Editing Alfred Hitchcock (section)

====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}}