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britannica - americana
HITCHCOCK ALFRED
(1899-1980).
SKETCHES WITH AUTOGRAPH
ANNOTATIONS, STORYBOARD for
Stage Fright
, [circa 1949]; 130 loose
sheets 26,2 x 20,8 cm, in pencil,
mostly only recto [only three leaves
are drawn also on verso.Sketch of
a profile behind scenes 103 and
104; sketch of a stage selting behind
scenes 98 A, 98 B and 99). Original
black cloth folder-binder, blind-
stamped with paper label on the
front cover and inscription “J. Martin”
in faded red ink and “
Stage Fright
/
R.Todd / M. Dietrich / M. Wilding”
in blue ink; preserved in a fitted case.
30 000 / 40 000 €
Extraordinary autograph pre-production
storyboard for Hitchcock’s 1950 film
Stage
Fright
, comprising preparatory sketches for
some three quarters of the film, including the
infamous “false flashback” initial sequence,
the rest of the first half of the film, the garden
party scene and the finale. A rare collection
of sketches and comments detailing how
the legendary director crafted his scenes.
340 pencil drawings, drawn by Alfred
HITCHCOCK, one drawing highlighted in blue,
each sheet with three boxes (or cells) with
3 pencil sketches, 46 cells are left blank and
22 drawings were crossed out. Numbering in
the left-hand margin in pencil and red crayon
(1-152, 240-293, plus 8 leaves numbered in
Roman numerals at the end for the final
scenes: pursuit in the theatre; decapitation
by the theatre’s security curtain and final
scene), autograph annotations, directions
and revisions throughout, one or two ‘camera
angle’ diagrams sketched out on left-hand
pages, the last few leaves a little creased
and frayed at eges, one or two dampstains.
Stage Fright
is a 1950 British film noir thriller
film directed and produced by Alfred
Hitchcock and starring Jane Wyman, Marlene
Dietrich, Michael Wilding and Richard
Todd. Stage Fright was shot in London and
Elstree in 1949, on a brief sojourn from
California where Hitchcock had been working
since 1940, and in some ways it was a return
to the style (and humour) of his earlier British
films. It is a crime thriller centered on a killer
who dupes a woman friend into helping him
try to escape police after he murdered his
actress lover’s husband. The film was much
criticised on release for the extraordinary
“unreliable flashback” or “false flashback”
scene, which Hitchcock considered his
second greatest career mistake (after the
death of the little boy in
The Secret Agent
).
But posterity has been rather kinder: the
device has influenced later generations of
Ayant suivi une formation de dessinateur,
le cinéaste, d’un trait stylisé mais vivant, fixe
sur le papier chaque image du film. Ainsi pour
la scène d’ouverture, alors que Jonathan et
Eve fuient la police en voiture, on passe d’un
plan général du paysage à un gros plan sur
le radiateur de la voiture, puis sur les deux
personnages à l’avant. Le plan suivant montre
ce qu’ils ont dans leur champ de vision, la
voiture fonçant vers la caméra. À la lecture
du storyboard, une tension s’installe, on est
déjà dans l’action.
Les archives des films réalisés après 1940
par Hitchcock sont conservées dans
les Hitchcock Archives, Margaret Herrick
Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences, Beverley Hills.
provenance
Jack Martin (1899-1969) premier assistant de
Alfred Hitchcock pour
Stage Fright
. – Hugh
Harlow (né en 1939), assistant au réalisateur
sur plusieurs films.
filmmakers more interested in artifice than
truth, and the film as a whole has seen a
partial critical reassessment in recent years.
Hitchcock had trained as a draughtsman and
worked in advertising before turning to film,
and his use of extensive storyboards is well-
known, down to the finest detail of production.
One of the myths to have built up around
the career of Alfred Hitchcock maintains
that, after planning and storyboarding his
films so thoroughly, once on set he never
so much as peeked through the camera
viewfinder, bearing each scene from start
to finish precisely in his head.
The sketches for
Stage Fright
include very
precise directions for the actors, and for
camera angles which would have left the crew
with little room for imagination («pan up from
stain», «CU» (close-up), «Dolly in to a dolly»,
«Back to Eve. Pan then out until the couple are
in waist-shot going through the door»). Some
of the most memorable shots of the film were
clearly planned in advance and can be seen
here: the car driving up to the camera at the
beginning, the first shot of Alistair Sim framed
in a lead window, the blood-stained dress
shots, the blurring as Doris Tinsdale tries
on her glasses, the umbrellas at the garden
party and the finale with the stage curtain.
But at the same time there are significant
differences from the finished film, and this
storyboard demonstrates that sequences
and shots were dropped, added or amended
during production.
The production files for all the other post-
1940 films are in the Hitchcock Archives at the
Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverley Hills.
provenance
Jack Martin (1899-1969), first assistant
director on
Stage Fright
, his credits also
including assistant director on
Moby Dick
and
production manager on
This Happy Breed
).
– Hugh Harlow (born 1939), assistant director
and production manager on many films.