TCM’s ‘Becoming Hitchcock — Part 2’ Highlights the Director’s 1930s Films Tonight

13th June 1955: Film director and auteur Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) filming 'The Man Who Knew Too Much', a Paramount remake of his 1934 spy thriller.
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TCM once again examines how Alfred Hitchcock developed his inimitable style, in the second night of their Becoming Hitchcock series. While the previous edition of Becoming Hitchcock explored his silent film roots and earliest sound movies, tonight’s program will dive into his work from the mid-to-late ’30s, when he created a string of fantastic British thrillers — a run that culminated in a move to Hollywood.

8pm: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, Peter Lorre (left), 1934

Everett Collection

An innocent British couple are drawn into a complex international crime conspiracy when happenstance leads them to meet a man marked for murder. This film — which also happened to Peter Lorre‘s second English-language movie ever — was a hit with critics and audiences upon release, and is considered a key early career work for Hitchcock. However, the director was still compelled to remake it in 1956, with Doris Day and James Stewart in place of Leslie Banks and Edna Best. In a 1967 interview, Hitchcock said of his decision to remake the movie, “Let’s say the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional.”

9:30pm: The 39 Steps (1935)

THE 39 STEPS, from left: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, 1935

Everett Collection

Part of the great Hitchcockian tradition of films about innocent men on the run, The 39 Steps stars Robert Donat as Richard Hannay, an everyman who finds himself at the center of a conspiracy that takes him across Scotland, pursued by a shadowy organization know as “The 39 Steps.” The film had a large budget for a UK film of its era (around £60,000) and was considered a key film to help the British film industry reach international viewers.

11pm: Sabotage (1936)

John Loder plays a Scotland Yard detective hot on the trail of a cinema owner-turned-bomb maker, whose crimes will destroy his life in ways he can barely fathom. Hitchcock had planned on re-teaming with 39 Steps star Robert Donat for this one, but was prevented by Donat’s asthma and the director Alexander Korda, who wouldn’t let Donat out of a previous contract in order to participate.

12:30am: Young and Innocent (1937)

Another innocent man on the run — this time, a writer who discovers a murdered actress’ body, and is accused of having committed the crime himself.

2am: The Lady Vanishes (1938)

THE LADY VANISHES, Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood, Dame May Whitty, 1938

Everett Collection

The director’s first major hit, The Lady Vanishes follows Iris (Margaret Lockwood), a young English tourist on an international train trip, who befriends a fellow passenger named Miss Froy. But when Miss Froy disappears, no one else on the train remembers her ever having been on it. Upon release, The Lady Vanishes became the most successful British film ever made at that point — drawing Hollywood’s attention not just to Hitchcock, but to leading man Michael Redgrave.

3:45 AM Becoming Hitchcock — The Legacy of Blackmail (2024)

This documentary, directed by Laurent Bouzereau and narrated by film critic/historian Elvis Mitchell, showcases the birth of the “Hitchcock Touch,” and examines how early film Blackmail helped Hitchcock develop many of his directing signatures.

5am: Foreign Correspondent (1940)

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, 1940

Everett Collection

American crime reporter John Jones (Joel McCrea) heads to Europe on the eve of World War II, where he gets swept up in a conspiracy led by Nazi spies. Hitchcock moved to the U.S. in 1939, at the behest of super producer David O. Selznick; Foreign Correspondent was his second American film, following  Rebecca, which was released earlier in the year. Both films went on to be nominated for Best Picture at the 1940 Oscars (Rebecca won).

 

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April 2024

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