Leave it to Alfred Hitchcock to take a Daphne Du Maurier short story about an ornithological Armageddon and turn it into a love story about family healing. By the end of 1963’s The Birds, Melanie Daniels (the Hitchcock blonde who has replaced Du Maurier’s doomed farmer, played by "Tippi" Hedren) has traded in her bitterness for true … Continue reading THE PERRY MASON/ALFRED HITCHCOCK CONNECTION, PT. 4: The Birds

When Alfred Hitchcock decided to adapt Robert Bloch’s 1959 horror novel Psycho for the big screen, he faced a mountain of objections from the heads of Paramount Studios, who were appalled at the subject matter. Hitchcock’s negotiations included his offer to film on the cheap, in black and white, using the crew from his successful TV series, Alfred … Continue reading THE PERRY MASON/ALFRED HITCHCOCK CONNECTION, PT. 3: The Men of Psycho

I’m a big fan of screen biddies, those wonderful older women who always steal the scene from the big stars with their sarcastic eye-rolling and witty shenanigans. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were all the better for having had Helen Broderick in two of their films. Broderick became the second biddy to play Miss Hildegarde … Continue reading THE PERRY MASON/ALFRED HITCHCOCK CONNECTION, PT. 2: The Biddies

My favorite author is Agatha Christie. My favorite director is Alfred Hitchcock. And never the twain shall meet.  And why should they? Hitchcock wasn’t much interested in whodunnits, and goodness knows what Christie thought about the movie industry. (Actually, she loved going to the movies . . . as long as they weren’t based on … Continue reading THE PERRY MASON/ALFRED HITCHCOCK CONNECTION, PT. 1: Rear Window