Hitchcock Chronology: Month of February

Entries in the Hitchcock Chronology for the month of February...

1910

• C.M. Woolf sets up W. & F. Film Service with £10,000 of investment.

1920

• The February 1920 issue of The Henley Telegraph contains a contribution from Hitchcock entitled "Sordid".

1922

• 12th - Film canisters suddenly catch fire in the basement of Famous Lasky Film Services in Wardour Street, London. Employee Daisy Sharp is blown backwards through a doorway by the force of the explosion but is able to raise the alarm and evacuate the building. As firemen arrive, a second explosion is heard. By the time the fire is brought under control, four firemen have been severely burned.

1924

• 18th - The Times reviews The White Shadow and says that "In spite of the weakness of its story, however, the film is worth seeing for the excellent acting of Miss Compson and of Mr. Clive Brook, and for the cleverness of the production."

1926

• 24th - The Daily Mail reports that "an army of painters of carpenters" are busy working at Gainsborough Studios in preparation for filming to begin on The Lodger and that Hitchcock "is out daily with his camera man in search of coffee-stalls, bits of the Embankment, and street corners for the exterior scenes of this new London murder mystery".
• 25th - Hitchcock films the opening scenes for The Lodger on the Thames Embankment.

1927

• Eliot Stannard completes the script for Downhill.
• 14th - The Lodger goes on general release in London, with screenings at five cinemas.
• 27th - After attending the theatre, Hitchcock spends the night filming scenes with Ivor Novello at Maida Vale Tube Station for Downhill.

1928

• Filming begins on Hitchcock's third film for British International Pictures, Champagne, which stars Betty Balfour.

1929

• 11th - The Farmer's Wife opens to the public at the Regal Marble Arch cinema in London.
• Principal photography starts on Hitchcock's fifth film for British International Pictures, Blackmail, staring Anny Ondra, John Longden and Donald Calthrop.
• 8th - Rehearsals start for the dialogue scenes to be shot for Blackmail, with filming scheduled to begin on the new sound stages on April 10th.

1930

• 8th - Elstree Calling is screened publicly for the first time at the Alhambra cinema in London. Newspapers report it as setting a new record for the shortest "production to public screening" time of under two months.

1931

• 9th - The Skin Game is reviewed positively by The Times, who also reports that the London Film Society screened a scene of the film along with a reel from The Lodger.

1932

• 2nd - The Hitchcocks, along with their 3-year-old daughter Patricia, depart from Southampton aboard the Atlantis on a round trip. The liner is bound for Africa, South America and Mexico.

1933

• 1st - The Times reports that Hitchcock is currently working on an adaptation of Bulldog Drummond for British International Pictures and that he had recently signed a contract to make films for the new London Film Productions company.

1934

• Waltzes from Vienna is released to the British public.
• 15th - The Times reports the Hitchcock will direct Gordon Harker in the Road House. However, Gaumont British director Maurice Elvey will eventually direct the film.

1935

• 14th - Michael Balcon departs from Southampton aboard the Olympic, bound for New York and Hollywood. Whilst in America, he plans to promote Gaumont-British and to sign deals to distribute the company's films. He also meets with Will H. Hays and Joseph L. Breen of the Production Code Administration and later states, "If we in England want distribution in this market [America], it is entirely logical that we should be prepared to observe the code principles."

1940

• At Hitchcock's request, Walter Wanger hires British writer Charles Bennett to work on the screenplay for Personal History (later retitled Foreign Correspondent) for a period of 4 weeks at $1,000 per week. Together with Hitchcock and Joan Harrison, Bennett fashions a script that pushes against the US Neutrality Acts which limit pro-war propaganda in Hollywood.
• 20th - Actress Nova Pilbeam plays the title role in a BBC Radio adaptation of J.M. Barrie's play "Mary Rose", produced by Barbara Burnham.

1941

• 10th - Hitchcock commences filming on Suspicion for RKO, starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine.
• 19th - Variety reports that Hitchcock will be lecturing on "technique in melodrama" to students of the Cinematic Department of the University of California.
• 27th - The Hitchcocks attend the Academy Awards where Rebecca has 11 nominations and Foreign Correspondent has 5. Both films are nominated for "Best Production" and Rebecca wins — David O. Selznick accepts (and then keeps) the Oscar. George Barnes also takes the Oscar for "Best Cinematography".

1942

• Cornell Woolrich's short story "It Had to Be Murder" is published in the February edition of Dime Detective.
• 9th - The French ocean liner SS Normandie catches fire in New York Harbor. Ever the opportunist, Hitchcock dispatches a Universal newsreel unit to capture footage of the beached liner for use in Saboteur. Incensed that the film implies that the Normandie fire was sabotage, the US Navy forces the scene to be cut.

1943

• MacKinlay Kantor, who would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize, is brought in to work on the opening sequence of Lifeboat with Alma in mid-February, but is dismissed by Hitchcock two weeks later. Hitchcock later recalled "I didn't care for what he had written at all".

1944

• 25th - Hitchcock finishes filming Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache.

1946

• Filming on Notorious is completed.
• 17th - Hitchcock appears as a guest on The Fred Allen Show.
• U.S. local newspapers report that David O. Selznick is close to signing Laurence Olivier to start in Hitchcock's next film, The Paradine Case.

1947

• Several U.S. local newspapers carry a report that Hitchcock's new puppy bit his ear and the director was left with an infection.

1948

• Principal photography on Rope is completed by the third week in February. The production phase required 9 days of reshoots.
• 21st - The Hitchcocks spend the weekend at their Scotts Valley, celebrating the end of filming on Rope. Among their guests are Hume Cronyn and Whitfield Cook.

1949

• English serial killer John George Haigh, known as the "Acid Bath Murderer", is arrested. He was found guilty in July and then executed in August. Hitchcock follows the arrest and trial with fascination and will later try to incorporate aspects of Haigh case into the Kaleidoscope project.

1952

• 7th - Pleased with the terms of his new contact with Warner Brothers, Hitchcock offers to direct, without salary, one extra film at the end of the contract — this will turn out to be The Wrong Man.
• Alma Reville beings re-working a treatment for I Confess that she had originally drafted in 1948 for Transatlantic Pictures.
• Alma and Alfred Hitchcock travel to Quebec to scout locations for I Confess.

1953

• Angus MacPhail writes to Hitchcock from Nice, France, asking for help paying his hotel bills. Hitchcock immediately wires him some money. The director then becomes one of a group of MacPhail's friends who help clear the writer's debts so that he can return to England.
• I Confess opens to lukewarm reviews.

1954

• 7th - The Los Angeles Times reports that the Hitchcocks have left to spend time at the ranch at Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz.
• The Production Code Administration office rejects the initial cut of Rear Window, in particular raising objections to scenes where Miss Torso appears to be topless. According to John Michael Hayes, Hitchcock had done this on purpose to divert their attention from other parts of the film that he had suspected they might object to. The scene is easily replaced with an alternative non-topless take.
• 23rd - John Michael Hayes and Hitchcock complete a 9 page story outline of To Catch a Thief.
• 26th - Several retakes are filmed for Rear Window.

1955

• It now seems highly likely that Doris Day will play a lead role in The Man Who Knew Too Much. Hitchcock and Angus MacPhail work on developing the character of Jo McKenna to make her a retired singer.
• Composer Lyn Murray completes the recording of his score for To Catch a Thief.
• 24th - Geoffrey Shurlock, the new director of the Production Code Administration, issues the certificate of approval to To Catch a Thief on the proviso that an edit is made to the scene with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant which ends with the fireworks display. Hitchcock eventually appeases Shurlock by toning down Lyn Murray's sensuous tenor saxophone in the scene.
• John Michael Hayes, now free from other work commitments, joins Hitchcock to work on The Man Who Knew Too Much. The director apparently neglects to tell Hayes that Angus MacPhail had already been working on the film's plot line for the last two months which ultimately leads to Hayes formally objecting to MacPhail receiving a screen credit.

1956

• Hitchcock travels to New York, to scout locations for The Wrong Man and to talk to those involved with the Balestrero trial.

1957

• Hitchcock, still recuperating at home from colitis, holds initial face-to-face meetings with Samuel A. Taylor to discuss the script for Vertigo. Hitchcock also reads The Wreck of the Mary Deare, a property MGM are interested in adapting.
• 8th - Actor Miles Mander, who starred in The Pleasure Garden (1925), dies of a heart attack whilst dining at a Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles.

1958

• 18th-19th - Hitchcock directs the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Lamb to the Slaughter".

1959

• 27th - Kathleen O'Connell, daughter of Joseph E. O'Connell, Jr. and Patricia Hitchcock, and granddaughter of Alfred and Alma Hitchcock, is born.
• 28th - Writer Maxwell Anderson, who wrote The Wrong Man and worked on an initial draught of the Vertigo screenplay, dies of a stroke aged 70.

1960

• Hitchcock directs the Startime epsiode "Incident at a Corner".

1961

• 17th - Actress Nita Naldi, who starred in The Mountain Eagle, dies aged 65.

1962

• 12th - Peggy Robertson sends Evan Hunter a leather-bound copy of his screenplay for The Birds.
• 22nd - Hitchcock begins filming The Birds in Bodega Bay.

1963

• 1st - With all the effects shots completed and printed to his satisfaction, cinematographer Robert Burks' work on The Birds is completed.
• In a meeting with Universal's marketing executives, Hitchcock reveals his marketing slogan for The Birds — "Gentlemen, here is how we'll announce the movie. Are you ready? ... The Birds is coming!"
• 12th-14th - In preparation for the Museum of Modern Art's retrospective season of Hitchcock films, Peter Bogdanovich spends 3 days interviewing the director.

1966

• Principal photography on Torn Curtain is completed.
• 15th - Writer James Allardice, who wrote Hitchcock's dialogue for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, as well as many of the director's speeches, dies of a heart attack aged 46.

1967

• 24th - Composer Franz Waxman, who scored Rebecca, Suspicion, The Paradine Case and Rear Window, dies from cancer aged 60.

1969

• 5th - Actress Thelma Ritter, who starred in Rear Window, dies of a heart attack aged 66.

1970

• 14th - Cinematographer Harry Stradling, Sr., who worked with Hitchcock on Jamaica Inn, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Suspicion, dies aged 68.

1971

• By late February, Anthony Shaffer and Hitchcock have produced a 55 page treatment for Frenzy, which drops several parts of Arthur La Bern's novel to help streamline the plot.
• 27th - Pleased with the progress so far, Hitchcock allows Anthony Shaffer to return to New York in order to complete the first-draft screenplay with dialogue for Frenzy.

1972

• Post-production on Frenzy is completed by the end of February.

1975

• Hitchcock meets with actress Karen Black and casts her as the wife of the villain in Family Plot.

1977

• The press announce that The Short Night will become Hitchcock's 54th film.

1978

• Grace Kelly visits the Hitchcocks.
• 18th - Actor Derrick De Marney, who starred in Young and Innocent, dies aged 71.

1987

• 28th - Actress Anny Ondra, who starred in The Manxman and Blackmail, dies aged 84.

1997

• 22nd - Composer Joel McNeely conducts the National Philharmonic Orchestra at Watford Town Hall, England, in a recording of Bernard Herrmann's unused score for Torn Curtain. The recording is released in 1998 on the Varèse Sarabande label as "Torn Curtain - The Unused Score".
• 23rd - Writer Frank Launder, who wrote the screenplay for "The Lady Vanishes" with Sidney Gilliat, dies aged 91.

2002

• 11th - Actor Barry Foster, who starred in Frenzy, dies aged 74.
• 26th - German composer Oskar Sala, who worked on the electronic soundtrack of The Birds, dies aged 91.

2005

• 1st - Actor John Vernon, who appeared in Topaz, dies aged 72.

2007

• 15th - Song writer Ray Evans, who worked with Hitchcock on Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much, dies aged 92.

2015

• 14th - French actor Louis Jourdan, who appeared in the The Paradine Case, dies at his home in Beverly Hills, aged 93.

References

Hitchcock Chronology
1890s	1890	1891	1892	1893	1894	1895	1896	1897	1898	1899
1900s	1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905	1906	1907	1908	1909
1910s	1910	1911	1912	1913	1914	1915	1916	1917	1918	1919
1920s	1920	1921	1922	1923	1924	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929
1930s	1930	1931	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936	1937	1938	1939
1940s	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
1950s	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
1960s	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969
1970s	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979
1980s	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
1990s	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
2000s	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
2010s	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
months	-	-	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	-	-
months	-	-	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	-	-