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Hitch Wanted Tony Perkins for 'Torn Curtain'

posted 15 years ago by ecarle
10 replies | jump to latest

You zip around in the "Hitchcock universe" of stray data and interviews and "stuff," and occasionally, you find a surprise.

I was cruising the net recently and I found, on YouTube, a 1986 TV interview with Tony Perkins. The interviewer is French, there are French subtitles.

Eventually they reach the question: "Did you ever discuss doing another film with Hitchcock?"

And Tony Perkins says: "He wanted me for Torn Curtain, but the studio wouldn't let him do that. They went with Paul Newman." Asked why, Perkins elaborates: "I believe that the studio had an existing commitment with Paul Newman and they wanted to use it."

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This was a bit of a stunner to me. But I thought about it, and it makes sense.

Somewhere else, I found a quote from Hitchcock that he felt a little bad about Tony Perkins getting typecast after "Psycho." ("He played the part too well," Hitchcock said.)

We know that Hitchcock was "uncomfortable" as he set out to make "Torn Curtain." "The Birds" and "Marnie" had performed below expectations, and though Hitchcock was interested in working with Paul Newman, he wasn't exactly keen on it.

We can figure, perhaps that (a) Hitchcock liked the "comfort level" of using Tony Perkins in "Torn Curtain" and that (b) Hitchcock felt he "owed Perkins one," a more stirring romantic lead-type role to, perhaps, remove the "Norman Bates" stigma.

Of course, there would be an interesting twist: Michael Armstrong(the Newman character, and isn't it funny: that character name never became as famous as Roger Thornhill or Scottie Ferguson) has to kill Gromek, and it takes a long time(a butcher knife is involved, but the farmer's wife wields it, and it breaks!)

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"Torn Curtain" wasn't that good, and it is perhaps just as well that Tony Perkins has only the great "Psycho" on his Hitchcock resume.

And yet: Perkins was a very intelligent actor("the most intelligent actor I knew," says Mike Nichols) and perhaps could have well communicated the quirky rocket scientist in "Torn Curtain." (I can picture Perkins having real fun in that "chalkboard duel" with Professor Lindt.) And a romantic lead after "Psycho"? Could have changed everything.

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I have definitely read a Hitchcock interview in which he said his first choice for the Julie Andrews character was Eva Marie Saint...more "comfort food" for Hitch.

So imagine, we lost:

Anthony Perkins and Eva Marie Saint in
Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain

Alas, maybe just as well for BOTH of them...

[–] rexshard93 15 years ago

The interview is available here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggx-saYGJQ4

I think Perkins is a great choice for Torn Curtain. I don't know if you noticed this. Mort Mills (Highway Patrol Officer in Psycho) played farmer in Torn Curtain (1966).

Why don't you add this information about casting of Perkins in Trivia section of Torn Curtain?

It would have been great to see Perkins and Eva Marie Saint together in Torn Curtain. And the film would have been successful in many levels.

[–] ecarle 15 years ago

I don't know how to add anything to the trivia section.

You are welcome to. I assume that imdb likes proof. So you've got the Perkins interview there. I can try to find the Hitchcock interview where he says he wanted Eva Marie Saint for "Torn Curtain." HER casting makes sense if you "work backwards" from "Torn Curtain" and look at other actresses with whom Hitchcock worked:

Tippi Hedren(The Birds, Marnie). A "falling out."
Janet Leigh(Psycho) Hitchocck told Leigh that they could never work together again, because her shower death was so famous(but Perkins was famous for "Psycho" too.)
Kim Novak(Vertigo) Hitchcock and Novak reportedly didn't get along too well, and Hitchcock made some bad remarks about her.
Vera Miles(The Wrong Man, Psycho.) Hitchcock resented Miles quitting "Vertigo," and used her in "Psycho" to burn up a cheap contract with her.
Doris Day(The Man Who Knew Too Much) Day was upset with Hitchcock's lack of attention in his direction. A cool relationship.
Shirely MacLaine: Too "kooky" for "Torn Curtain."
Grace Kelly: Princess Grace and retired.

So as you can see, if Hitchcock wanted in 1965 to work with any of his actresses from the past decade...it would seem to be Eva Marie Saint or nobody.
Hitchcock and Saint reportedly got along fine and Saint wasn't in quite as famous a scene as the "Psycho" shower.

[–] rexshard93 15 years ago

I think Hitchcock had Eva Marie Saint in mind for leading female role when he worked with Brian Moore on the script of Torn Curtain. He wanted to make a film like North by Northwest. He asked Cary Grant if he is interested in working on Torn Curtain. But Cary Grant was planning to retire.

So Hitchcock decided to give the role to Anthony Perkins. Sadly, it didn't happen.

Hitchcock mentions that he wanted Eva Marie Saint for Torn Curtain in Book "Alfred Hitchcock: interviews" (Page 122) By Sidney Gottlieb.

[–] ecarle 15 years ago

Where there ya go. Good for you, sonysunu.

Imdb trivia! Print it! Hitchcock wanted Tony Perkins and Eva Marie Saint in "Torn Curtain."

Which returns me again to that other point though:

Given the great and classic single Hitchcock movies that Perkins and Saint were each already in(Psycho and North by Northwest), maybe it is just as well that they weren't in the lesser "Torn Curtain."

I can't really see either of them turning it into a classic, though it may have played better.

[–] rexshard93 15 years ago

The casting of Paul Newman and Julie Andrews did cause lots of problems. Hitchcock wanted to do extensive rewritings on the script. But he couldn't do it, due to the limited availability of Julie Andrews. If Hitchcock had the complete freedom, then the film would have been very successful. And the relationship between Hitchcock and Herrmann would have gone successful too.

[–] ecarle 15 years ago

SPOILERS for "Torn Curtain":

Yes, I believe that "Torn Curtain" is good enough as we have it and so...with more time to perfect the script, and perhaps cast it better..it could have been another Hitchcock classic.

It is really a classic "undercover cop" story done as a spy tale, and those are always suspenseful. You know, where the cop goes undercover with a gang or the Mafia(think "White Heat" or "Donnie Brasco") and you wonder what will happen when the bad guys find out?

I'm not sure of Hitchcock's motives in trying to fake for awhile like Newman was really defecting(nobody believed THAT), other than to show us Andrews' emotions(and maybe to underline why the Commies don't trust him much, ever), but the "undercover cop" plot IS solid, and Hitchcock's spy twist on it WAS clever.

Hitchcock told the story with his trademark simplicity to the trades:

"Paul Newman goes undercover as a defector in East Germany. His fiance follows him, not knowing the truth. There is a murder and then a chase, as Newman is found out by the Communists and Julie Andrews and he must escape East Germany to safety."

That's the plot, and as Paul Newman said, "It sounded pretty exciting to me."

Its really not much LESS interesting than the plot of, say, Psycho.

But its all in the execution, and the mood, and the acting.

And the script.

[–] ecarle 15 years ago

Congratulations, sonysunu: The Perkins and Saint information is now in the imdb. trivia section for "Torn Curtain."

[–] rexshard93 15 years ago

Thank you. If you are interested in hearing some parts of audio interview with Herrmann, then it's available here.

http://www.filmmusicsociety.org/news_events/features/2006/041006.html

I think CD is available on Amazon. But I am not sure. This is a 1970 interview. We even see Herrmann defending Hitchcock in this audio interview, when interviewer says that Miklos Rozsa mentioned that Hitchcock doesn't know much about music.

[–] Emmywins305 15 years ago

Eva Marie Saint might have looked okay with Cary Grant, but with Anthony Perkins?! She's about a decade older than he is. As a couple, she might look more like his mother. Plus, I just can't see Eva's cool, sly personality with Anthony's quirky, shy personality. I just can't see the two of them together.

Anthony Perkins might have been fine with someone like Natalie Wood, Stefanie Powers, or Mary Tyler Moore. But Eva Marie Saint? Sorry, I just can't see it because of the big age difference and different personas. I could see her as his mother or older sister...not as a lover.

Yes, I know that Paul Newman is about a decade older than Julie Andrews, but somehow it's not nearly as noticable and they fit a little better as a couple.

Anyway, I think neither Anthony nor Eva could have saved Torn Curtain because of the flawed script-and worse musical score.

[–] ecarle 15 years ago

The Newman-Andrews age difference didn't "show"(oddly, Newman always looked younger than his years, even as he grayed rather early), and Perkins and Saint might have had a little more trouble, but...

...look at Eva Marie Saint in "The Russians Are Coming ETC," from 1966, the year of "Torn Curtain." She doesn't look THAT old. Put a little gray in Tony's temples...a match.(Tony worked opposite older women a lot anyway...Sophia Loren, Ingrid Bergman, Melina Mercouri -- well, maybe Loren was his age, she seemed older.)

I agree that Tony and Eva Marie could not have saved "Torn Curtain" on their own, but perhaps Hitchocck would have been more engaged with his film if he'd gotten to use the actors he wanted.

Another issue: Maybe Hitchocck wanted Eva Marie Saint AFTER he found himself stuck with Paul Newman.

Newman and Saint "matched" and had been coupled before in "Exodus" and a TV version of "Our Town" in the fifties.