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The 1979 American Film Institute Tribute to Alfred Hitchcock -- Psycho and Vertigo as Not Seen in Decades

posted 2 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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In 1979, the CBS television network showed the "American Film Institute Salue to Alfred Hitchcock." The show had been taped before a "Hollywood audience of big stars" a week or so before, and what a galaxy of Old Hitchcock and New Hollywood showed up:

Three of Hitchcock's "Favorite Stars" were there: Cary Grant(4 films) and James Stewart(4 films) on either side of him; Ingrid Bergman (3 films, out from Europe) hosting. Only Princess Grace Kelly(3 films IN A ROW) was not there --- but then, she alone had accompanied Hitch to the Cannes Film Festival (in her backyard) in 1972 for the premiere of Frenzy.

And while his other 52 movies had to be brushed over fromvthe stage quickly(Rebecca) or not at all (Frenzy)...Psycho got its own segment , as Anthony Perkins showed the shower scene and then introduced Janet Leigh(in 1979, they were both older but both still gorgeous.)

Francois Truffaut flew out from France to show one clip: The Mount Rushmore climax in North by Northwest(my favorite Hitchcock set-piece.)

And George Stevens Jr introduced a clips package that opened with the Arbogast murder in Psycho, followed by the opening rooftop chase in Vertigo.

One highlight of the special: A "roundelay" of Hitchcock collaborators , alternating men and women, introduced each other to the crowd and praised Hitch. It started with Teresa Wright, found time for Pat Hitchcock and Vera Miles and Tippi Hedren(yep, she was invited and she came), Rod Taylor...Sean friggin Connery...Dame Judith Anderson, and finally Cary Grant, flanking Hitchcock with fellow white hair James Stewart. Whereas James Stewart had taken the stage to tell a story, all Grant would do was stand up , gesture to Htichcock and say "the best is yet to come: Hitch!"

Film history has recorded that Hitchcock, in 1979 only a little over a year from his death, looked dead already (Mrs. Bates, many a wag snarked.) Well, he was old. And ill. And he couldn't react "on a dime." But you could see ENOUGH life in him, enough emotion and sentiment, that I think it worked.

Ingrid Bergman later said "They always give them these awards when it is too late" and Hitchcock looked pretty bad...but he pulled off his speech at the end(partially re-filmed in a studio) and his wonderful old wife Alma cried -- THAT was real. And Ingrid Bergman gave him a "goodbye for all time" hug and THAT was real.

I have found a "truncated" version of that AFI special on YouTube. And within it is a lesson in "film history education":

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

In the 70's and 80's prints of Psycho shown on television had these "flaws":

A black band at the bottom of the screen at the opening of the shower scene(Marion's erotic shower.) Censorship? Evidently TV censors thought too much of Janet Leigh's upper breast showed.

A black band at the bottom of the screen on the shot of Norman in the cell. Meant to be the POV through the window of the guard?

A "slash" across the screen on the final shot of Arbogast approaching the landing before the overhead shot. Not the slash to Arbogast's FACE, a slash to the FILM itself , right after the close-up of the door opening before he reaches the top of the stairs and right BEFORE the overhead shot of mother running out to kill the detective. Its a great shot on its own, that final shot of Arbogast reaching the top of the stairs, as if Hitchcock were a tennis player tossing up the serve to smash. But in that 70's print, there was a slash on the film itself. My guess: some TV station ran Psycho, cut the staircase murder OUT, then taped it back IN, then returned the print to Universal.

I'm not sure if those flaws remained in the VHS video tape versions of Psycho that came out in the 80's, but I KNOW they are all gone in the DVDs we've had since the 90's.

And I kind of thought i would never see them again.

But there they are, in the Hitchcock AFI salute.

And a BONUS:

The original Vertigo of 1958 begins with a rooftop chase across San Francisco at night. A cop fires his gun several times at fleeing subject. BIG LOUD SHOTS.

When Vertigo was restored in the 90s, the technicians were "forced"(so they said) to REMOVE those shot sounds and to replace them with a more muffled substitute.

Well, with that 1979 AFI Hitchcock salute, you can see and hear all these "long gone items" in their glory:

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

YouTube now has a truncated version of the 1979 "AFI Salute to Alfred Hitchcock" and the clips of the shower scene and the Arbogast murder shown to all those celebs that night(including not only James Stewart and Cary Grant who WERE in Hitchcock films...but Michael Caine, Steve Martin, Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau who WEREN'T.)...can be seen.

And you CAN see the black band across the screen during the shower scene. And you CAN see the slash on the film stock before Arbogast reaches the top.

They didn't show Norman in the cell though.

BONUS: You can also hear the original -- and GREAT -- gunshots during rooftop chase that begins Vertigo. Ever since Vertigo was restored in the 90's, those great loud gunshots have been replaced by muffled stereophonic piffle.

Shower scene with band is at: 19:22

Arbogast slash on film is at : 50:58(right after Cary Grant is seen about to introduce Hitch at 50:31, its an abrupt cut to later in the show.

Original Vertigo gunshots (right after the Arbogast murder, which cuts off before he is finished off...can't offend Babs Streisand): 52:43

I don't know how long this AFI tribute will stay there, but there they are -- the "Old" versions of Psycho and Vertigo otherwise lost to the sands of time. (And oh, the Psycho murder clips look pretty fuzzy and ratty...they had not been cleaned up and digitalized yet.)

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

I had thought that the AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards had gone away...because they ran out of "greats" to give Lifetime achievement awards to. They were giving them to people like Michael Douglas and George Clooney halfway through their careers.

But no, it turns out they have been giving those AFI awards for YEARS. Just not on CBS anymore. On cable and TCM.

After a two-year "COVID break" (the last one was given to Denzel) the AFI Lifetime achievement award for 2022 went to..Julie Andrews.

Fair enough. I watched some clips. She is flanked by Carol Burnett. Carol is 90. Julie is a spring chicken of 86. Both of them remind some of us "we've got some years left, hopefully."

It didn't look like Julie could quite draw the crowd that Hitchcock got. But "quality not quantity." Dick Van Dyke (at age 96!) via tape...but lucid and animated. The surviving Sound of Music kids (all adults, one of them played the TV director in QT's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) came out to do a sing-along. It looked like they had some Victor/Victoria stuff to do (but co-stars James Garner and Robert Preston are long dead.) The tough yet elegant Hector Elizondo came on to talk "The Princess Diaries"(what, no Anne Hathaway? What gives.)

And so forth and so on. I guess the AFI Lifetime Achievement shall live on to take in some more lifetimes.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Also on YouTube, are some bits and pieces of some other AFI awards shows. The "new" ones (Nicholson and Beatty and Ford and..Shirley MacLaine.)

But they have the oldest of them all, too: John Ford. 1973. He made Hitchcock look like a young buck stud. But the effect was good both times: DAMN STRAIGHT its time to honor these old guys and thank them before they go.

Ford had John Wayne(natch) and Jimmy Stewart come on for him, but Lee Marvin(at his macho peak) comes on first in a ciip and ...man was HE a movie star for awhile.

Its also fun watching James Cagney come out for his award in the later 70's. He'd been gone from the screen since retiring in 1961 (but he'd come back in Ragtime in 1981) and...just like Cary Grant, he was crazy making: they both still had PLENTY of that old charisma and charm(Cary, BTW, refused to ever allow an AFI award to himself, he would only speak at other peoples'.)

But back to the Hitch AFI event: I've always wondered, watching the white haired Old Hollywoodians James Stewart and Cary Grant actually WATCH the Psycho shower scene...what did they think of it? Had their elegant director friend betrayed their era? Was it too violent? Or did they realize just what a master they had worked with?

[–] swanstep (2715) 2 years ago

When Vertigo was restored in the 90s, the technicians were "forced"(so they said) to REMOVE those shot sounds and to replace them with a more muffled substitute.
Well, with that 1979 AFI Hitchcock salute, you can see and hear all these "long gone items" in their glory

Cool. I look forward to checking this out. I actually didn't see Vertigo before its '90s restoration so this is very interesting to me.

On a related note, someone recently posted on youtube (from their home video recording) the full version of Barbara Stanwyck's Honorary Oscar in 1982, i.e., including the Acad's video tribute to her rather than cutting directly to her acceptance speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQb1xKyLMr8

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

On a related note, someone recently posted on youtube (from their home video recording) the full version of Barbara Stanwyck's Honorary Oscar in 1982, i.e., including the Acad's video tribute to her rather than cutting directly to her acceptance speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQb1xKyLMr8

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I'll take a look. I was pleasantly surprised with this Hitchcock AFI special that for the most part -- but not all the way-- they left IN the key clips, too. So often on YouTube, you watch one of these specials and get excited to see the clip and it fades out -- no clip -- and they cut back to everybody applauding.

That said, at least in the video I found(and I sure hope it stays there), they cut some clips out -- crucially, the 1934 Man Who Knew Too Much concert assassination attempt is cut off BEFORE it segues into the 1956 version. The clip ends on maybe two seconds of Jimmy Stewart at the end of his scene.

Also -- and I guess this was just somebody doing "home editing" -- they cut away from Cary Grant introducing Hitch and right into Arbogast's murder. Kinda cool if(like me) you like Cary Grant and you like Arbogast's murder but...something's wrong with the editing.

No matter, the "old messed up" Psycho murder clips are intact -- and should be saved for movie history. Along with the original Vertigo opening gunshots.

And this: several times when the clip is from Psycho, somebody blew it: the title card says "PYSCHO." Ha.

[–] swanstep (2715) 2 years ago

Along with the original Vertigo opening gunshots.

Having just watched the AFI's Vertigo clip I have to say that the difference between restoration and pre-restoration gun sounds doesn't seem that large to me. The restoration's replacement sounds are a *little* less booming but they're still powerful I think

On the other hand the remastered *image* is *completely different - it's *so* much darker. The AFI's rooftop chase is happening in close-to-dawn milky near-light whereas the erstoration paints the scene in deep blues and inky darkness. When AFI-Jimmy Stewart hangs from the guttering his face has a bright light shining on it whereas restoration-Jimmy is covered in shades of darkness. The buildings behind AFI-Jimmy are white whereas behind restoration-Jimmy all is blue-black.

I'm starting to suspect that the hard drive copy of Vert. I have right now might be simply much *too* dark. Vertigo has been remastered several times since restoration for blu-ray, 4K, etc. and I have one of those I suppose but I haven't really paid attention until now. The light scenes are only slight color shifted:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/vertigo.htm
but there's at least some reason to believe that night scenes have been extremely transformed:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_127/vertigo_4K_UHD.htm

This sort of variable-ness has driven me almost literally bananas in the past w.r.t. 2001 and The Good The Bad and The Ugly in particular. Gah.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Along with the original Vertigo opening gunshots.
Having just watched the AFI's Vertigo clip I have to say that the difference between restoration and pre-restoration gun sounds doesn't seem that large to me. The restoration's replacement sounds are a *little* less booming but they're still powerful I think

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I think as with all memories, YouTube is there to dash them a bit.

For instance that "slash in the film" right before Arbogast reaches the landing isn't QUITE as big and jarring as I remember it, but remember, every time I saw the movie...it was noticeably there.

And only one "black dot" for the reel change.

I'll have to check the restoration again on the gunshots. Simply more "muffled" (I thought) the second time around.

There is this: Psycho famously spends over a half hour before something exciting happens; Vertigo OPENS with a slam bang(and bang bang) action suspense death sequence -- and then settles in quite quietly for about an hour. Hitchcock seemed to know "pace" -- build slow to a bang(Psycho), start with a bang and drift away from it (Vertigo).

Hence: those gunshots are a BIG DEAL. There's not all that much gunplay in Hitchcock, the shots are pretty noticeable in opening the movie . (And hey: that must be some bad guy theyre chasing, the cop is shooting at him! Also, I always like how this nameless bad guy -- who will get one man killed and other man haunted for life in these instants -- is inexplicably dressed all in white (all the better to see him in the dark, I guess, so inexplicable is the wrong word.)

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

On the other hand the remastered *image* is *completely different - it's *so* much darker. The AFI's rooftop chase is happening in close-to-dawn milky near-light whereas the erstoration paints the scene in deep blues and inky darkness.

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Well there you go. Whether or not the gunshots are all that noticeable, these AFI prints show the difference in color or light.

As I understand restoration, part of the goal is to preserve the film so it doesn't fall apart. (As Hitchcock once said, "why worry? in a few decades this film will all turn to cornflakes. WRONG.)

So color and lighting -- and sound -- will be sacrified.

And as the Psycho clips prove in the AFI special...THAT movie was so cleaned up and brightened up and sound enhanced that it looks NEWER today than at the that 1979 event.

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When AFI-Jimmy Stewart hangs from the guttering his face has a bright light shining on it whereas restoration-Jimmy is covered in shades of darkness. The buildings behind AFI-Jimmy are white whereas behind restoration-Jimmy all is blue-black.

--

Wow. That's pretty noticeable stuff. I think the "old" prints are under lock and key or at least in private collections. The "new" Vertigo is the one we will get in the future.

Lucky Psycho. Its in black and white. It will never have to worry about its colors fading or changing.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

but there's at least some reason to believe that night scenes have been extremely transformed:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-ray_review_127/vertigo_4K_UHD.htm

This sort of variable-ness has driven me almost literally bananas in the past w.r.t. 2001 and The Good The Bad and The Ugly in particular. Gah.

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Oh, well. "Keep the memories." The film keeps visually changing.

Which reminds me. After a few years with really "clear and bright" Psycho prints on TV and VHS (AFTER the black bands and glitches were removed), it seemed to me that recent DVD prints of Psycho are noticeably darker and "grittier." Scenes seem to be less clear. I much prefer my "old" Psycho VHS prints to the new DVDs. But my VCR is long gone.

PS. Glad to see your references to "DVD Beaver." I love their comparisons of frames over the years, and I also just love to see the "power" of individual shots from favorite movies. Recently: "The Professionals" frames on DVD Beaver brought back fine memories of that wide screen muscular movie, like an interior shot of three great and gone actors -- Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode -- all lined up in a row to look at something closely -- US, but also a photo of Burt Lancaster, soon to join the team.