Here is something that a lot of people may not know:
When The Birds came out in March of 1963, Tippi Hedren went on the NBC Today show and, in promoting the new film, talked a lot about how the filming of that bird attack scene had shook her up and required brief hospitalization(more for stress than any injury.)
But here is the point: neither Tippi nor Hitchcock HID the rough go of filming that attack scene, they were PROUD of it, and audiences were invited to come see the movie and experience the attack for themselves.
It would seem -- maybe -- that in the many years following the release of The Birds in 1963 -- and particuarly after Alfred Hitchcock's death in 1980 -- THEN Tippi Hedren started saying how horrible he was to her, how The Birds was a dangerous movie to make and how Hitchcock "did or said something to her" -- on the set of their NEXT movie together -- Marnie.
Indeed, the fact that Tippi Hedren went on to take a SECOND and coveted leading role in a Hitchocck movie(Marnie) even after "suffering through" The Birds...suggests that maybe back at the time it wasn't all that horrible working for Hitchocck.
I've always been a little dubious about the Tippi Hedren stories about Hitchcock. She waited to go after him only after his death, for a book written in 1983 by an author named Donald Spoto called "The Dark Side of Genius."
A lot of Hitchcock's OTHER leading ladies were alive then, and I think all of them said that in no way did Hitchcock treat them poorly and that they actually enjoyed working with him: Janet Leigh, Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Joan Fontaine, Eva Marie Saint, Doris Day, Julie Andrews....
CONT
reply
share
roger1 (3692)
a year ago
Nope, evidently only Tippi got the bad treatment and maybe...Kim Novak on Vertigo -- because Hitchcock didn't really want her in the movie(he wanted Vera Miles!) and because Novak was very depressed about having to wear "restrictive outfits" and not her usual choice of dresses and colors. But even Novak felt over the years that the result -- being in the forever famous Vertigo -- was worth being intimidated by Hitchcock.
Hitchcock's daughter, Pat, noted that Hitchcock himself preferred working with actresses than with actors and was "surrounded with women" -- his wife and collaborator Alma, his only child, Pat(cast in Stage Fright, Strangers on a Train, and Psycho)..his granddaughters(he was given no grandsons) and a series of female assistants.
Tippi Hedren said that Hitchcock "ruined my career" but the truth of the matter that he "plucked her from obscurity" as a TV commercial actress and model -- and instantly put her in TWO leading roles in major movies. Critics were mean about that -- Hedren had no training nor a "track record" like Oscar winners Eva Marie Saint and Grace Kelly, they felt she didn't deserve stardom.
And after Marnie didn't do too well at the box office...Hedren didn't have much of a career. Hitchcock ignored her, yes, but Universal Studio bosses didn't want her in leads anymore. She worked "supporting" to Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren in Charlie Chaplin's "Countess from Hong Kong" and sort of faded away -- the movies of the 70's had no place for Tippi Hedren.
EXCEPT in movies like the sex exploitation film "The Harrad Experiment" (along with Tippi's sexually active daugther Melanie and her sexually active husband to be Don Johnson) and the decades in the making, truly dangerous "Roar" -- in which Tippi, Melanie and other family members were pretty much menaced and attacked on film by REAL dangerous wild animals(lions, tigers..bears?)
CONT
reply
share
roger1 (3692)
a year ago
So you have to look at the Tippi Hedren story "in context." Hitchcock made her a sudden star out of nowhere(he saw her in a TV commercial on the morning Today show), and then Hitchcock AND Universal dropped her as a lead. Other Hitchocck actresses claimed no harrassment -- save the little known Brigitte Auber(To Catch a Thief) who said that Hitchcock DID try to kiss her(so that's one) but quit after one failed pass.
Its the nuttiness of Tippi Hedren and her family(a lot of drugs and sex) that rather betray some of Tippi's claims. They were messed up.
Tippi Hedren did attend the AFI salute to Alfred Hitchcock in 1979(one year before he died) and praised him in public there.
So...what REALLY happened?
PS. There is on Youtube and DVDs of The Birds a screen test that Hitchcock shot of Tippi Hedren in 1962 to prep "The Birds." He brought in Martin Balsam(the detective in Psycho) to play scenes with her -- including kissing scenes from To Catch a Thief and Notorious. Balsam was a bit too middle aged and plain to play the romantic kisser -- why didn't Hitchcock bring in hunky John Gavin from Psycho? In watching this screen test, you can see Tippi looking lovely(more modern than in The Birds and Marnie) while Balsam tosses sexual innuendos at her and Hitchcock treats her rather coldly. So, its not like she wasn't subject to SOME sexist Hollywood stress. You can see it for yourself.
reply
share