45 years ago, Alfred Hitchcock passed away. He was a director who could scare people so badly that even his shadow seemed suspicious. He built his career on flawless thrillers, but there was one film that the master of suspense called his failure. And, surprisingly, he didn’t blame the actors (although he did blame them too), but himself.
Actors are like cows
Hitchcock was not overly tender towards his charges.
“Actors are like cows – they need to be directed,” he said, and if he disliked someone, he remembered them for a long time.
Robert Cummings was accused of having a "comedy face," Farley Granger of not having enough charisma. But when it came to Stage Fright (1950), even he couldn't blame it on the crew.
The film was about an aspiring actress (Jane Wyman) who helps her lover (Richard Todd) escape from the police after a murder. The main intrigue was undermined by a "false" flashback - the audience believed Todd's memories, and then it turned out that he was lying.
"Many were indignant," Hitchcock admitted. "But can't a person lie?"
Dietrich without a threat and "too glamorous" Wyman
Marlene Dietrich in the role of the femme fatale was supposed to be the main danger, but, according to the director, "there was no threat in her." And Wyman, who played a modest girl, "refused to be a pimply, shy girl." However, Hitchcock admitted for the first time that the problem was not only with the actors – he himself lacked toughness.
Stage Fright is not Hitchcock's worst film, but it is a rare case when he threw up his hands, admitting that he was wrong. However, even his "failures" are fascinating films. Especially when Dietrich is in the frame, who, despite everything, drives the audience crazy with just one look.
But Hitchcock did not abandon the tradition of deceiving the audience after this - he just began to do it more gracefully. Thank you, Sir Alfred, for the lesson: even geniuses make mistakes. But they do it with style.
