A DIRECTOR WHO “DOODLES”

Evening Star, Issue 23699, 5 October 1940, Page 5

A DIRECTOR WHO “DOODLES”

“ Doodling ” is a great international pastime, and anyone with a pencil and a stray piece of paper can, and usually does, indulge, especially when telephoning, or while idling. Books have been written on the -subject, and learnedprofessors maintain they can read the present, past, and future of a doodler by an analysis of the scratchings he unconsciously puts on paper. Alfred Hitchcock is one person who doodles with a purpose. During the many

lapses of time during production of Walter Wanger’s ‘ Foreign Correspondent,’ the famous director could be seen apparently making unrelated marks with a pencil. But closer examination revealed that he had been sketching scenes from the picture. When a question arose about the placing of a camera of the angle 'at which a scene would be photographed, Director Hitchcock merely went to work with his pencil, and in a minute or two had sketched it all out. Before entering motion pictures in England, Hitchcock was an artist. In fact, his first job was that of drawing “ art ” titles for pictures in the silent days. It is a talent that he turns to good purpose noWj and once .when he was directing a picture in Germany and there was no interpreter handy, he made himself understood by drawing a series of fast sketches.