Editing Alfred Hitchcock (section)

===Early Hollywood years: 1939–1945===
====Selznick contract====
Selznick signed Hitchcock to a seven-year contract beginning in April 1939,{{Sfn|Truffaut|1983|p=121}} and the Hitchcocks moved to Hollywood.<ref>{{harvnb|Leff|1999|p=35}}.</ref> The Hitchcocks lived in a spacious flat on [[Wilshire Boulevard]], and slowly acclimatised themselves to the Los Angeles area. He and his wife Alma kept a low profile, and were not interested in attending parties or being celebrities.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=153}} Hitchcock discovered his taste for fine food in West Hollywood, but still carried on his way of life from England.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=154}} He was impressed with Hollywood's filmmaking culture, expansive budgets and efficiency,{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=154}} compared to the limits that he had often faced in Britain.<ref>{{harvnb|Leff|1999|p=30}}</ref> In June that year, ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' called him the "greatest master of melodrama in screen history".<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |date=19 June 1939 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=b0kEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA66 66] |title=Alfred Hitchcock: England's Best Director starts work in Hollywood}}</ref>

Although Hitchcock and Selznick respected each other, their working arrangements were sometimes difficult. Selznick suffered from constant financial problems, and Hitchcock was often unhappy about Selznick's creative control and interference over his films. Selznick was also displeased with Hitchcock's method of shooting just what was in the script, and nothing more, which meant that the film could not be cut and remade differently at a later time.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=152}} As well as complaining about Hitchcock's "goddamn jigsaw cutting",<ref>{{harvnb|McGilligan|2003|pp= 251–252}}</ref> their personalities were mismatched: Hitchcock was reserved whereas Selznick was flamboyant.<ref>{{cite book|last=Billheimer|first=John|chapter=Hitchcock and Selznick|date=1 May 2019|chapter-url=http://kentucky.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.001.0001/upso-9780813177427-chapter-006|title=Hitchcock and the Censors|pages=59–63|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|doi=10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.003.0006|isbn=978-0-8131-7742-7|s2cid=213530256|access-date=21 November 2020|archive-date=29 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129082758/https://kentucky.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.001.0001/upso-9780813177427-chapter-006|url-status=live}}</ref> Eventually, Selznick generously lent Hitchcock to the larger film studios.{{Sfn|Truffaut|1983|p=145}} Selznick made only a few films each year, as did fellow independent producer [[Samuel Goldwyn]], so he did not always have projects for Hitchcock to direct. Goldwyn had also negotiated with Hitchcock on a possible contract, only to be outbid by Selznick. In a later interview, Hitchcock said: "[Selznick] was the Big Producer.&nbsp;... Producer was king. The most flattering thing Mr. Selznick ever said about me—and it shows you the amount of control—he said I was the 'only director' he'd 'trust with a film'."<ref>{{harvnb|Gottlieb|2003|p=206}}</ref>

[[File:Rebecca (1940) - Trailer.webm|thumb|Trailer for ''Rebecca'' (1940)]]

Hitchcock approached American cinema cautiously; his first American film was set in England in which the "Americanness" of the characters was incidental:{{Sfn|Wood|2002|p=240}} ''[[Rebecca (1940 film)|Rebecca]]'' (1940) was set in a Hollywood version of England's Cornwall and based on a [[Rebecca (novel)|novel]] by English novelist [[Daphne du Maurier]]. Selznick insisted on a faithful adaptation of the book, and disagreed with Hitchcock with the use of humour.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=150}}{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=155}} The film, starring [[Laurence Olivier]] and [[Joan Fontaine]], concerns an unnamed naïve young woman who marries a widowed aristocrat. She lives in his large [[English country house]], and struggles with the lingering reputation of his elegant and worldly first wife Rebecca, who died under mysterious circumstances. The film won [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]] at the [[13th Academy Awards]]; the statuette was given to producer Selznick. Hitchcock received his first nomination for [[Academy Award for Best Director|Best Director]], his first of five such nominations.<ref name=Rebecca>{{cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1941 |title=The 13th Academy Awards, 1941 |access-date=30 December 2017 |publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303110034/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/13th-winners.html|archive-date=3 March 2012|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Duncan|2003|p=84}}</ref>

Hitchcock's second American film was the thriller ''[[Foreign Correspondent (film)|Foreign Correspondent]]'' (1940), set in Europe, based on [[Vincent Sheean]]'s book ''Personal History'' (1935) and produced by [[Walter Wanger]]. It was nominated for Best Picture that year. Hitchcock felt uneasy living and working in Hollywood while Britain was at [[World War II|war]]; his concern resulted in a film that overtly supported the British war effort.<ref>{{harvnb|Duncan|2003|p=90}}</ref> Filmed in 1939, it was inspired by the rapidly changing events in Europe, as covered by an American newspaper reporter played by [[Joel McCrea]]. By mixing footage of European scenes with scenes filmed on a Hollywood [[backlot]], the film avoided direct references to [[Nazism]], [[Nazi Germany]] and Germans, to comply with the [[Motion Picture Production Code]] at the time.<ref>{{harvnb|McGilligan|2003|p=244}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=December 2017}}

====Early war years====
In September 1940, the Hitchcocks bought the {{convert|200|acre|km2|adj=on}} Cornwall Ranch near [[Scotts Valley]], California, in the [[Santa Cruz Mountains]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.scottsvalleychamber.com/history/history/hitchcock.htm |title=Alfred Hitchcock Found Contentment in SV |first=Marion |last=Pokriots |publisher=Scotts Valley Historical Society |access-date=31 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190101100444/http://history.scottsvalleychamber.com/history/history/hitchcock.htm|archive-date=1 January 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> Their primary residence was an English-style home in [[Bel Air, Los Angeles|Bel Air]], purchased in 1942.<ref name="Variety obituary"/> Hitchcock's films were diverse during this period, ranging from the romantic comedy ''[[Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941 film)|Mr. & Mrs. Smith]]'' (1941) to the bleak [[film noir]] ''[[Shadow of a Doubt]]'' (1943).

[[File:Cary Grant Joan Fontaine Suspicion.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Cary Grant]] and [[Joan Fontaine]] in a publicity shot for ''[[Suspicion (1941 film)|Suspicion]]'' (1941)]]
{{anchor|Suspicion}}''[[Suspicion (1941 film)|Suspicion]]'' (1941) marked Hitchcock's first film as a producer and director. It is set in England; Hitchcock used the north coast of [[Santa Cruz, California|Santa Cruz]] for the English coastline sequence. The film is the first of four in which [[Cary Grant]] was cast by Hitchcock, and it is one of the rare occasions that Grant plays a sinister character. Grant plays Johnnie Aysgarth, an English [[conman]] whose actions raise suspicion and anxiety in his shy young English wife, Lina McLaidlaw ([[Joan Fontaine]]).{{sfn|Whitty|2016|pp=434–435}} In one scene, Hitchcock placed a light inside a glass of milk, perhaps poisoned, that Grant is bringing to his wife; the light ensures that the audience's attention is on the glass. Grant's character is actually a killer, according to the book, ''[[Before the Fact]]'' by [[Francis Iles]], but the studio felt that Grant's image would be tarnished by that. Hitchcock would have preferred to end with the wife's murder.{{sfn|Truffaut|1983|pp=142–143}}{{efn|Hitchcock told [[Bryan Forbes]] in 1967: "They had gone through the film in my absence and taken out every scene that indicated the possibility that Cary Grant was a murderer. So there was no film existing at all. That was ridiculous. Nevertheless, I had to compromise on the end. What I wanted to do was that the wife was aware that she was going to be murdered by her husband, so she wrote a letter to her mother saying that she was very much in love with him, she didn't want live anymore, she was going to be killed but society should be protected. She therefore brings up this fatal glass of milk, drinks it and before she does she says, "Will you mail this letter to mother?" Then she drinks the milk and dies. You then have just one final scene of a cheerful Cary Grant going to the mailbox and posting the letter.&nbsp;... But this was never permitted because of the basic error in casting."<ref name=HitchcockForbes/>}} Instead, the actions that she found suspicious are a reflection of his own despair and his plan to commit suicide. Fontaine won [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]] for her performance.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Luther |first1=Claudia |title=Joan Fontaine, actress who won Oscar for 'Suspicion,' dies at 96 |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-et-mn-joan-fontaine-actress-who-won-oscar-for-suspicion-dies-at-96-20131215-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=15 December 2013|access-date=4 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150327063921/http://articles.latimes.com/2013/dec/15/entertainment/la-et-mn-joan-fontaine-actress-who-won-oscar-for-suspicion-dies-at-96-20131215|archive-date=27 March 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

''[[Saboteur (film)|Saboteur]]'' (1942) is the first of two films that Hitchcock made for [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]] during the decade. Hitchcock wanted [[Gary Cooper]] and [[Barbara Stanwyck]] or [[Henry Fonda]] and [[Gene Tierney]] to star, but was forced by Universal to use Universal contract player [[Robert Cummings]] and [[Priscilla Lane]], a freelancer who signed a one-picture deal with the studio, both known for their work in comedies and light dramas.<ref>{{harvnb|Humphries|1994|p=71}}</ref> The story depicts a confrontation between a suspected saboteur (Cummings) and a real saboteur ([[Norman Lloyd]]) atop the [[Statue of Liberty]]. Hitchcock took a three-day tour of New York City to scout for ''Saboteur''{{'}}s filming locations.{{Sfn|McGilligan|2003|p=445}} He also directed ''Have You Heard?'' (1942), a photographic dramatisation for ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine of the [[Loose lips sink ships|dangers of rumours during wartime]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title="Have You Heard?": The Story of Wartime Rumors |date=13 July 1942 |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3E0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA68 68]}}</ref> In 1943, he wrote a mystery story for ''[[Look (American magazine)|Look]]'', "The Murder of [[Monty Woolley]]",{{sfn|Brunsdale|2010|p=442}} a sequence of captioned photographs inviting the reader to find clues to the murderer's identity; Hitchcock cast the performers as themselves, such as Woolley, Doris Merrick and make-up man Guy Pearce.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}

[[File:Shadow of a Doubt (1943) - Trailer.webm|thumb|''[[Shadow of a Doubt]]'' (1943) trailer with [[Joseph Cotten]] and [[Teresa Wright]]|alt=''[[Shadow of a Doubt]]'' trailer depicting [[Joseph Cotten]] and [[Teresa Wright]]]]

Back in England, Hitchcock's mother Emma was severely ill; she died on 26 September 1942 at age 79. Hitchcock never spoke publicly about his mother, but his assistant said that he admired her.{{Sfn|McGilligan|2003|p=321}} Four months later, on 4 January 1943, his brother William died of an overdose at age 52.{{Sfn|McGilligan|2003|p=325}} Hitchcock was not very close to William,{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=193}} but his death made Hitchcock conscious about his own eating and drinking habits. He was overweight and suffering from back aches. His New Year's resolution in 1943 was to take his diet seriously with the help of a physician.{{Sfn|McGilligan|2003|p=326}} In January that year, ''[[Shadow of a Doubt]]'' was released, which Hitchcock had fond memories of making.{{Sfn|McGilligan|2003|p=327}} In the film, Charlotte "Charlie" Newton ([[Teresa Wright]]) suspects her beloved uncle Charlie Oakley ([[Joseph Cotten]]) of being a serial killer. Hitchcock filmed extensively on location, this time in the Northern California city of [[Santa Rosa, California|Santa Rosa]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Leitch |first1=Thomas |title=Shadow of a Doubt |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-film-preservation-board/documents/shadow_of_doubt.pdf |access-date=31 December 2017 |publisher=Library of Congress|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215151517/http://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-film-preservation-board/documents/shadow_of_doubt.pdf|archive-date=15 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

At [[20th Century Fox]], Hitchcock approached [[John Steinbeck]] with an idea for a film, which recorded the experiences of the survivors of a German [[U-boat]] attack. Steinbeck began work on the script for what would become ''[[Lifeboat (1944 film)|Lifeboat]]'' (1944). However, Steinbeck was unhappy with the film and asked that his name be removed from the credits, to no avail. The idea was rewritten as a short story by [[Harry Sylvester]] and published in ''[[Collier's]]'' in 1943. The action sequences were shot in a small boat in the studio water tank. The locale posed problems for Hitchcock's traditional cameo appearance; it was solved by having Hitchcock's image appear in a newspaper that [[William Bendix]] is reading in the boat, showing the director in a before-and-after advertisement for "Reduco-Obesity Slayer". He told Truffaut in 1962:

{{blockquote|At the time, I was on a strenuous diet, painfully working my way from three hundred to two hundred pounds. So I decided to immortalize my loss and get my bit part by posing for "before" and "after" pictures.&nbsp;... I was literally submerged by letters from fat people who wanted to know where and how they could get Reduco.{{sfn|Truffaut|1983|pp=158–159}}}}

Hitchcock's typical dinner before his weight loss had been a roast chicken, boiled ham, potatoes, bread, vegetables, relishes, salad, dessert, a bottle of wine and some brandy. To lose weight, his diet consisted of black coffee for breakfast and lunch, and steak and salad for dinner,{{Sfn|McGilligan|2003|p=326}} but it was hard to maintain; Donald Spoto wrote that his weight fluctuated considerably over the next 40 years. At the end of 1943, despite the weight loss, the Occidental Insurance Company of Los Angeles refused his application for life insurance.{{sfn|Spoto|1999|pp=266–267}}

====Wartime non-fiction films====
{{further|German Concentration Camps Factual Survey}}
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Hitchcock returned to the UK for an extended visit in late 1943 and early 1944. While there he made two short [[propaganda film]]s, ''[[Bon Voyage (1944 film)|Bon Voyage]]'' (1944) and ''[[Aventure Malgache]]'' (1944), for the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]]. In June and July 1945, Hitchcock served as "treatment advisor" on a [[Holocaust]] documentary that used [[Allies of World War II|Allied Forces]] footage of the liberation of [[Nazi concentration camps]]. The film was assembled in London and produced by [[Sidney Bernstein, Baron Bernstein|Sidney Bernstein]] of the Ministry of Information, who brought Hitchcock (a friend of his) on board. It was originally intended to be broadcast to the Germans, but the British government deemed it too traumatic to be shown to a shocked post-war population. Instead, it was transferred in 1952 from the [[British War Office]] film vaults to London's [[Imperial War Museum]] and remained unreleased until 1985, when an edited version was broadcast as an episode of [[PBS]] ''[[Frontline (U.S. TV series)|Frontline]]'', under the title the Imperial War Museum had given it: ''Memory of the Camps''. The full-length version of the film, ''[[German Concentration Camps Factual Survey]]'', was restored in 2014 by scholars at the Imperial War Museum.<ref>{{harvnb|McGilligan|2003|pages=372–374}}</ref><ref name=Jeffries9Jan2015>{{cite news |last1=Jeffries |first1=Stuart |title=The Holocaust film that was too shocking to show |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/09/holocaust-film-too-shocking-to-show-night-will-fall-alfred-hitchcock |work=The Guardian |date=9 January 2015 |access-date=24 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110022047/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/09/holocaust-film-too-shocking-to-show-night-will-fall-alfred-hitchcock|archive-date=10 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Memory of the Camps: Frequently Asked Questions |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/camp/faqs.html |publisher=PBS |access-date=6 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150222140552/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/camp/faqs.html|archive-date=22 February 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>