Hitchcock Chronology: 1964

Overview

Images from the Hitchcock Gallery (click to view larger versions or search for all relevant images)...

23rd - Actor Peter Lorre, who appeared in The Man Who Knew Too Much and Secret Agent, dies aged 59.
Negotiations for Hitchcock's acquisition of the rights to J.M. Barrie's play Mary Rose are completed.^[1]

18th - Screenwriter Ben Hecht, who worked with Hitchcock on Foreign Correspondent, Lifeboat, Spellbound, Notorious, The Paradine Case, Rope and Strangers on a Train, dies aged 70.
23rd - Hitchcock meets with François Truffaut in New York City to conduct follow-up questions for Truffaut's book "Hitchcock". Hitchcock also screens a print of Marnie for Truffaut.^[2]

The Hitchcocks spend 2 months in Europe on vacation, occasionally giving interviews and attending special events held in their honour. Amongst the many cities and places visited are: London, Villa D'Este at Lake Como, Rome, Vienna, Munich, Paris, the French Riviera, Belgrade, Dubrovnik and Zagreb.^[3]

5th - The BBC broadcasts an interview between Hitchcock and Huw Wheldon for the television series Monitor.^[4]
Feeling unwell and tired, despite his recent European vacation, Hitchcock undergoes various medical tests but no underlying cause is found. He is advised to slow down his schedule and to diet.^[5]

6th - Actor Cedric Hardwicke, who appeared in Suspicion and Rope, dies from cancer aged 71.
Hitchcock negotiates a new contract with Universal Studios. In return for transferring ownership of Shamley Productions and distribution rights to Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Rope, Rear Window, The Trouble with Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Vertigo, the director becomes the 3rd largest shareholder in the studio.^[6]

18th - Irish writer Sean O'Casey, whose original play was adapted into Juno and the Paycock, dies aged 84.

7th - German actor Bernhard Goetzke, who appeared in The Blackguard and The Mountain Eagle, dies aged 80.
23rd - Screenwriter Jo Swerling, who worked with Hitchcock on Lifeboat, dies aged 71.
27th - Polish cinematographer Rudolph Maté, who worked with Hitchcock on Foreign Correspondent, dies aged 66.

Hitchcock registers an original story idea with the Writers Guild, outlining a plot that prequels Shadow of a Doubt and follows an attractive serial killer who murders rich widows, drawing from the real-life English serial killers John George Haigh, John Christie and Neville Heath. Towards the end of November, he meets with author Robert Bloch and tries to persuade the novelist to develop an original idea based on the idea — Bloch eventually declines, partly due to the low salary offered.^[7]
22nd - Film editor George Tomasini, who worked with Hitchcock on Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Wrong Man, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds and Marnie, dies aged 55.
Hitchcock writes to Russian émigré novelist Vladimir Nabokov and tries to interest him in developing an original screenplay based on one of two stories that the director is considering as his next film — a crime caper about a family of Italian crooks or a gritty political spy thriller about a defecting scientist and his wife. Nabokov expresses interest in the first story, but is too busy to begin work until the summer of 1965 at the earliest.^[8]

Hitchcock approaches Italian writing team Agenore Incrocci and Furio Scarpelli to work on his Italian crime caper project R.R.R.R..^[9]