Alfred Hitchcock Is Master Of Suspense

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 93, 10 September 1948, Page 3

Alfred Hitchcock Is Master Of Suspense

To be on an Alfred Hitchcock set is a rare exerience for the star, as well as the workman and visitor. Hitchcock’s only waste motions are devoted to frequent practical jokes. He has never been known to raise his voice and stars gain confidence with him from his air of quiet authority and from his obvious knowledge of all phases of production. In “The Paradine Case,” soon to be shown in New Zealand, he fulfils an ambition of long standing, that of filming a court-room trial. Over one-third of the picture will take place in London’s famed Old Bailey court-room. When self-styled movie critics said it was impossible to shoot so much of the film in such a confined space, Hitchcock’s, answer was for them to see his motion picture, “Lifeboat.” The lifeboat was the scene of action for the whole of the two hours movie. “Hitch,” as he is always known, has a custom of playing a tiny “bit” character in each film that he directs —“to bring me, luck” he says. In “Lifeboat” he was a picture in a newspaper advertising “Reduco,” in “Spellbound,” he was a man coming out of a crowded elevator, in “Rebecca” he stood near George Sanders in a telephone box and in “The Paradine Case” he is a chubby Englishman walking out of a railway station with a scene-stealing ’cello case under his arm. “The Paradine Case” marks his tenth American production since his famous “Thirty-nine Steps” brought him into contact with David O. Selznick and places him at the head of the field as a director of Academy Award ability. The stars of “The Paradine Case” include Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn, Ethel Barrymore, Joan Tetzel and the successful new Selznick new stars, Louis Jourdan &nd Valli.