North by Northwest (1959) was filled with Hitchcock's subtle, but always
black humour; still, it could not compare with the sadistic trickery
he employed on the audience in what most people agree is his tour de
force in horror, Psycho (1960). Hitchcock used all his knowledge and
experience to manipulate audience emotion. Psycho was a return to black-and-white
and was filmed quickly by the same crew that shot his TV series. While
many films are gimmicky, Psycho is simple and unassuming. Its advertising,
however, employed a brilliant ruse. Because the heroine was killed a
third of the way into the film people who arrived late wondered where
Janet Leigh was. Thus Hitchcock appeared in the advertising and demanded
that audiences show up on time before the film began as no one would
be admitted thereafter. Psycho proved to be his most successful film
with both critics and the box office and in its first run grossed $16
million on an $800,000 budget. Psycho was the last he would make for
Paramount. He then signed a long-term contract for five films with Universal,
one of the only studios left in Hollywood with a busy back lot. It wasn't
until 1963 that The Birds was released. Two years of diligent planning
were spent on the horror film. Probably the most unintentional horror
of the film, though, is the acting of the lead actress, a Hitchcock
discovery, Tippi Hedren, a former model who couldn't understand that
she was no longer a mannequin. The Birds (1963), based on a Daphne du
Maurier story, surpassed the technical artistry that seemed to peak
with North by Northwest and Psycho. The film is full of ambiguities,
but that was as Hitchcock designed it.
The following year, 1964, saw the release of Marnie (1964), again with
Miss Hedren. This was a pure and simple soapy melodrama, so there wasn't
all that much to ruin. In the tradition of Spellbound, it was a Freudian,
analytical study of a kleptomaniac and a man in love with her because
of her illness. The production was disappointing, if only because it
appeared to be slapped together hastily without the loving care Hitchcock
had devoted to his last few efforts. Another two-year wait for the next
Universal fiasco, in the shape of Torn Curtain (1966), did not add much
to the master's reputation. With the exception of a detailed murder
sequence, the fiftieth Hitchcock film lacked the spark and urbane wit
that added so much class and suspense to earlier spy and chase films.
When three years had gone by with no Hitchcock release, people began
to think that Hitchcock had retired. He, too, was getting restive without
a project that could be filmed. For convenience only, he purchased the
rights to Leon Uris's best-seller, 'Topaz'. Apparently Hitch hadn't
learned his lesson very well with Torn Curtain. Topaz (1969) was just
another, ever-more-complicated Cold War spy story. Once again, with
the exception of a few sequences and details, the film was a failure.
Returning to England, where he hadn't produced a film in almost twenty
years, Hitchcock concocted what critics called "a gem of a picture."
The project was one that had been in mind for many years but was an
on-again-off-again affair. Frenzy
(1972) was the title, and it was clear that the master of suspense was
once again in full control. He was now seventy-three but his age did
not manifest itself in this briskly paced suspense story about a man
accused of a crime his best friend committed. Frenzy was released by
a very pleased Universal and made $6.5 million in net rentals on its
first run in the United States and Canada alone.
An Englishman with an admittedly English humour, of his fifty-three feature
films, twenty-eight were British (counting four that were American-produced,
but made in England). While each is unique, they share a common bond of vitality.
Hitchcock was a director who did not like to actually make or shoot
films. He liked to create them on paper, figuring out every shot, every technical
problem, and every movement of camera and actor. Once it was down on paper he
felt his work was done and the actual shooting was only going through the motions,
a mere formality.
