Things in Thrillers
Things you might not have noticed when you were on the edge of your seat.
The Birds (1963)
In The Birds, right after stopping in the street to respond to a boy’s wolf whistle, Tippi Hedren goes into a pet store. As she enters, out comes Alfred Hitchcock, along with two dogs. (more…)
The Birds (1963)
Near the beginning of The Birds, when Tippi Hedren is walking down the street (having just passed the San Francisco poster), she turns to acknowledge a wolf-whistle from a passing boy. This is an in-joke. (more…)
The Birds (1963)
After a couple of establishing shots showing Tippi Hedren walking through San Francisco’s Union Square in The Birds, the actress walks behind a large poster advertising the city (and clueing in anybody who still doesn’t know where the scene is set). The poster serves another purpose, however: it hides a cut. (more…)
Psycho (1960)
Who doesn’t wish that Psycho had been filmed in a real motel? That one night, you might pull off a road somewhere remote, following the signs pointing towards a motel, only to see that house looming out of the gloom at you? A lone light might lead you to the reception, where you pay four times the going rate for a room, order up a Janet Leigh burger, and shell out an extra $20 for a souvenir mug decorated with the silhouette of Alfred Hitchcock… (more…)
Casino Royale (2006)
In the second of today’s Casino Royale cameos, entrepreneur and Virgin billionaire Richard Branson appears briefly at the airport. (more…)
Casino Royale (2006)
If you were going to give yourself a cameo in a Bond movie, what would it be? Drinking cocktails and gambling in one of the world’s most glamorous casinos, perhaps? (more…)
The Trouble With Harry (1955)
Hitchcock’s disarming comedy The Trouble With Harry is based on a novel by Jack Trevor Story, which was set in England.
Transposing the story across the Atlantic, Hitchcock wanted to set it in a rural New England community, complete with Vermont’s golden autumn leaves. (more…)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
When French spy Louis Bernard (Daniel Gélin) is stabbed in the back in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, he uses the last of his energy to seek out American tourist Dr. Ben McKenna (Jimmy Stewart). McKenna doesn’t recognise him immediately because he’s disguised as a native Moroccan, complete with a blacked up face. It’s only when Bernard’s make-up comes off on McKenna’s fingers that his identity is revealed…
…so the story has it, anyway. The actual process of filming the scene was a tad more complicated. (more…)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
At the climax of Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, there’s a frenetic fight that takes place on an out-of-control fairground carousel (or merry-go-round, if you’re British like Hitchcock).
Although most of the scene was shot in a studio using rear projection and sometimes miniatures, there was one stunt that was done for real: the old man who crawls under the carousel in order to try to turn it off.
There are a lot of rumours about this scene: (more…)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
You know more scores by veteran film composer Bernard Herrmann than you think you do. (more…)
