Paul Newman's Memo to Hitchcock

I visited a Los Angeles Hitchcock exhibit for his Centennial in 1999.

When I work at it, I can remember the things I saw, but one that is relevant for this board is:

A memorandum (several pages) from Paul Newman to Hitchcock in advance of their filming "Torn Curtain."

Hitchcock reportedly freaked out that Newman would deliver this document to him after Hitchcock had (as he famously liked to fabricate) "locked the script" in.

I remember what impressed me about the memo was that Newman indeed discussed the script practically scene by scene, suggesting changes or asking for motivation all along the way. At least he CARED about this movie.

Still, Hitchcock was probably aghast. He'd hired Newman to act in the film, not to re-write it.

Funny thing: I can't really remember any of Newman's screenplay suggestions but I do remember this:

The memo opens rather warmly with Newman discussing his 40th birthday party with his kids, as he bounced off the diving board in his swimming pool. Newman joked, "I'm writing a book now called I FLIPPED AT FORTY." Was Hitchcock amused by that? I doubt it.

Newman politely suggested that "Torn Curtain" wasn't a really great title for a Hitchcock movie, suggesting "Notorious" and "Spellbound" as more in the great tradition. I think this suggestion clues us in that Paul Newman at least HOPED that he was about to make "another Hitchcock classic," and therefore wanted it to have, in his opinion, a classic Hitchcock title. (Me, I think "Torn Curtain" is a great title, with its one-letter-and-a-switch from "Iron Curtain.")

I can remember nothing else about the memo. Hitchcock exhibits still cross the world; if you can read it someday, you should.

Hitchcock hated the memo and told fellow director Otto Preminger so. Preminger told Hitchcock: "He gave me one on Exodus, too."

I like Paul Newman in "Torn Curtain." His boyish mugging of the time is under control and Hitchcock makes him grow up a bit. Still, others think the performance is somewhat distant and non-committed.

Maybe once Hitchocck rejected "the Newman memo," Newman fought back with his performance.

Clue: George Roy Hill wanted to film a scene for "Butch Cassidy" that Newman didn't want to film. Finally Newman told Hill, "I'll do the scene, but I'm going to play it leaning against a wall." Meaning: I'm going to play it with no commitment whatsoever.