As Halloween approaches on Saturday, let’s remember Alfred Hitchcock, the horror film guru.
Alfred Hitchcock is widely regarded as one of Hollywood’s greatest and most influential figures in cinema history. Known as the “Master of Suspense,” Hitchcock featured tennis in two of his most popular 1950s films.
In the film Strangers on a Train (1951), the main character, Guy Haines (played by Farley Granger), is a champion amateur tennis player. The film features a famous sequence shot at the West Side Tennis Club in Queens, New York, and a fierce tennis match in which Guy tries to finish in time to stop a murder plot. The film also uses real footage from Davis Cup matches between the United States and Australia.
Dial M for Murder (1954) also features tennis. The main character, Tony Wendice (played by Ray Milland), is a retired English professional tennis player who moonlights in his tennis career to organize the “perfect crime,” killing his wealthy wife.
Hitchcock was also known for his deadpan humor, most famously in his jokes about football logistics.
Alfred Hitchcock: “There are several differences between a football game and a revolution. For one thing, a football game usually lasts longer, and the participants wear uniforms. Also, football games usually have more casualties. The goal is to move the ball past the other team’s goal line. This counts as six points. No points are given for lacerations, contusions, or abrasions, and no points are deducted either. Kicking is very important in football. In fact, some of the more enthusiastic players even kick the ball occasionally.”
Alfred Hitchcock directed, produced, and even made a cameo appearance in such films as The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), Blackmail (1929), Number Seventeen (1932), The 39 Steps (1935), Secret Agent (1936), Sabotage (1936), Young and Innocent (1937), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Rebecca (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Suspicion (1941), Saboteur (1942), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), Under Capricorn (1949), Stage Fright (1950), I Confess (1953), Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), The Trouble with Harry (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), The Wrong Man (1956), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), Marnie (1964), Torn Curtain (1966), Topaz (1969), Frenzy (1972), and Family Plot (1976). On television, Hitchcock hosted and produced Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962) and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962-1965).
Alfred Hitchcock lived an amazing and thrilling life. He died in 1980 at the age of 80.
