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CNN Larry King Live
Encore Presentation: Panel Reminisces About Legendary Director Alfred Hitchcock
Aired October 10, 2004 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP - "ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS")
ALFRED HITCHCOCK: Good evening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, Alfred Hitchcock, one of the most famous filmmakers ever and one of the most ingenious. And why did he love to scare us so much? Why were women so crucial to his films on screen and off? And what was the master of suspense really like on the set and at home?
We'll ask Alfred Hitchcock's only child, Pat Hitchcock, and three of his leading ladies: Janet Leigh from "Psycho," Tippi Hedren from "Marnie" and "The Birds," and Eva Marie Saint from "North by Northwest." Tonight go inside the legend to meet the man that thrilled and chilled us like nobody else has, the one, the only Alfred Hitchcock as you've never known him next on LARRY KING LIVE.
Pat Hitchcock is not the only child of Alfred and Alma Revel Hitchcock, she was an actress and producer herself, was in three Hitchcock films, "Stagefright," "Strangers on a Train" and "Psycho," also appeared on TV's "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and is co-author of "Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man." There you see its cover.
How important, Pat, was your mother in your father's scheme of things?
PAT HITCHCOCK, ONLY CHILD OF ALFRED AND ALMA HITCHCOCK: My mother was so important that people don't realize that she was even there. She worked with him very early on. She was in the business before he was. And then she worked with him all the way along and including when they came over here to America.
KING: Both born in 1899, right?
HITCHCOCK: Yes, a day apart. He was the 13th and she was the 14th of August.
KING: Of August.
HITCHCOCK: Yes. Yes. And she followed him -- you know, they came over -- and we came over in 1939. And he came over to make "Rebecca" for David Selznick.
KING: He was directing in England, wasn't he? HITCHCOCK: Oh, yes. Yes. He had -- She was in the business before he was, and he...
KING: Was she a director, too?
HITCHCOCK: No, she was in the art department and in, oh, sort of synopsis and fixing, you know, things.
KING: Well, we're going to find out a lot about Alfred Hitchcock tonight. He liked women, as you well know, and featured women a lot.
Janet Leigh, what was it like to work for him?
JANET LEIGH, STARRED IN "PSYCHO": It was sheer joy. One, he was so prepared, such a professional, that when you came on, he knew exactly what he was doing. There were no ifs, ands and buts. And he really gave you free rein unless...
KING: Really?
LEIGH: Except...
KING: We usually hear the opposite.
LEIGH: Except you had to be within the scope of his camera. And his camera was absolute. So whatever you may have felt in -- you know, in preparation for the scene, that you may want to have risen an eye or something, but his camera didn't move until...
KING: So if you changed an inflection...
LEIGH: No, not the inflection...
KING: ... that was OK?
LEIGH: No, it's the words. You'd have to move on the words. So what you'd have to do is change your thought behind the sentence or whatever you're saying.
KING: We're going to be seeing lots of clips tonight. Many of the titles that we see will be available on Universal Home Video and DVD. We'll be seeing all of our featured guests in clips. Here's Janet Leigh in a film you may have heard of, "Psycho."
(VIDEO CLIP - "PSYCHO")
KING: Didn't take a shower for months after that.
(LAUGHTER)
LEIGH: I don't -- I haven't taken a shower unless I was forced to physically because of the -- you know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) whatever. No, I don't take showers.
KING: You take baths.
LEIGH: And do you know that my daughter, Kelly, couldn't see this -- it was just a few years ago that she first saw it.
KING: What did they use for the blood?
LEIGH: Chocolate syrup.
KING: Is that true? They used Hershey's chocolate syrup.
LEIGH: Because it read the best...
KING: In black and white.
LEIGH: ... on camera in black and white, yes.
KING: How long did it take to shoot that scene?
LEIGH: Seven days, seven wet days.
(LAUGHTER)
LEIGH: Seven shooting days, yes.
KING: Tippi, what was it like...
LEIGH: Seven wet shooting days.
KING: ... to work with him?
TIPPI HEDREN, STARRED IN "MARNIE" AND "THE BIRDS": Oh, well, I had such great fortune by having had Alfred Hitchcock as my drama coach.
KING: Because?
HEDREN: Because "The Birds" was the first film that I did. He...
KING: We'll see a clip from it in the next segment, but...
HEDREN: Yes.
KING: What was he like to -- it was your first film ever?
HEDREN: Yes, that was my first film. I had done a lot of commercials, and that's where he found me, in a Pet milk product...
KING: You're kidding!
HEDREN: No! It was a -- it was called Sego (ph). It was a diet drink. Yes. Yes!
KING: And he contacted you?
HEDREN: He did and asked -- one of the studio executives asked if I was the girl in the commercial, and if I was, would I come over and meet with him.
KING: This image that he was -- didn't like actors -- wrong?
HEDREN: Oh, that's so wrong. Many of his best friends were actors.
KING: Because he had a quote once...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: He said, I never said actors are cattle. What I said is they should be treated like cattle.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Was he just kidding?
HEDREN: No, I think so. I think he treated his actors very well.
KING: Eva Marie, you made the famous "North by Northwest." We're going to be seeing a clip from that later. What was he like to work for?
EVA MARIE SAINT, STARRED IN "NORTH BY NORTHWEST": I found it very interesting because I had made "Waterfront" with Kazan and had worked with Actors Studio people, studied there, and he was completely different. However, he was interested in how you looked. And it wasn't just an exterior thing. The things that he suggested that you wear -- I called him my sugar daddy because he didn't like the costumes that MGM had made, so he took me to New York, Bergdorf Goodman. And they had...
(LAUGHTER)
SAINT: No, they had a fashion show. And he said, Eva Marie, whatever you want. And there was a black dress with red roses, and I said, Oh, I'd like that! Wrap it up! I mean, it was the first and last sugar daddy I ever had. But at least I...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: He was meticulous.
SAINT: So meticulous, and I really admired that, not only in the scenes themselves. It was all in his mind -- the storyboard -- exactly what he wanted, but he was really interested in the actor and putting it all together.
KING: What, Pat, got him interested in scaring? What got him interested in making fright movies?
HITCHCOCK: I think, Larry, it was the control he had. He started that in England. And the story was the most important thing to him. That's what was it. My mother was already in the business. And he went over and he was carrying some sketches. And she says there was this young man with this great big thing of sketches. And that's when he started. And he got a job there and... KING: So he liked the fascination of scaring people.
HITCHCOCK: He liked it because I think it gave him control, that he could control the audience. And I think that's why scaring -- plus, the stories were better.
KING: When the movies were shown for the first time to preview audiences, did he enjoy sitting there?
HITCHCOCK: No, he hated it.
KING: Really?
HITCHCOCK: He just hated it! When they used to have these sneak previews out here and he and my mother would go -- and he said it was awful. The people would laugh at the wrong time, you know?
(LAUGHTER)
SAINT: And he couldn't control that.
HITCHCOCK: No!
KING: When you were making "Psycho," did you know what you were doing? Did you know how wild that would be?
LEIGH: Well, we knew we were doing something unusual, obviously...
KING: Yes!
LEIGH: ... to say the least. But you really don't know the outcome of any project...
KING: Until you see it.
LEIGH: Well, until the audience sees it. They make the choice.
KING: Did it scare you to watch it?
LEIGH: I had not seen anything -- you know, rushes or anything like that. And when I saw it the first time, I absolutely screamed my head off. I just want to add one thing. I think also what titillated Mr. Hitchcock -- I always say Mr. Hitchcock -- was the manipulation.
KING: He liked to manipulate the audience?
LEIGH: Yes, exactly.
KING: And he put himself in every movie, right?
LEIGH: That's right.
KING: We're going to go to break, and we'll be coming back. Lots of calls tonight. We have an outstanding panel and the discussion of a great director, Alfred Hitchcock. As we go to break, here's Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak in "Vertigo."
(VIDEO CLIP - "VERTIGO")
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Before we get back to the movies, what kind of father was he, Pat?
HITCHCOCK: He was very loving, friendly. I was friends with he and my mother, more so than dictatorial parents. And we were very close.
KING: You worked with him, right?
HITCHCOCK: I worked with him three times. I worked with him in England when I was at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. And he came over and set the scene with Jane Wyman, the whole picture, at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, which was...
KING: Was he doting? Was he a father-daughter kind of person?
HITCHCOCK: Very loving.
KING: Affectionate?
HITCHCOCK: Very. Oh, yes. Very.
LEIGH: Tell the clown story. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
KING: What are you -- don't whisper!
(LAUGHTER)
LEIGH: Oh, I'm sorry.
KING: You're on television!
LEIGH: I wanted her to tell the story about him going in when you were asleep.
(CROSSTALK)
LEIGH: I love that.
HITCHCOCK: I would be asleep in bed, and he would come in...
KING: When you were a child.
HITCHCOCK: When I was a child. Well, even growing up. And he would come in and draw a clown face all over me while I was asleep.
(LAUGHTER)
LEIGH: I love that!
HITCHCOCK: Isn't that sweet? KING: Kind of wacko, right?
(CROSSTALK)
SAINT: ... a wonderful seminar at NYU in New York and the different people -- students who know everything about the films, more than any of us know. And one young student said, Ms. Hitchcock, what was it like having Mr. Hitchcock as your father? And was it normal? And Pat said, Of course it was normal. He was there and he was doting. And she said, And you know, I'd wake up in the morning and he would have painted my face, and I never knew.
(LAUGHTER)
SAINT: And I said, Normal?
LEIGH: Normal. That's his sense of -- wonderful sense of humor, you know, the pixie. I love that!
HITCHCOCK: And then he would bring me back -- he would go over to England during the war. And where, you know, other fathers would bring back little presents, he brought me back an empty incendiary bomb, which I kept by my bed!
(LAUGHTER)
KING: He was a load of laughs.
Tippi, in making "The Birds" -- by the way, many of the titles that you see tonight are the courtesy and are available on Universal Home Video and DVD. We want to remind you of that. Was "The Birds" difficult to make?
HEDREN: Oh, well, sure it was. First of all...
KING: Where'd he get all the birds from?
HEDREN: There was a wonderful bird trainer. His name was Ray Brewick (ph). And collected birds. He collected ravens and...
KING: And he trained them to chase?
HEDREN: ... seagulls. He would train individually. He'd trained them a dozen at a time, a flock at a time. And he was -- he was such a caring, wonderful man.
KING: Did you ever get scared, making it?
HEDREN: Yes. I mean, you know, some of those seagulls were not very nice. They really weren't.
KING: You ever get hurt?
HEDREN: Yes. Yes.
KING: You did? HEDREN: Yes. We even kept our tetanus shots up to date.
SAINT: Oh, gosh!
KING: Oh!
HEDREN: And you know, they'd -- they'd come at you because a lot of them, Ray had to teach them to do these things.
KING: There were a lot of them?
HEDREN: A lot. At one scene, at the party scene with the children, he had three seagulls that he'd trained to take off from his arm, circle, dive-bomb the kids, you know, not hurt them. And their little beaks were wired very, very loosely. And then they'd come back to Ray's arm. First one took off, came back. Second one. Third one took off and didn't come back. And he walked up to Hitch and he said, Mr. Hitchcock, we have to close down for the afternoon because I have to find that bird...
HITCHCOCK: Charlie.
HEDREN: ... because he would -- yes, Charlie. He would have died a very painful death if he hadn't removed the wire off his beak. I'll never forget that.
KING: OK, let's watch a scene, Tippi Hedren in one of Hitchcock's famous films, "The Birds."
(Video Clip - "The Birds")
KING: Oh!
HEDREN: That -- when the bird hit the glass there, they had -- that was done in the studio. And they had a seagull up in a wire. And the bird came down on the wire. And it was supposed to be safety glass, and it wasn't.
KING: Oh, my gosh!
HEDREN: And they picked little pieces of glass out of my face for an afternoon.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: What did you think when you saw the film?
HEDREN: Well, you know, when I watch my own films, I relive so much of what went on.
KING: I mean the first time you saw "The Birds."
HEDREN: Oh, it was scary. It was very frightening.
KING: You were scared. HEDREN: I mean, even -- yes! Even though when you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) make a film, you're not really frightened because you know what you're doing and it's all very controlled and -- or most of it's controlled. Not with "The Birds." But it's wonderful to see the films put together.
KING: He was very methodical, right?
HEDREN: Extremely.
KING: He knew exactly what he wanted.
HEDREN: Absolutely. It really spoils you for working with other directors.
KING: Was he aware of budgets? Did he come in, like, on budget?
HEDREN: Oh, yes.
HEDREN: And he worked from 9:00 to 5:00. Have you ever heard of that? Have you ever heard of that?
LEIGH: He was so well prepared that it wasn't like taking two hours to figure out how to shoot the whole scene. He had the master, the close-ups, the over-the-shoulder, had it all worked out. So that it went...
SAINT: And not many takes.
LEIGH: No. Very -- very few.
KING: Did he get ticked? Did he get angry, Eva?
SAINT: Well, not at me!
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHCOCK: He did in England. He got very angry in England...
KING: Oh, really?
HITCHCOCK: ... because they would have 11:00 o'clock breaks, and everything would stop. And then they would have tea breaks, and everything would stop. He was not happy about that!
KING: But he was British. He should have understood.
HITCHCOCK: Oh, no! No, he was an American. He became a citizen.
KING: Oh, but he was...
HITCHCOCK: Oh, absolutely.
KING: He was from Britain.
HITCHCOCK: Yes, he was from Britain.
SAINT: I never heard him raise his voice.
KING: You never heard him yell?
HEDREN: Never. I never did.
(CROSSTALK)
SAINT: ... well-organized...
KING: How would he -- if he didn't like a scene, how would he handle it?
SAINT: I don't remember him -- he didn't give much direction?
KING: Really?
SAINT: No, no. No, I -- no, he gave...
KING: You mean he...
SAINT: ... a lot of external things. If this were the scene, you would be sitting there, we would all be sitting here. And so it was structured and physically that way. But then...
KING: So he would want the coffee cups in a certain place, right?
SAINT: Probably.
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHCOCK: But if he want wasn't getting what he needed from the scene, he would very subtly talk to someone quietly, no -- you know, extra kind of emotion.
KING: Did he use the same people all the time, Pat, cinematographers and...
HITCHCOCK: Pretty much so.
KING: ... assistant directors?
HITCHCOCK: Pretty much so, yes.
KING: He liked his crew?
HITCHCOCK: Yes, he liked his crew, and they understood him and they knew exactly, you know, what he wanted. And that was very important to him.
SAINT: You know, the wonderful thing was that he -- you're scared by, say, "The Birds" or "Psycho," "North by Northwest." It's the leading up to what's happening, the suspense. And he knew about that. But you look at movies today, go through the window, that's it. Crash the car, that's it.
KING: He knew how to...
SAINT: That suspense, you know?
KING: As we go to break, here is Tippi Hedren. We'll be including your phone calls at the bottom of the hour, our tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, who'd have been 104 years old, by the way. Here's Tippi Hedren in "Marnie."
(VIDEO CLIP - "Marnie")
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We have a surprise guest joining us by phone. She doesn't do interviews. The last one she did on this show five years ago may have been her last. But Kim Novak is with us. Are you there, Kim?
KIM NOVAK, STARRED IN "VERTIGO": I sure am! Hi, Larry. You know, I'm such a fan of your show...
KING: Thank you.
NOVAK: I couldn't have been more surprised than to all of a sudden see all my favorite people there!
(LAUGHTER)
KING: They're all here.
NOVAK: And it's such nostalgia and wonderful. And I just wanted to say hi. And I'm enjoying listening to your stories, and I just want to keep watching.
KING: Well, let me ask you a couple quick things.
NOVAK: OK.
KING: What did you like -- what did you -- how did -- and we're seeing a scene now from "Vertigo." How did you like working for Hitch?
NOVAK: Well, you know, he was my favorite director because he was very precise, as everyone was saying as I was watching, very precise, but he allowed you to find the emotion yourself and justify, as long as you hit your marks, got -- I mean, you had a lot of things you had to work back with, but he gave you so much freedom as an actress. I, to me, felt he was the greatest director I've ever worked with because he allowed me to do the emotions, you know, to be there.
KING: When you saw the film for the first time, did it move you?
NOVAK: Listen, I was so scared to see it, I don't even remember seeing it! (LAUGHTER)
NOVAK: I don't know if everyone else feels that way. Tippi and I have talked about it a lot.
HEDREN: Yes, we have.
KING: You and Kim are close, right?
HEDREN: Yes, we are.
NOVAK: We are. We're close buddies. They come stay with us, and Tippi helped me work out my design. And we just have -- we have great fun. But our husbands are -- were classmates.
KING: Oh, yes?
(CROSSTALK)
NOVAK: They were in prep school together.
KING: How did you like working with Jimmy Stewart, Kim?
NOVAK: Oh, the best. Of course, nobody -- nobody better in the whole wide world.
LEIGH: Absolutely.
NOVAK: Yes. Without a doubt.
KING: Thanks for calling in. We look forward to seeing you here soon.
NOVAK: OK. And I'm enjoying the show.
KING: Kim Novak. And speaking of Jimmy Stewart, what was it like for you to work with him, Eva, in "North by Northwest."
SAINT: Cary Grant.
KING: No, that was Cary Grant!
(CROSSTALK)
KING: But I know we're up to "North by Northwest." What was it like making that movie?
SAINT: Oh, well, he was larger than life. He was everything that everybody thinks he is, men and women. And he was dear. Up until that time, I had done some serious things. And I walked in. He said, Eva Marie, no tears. This is going to be sheer joy. And it was. And he was very, very, very giving, very generous as an actor.
KING: Let's now watch a scene, Eva Marie Saint in the historic "North by Northwest."
(VIDEO CLIP - "NORTH BY NORTHWEST")
KING: Where were you -- were you there?
SAINT: Mt. Rushmore?
KING: No.
SAINT: No, we were only there for the one brief cafeteria scene. All the rest was at MGM. It was all faithfully...
KING: What were -- when you were falling off a rock, where were you?
SAINT: At MGM, in the studios. It was an incredible set. Incredible set. Now, in that scene, where I fell, if you notice, I do this, because the man who was supposed to catch me was on his cell phone -- no, no, no!
(LAUGHTER)
SAINT: I'm trying to, you know, update it. No, not on his cell phone, but he forgot to catch me and so...
HEDREN: He forgot?
SAINT: Yes. I still have this little scar. If you notice, when I'm climbing, I'm kind of going like that. It hurt.
HEDREN: I guess he'd be selling shoes now.
SAINT: Well, I think he is!
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Were you happy when you saw the finished product?
SAINT: Yes. At the very end -- at the very end of the movie, I didn't realize -- for those who have seen it, the train goes through the tunnel. So on opening night, when I saw it with my husband, I said -- because it's right after sort of a love scene, I said to my husband, Well, that's a little Freudian, isn't it?
(LAUGHTER)
SAINT: And my husband said, You got it, honey. You got it.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Hitchcock was ahead of his time sexually, in that regard, right? I mean, that was some...
SAINT: Oh, yes.
KING: That was a very sexy scene. He kisses, and then the tunnel, the train in the tunnel. I mean, come on!
SAINT: Well, I didn't get it! I mean, I thought I did.
(LAUGHTER)
LEIGH: "North by Northwest" is responsible for why Paramount did not release "Psycho" because for Hitch's last picture, you know, with the -- under contract, they wanted something wonderful and grandioso, like "North by Northwest."
KING: So they held back "Psycho"?
LEIGH: They -- no, they did not finance it. They released it. He went to Universal and financed it himself.
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHCOCK: No, that's true. He did. He financed it through Review Pictures, and they're the ones that did "Psycho."
LEIGH: Yes. Paramount refused to.
HITCHCOCK: Nobody wanted it.
LEIGH: No. Gosh, they wanted "North by Northwest." They didn't want "Psycho."
(CROSSTALK)
SAINT: We've heard it here.
(CROSSTALK)
LEIGH: That's the absolute truth.
KING: The scene with the plane...
SAINT: Yes.
LEIGH: Absolute truth.
KING: Did that take a long time to shoot?
SAINT: I wasn't there.
KING: You weren't there.
SAINT: Bakersfield. But they sent me a sweet telegram saying, "We miss you."
KING: Look at that scene.
SAINT: But it was so hot...
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHCOCK: Yes, I was there for that scene. I remember when they shot that scene. KING: We will take a break and come back and include your phone calls on our tribute to Alfred Hitchcock. We'll reintroduce our panel. We again thank Kim Novak for calling in, and remind you that many of the titles we're seeing tonight are available on Universal Home Video and DVD. As we go to a break, Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart in "The Man Who Knew Too Much."
(VIDEO CLIP - "THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH")
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
A. HITCHCOCK: Good evening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Ah.
Let's introduce the panel. Pat Hitchcock, the only child of Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Revel Hitchcock, was in three films of Hitchcock's. Also appeared on TV with him and co-author of "Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man."
Janet Leigh, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," was nominated for best supporting actress Oscar for "Psycho."
Tippi Hedren starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and "Marnie."
And Eva Marie Saint, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest."
Before we go to phone calls, how did the TV show come about?
HITCHCOCK: The TV show came about through Lew Wasserman, who thought it would be a very good idea for my father to do a television show. So he had as his producer Joan Harrison, who I had come over from England and Norman Lloyd was the associate producer. And Norman -- they had a man called James Alerdice, who was writing the introductions. And Norman said, Hitch will never do these. He will never do anything like this.
He loved it! He loved it! He had such fun.
KING: How many years did that run? How many years did that run?
HITCHCOCK: Oh, I don't -- I can't remember. I don't think anybody (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Long time.
KING: Did he supervise the scripts?
HITCHCOCK: To a certain extent. Not all of them. Not all of them. Just the ones that he was going to direct himself.
KING: And who came up with the music? HITCHCOCK: "Funeral dance of the Marionettes," I think.
KING: One of the great musical themes in television...
HITCHCOCK: I think that's what it's called.
KING: ...in television history.
Also true that he didn't -- he didn't like location shooting.
HITCHCOCK: He didn't.
KING: He liked inside the set.
HITCHCOCK: Inside the set. Hated location.
KING: He was a control freak.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Didn't you have a problem with him being a little obsessed with you?
HEDREN: Yes, and it did become a problem.
KING: For you?
HEDREN: Yes. It did.
KING: So you were not friendly at the end?
HEDREN: No, we were always friendly. It was OK. You know, it was all right. But it was just a difficult time.
KING: You can tell us, Tippi. It's OK. Time wears away.
Woodstock, Illinois, hello.
CALLER: Hey, Larry. One of the fun parts of seeing a Hitchcock movie, I always thought, was spotting his cameos. I was wondering how he came up with the idea of doing that and did he actually appear in every single film?
KING: Pat?
HITCHCOCK: He -- that started in the early days in England where they used whoever was on the set in a crowd scene. And he started having fun with it. And so he kept on doing it. And that's how it started.
KING: We're seeing a bunch of shots of Hitchcock. He would just show up. He'd walk out of a store. He would be carrying an umbrella, right?
HITCHCOCK: Yes. But he'd be very careful not to do it when he was building up some mood. KING: Never in a serious...
HITCHCOCK: By the time people knew him, they'd get hysterical. So he'd have to do it at the very beginning of the movie.
LEIGH: That's what I was going to say. Especially like in "Psycho" he went ahead and got it over with right away.
HITCHCOCK: That's right. That's right.
LEIGH: Yes.
HITCHCOCK: Yes.
HEDREN: The interesting thing was in "Lifeboat."
HITCHCOCK: Oh, yes.
HEDREN: How could he appear? So one of the characters opened the newspaper and he was doing a fat ad, before and after.
LEIGH: Reduce.
KING: I forgot about "Lifeboat." What a movie that was.
HEDREN: Yes. Ooh.
CALLER: Tampa, hello.
CALLER: Yes, Larry. My question for your guests is, it's reported that Alfred Hitchcock had obsessive/compulsive disorder. How did that affect his personal, directorial life? And the second question is related to the special effects today. Do you think he would have embraced it or rather would have worked with what he with him today?
KING: Pat, was he obsessive/compulsive?
HITCHCOCK: Not that I noticed.
KING: Was he?
LEIGH: Not that I noticed.
KING: How do you think he would have worked with today's modern computers?
SAINT: Well, I talked with Pat once and Pat said that he would have loved it all that.
HEDREN: I think he would have loved it.
SAINT: That the whole technology.
KING: In other words, he would have used the technology available to him? LEIGH: Yes, because he loved technical everything -- you know, it was wonderful to use the different technical and different techniques that came out.
KING: He once said, Tippi, he liked a lot of things that weren't on the screen was the buildup for the audience. The buildup was scarier than the thing.
HEDREN: Absolutely.
LEIGH: Than the actuality.
KING: Yes.
HEDREN: Yes. And he used to give an example of -- say we're all sitting here and underneath the table is a bomb with a clock on it. And we're all chatting and we're just having a wonderful time. And the audience sees the clock and they see it coming around to where it's going to go kaboom and we don't know anything about it. The audience goes crazy and that's called suspense.
KING: Mel Brooks tributes to him and "High Anxiety."
HITCHCOCK: He loved it, too.
KING: Did he love that movie?
HITCHCOCK: He loved it! He just loved it!
KING: All those scenes crashing through the glass. The "Vertigo" scene and Feldman beats him with the paper in the shower.
LEIGH: I'm sure that he would have used the technology in the same context as he made his pictures, which was the suspense building and, you know, letting even with -- even though you had the technology that shows everything somehow he would have used that to increase your suspense.
KING: He would have had to go off on location a lot today, right?
SAINT: I bet you he wouldn't.
KING: Here's Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart in a wonderful scene from a terrific movie "Rear Window."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE KELLY, ACTRESS: How's your leg?
JIMMY STEWART, ACTOR: It hurts a little.
KELLY: And your stomach?
STEWART: Empty as a football.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The villain in that movie was Raymond Burr. He killed his wife and Jimmy sees it happen. Laid up with the bad leg. Wow!
We go to Golden, Colorado, hello.
CALLER: Hello?
KING: Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Larry.
KING: Hi.
CALLER: Was there an actor are or actress that Mr. Hitchcock wanted for a movie but could not get?
KING: Do we know, Pat?
HITCHCOCK: I don't think so. I don't know of any.
KING: All right. Eva, did every one...
SAINT: Yes, I think he wanted Grace for "Marnie." He wanted Grace Kelly to play "Marnie."
KING: Did he ever -- did he ever express to you -- Do you know any actor who turned him down? I mean, did people want to work for him or not?
SAINT: Oh, yes clam I think, Pat, you might know this, but I think Cyd Charisse -- the studio wanted Cyd Charisse maybe because she was under contract with "North by Northwest". But he wanted moi. I don't know why he wanted moi. Only because she was sophisticated.
KING: El Dorado Springs, Missouri, hello.
CALLER: hi, I want to thank you for bringing a great panel together. What wonderful people to commemorate the memory of such a brilliant man.
All my questions have been asked but I do have one other one. What was his favorite hobby when he was at home and trying to relax? What did he really get into doing?
KING: Pat?
HITCHCOCK: Reading. He loved to read but not novels.
KING: No?
HITCHCOCK: No. Just either historical or current event. But he never read a novel.
KING: Did he like movies?
HITCHCOCK: Yes.
KING: Did he go to movies?
HITCHCOCK: Not very often. He would have them run in the projection room. And he enjoyed that.
KING: Did he get, like, scary movies?
HITCHCOCK: I don't think -- I don't know if he did or not.
KING: As we go to break, here's Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant in Hitchcock's "Notorious."
LEIGH: Oh, golly.
HITCHCOCK: That's my favorite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRID BERGMAN, ACTRESS: You never believed in me anyway, so what's the difference?
CARY GRANT, ACTOR: Lucky for either of us I didn't. It wouldn't have been pretty if I had believed in you. I would have figured she would never go through with it, she was only made over by love.
BERGMAN: If you just once said you love me.
GRANT: Listen, you chalked up another boyfriend. That's all. No harm done.
BERGMAN: I hate you.
GRANT: There's no occasion to. You're going good work. No. 10 is out in front. Looks like Sebastian knows how to pick them.
BERGMAN: Is that all you have to say to me?
GRANT: Dry your eyes, baby, it's out of character.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back. Strangely enough, Alfred Hitchcock never won an Academy Oscar. He was nominated five times for best director for "Rebecca," "Lifeboat," "Spellbound," "Rear Window" and "Psycho." "Rebecca" won for best picture, but the director did not win. He was given the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Irving Thalberg Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1968, came up on stage, said "thank you" and walked off. Was awarded the French Legion of Honor, received the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, which he dedicated to Alma. He said, "I share this award as I share my life with her." The 1980 honors list in Britain named him a knight commander of the British Empire. He liked good food, too, right? HITCHCOCK: Yes, he did.
SAINT: I was so impressed that he imported his bacon. I was younger then.
(CROSSTALK)
HEDREN: I had never known anyone who imported bacon.
KING: That's hip.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: And what?
HEDREN: And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) wine.
KING: Toronto, Canada, hello.
CALLER: Hello.
KING: Hi.
CALLER: I wondered when you -- when did the actors rehearse? I worked on one of his films called "I Confess" with Montgomery Clift and Anne Baxter, and he rarely got out of his chair. The actors would get up, hit their marks and they would put on this greatest of all performance, and yet we never saw them rehearsing.
KING: What did you do on the film, sir?
CALLER: Pardon?
KING: What was your work?
CALLER: I was a young production assistant.
KING: Is it true he sat in the chair a lot?
LEIGH: You already knew, he had already discussed it.
KING: But when he's done it -- oh, he just talked to you.
(CROSSTALK)
LEIGH: You rehearsed when the camera was set up. So you knew where the camera was. You knew when you had -- you know, and then it -- as we've said, it was the freedom -- it was the allowing you to find the person who this -- who this person is, who this character is.
KING: I know you're his daughter. Was there a dark side to Hitch?
HITCHCOCK: I didn't see it.
KING: Did any of you? (CROSSTALK)
KING: There were all these rumors about Hitchcock?
SAINT: I know. I read those books but not that part.
KING: Payson, Utah, hello.
CALLER: Hi. I have a question for Janet Leigh.
KING: Sure.
CALLER: I've seen a lot of your movies. And besides "Psycho," what do you think Alfred Hitchcock's best film was?
LEIGH: That's very difficult, because there is so many -- each one was so unique, that to pick one, it's -- I hate to say this, but it really is impossible. My personal enjoyment -- I can't say. I honest to gosh can't say. I'm sorry.
KING: Do you have a favorite?
HITCHCOCK: Yes, I do.
KING: Yours?
HITCHCOCK: "Notorious," because I thought every part in that was so beautifully and perfectly cast that it just came right together.
KING: Do you have a favorite, Tippi?
HEDREN: The one I'm watching, whichever Hitchcock movie, because I learned so much...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: I liked "The Wrong Man" with Henry Fonda. I liked "Rope."
SAINT: I liked "Birds." I was so scared. I mean, to this day if I'm walking with my husband and we see a few crows and then we get closer and we see a few more, I say, honey, let's just quietly, slowly go home.
KING: We told you that Pat Hitchcock was in a movie. Here is Pat Hitchcock in "Strangers on a Train."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the matter, Barbara? Did you see it happen?
P. HITCHCOCK: He looked at me. His hands were on her throat. And he was strangling me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you mean?
P. HITCHCOCK: He was looking at her, then looked over at me. He went in sort of a trance. Oh, it was horrible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Many of the scenes you're seeing tonight are courtesy and available on Universal Home Video and DVD. What was it like working for your father?
HITCHCOCK: I enjoyed it. I had a good time. Unfortunately, he never cast me unless I was absolutely perfect for the part. So that let me out of quite a few. But I really -- I really enjoyed working -- he was great to work for.
KING: Staten Island, New York, hello.
CALLER: Hi, my call is for Tippi Hedren, but I want to say all you ladies are absolutely beautiful. Ms. Hedren, I was just curious to know, "The Birds," do you think that could be successful in being remade? And if so, who do you think could play your part?
KING: Melanie Griffith.
HEDREN: Melanie would be perfect for it. But as far as it being done today, I think, you know, if a -- with all the computerization and everything, it would be so different, because they could really make it so...
KING: No one has ever redone a Hitchcock movie, have they?
HITCHCOCK: Oh, yes. Yes.
KING: "Psycho II." It didn't work, did it? "Bates Motel," right? Is that what it was called?
LEIGH: "The Bates Motel," sure.
KING: Omaha, hello. Omaha, are you there?
CALLER: Yes.
KING: Go ahead.
CALLER: Good evening. I'd like to ask if Mr. Hitchcock had ever got hurt while making a movie or if his health ever stopped production of a movie?
HITCHCOCK: No.
KING: No?
HITCHCOCK: No, he never got hurt and never stopped production.
SAINT: He was too careful.
HEDREN: There's a very funny story that he tells. They were doing a scene where they had one of the great big booms, and this huge piece of machinery, and you know, the scene was long and the whole piece came back. And after he yelled "cut," he said, "now would the camera please move over. It's on my foot."
(LAUGHTER)
KING: As we go to break, here's Paul Newman in Alfred Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "TORN CURTAIN")
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. You had your fun. Now let's stop these games.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with our look at the life and times of Alfred Hitchcock. He passed away in 1980. He had just turned 80 years old. His wife died two years later at age 82.
Ottawa, Canada, hello.
CALLER: Yes, hi. Thank you, Larry. I love your show...
KING: Thank you.
CALLER: ... and I congratulate you for assembling such an unbelievable panel. My question is, did Alfred Hitchcock encounter much resistance from the studios to try and bring his vision to the screen, most particularly with some of the disturbing images from "Psycho" or from "The Birds."
KING: Well "Psycho" had trouble getting made. Did he have trouble with other films, Pat?
HITCHCOCK: I don't think so. No.
KING: Were studios generally cooperative? But he was money, wasn't he?
HITCHCOCK: Oh, yes. By the time, they knew he would make money on the pictures.
LEIGH: He had trouble with the censors.
KING: Oh. Oh, he did?
LEIGH: He did have trouble with the censors. But he learned to manipulate them because he would put things in the movie that he knew they would go, Oh. And then he would show it to them. They would go, Oh, my God. And then he would say, Oh, well, if you must take that out, you have to give me this. He would -- that's how he would bargain. That's what happened with "Psycho."
SAINT: That's what happened with "North by Northwest." When I'm with Cary Grant, I say, I never make love on an empty stomach. It didn't pass. KING: That didn't pass?
SAINT: No, so I -- no...
(CROSSTALK)
SAINT: So I had to loop it to, I never discuss love on an empty stomach. Please.
KING: Unbelievable. Columbus, Ohio, hello.
CALLER: Thank you, Larry.
I'm working on a collection of letters of Jimmy Stewart. And I wanted to ask about Alfred Hitchcock's health during the '50s because in a November 1956 letter, Jimmy Stewart said that he was off to San Francisco, where most of his next picture for Hitchcock would be filmed and he was glad because San Francisco would be close and he could fly back and forth on the weekends. And then in an April 1957 letter, Jimmy Stewart wrote that we again are getting ready to do the Hitchcock picture sometime next month. He thinks he will be well enough by then but he's had a pretty rough time.
KING: What was that about, Pat?
HITCHCOCK: I don't remember. I don't remember.
KING: Does anybody remember Hitchcock being ill?
HITCHCOCK: I have no idea when that was.
KING: Sorry we can't help you.
What -- his favorite movie -- and we're going to see a clip was "Shadow of a Doubt," right?
HITCHCOCK: "Shadow of a Doubt," which was written by Thornton Wilder. And they got along so well together. They just worked beautifully.
KING: That was not his more famous film.
HITCHCOCK: And, no. And they went up to Santa Rosa to look for a house to use. And they found this wonderful old house, which was a little seedy. And they said, Oh, it's perfect. It's just perfect. They went down, you know, got everything all ready. They all came up to make the -- to start shooting the movie. The people were so excited about the house, that they had painted it. So they had to dirty it down again!
KING: Here's a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's personal favorite, "Shadow of a Doubt."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH COTTEN, ACTOR: And I brought you nightmares. Or did I? Or was it a silly inexpert little lie? You live in a dream. You're a sleepwalker, blind. How do you know what the world is like? Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know if you rip the fronts off houses, you'd fine swine? The world is a hell. What matters what happens in it? Wake up, Charlie, use your wits. Learn something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Joseph Cotten and Theresa Wright. What an actor he was.
HITCHCOCK: Oh, he was marvelous.
KING: From the Orson Welles group.
HITCHCOCK: And very close friend, Joe Cotten. Yes, they were very close friends, he and my father.
KING: How he is going to be remembered, Eva?
SAINT: How is he going to be -- a genius, I do believe. Fun. A man who knew what he wanted.
KING: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) loved him, a French director.
HEDREN: Yes, he did.
KING: Wrote books about him.
HEDREN: They were very close, yes.
KING: How is he going to be remembered, Tippi?
HEDREN: Probably the finest the motion picture maker, best storyteller.
KING: Best storyteller?
HEDREN: Absolutely.
KING: How do you think, Janet?
LEIGH: I think the master of suspense and the use of imagination.
KING: Pat, as a daughter, how are you going to remember him?
HITCHCOCK: Oh, I remember him as what a sense of humor! And he said, if you can't look at something and see the humor in it, forget it.
KING: So he not only was serious, he had fun making films.
HITCHCOCK: Oh, yes.
KING: Thank you all very much for a delightful, delightful hour. Tippi, so good to see you all.
HEDREN: Thank you.
KING: Pat Hitchcock, Janet Leigh, Tippi Hedren, Eva Marie Saint, the life and times of the late Alfred Hitchcock. The titles you're seeing tonight available on Universal home video and DVD.
I'll be back in a couple of minutes to tell you about tomorrow. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Hope you enjoyed that tribute to the great Alfred Hitchcock, featuring one of the final interviews with the late Janet Leigh.
She also did terrific work in classic films like "The Manchurian Candidat" and "Touch of Evil." And she will be missed.
Stay tuned now for more news on CNN, your most trusted name in news.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 10, 2004 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP - "ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS")
ALFRED HITCHCOCK: Good evening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, Alfred Hitchcock, one of the most famous filmmakers ever and one of the most ingenious. And why did he love to scare us so much? Why were women so crucial to his films on screen and off? And what was the master of suspense really like on the set and at home?
We'll ask Alfred Hitchcock's only child, Pat Hitchcock, and three of his leading ladies: Janet Leigh from "Psycho," Tippi Hedren from "Marnie" and "The Birds," and Eva Marie Saint from "North by Northwest." Tonight go inside the legend to meet the man that thrilled and chilled us like nobody else has, the one, the only Alfred Hitchcock as you've never known him next on LARRY KING LIVE.
Pat Hitchcock is not the only child of Alfred and Alma Revel Hitchcock, she was an actress and producer herself, was in three Hitchcock films, "Stagefright," "Strangers on a Train" and "Psycho," also appeared on TV's "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and is co-author of "Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man." There you see its cover.
How important, Pat, was your mother in your father's scheme of things?
PAT HITCHCOCK, ONLY CHILD OF ALFRED AND ALMA HITCHCOCK: My mother was so important that people don't realize that she was even there. She worked with him very early on. She was in the business before he was. And then she worked with him all the way along and including when they came over here to America.
KING: Both born in 1899, right?
HITCHCOCK: Yes, a day apart. He was the 13th and she was the 14th of August.
KING: Of August.
HITCHCOCK: Yes. Yes. And she followed him -- you know, they came over -- and we came over in 1939. And he came over to make "Rebecca" for David Selznick.
KING: He was directing in England, wasn't he? HITCHCOCK: Oh, yes. Yes. He had -- She was in the business before he was, and he...
KING: Was she a director, too?
HITCHCOCK: No, she was in the art department and in, oh, sort of synopsis and fixing, you know, things.
KING: Well, we're going to find out a lot about Alfred Hitchcock tonight. He liked women, as you well know, and featured women a lot.
Janet Leigh, what was it like to work for him?
JANET LEIGH, STARRED IN "PSYCHO": It was sheer joy. One, he was so prepared, such a professional, that when you came on, he knew exactly what he was doing. There were no ifs, ands and buts. And he really gave you free rein unless...
KING: Really?
LEIGH: Except...
KING: We usually hear the opposite.
LEIGH: Except you had to be within the scope of his camera. And his camera was absolute. So whatever you may have felt in -- you know, in preparation for the scene, that you may want to have risen an eye or something, but his camera didn't move until...
KING: So if you changed an inflection...
LEIGH: No, not the inflection...
KING: ... that was OK?
LEIGH: No, it's the words. You'd have to move on the words. So what you'd have to do is change your thought behind the sentence or whatever you're saying.
KING: We're going to be seeing lots of clips tonight. Many of the titles that we see will be available on Universal Home Video and DVD. We'll be seeing all of our featured guests in clips. Here's Janet Leigh in a film you may have heard of, "Psycho."
(VIDEO CLIP - "PSYCHO")
KING: Didn't take a shower for months after that.
(LAUGHTER)
LEIGH: I don't -- I haven't taken a shower unless I was forced to physically because of the -- you know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) whatever. No, I don't take showers.
KING: You take baths.
LEIGH: And do you know that my daughter, Kelly, couldn't see this -- it was just a few years ago that she first saw it.
KING: What did they use for the blood?
LEIGH: Chocolate syrup.
KING: Is that true? They used Hershey's chocolate syrup.
LEIGH: Because it read the best...
KING: In black and white.
LEIGH: ... on camera in black and white, yes.
KING: How long did it take to shoot that scene?
LEIGH: Seven days, seven wet days.
(LAUGHTER)
LEIGH: Seven shooting days, yes.
KING: Tippi, what was it like...
LEIGH: Seven wet shooting days.
KING: ... to work with him?
TIPPI HEDREN, STARRED IN "MARNIE" AND "THE BIRDS": Oh, well, I had such great fortune by having had Alfred Hitchcock as my drama coach.
KING: Because?
HEDREN: Because "The Birds" was the first film that I did. He...
KING: We'll see a clip from it in the next segment, but...
HEDREN: Yes.
KING: What was he like to -- it was your first film ever?
HEDREN: Yes, that was my first film. I had done a lot of commercials, and that's where he found me, in a Pet milk product...
KING: You're kidding!
HEDREN: No! It was a -- it was called Sego (ph). It was a diet drink. Yes. Yes!
KING: And he contacted you?
HEDREN: He did and asked -- one of the studio executives asked if I was the girl in the commercial, and if I was, would I come over and meet with him.
KING: This image that he was -- didn't like actors -- wrong?
HEDREN: Oh, that's so wrong. Many of his best friends were actors.
KING: Because he had a quote once...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: He said, I never said actors are cattle. What I said is they should be treated like cattle.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Was he just kidding?
HEDREN: No, I think so. I think he treated his actors very well.
KING: Eva Marie, you made the famous "North by Northwest." We're going to be seeing a clip from that later. What was he like to work for?
EVA MARIE SAINT, STARRED IN "NORTH BY NORTHWEST": I found it very interesting because I had made "Waterfront" with Kazan and had worked with Actors Studio people, studied there, and he was completely different. However, he was interested in how you looked. And it wasn't just an exterior thing. The things that he suggested that you wear -- I called him my sugar daddy because he didn't like the costumes that MGM had made, so he took me to New York, Bergdorf Goodman. And they had...
(LAUGHTER)
SAINT: No, they had a fashion show. And he said, Eva Marie, whatever you want. And there was a black dress with red roses, and I said, Oh, I'd like that! Wrap it up! I mean, it was the first and last sugar daddy I ever had. But at least I...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: He was meticulous.
SAINT: So meticulous, and I really admired that, not only in the scenes themselves. It was all in his mind -- the storyboard -- exactly what he wanted, but he was really interested in the actor and putting it all together.
KING: What, Pat, got him interested in scaring? What got him interested in making fright movies?
HITCHCOCK: I think, Larry, it was the control he had. He started that in England. And the story was the most important thing to him. That's what was it. My mother was already in the business. And he went over and he was carrying some sketches. And she says there was this young man with this great big thing of sketches. And that's when he started. And he got a job there and... KING: So he liked the fascination of scaring people.
HITCHCOCK: He liked it because I think it gave him control, that he could control the audience. And I think that's why scaring -- plus, the stories were better.
KING: When the movies were shown for the first time to preview audiences, did he enjoy sitting there?
HITCHCOCK: No, he hated it.
KING: Really?
HITCHCOCK: He just hated it! When they used to have these sneak previews out here and he and my mother would go -- and he said it was awful. The people would laugh at the wrong time, you know?
(LAUGHTER)
SAINT: And he couldn't control that.
HITCHCOCK: No!
KING: When you were making "Psycho," did you know what you were doing? Did you know how wild that would be?
LEIGH: Well, we knew we were doing something unusual, obviously...
KING: Yes!
LEIGH: ... to say the least. But you really don't know the outcome of any project...
KING: Until you see it.
LEIGH: Well, until the audience sees it. They make the choice.
KING: Did it scare you to watch it?
LEIGH: I had not seen anything -- you know, rushes or anything like that. And when I saw it the first time, I absolutely screamed my head off. I just want to add one thing. I think also what titillated Mr. Hitchcock -- I always say Mr. Hitchcock -- was the manipulation.
KING: He liked to manipulate the audience?
LEIGH: Yes, exactly.
KING: And he put himself in every movie, right?
LEIGH: That's right.
KING: We're going to go to break, and we'll be coming back. Lots of calls tonight. We have an outstanding panel and the discussion of a great director, Alfred Hitchcock. As we go to break, here's Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak in "Vertigo."
(VIDEO CLIP - "VERTIGO")
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Before we get back to the movies, what kind of father was he, Pat?
HITCHCOCK: He was very loving, friendly. I was friends with he and my mother, more so than dictatorial parents. And we were very close.
KING: You worked with him, right?
HITCHCOCK: I worked with him three times. I worked with him in England when I was at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. And he came over and set the scene with Jane Wyman, the whole picture, at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, which was...
KING: Was he doting? Was he a father-daughter kind of person?
HITCHCOCK: Very loving.
KING: Affectionate?
HITCHCOCK: Very. Oh, yes. Very.
LEIGH: Tell the clown story. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
KING: What are you -- don't whisper!
(LAUGHTER)
LEIGH: Oh, I'm sorry.
KING: You're on television!
LEIGH: I wanted her to tell the story about him going in when you were asleep.
(CROSSTALK)
LEIGH: I love that.
HITCHCOCK: I would be asleep in bed, and he would come in...
KING: When you were a child.
HITCHCOCK: When I was a child. Well, even growing up. And he would come in and draw a clown face all over me while I was asleep.
(LAUGHTER)
LEIGH: I love that!
HITCHCOCK: Isn't that sweet? KING: Kind of wacko, right?
(CROSSTALK)
SAINT: ... a wonderful seminar at NYU in New York and the different people -- students who know everything about the films, more than any of us know. And one young student said, Ms. Hitchcock, what was it like having Mr. Hitchcock as your father? And was it normal? And Pat said, Of course it was normal. He was there and he was doting. And she said, And you know, I'd wake up in the morning and he would have painted my face, and I never knew.
(LAUGHTER)
SAINT: And I said, Normal?
LEIGH: Normal. That's his sense of -- wonderful sense of humor, you know, the pixie. I love that!
HITCHCOCK: And then he would bring me back -- he would go over to England during the war. And where, you know, other fathers would bring back little presents, he brought me back an empty incendiary bomb, which I kept by my bed!
(LAUGHTER)
KING: He was a load of laughs.
Tippi, in making "The Birds" -- by the way, many of the titles that you see tonight are the courtesy and are available on Universal Home Video and DVD. We want to remind you of that. Was "The Birds" difficult to make?
HEDREN: Oh, well, sure it was. First of all...
KING: Where'd he get all the birds from?
HEDREN: There was a wonderful bird trainer. His name was Ray Brewick (ph). And collected birds. He collected ravens and...
KING: And he trained them to chase?
HEDREN: ... seagulls. He would train individually. He'd trained them a dozen at a time, a flock at a time. And he was -- he was such a caring, wonderful man.
KING: Did you ever get scared, making it?
HEDREN: Yes. I mean, you know, some of those seagulls were not very nice. They really weren't.
KING: You ever get hurt?
HEDREN: Yes. Yes.
KING: You did? HEDREN: Yes. We even kept our tetanus shots up to date.
SAINT: Oh, gosh!
KING: Oh!
HEDREN: And you know, they'd -- they'd come at you because a lot of them, Ray had to teach them to do these things.
KING: There were a lot of them?
HEDREN: A lot. At one scene, at the party scene with the children, he had three seagulls that he'd trained to take off from his arm, circle, dive-bomb the kids, you know, not hurt them. And their little beaks were wired very, very loosely. And then they'd come back to Ray's arm. First one took off, came back. Second one. Third one took off and didn't come back. And he walked up to Hitch and he said, Mr. Hitchcock, we have to close down for the afternoon because I have to find that bird...
HITCHCOCK: Charlie.
HEDREN: ... because he would -- yes, Charlie. He would have died a very painful death if he hadn't removed the wire off his beak. I'll never forget that.
KING: OK, let's watch a scene, Tippi Hedren in one of Hitchcock's famous films, "The Birds."
(Video Clip - "The Birds")
KING: Oh!
HEDREN: That -- when the bird hit the glass there, they had -- that was done in the studio. And they had a seagull up in a wire. And the bird came down on the wire. And it was supposed to be safety glass, and it wasn't.
KING: Oh, my gosh!
HEDREN: And they picked little pieces of glass out of my face for an afternoon.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: What did you think when you saw the film?
HEDREN: Well, you know, when I watch my own films, I relive so much of what went on.
KING: I mean the first time you saw "The Birds."
HEDREN: Oh, it was scary. It was very frightening.
KING: You were scared. HEDREN: I mean, even -- yes! Even though when you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) make a film, you're not really frightened because you know what you're doing and it's all very controlled and -- or most of it's controlled. Not with "The Birds." But it's wonderful to see the films put together.
KING: He was very methodical, right?
HEDREN: Extremely.
KING: He knew exactly what he wanted.
HEDREN: Absolutely. It really spoils you for working with other directors.
KING: Was he aware of budgets? Did he come in, like, on budget?
HEDREN: Oh, yes.
HEDREN: And he worked from 9:00 to 5:00. Have you ever heard of that? Have you ever heard of that?
LEIGH: He was so well prepared that it wasn't like taking two hours to figure out how to shoot the whole scene. He had the master, the close-ups, the over-the-shoulder, had it all worked out. So that it went...
SAINT: And not many takes.
LEIGH: No. Very -- very few.
KING: Did he get ticked? Did he get angry, Eva?
SAINT: Well, not at me!
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHCOCK: He did in England. He got very angry in England...
KING: Oh, really?
HITCHCOCK: ... because they would have 11:00 o'clock breaks, and everything would stop. And then they would have tea breaks, and everything would stop. He was not happy about that!
KING: But he was British. He should have understood.
HITCHCOCK: Oh, no! No, he was an American. He became a citizen.
KING: Oh, but he was...
HITCHCOCK: Oh, absolutely.
KING: He was from Britain.
HITCHCOCK: Yes, he was from Britain.
SAINT: I never heard him raise his voice.
KING: You never heard him yell?
HEDREN: Never. I never did.
(CROSSTALK)
SAINT: ... well-organized...
KING: How would he -- if he didn't like a scene, how would he handle it?
SAINT: I don't remember him -- he didn't give much direction?
KING: Really?
SAINT: No, no. No, I -- no, he gave...
KING: You mean he...
SAINT: ... a lot of external things. If this were the scene, you would be sitting there, we would all be sitting here. And so it was structured and physically that way. But then...
KING: So he would want the coffee cups in a certain place, right?
SAINT: Probably.
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHCOCK: But if he want wasn't getting what he needed from the scene, he would very subtly talk to someone quietly, no -- you know, extra kind of emotion.
KING: Did he use the same people all the time, Pat, cinematographers and...
HITCHCOCK: Pretty much so.
KING: ... assistant directors?
HITCHCOCK: Pretty much so, yes.
KING: He liked his crew?
HITCHCOCK: Yes, he liked his crew, and they understood him and they knew exactly, you know, what he wanted. And that was very important to him.
SAINT: You know, the wonderful thing was that he -- you're scared by, say, "The Birds" or "Psycho," "North by Northwest." It's the leading up to what's happening, the suspense. And he knew about that. But you look at movies today, go through the window, that's it. Crash the car, that's it.
KING: He knew how to...
SAINT: That suspense, you know?
KING: As we go to break, here is Tippi Hedren. We'll be including your phone calls at the bottom of the hour, our tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, who'd have been 104 years old, by the way. Here's Tippi Hedren in "Marnie."
(VIDEO CLIP - "Marnie")
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We have a surprise guest joining us by phone. She doesn't do interviews. The last one she did on this show five years ago may have been her last. But Kim Novak is with us. Are you there, Kim?
KIM NOVAK, STARRED IN "VERTIGO": I sure am! Hi, Larry. You know, I'm such a fan of your show...
KING: Thank you.
NOVAK: I couldn't have been more surprised than to all of a sudden see all my favorite people there!
(LAUGHTER)
KING: They're all here.
NOVAK: And it's such nostalgia and wonderful. And I just wanted to say hi. And I'm enjoying listening to your stories, and I just want to keep watching.
KING: Well, let me ask you a couple quick things.
NOVAK: OK.
KING: What did you like -- what did you -- how did -- and we're seeing a scene now from "Vertigo." How did you like working for Hitch?
NOVAK: Well, you know, he was my favorite director because he was very precise, as everyone was saying as I was watching, very precise, but he allowed you to find the emotion yourself and justify, as long as you hit your marks, got -- I mean, you had a lot of things you had to work back with, but he gave you so much freedom as an actress. I, to me, felt he was the greatest director I've ever worked with because he allowed me to do the emotions, you know, to be there.
KING: When you saw the film for the first time, did it move you?
NOVAK: Listen, I was so scared to see it, I don't even remember seeing it! (LAUGHTER)
NOVAK: I don't know if everyone else feels that way. Tippi and I have talked about it a lot.
HEDREN: Yes, we have.
KING: You and Kim are close, right?
HEDREN: Yes, we are.
NOVAK: We are. We're close buddies. They come stay with us, and Tippi helped me work out my design. And we just have -- we have great fun. But our husbands are -- were classmates.
KING: Oh, yes?
(CROSSTALK)
NOVAK: They were in prep school together.
KING: How did you like working with Jimmy Stewart, Kim?
NOVAK: Oh, the best. Of course, nobody -- nobody better in the whole wide world.
LEIGH: Absolutely.
NOVAK: Yes. Without a doubt.
KING: Thanks for calling in. We look forward to seeing you here soon.
NOVAK: OK. And I'm enjoying the show.
KING: Kim Novak. And speaking of Jimmy Stewart, what was it like for you to work with him, Eva, in "North by Northwest."
SAINT: Cary Grant.
KING: No, that was Cary Grant!
(CROSSTALK)
KING: But I know we're up to "North by Northwest." What was it like making that movie?
SAINT: Oh, well, he was larger than life. He was everything that everybody thinks he is, men and women. And he was dear. Up until that time, I had done some serious things. And I walked in. He said, Eva Marie, no tears. This is going to be sheer joy. And it was. And he was very, very, very giving, very generous as an actor.
KING: Let's now watch a scene, Eva Marie Saint in the historic "North by Northwest."
(VIDEO CLIP - "NORTH BY NORTHWEST")
KING: Where were you -- were you there?
SAINT: Mt. Rushmore?
KING: No.
SAINT: No, we were only there for the one brief cafeteria scene. All the rest was at MGM. It was all faithfully...
KING: What were -- when you were falling off a rock, where were you?
SAINT: At MGM, in the studios. It was an incredible set. Incredible set. Now, in that scene, where I fell, if you notice, I do this, because the man who was supposed to catch me was on his cell phone -- no, no, no!
(LAUGHTER)
SAINT: I'm trying to, you know, update it. No, not on his cell phone, but he forgot to catch me and so...
HEDREN: He forgot?
SAINT: Yes. I still have this little scar. If you notice, when I'm climbing, I'm kind of going like that. It hurt.
HEDREN: I guess he'd be selling shoes now.
SAINT: Well, I think he is!
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Were you happy when you saw the finished product?
SAINT: Yes. At the very end -- at the very end of the movie, I didn't realize -- for those who have seen it, the train goes through the tunnel. So on opening night, when I saw it with my husband, I said -- because it's right after sort of a love scene, I said to my husband, Well, that's a little Freudian, isn't it?
(LAUGHTER)
SAINT: And my husband said, You got it, honey. You got it.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Hitchcock was ahead of his time sexually, in that regard, right? I mean, that was some...
SAINT: Oh, yes.
KING: That was a very sexy scene. He kisses, and then the tunnel, the train in the tunnel. I mean, come on!
SAINT: Well, I didn't get it! I mean, I thought I did.
(LAUGHTER)
LEIGH: "North by Northwest" is responsible for why Paramount did not release "Psycho" because for Hitch's last picture, you know, with the -- under contract, they wanted something wonderful and grandioso, like "North by Northwest."
KING: So they held back "Psycho"?
LEIGH: They -- no, they did not finance it. They released it. He went to Universal and financed it himself.
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHCOCK: No, that's true. He did. He financed it through Review Pictures, and they're the ones that did "Psycho."
LEIGH: Yes. Paramount refused to.
HITCHCOCK: Nobody wanted it.
LEIGH: No. Gosh, they wanted "North by Northwest." They didn't want "Psycho."
(CROSSTALK)
SAINT: We've heard it here.
(CROSSTALK)
LEIGH: That's the absolute truth.
KING: The scene with the plane...
SAINT: Yes.
LEIGH: Absolute truth.
KING: Did that take a long time to shoot?
SAINT: I wasn't there.
KING: You weren't there.
SAINT: Bakersfield. But they sent me a sweet telegram saying, "We miss you."
KING: Look at that scene.
SAINT: But it was so hot...
(CROSSTALK)
HITCHCOCK: Yes, I was there for that scene. I remember when they shot that scene. KING: We will take a break and come back and include your phone calls on our tribute to Alfred Hitchcock. We'll reintroduce our panel. We again thank Kim Novak for calling in, and remind you that many of the titles we're seeing tonight are available on Universal Home Video and DVD. As we go to a break, Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart in "The Man Who Knew Too Much."
(VIDEO CLIP - "THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH")
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
A. HITCHCOCK: Good evening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Ah.
Let's introduce the panel. Pat Hitchcock, the only child of Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Revel Hitchcock, was in three films of Hitchcock's. Also appeared on TV with him and co-author of "Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man."
Janet Leigh, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," was nominated for best supporting actress Oscar for "Psycho."
Tippi Hedren starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and "Marnie."
And Eva Marie Saint, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest."
Before we go to phone calls, how did the TV show come about?
HITCHCOCK: The TV show came about through Lew Wasserman, who thought it would be a very good idea for my father to do a television show. So he had as his producer Joan Harrison, who I had come over from England and Norman Lloyd was the associate producer. And Norman -- they had a man called James Alerdice, who was writing the introductions. And Norman said, Hitch will never do these. He will never do anything like this.
He loved it! He loved it! He had such fun.
KING: How many years did that run? How many years did that run?
HITCHCOCK: Oh, I don't -- I can't remember. I don't think anybody (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Long time.
KING: Did he supervise the scripts?
HITCHCOCK: To a certain extent. Not all of them. Not all of them. Just the ones that he was going to direct himself.
KING: And who came up with the music? HITCHCOCK: "Funeral dance of the Marionettes," I think.
KING: One of the great musical themes in television...
HITCHCOCK: I think that's what it's called.
KING: ...in television history.
Also true that he didn't -- he didn't like location shooting.
HITCHCOCK: He didn't.
KING: He liked inside the set.
HITCHCOCK: Inside the set. Hated location.
KING: He was a control freak.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Didn't you have a problem with him being a little obsessed with you?
HEDREN: Yes, and it did become a problem.
KING: For you?
HEDREN: Yes. It did.
KING: So you were not friendly at the end?
HEDREN: No, we were always friendly. It was OK. You know, it was all right. But it was just a difficult time.
KING: You can tell us, Tippi. It's OK. Time wears away.
Woodstock, Illinois, hello.
CALLER: Hey, Larry. One of the fun parts of seeing a Hitchcock movie, I always thought, was spotting his cameos. I was wondering how he came up with the idea of doing that and did he actually appear in every single film?
KING: Pat?
HITCHCOCK: He -- that started in the early days in England where they used whoever was on the set in a crowd scene. And he started having fun with it. And so he kept on doing it. And that's how it started.
KING: We're seeing a bunch of shots of Hitchcock. He would just show up. He'd walk out of a store. He would be carrying an umbrella, right?
HITCHCOCK: Yes. But he'd be very careful not to do it when he was building up some mood. KING: Never in a serious...
HITCHCOCK: By the time people knew him, they'd get hysterical. So he'd have to do it at the very beginning of the movie.
LEIGH: That's what I was going to say. Especially like in "Psycho" he went ahead and got it over with right away.
HITCHCOCK: That's right. That's right.
LEIGH: Yes.
HITCHCOCK: Yes.
HEDREN: The interesting thing was in "Lifeboat."
HITCHCOCK: Oh, yes.
HEDREN: How could he appear? So one of the characters opened the newspaper and he was doing a fat ad, before and after.
LEIGH: Reduce.
KING: I forgot about "Lifeboat." What a movie that was.
HEDREN: Yes. Ooh.
CALLER: Tampa, hello.
CALLER: Yes, Larry. My question for your guests is, it's reported that Alfred Hitchcock had obsessive/compulsive disorder. How did that affect his personal, directorial life? And the second question is related to the special effects today. Do you think he would have embraced it or rather would have worked with what he with him today?
KING: Pat, was he obsessive/compulsive?
HITCHCOCK: Not that I noticed.
KING: Was he?
LEIGH: Not that I noticed.
KING: How do you think he would have worked with today's modern computers?
SAINT: Well, I talked with Pat once and Pat said that he would have loved it all that.
HEDREN: I think he would have loved it.
SAINT: That the whole technology.
KING: In other words, he would have used the technology available to him? LEIGH: Yes, because he loved technical everything -- you know, it was wonderful to use the different technical and different techniques that came out.
KING: He once said, Tippi, he liked a lot of things that weren't on the screen was the buildup for the audience. The buildup was scarier than the thing.
HEDREN: Absolutely.
LEIGH: Than the actuality.
KING: Yes.
HEDREN: Yes. And he used to give an example of -- say we're all sitting here and underneath the table is a bomb with a clock on it. And we're all chatting and we're just having a wonderful time. And the audience sees the clock and they see it coming around to where it's going to go kaboom and we don't know anything about it. The audience goes crazy and that's called suspense.
KING: Mel Brooks tributes to him and "High Anxiety."
HITCHCOCK: He loved it, too.
KING: Did he love that movie?
HITCHCOCK: He loved it! He just loved it!
KING: All those scenes crashing through the glass. The "Vertigo" scene and Feldman beats him with the paper in the shower.
LEIGH: I'm sure that he would have used the technology in the same context as he made his pictures, which was the suspense building and, you know, letting even with -- even though you had the technology that shows everything somehow he would have used that to increase your suspense.
KING: He would have had to go off on location a lot today, right?
SAINT: I bet you he wouldn't.
KING: Here's Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart in a wonderful scene from a terrific movie "Rear Window."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE KELLY, ACTRESS: How's your leg?
JIMMY STEWART, ACTOR: It hurts a little.
KELLY: And your stomach?
STEWART: Empty as a football.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The villain in that movie was Raymond Burr. He killed his wife and Jimmy sees it happen. Laid up with the bad leg. Wow!
We go to Golden, Colorado, hello.
CALLER: Hello?
KING: Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Larry.
KING: Hi.
CALLER: Was there an actor are or actress that Mr. Hitchcock wanted for a movie but could not get?
KING: Do we know, Pat?
HITCHCOCK: I don't think so. I don't know of any.
KING: All right. Eva, did every one...
SAINT: Yes, I think he wanted Grace for "Marnie." He wanted Grace Kelly to play "Marnie."
KING: Did he ever -- did he ever express to you -- Do you know any actor who turned him down? I mean, did people want to work for him or not?
SAINT: Oh, yes clam I think, Pat, you might know this, but I think Cyd Charisse -- the studio wanted Cyd Charisse maybe because she was under contract with "North by Northwest". But he wanted moi. I don't know why he wanted moi. Only because she was sophisticated.
KING: El Dorado Springs, Missouri, hello.
CALLER: hi, I want to thank you for bringing a great panel together. What wonderful people to commemorate the memory of such a brilliant man.
All my questions have been asked but I do have one other one. What was his favorite hobby when he was at home and trying to relax? What did he really get into doing?
KING: Pat?
HITCHCOCK: Reading. He loved to read but not novels.
KING: No?
HITCHCOCK: No. Just either historical or current event. But he never read a novel.
KING: Did he like movies?
HITCHCOCK: Yes.
KING: Did he go to movies?
HITCHCOCK: Not very often. He would have them run in the projection room. And he enjoyed that.
KING: Did he get, like, scary movies?
HITCHCOCK: I don't think -- I don't know if he did or not.
KING: As we go to break, here's Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant in Hitchcock's "Notorious."
LEIGH: Oh, golly.
HITCHCOCK: That's my favorite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRID BERGMAN, ACTRESS: You never believed in me anyway, so what's the difference?
CARY GRANT, ACTOR: Lucky for either of us I didn't. It wouldn't have been pretty if I had believed in you. I would have figured she would never go through with it, she was only made over by love.
BERGMAN: If you just once said you love me.
GRANT: Listen, you chalked up another boyfriend. That's all. No harm done.
BERGMAN: I hate you.
GRANT: There's no occasion to. You're going good work. No. 10 is out in front. Looks like Sebastian knows how to pick them.
BERGMAN: Is that all you have to say to me?
GRANT: Dry your eyes, baby, it's out of character.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back. Strangely enough, Alfred Hitchcock never won an Academy Oscar. He was nominated five times for best director for "Rebecca," "Lifeboat," "Spellbound," "Rear Window" and "Psycho." "Rebecca" won for best picture, but the director did not win. He was given the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Irving Thalberg Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1968, came up on stage, said "thank you" and walked off. Was awarded the French Legion of Honor, received the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, which he dedicated to Alma. He said, "I share this award as I share my life with her." The 1980 honors list in Britain named him a knight commander of the British Empire. He liked good food, too, right? HITCHCOCK: Yes, he did.
SAINT: I was so impressed that he imported his bacon. I was younger then.
(CROSSTALK)
HEDREN: I had never known anyone who imported bacon.
KING: That's hip.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: And what?
HEDREN: And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) wine.
KING: Toronto, Canada, hello.
CALLER: Hello.
KING: Hi.
CALLER: I wondered when you -- when did the actors rehearse? I worked on one of his films called "I Confess" with Montgomery Clift and Anne Baxter, and he rarely got out of his chair. The actors would get up, hit their marks and they would put on this greatest of all performance, and yet we never saw them rehearsing.
KING: What did you do on the film, sir?
CALLER: Pardon?
KING: What was your work?
CALLER: I was a young production assistant.
KING: Is it true he sat in the chair a lot?
LEIGH: You already knew, he had already discussed it.
KING: But when he's done it -- oh, he just talked to you.
(CROSSTALK)
LEIGH: You rehearsed when the camera was set up. So you knew where the camera was. You knew when you had -- you know, and then it -- as we've said, it was the freedom -- it was the allowing you to find the person who this -- who this person is, who this character is.
KING: I know you're his daughter. Was there a dark side to Hitch?
HITCHCOCK: I didn't see it.
KING: Did any of you? (CROSSTALK)
KING: There were all these rumors about Hitchcock?
SAINT: I know. I read those books but not that part.
KING: Payson, Utah, hello.
CALLER: Hi. I have a question for Janet Leigh.
KING: Sure.
CALLER: I've seen a lot of your movies. And besides "Psycho," what do you think Alfred Hitchcock's best film was?
LEIGH: That's very difficult, because there is so many -- each one was so unique, that to pick one, it's -- I hate to say this, but it really is impossible. My personal enjoyment -- I can't say. I honest to gosh can't say. I'm sorry.
KING: Do you have a favorite?
HITCHCOCK: Yes, I do.
KING: Yours?
HITCHCOCK: "Notorious," because I thought every part in that was so beautifully and perfectly cast that it just came right together.
KING: Do you have a favorite, Tippi?
HEDREN: The one I'm watching, whichever Hitchcock movie, because I learned so much...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: I liked "The Wrong Man" with Henry Fonda. I liked "Rope."
SAINT: I liked "Birds." I was so scared. I mean, to this day if I'm walking with my husband and we see a few crows and then we get closer and we see a few more, I say, honey, let's just quietly, slowly go home.
KING: We told you that Pat Hitchcock was in a movie. Here is Pat Hitchcock in "Strangers on a Train."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the matter, Barbara? Did you see it happen?
P. HITCHCOCK: He looked at me. His hands were on her throat. And he was strangling me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you mean?
P. HITCHCOCK: He was looking at her, then looked over at me. He went in sort of a trance. Oh, it was horrible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Many of the scenes you're seeing tonight are courtesy and available on Universal Home Video and DVD. What was it like working for your father?
HITCHCOCK: I enjoyed it. I had a good time. Unfortunately, he never cast me unless I was absolutely perfect for the part. So that let me out of quite a few. But I really -- I really enjoyed working -- he was great to work for.
KING: Staten Island, New York, hello.
CALLER: Hi, my call is for Tippi Hedren, but I want to say all you ladies are absolutely beautiful. Ms. Hedren, I was just curious to know, "The Birds," do you think that could be successful in being remade? And if so, who do you think could play your part?
KING: Melanie Griffith.
HEDREN: Melanie would be perfect for it. But as far as it being done today, I think, you know, if a -- with all the computerization and everything, it would be so different, because they could really make it so...
KING: No one has ever redone a Hitchcock movie, have they?
HITCHCOCK: Oh, yes. Yes.
KING: "Psycho II." It didn't work, did it? "Bates Motel," right? Is that what it was called?
LEIGH: "The Bates Motel," sure.
KING: Omaha, hello. Omaha, are you there?
CALLER: Yes.
KING: Go ahead.
CALLER: Good evening. I'd like to ask if Mr. Hitchcock had ever got hurt while making a movie or if his health ever stopped production of a movie?
HITCHCOCK: No.
KING: No?
HITCHCOCK: No, he never got hurt and never stopped production.
SAINT: He was too careful.
HEDREN: There's a very funny story that he tells. They were doing a scene where they had one of the great big booms, and this huge piece of machinery, and you know, the scene was long and the whole piece came back. And after he yelled "cut," he said, "now would the camera please move over. It's on my foot."
(LAUGHTER)
KING: As we go to break, here's Paul Newman in Alfred Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "TORN CURTAIN")
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. You had your fun. Now let's stop these games.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with our look at the life and times of Alfred Hitchcock. He passed away in 1980. He had just turned 80 years old. His wife died two years later at age 82.
Ottawa, Canada, hello.
CALLER: Yes, hi. Thank you, Larry. I love your show...
KING: Thank you.
CALLER: ... and I congratulate you for assembling such an unbelievable panel. My question is, did Alfred Hitchcock encounter much resistance from the studios to try and bring his vision to the screen, most particularly with some of the disturbing images from "Psycho" or from "The Birds."
KING: Well "Psycho" had trouble getting made. Did he have trouble with other films, Pat?
HITCHCOCK: I don't think so. No.
KING: Were studios generally cooperative? But he was money, wasn't he?
HITCHCOCK: Oh, yes. By the time, they knew he would make money on the pictures.
LEIGH: He had trouble with the censors.
KING: Oh. Oh, he did?
LEIGH: He did have trouble with the censors. But he learned to manipulate them because he would put things in the movie that he knew they would go, Oh. And then he would show it to them. They would go, Oh, my God. And then he would say, Oh, well, if you must take that out, you have to give me this. He would -- that's how he would bargain. That's what happened with "Psycho."
SAINT: That's what happened with "North by Northwest." When I'm with Cary Grant, I say, I never make love on an empty stomach. It didn't pass. KING: That didn't pass?
SAINT: No, so I -- no...
(CROSSTALK)
SAINT: So I had to loop it to, I never discuss love on an empty stomach. Please.
KING: Unbelievable. Columbus, Ohio, hello.
CALLER: Thank you, Larry.
I'm working on a collection of letters of Jimmy Stewart. And I wanted to ask about Alfred Hitchcock's health during the '50s because in a November 1956 letter, Jimmy Stewart said that he was off to San Francisco, where most of his next picture for Hitchcock would be filmed and he was glad because San Francisco would be close and he could fly back and forth on the weekends. And then in an April 1957 letter, Jimmy Stewart wrote that we again are getting ready to do the Hitchcock picture sometime next month. He thinks he will be well enough by then but he's had a pretty rough time.
KING: What was that about, Pat?
HITCHCOCK: I don't remember. I don't remember.
KING: Does anybody remember Hitchcock being ill?
HITCHCOCK: I have no idea when that was.
KING: Sorry we can't help you.
What -- his favorite movie -- and we're going to see a clip was "Shadow of a Doubt," right?
HITCHCOCK: "Shadow of a Doubt," which was written by Thornton Wilder. And they got along so well together. They just worked beautifully.
KING: That was not his more famous film.
HITCHCOCK: And, no. And they went up to Santa Rosa to look for a house to use. And they found this wonderful old house, which was a little seedy. And they said, Oh, it's perfect. It's just perfect. They went down, you know, got everything all ready. They all came up to make the -- to start shooting the movie. The people were so excited about the house, that they had painted it. So they had to dirty it down again!
KING: Here's a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's personal favorite, "Shadow of a Doubt."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH COTTEN, ACTOR: And I brought you nightmares. Or did I? Or was it a silly inexpert little lie? You live in a dream. You're a sleepwalker, blind. How do you know what the world is like? Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know if you rip the fronts off houses, you'd fine swine? The world is a hell. What matters what happens in it? Wake up, Charlie, use your wits. Learn something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Joseph Cotten and Theresa Wright. What an actor he was.
HITCHCOCK: Oh, he was marvelous.
KING: From the Orson Welles group.
HITCHCOCK: And very close friend, Joe Cotten. Yes, they were very close friends, he and my father.
KING: How he is going to be remembered, Eva?
SAINT: How is he going to be -- a genius, I do believe. Fun. A man who knew what he wanted.
KING: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) loved him, a French director.
HEDREN: Yes, he did.
KING: Wrote books about him.
HEDREN: They were very close, yes.
KING: How is he going to be remembered, Tippi?
HEDREN: Probably the finest the motion picture maker, best storyteller.
KING: Best storyteller?
HEDREN: Absolutely.
KING: How do you think, Janet?
LEIGH: I think the master of suspense and the use of imagination.
KING: Pat, as a daughter, how are you going to remember him?
HITCHCOCK: Oh, I remember him as what a sense of humor! And he said, if you can't look at something and see the humor in it, forget it.
KING: So he not only was serious, he had fun making films.
HITCHCOCK: Oh, yes.
KING: Thank you all very much for a delightful, delightful hour. Tippi, so good to see you all.
HEDREN: Thank you.
KING: Pat Hitchcock, Janet Leigh, Tippi Hedren, Eva Marie Saint, the life and times of the late Alfred Hitchcock. The titles you're seeing tonight available on Universal home video and DVD.
I'll be back in a couple of minutes to tell you about tomorrow. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Hope you enjoyed that tribute to the great Alfred Hitchcock, featuring one of the final interviews with the late Janet Leigh.
She also did terrific work in classic films like "The Manchurian Candidat" and "Touch of Evil." And she will be missed.
Stay tuned now for more news on CNN, your most trusted name in news.
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