the latter. Maybe Hitchcock's many female family members had it pulled.

I'm just guessing.

UPDATE: I looked at the freeze frames. There are those "clock numbers" -- I guess this is the only "print." Mr. Helmore looks, sadly, a lot older than he did as Elster. And the neckties with the word "Frenzy" on them -- I recall feeling that Frenzy was a wonderful return to the "showmanship of Hitchcock." These commercials and all the necktie business excited me as much as the rave comeback reviews. (The killer did NOT use neckties in the book; this was the stylistic conceit of Hitchcock and probably Anthony Shaffer.) "You CAN go home again."

Though alas, when I actually saw Frenzy, and SAW the necktie strangling -- extended, realistic, without music -- those neckties were not so "fun" anymore.

PS. Back to that Birds TV commercial -- which opens the documentary -- it really is a modern day surprise to see those "usual opening credits" morph into a bird that flies right at us. And the animation of the destroyed TV screen makes sure to include jagged shards around the edges. Quite a dynamic ad. Probably quite jolting to 1963 TV audiences.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

I'm so glad that another living person I know has seen this with his own eyes!

---

Yep..at first I thought it was one of his TV intros...likely filmed on the same soundstage, then I realized what I was looking at.

There was always somewhat of a disconnect between how Hitchcock advertised his movies(here, with maximum visual comedy) and what the movies WERE (pretty serious sometimes, like Marnie). You'd think a commercial like this would spoil the serious artistic(Oscar-bait?) intent of Marnie. But I expect Hitch just couldn't help himself. And he knew he had to "hard sell" Marnie after Psycho and The Birds (As he says in another Marnie trailer, "This is not Psycho, and there are no bird flapping about willy nilly --THAT's direct, too.)

When you think about it, Marnie IS very much a movie about sex, both literal and symbolic. Literal: Marnie is frigid, can't stand a man's touch -- even Sean Connery's. This both enrages and intrigues James Bon-- er, Mark Rutland, so he comes on strong, forcing the woman into marriage via blackmail, and THEN forcing "marital rape" upon his unwilling bride. When the truth comes out, we SEE Marnie as a little girl with a hooker mama who moved her out of mama's bed to be sailors. A sallor who "comforts" Marnie(Bruce Dern) is pretty much beginning a molestation, and then all sex and violence hell breaks loose.

Symbolic: that horse. that ship. That opening yellow purse(looks like a vagina, said some.)

So I suppose Hitchcock DID "over-spill" the Sex shaker in Marnie.

---

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

I did, only once, many years ago and can't even recall where (it might have been at the LACMA festival in '72 or '73). Since the advent of the web with obscure videos swimming around everywhere, I've tried to find it, if only to confirm my own recollection. Now that I know I'm not delusional (about this, at least), I feel so much better.

---

Ha. I'm reminded that these old movies had all sorts of promotional "attachments" that are long gone. I've READ of radio commercials that Hitchcock did for NXNW(coaching Eva Marie how to scream on Rushmore) and Psycho(comparing the screams of Psycho to the thundering hooves of Western as competition).

Anyway, this otherwise rather pedestrian pastiche of Hitchcock trailers has enough surprises that it is worth a look. Like I said, I found it on streaming, not on YouTube.