Things in Thrillers
Things you might not have noticed when you were on the edge of your seat.
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…
Sadly though, the Psycho house, along with the rest of the motel, was a set, built in the Universal backlot, using pieces taken from existing sets. It’s still there, and considerably refurbished from the two-wall shell used in the movie. It’s been moved around the backlot a couple of times, and the motel now sits between sets for How the Grinch Stole Christmas and War of the Worlds. You can see it on Google Maps or Wikimapia, or you can visit it as part of the Universal Studios tour (complete with a very cheesy encounter with Norman Bates).
Casino Royale (2006)
In the second of today’s Casino Royale cameos, entrepreneur and Virgin billionaire Richard Branson appears briefly at the airport. There he is on the right, getting patted down after setting off the metal detector.
Branson apparently earned himself the appearance as a reward for lending the production company use of one of his planes. Not bad, given that the film’s director actually had to die to get his part!
(Richard Branson doesn’t appear in all versions of the film, however: apparently competitor airline British Airways cut him out when they were showing Casino Royale as an in-flight movie.)
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?
Lounging by the pool with (or as) a scantily clad Bond girl?
At the very least, you could hang around headquarters in a lab coat, playing with prototype gadgets.
Not so for Martin Campbell, director of Casino Royale: he chose to have his neck broken by a terrorist on the tarmac at Miami airport.
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. However, no sooner had they filmed a few establishing shots, than said golden leaves all fell off the trees (I suppose that’s why the Americans call it “fall”).
The production company relocated to a studio in California, but not before they’d collected and boxed up Vermont’s golden leaves. They took them across America, and carefully attached them, one by one, to the model trees on the soundstage.
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. In order for the shot to be visually effective, the make-up had to come off in clean stripes to reveal Bernard’s white face, but the make-up department couldn’t find a dark make-up that would do this: vague, icky smears weren’t much use.
Eventually, they solved the problem by reversing it. Instead of having McKenna’s fingers wipe Bernard’s make-up off, they covered his fingers in a white substance that streaks onto the other man’s face, over the top of the dark make-up.
Apparently this creative solution to the problem was actor Daniel Gélin’s idea, and when you watch the film, it’s hard to tell that make-up is being added to his character’s face, rather than taken away.