Editing Alfred Hitchcock (section)

===Peak years: 1954–1964===
====''Dial M for Murder'' and ''Rear Window''====
[[File:Rearwindow trailer 2.jpg|thumb|left|alt= Still image from the film Read Window featuring Stewart and Kelly|[[James Stewart]] and [[Grace Kelly]] in ''[[Rear Window]]'' (1954)]]
''I Confess'' was followed by three colour films starring [[Grace Kelly]]: ''[[Dial M for Murder]]'' (1954), ''[[Rear Window]]'' (1954) and ''[[To Catch a Thief]]'' (1955). In ''Dial M for Murder'', [[Ray Milland]] plays the villain who tries to murder his unfaithful wife (Kelly) for her money. She kills the hired assassin in self-defence, so Milland manipulates the evidence to make it look like murder. Her lover, Mark Halliday ([[Robert Cummings]]), and Police Inspector Hubbard ([[John Williams (actor)|John Williams]]) save her from execution.<ref name="Leitch 2002. p. 78-80">{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=78}}</ref> Hitchcock experimented with [[3-D film|3D cinematography]] for ''Dial M for Murder''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=French |first1=Philip |title=Dial M for Murder 3D – review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jul/28/dial-m-for-murder-3d-review |work=The Observer |date=28 July 2013|access-date=30 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722232944/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jul/28/dial-m-for-murder-3d-review|archive-date=22 July 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

<!--when did he move to Paramount?{{snd}}Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960)-->Hitchcock moved to [[Paramount Pictures]] and filmed ''[[Rear Window]]'' (1954), starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, as well as [[Thelma Ritter]] and [[Raymond Burr]]. Stewart's character is a photographer named Jeff (based on [[Robert Capa]]) who must temporarily use a wheelchair. Out of boredom, he begins observing his neighbours across the courtyard, then becomes convinced that one of them (Raymond Burr) has murdered his wife. Jeff eventually manages to convince his policeman buddy ([[Wendell Corey]]) and his girlfriend (Kelly). As with ''Lifeboat'' and ''Rope'', the principal characters are depicted in confined or cramped quarters, in this case Stewart's studio apartment. Hitchcock uses close-ups of Stewart's face to show his character's reactions, "from the comic voyeurism directed at his neighbours to his helpless terror watching Kelly and Burr in the villain's apartment".<ref>{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=269}}</ref>

====''Alfred Hitchcock Presents''====
[[File:Alfred Hitchcock and family circa 1955.JPG|thumb|upright|The Hitchcocks with their [[Pat Hitchcock|daughter]], son-in-law, and granddaughters, c.&nbsp;1955–1956]]

<!--CBS, 30 minutes weekly, $129,000 per episode; 1958, Golden Globe for best television series; see Evans-->From 1955 to 1965, Hitchcock was the host of the television series ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]''.<ref name="Alfred Hitchcock Presents">{{cite web |title=Alfred Hitchcock Presents |publisher=TV.COM |url=http://www.tv.com/alfred-hitchcock-presents/show/238/summary.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080125154314/http://www.tv.com/alfred-hitchcock-presents/show/238/summary.html |archive-date=25 January 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> With his droll delivery, gallows humour and iconic image, the series made Hitchcock a celebrity. The title-sequence of the show pictured a minimalist caricature of his profile (he drew it himself; it is composed of only nine strokes), which his real silhouette then filled.<ref>{{cite book |title=TV in the USA: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas |last=LoBrutto |first=Vincent |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4408-2972-7 |page=6}}</ref> The series theme tune was ''[[Funeral March of a Marionette]]'' by the French composer [[Charles Gounod]] (1818–1893).<ref>{{cite web |title=Alfred Hitchcock (suspense anthology) |publisher=Media Management Group |url=http://www.classicthemes.com/50sTVThemes/themePages/alfredHitchcock.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080221144330/http://www.classicthemes.com/50sTVThemes/themePages/alfredHitchcock.html |archive-date=21 February 2008|url-status=dead |access-date=7 November 2008}}</ref>

His introductions always included some sort of wry humour, such as the description of a recent multi-person execution hampered by having only one [[electric chair]], while two are shown with a sign "Two chairs—no waiting!" He directed 18 episodes of the series, which aired from 1955 to 1965. It became ''[[The Alfred Hitchcock Hour]]'' in 1962, and NBC broadcast the final episode on 10 May 1965. In the 1980s, a [[Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985 TV series)|new version]] of ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' was produced for television, making use of Hitchcock's original introductions in a [[colourised]] form.<ref name="Alfred Hitchcock Presents"/>

Hitchcock's success in television spawned a set of short-story collections in his name; these included ''[[Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology]]'', ''Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do on TV,'' and ''Tales My Mother Never Told Me''.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=202}} In 1956, HSD Publications also licensed the director's name to create ''[[Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine]]'', a monthly [[Digest size|digest]] specialising in crime and detective fiction.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=202}} Hitchcock's television series were very profitable, and his foreign-language versions of books were bringing revenues of up to $100,000 a year ({{Inflation|US|100,000|1960|fmt=eq|r=-4}}).{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=203}}<!--making this invisible for now; not sure where to place it: Hitchcock also appears as a character in the juvenile detective book series, ''[[Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators]]''. The long-running series was created by [[Robert Arthur (writer)|Robert Arthur]], who wrote the first few books. The Three Investigators—Jupiter Jones, Bob Andrews and Peter Crenshaw—were amateur detectives, slightly younger than the [[Hardy Boys]]. In the introduction to each book, "Alfred Hitchcock" introduces the mystery, and he sometimes refers a case to the boys to solve. At the end of each book, the boys report to Hitchcock, and sometimes give him a memento of their case.<ref name="Alfred Hitchcock Presents"/>-->

====From ''To Catch a Thief'' to ''Vertigo''====
In 1955, Hitchcock became a United States citizen.<ref>{{harvnb|McGilligan|2003|p= 512}}</ref> In the same year, his third Grace Kelly film, ''[[To Catch a Thief]]'', was released; it is set in the [[French Riviera]], and stars Kelly and Cary Grant. Grant plays retired thief John Robie, who becomes the prime suspect for a spate of robberies in the Riviera. A thrill-seeking American heiress played by Kelly surmises his true identity and tries to seduce him. "Despite the obvious age disparity between Grant and Kelly and a lightweight plot, the witty script (loaded with double entendres) and the good-natured acting proved a commercial success."<ref name="Leitch 2002. p. 366">{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=366}}</ref> It was Hitchcock's last film with Kelly; she married [[Prince Rainier]] of Monaco in 1956, and ended her film career afterward. Hitchcock then remade his own [[The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 film)|1934 film]] ''The Man Who Knew Too Much'' [[The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956 film)|in 1956]]. This time, the film starred James Stewart and [[Doris Day]], who sang the theme song "[[Que Sera, Sera]]", which won the [[Academy Award for Best Original Song]] and became a big hit. They play a couple whose son is kidnapped to prevent them from interfering with an assassination. As in the 1934 film, the climax takes place at the [[Royal Albert Hall]].<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1994|p=75}}</ref>

''[[The Wrong Man]]'' (1956), Hitchcock's final film for Warner Bros., is a low-key black-and-white production based on a real-life case of [[mistaken identity]] reported in ''Life'' magazine in 1953. This was the only film of Hitchcock to star [[Henry Fonda]], playing a [[Stork Club]] musician mistaken for a liquor store thief, who is arrested and tried for robbery while his wife ([[Vera Miles]]) emotionally collapses under the strain. Hitchcock told Truffaut that his lifelong fear of the police attracted him to the subject and was embedded in many scenes.<ref name="Leitch 2002. p. 377">{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=377}}</ref><!--1957, [[Claude Chabrol]] and [[Éric Rohmer]], first book-length study of his work--><!--moved this from the "relationship with actors" section: In the late 1950s, [[French New Wave]] critics, especially Truffaut, [[Claude Chabrol]] and [[Éric Rohmer]], were among the first to see and promote Hitchcock's films as artistic works. Hitchcock was one of the first directors to whom they applied their [[auteur theory]], which stresses the artistic authority of the director in the filmmaking process.<ref name="Moerbeek2006">{{harvnb|Moerbeek|2006|loc=}}</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2017}}-->[[File:Vertigo 1958 trailer Kim Novak at Golden Gate Bridge Fort Point.jpg|thumb|alt=Still image from the film Vertigo|[[Kim Novak]] by the [[Golden Gate Bridge]] in ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]'' (1958){{efn|A 2012 [[British Film Institute]] poll ranked ''Vertigo'' as the [[Sight & Sound#2012|greatest film ever made]].<ref name=Christie2012>{{cite news |last=Christie |first=Ian |title=The 50 Greatest Films of All Time |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time |work=Sight & Sound |date=September 2012 |access-date=29 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301135739/http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time|archive-date=1 March 2017}}; also see {{cite news |title=Critics' top 100 |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/critics |publisher=British Film Institute |year=2012|access-date=29 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207035347/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/critics|archive-date=7 February 2016}}</ref>}}]]

While directing episodes for ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' during the summer of 1957, Hitchcock was admitted to hospital for [[hernia]] and [[gallstone]]s, and had to have his [[gallbladder]] removed. Following a successful surgery, he immediately returned to work to prepare for his next project.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=212}}{{Sfn|Evans|2004|p=}} ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]'' (1958) again starred James Stewart, with [[Kim Novak]] and [[Barbara Bel Geddes]]. He had wanted [[Vera Miles]] to play the lead, but she was pregnant. He told [[Oriana Fallaci]]: "I was offering her a big part, the chance to become a beautiful sophisticated blonde, a real actress. We'd have spent a heap of dollars on it, and she has the bad taste to get pregnant. I hate pregnant women, because then they have children."{{sfn|Fallaci|1963}}

In ''Vertigo'', Stewart plays Scottie, a former police investigator suffering from [[acrophobia]], who becomes obsessed with a woman he has been hired to shadow (Novak). Scottie's obsession leads to tragedy, and this time Hitchcock did not opt for a happy ending. Some critics, including Donald Spoto and [[Roger Ebert]], agree that ''Vertigo'' is the director's most personal and revealing film, dealing with the ''[[Pygmalion (mythology)|Pygmalion]]''-like obsessions of a man who moulds a woman into the person he desires. ''Vertigo'' explores more frankly and at greater length his interest in the relation between sex and death, than any other work in his filmography.<ref>{{harvnb|Kehr|2011|p=259}}</ref>

''Vertigo'' contains a camera technique developed by Irmin Roberts, commonly referred to as a [[dolly zoom]], which has been copied by many filmmakers. The film premiered at the [[San Sebastián International Film Festival]], and Hitchcock won the Silver Seashell prize.<ref>{{cite web|title=San Sebastian Film Festival|url=https://www.sansebastianfestival.com:443/1958/awards_and_jury_members/awards/1/51/in|access-date=19 November 2020|website=San Sebastian Film Festival|archive-date=2 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191002204434/https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/1958/awards_and_jury_members/awards/1/51/in}}</ref> ''Vertigo'' is considered a classic, but it attracted mixed reviews and poor box-office receipts at the time;<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ravetto-Biagioli|first1=Kriss|last2=Beugnet|first2=Martine|date=27 September 2019|title=Vertiginous Hauntings: The Ghosts of Vertigo|journal=Film-Philosophy|volume=23|issue=3|pages=227–246|doi=10.3366/film.2019.0114|doi-access=free|issn=1466-4615}}</ref> the critic from ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' opined that the film was "too slow and too long".<ref>{{cite web|date=14 May 1958|title=Vertigo|url=https://variety.com/1958/film/reviews/vertigo-2-1200419207/|access-date=19 November 2020|website=Variety|archive-date=28 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228012042/http://variety.com/1958/film/reviews/vertigo-2-1200419207/}}</ref> [[Bosley Crowther]] of the ''New York Times'' thought it was "devilishly far-fetched", but praised the cast performances and Hitchcock's direction.<ref>{{cite news|last=Crowther|first=Bosley|date=29 May 1958|title=Vertigo,' Hitchcock's Latest; Melodrama Arrives at the Capitol (Published 1958)|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/05/29/archives/vertigo-hitchcocks-latest-melodrama-arrives-at-the-capitol.html|access-date=19 November 2020|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=23 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190823175858/https://www.nytimes.com/1958/05/29/archives/vertigo-hitchcocks-latest-melodrama-arrives-at-the-capitol.html}}</ref> The picture was also the last collaboration between Stewart and Hitchcock.<ref name="Leitch 2002. p. 376-77">{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=376}}</ref> In the 2002 ''[[Sight & Sound]]'' polls, it ranked just behind ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941); ten years later, in the same magazine, critics chose it as the best film ever made.<ref name="Christie2012" />

====''North by Northwest'' and ''Psycho''====
{{see also|Psycho (franchise)}}
After ''Vertigo'', the rest of 1958 was a difficult year for Hitchcock. During [[pre-production]] of ''[[North by Northwest]]'' (1959), which was a "slow" and "agonising" process, his wife Alma was diagnosed with cancer.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=217}} While she was in hospital, Hitchcock kept himself occupied with his television work and would visit her every day. Alma underwent surgery and made a full recovery, but it caused Hitchcock to imagine, for the first time, life without her.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=217}}

[[File:Hitchcock Leigh Psycho.jpg|thumb|upright|alt= Photo of Alfred Hitchcock & Janet Leigh from the 1960 film ''Psycho''|Hitchcock shooting the shower scene of ''Psycho'' (1960)]]
Hitchcock followed up with three more successful films, which are also recognised as among his best: ''North by Northwest'', ''[[Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho]]'' (1960) and ''[[The Birds (film)|The Birds]]'' (1963). In ''North by Northwest'', Cary Grant portrays Roger Thornhill, a [[Madison Avenue]] advertising executive who is mistaken for a government secret agent. He is pursued across the United States by enemy agents, including Eve Kendall ([[Eva Marie Saint]]). At first, Thornhill believes Kendall is helping him, but then realises that she is an enemy agent; he later learns that she is working undercover for the [[CIA]]. During its opening two-week run at [[Radio City Music Hall]], the film grossed $404,056 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|0.404056|1959|r=1}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}), setting a non-holiday gross record for that theatre.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,864921,00.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120530114819/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,864921,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 May 2012 |title=Box Office: For the Books |date=31 August 1959 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref> ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine called the film "smoothly troweled and thoroughly entertaining".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,937893,00.html |title=Cinema: The New Pictures |date=17 August 1959 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=21 August 2017 |archive-date=30 May 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120530114820/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,937893,00.html |url-status=dead }}{{pb}}
{{cite news |title=Hitchcock Takes Suspenseful Cook's Tour: ''North by Northwest'' Opens at Music Hall |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9404E7D91631EE3BBC4F53DFBE668382649EDE |date=7 August 1959 |work=The New York Times |first=A.H. |last=Weiler |access-date=21 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929123524/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9404E7D91631EE3BBC4F53DFBE668382649EDE |archive-date=29 September 2013}}</ref>

''[[Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho]]'' (1960) is arguably Hitchcock's best-known film.<ref name="Leitch 2002. p. 260">{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=260}}</ref> Based on [[Robert Bloch]]'s 1959 novel ''[[Psycho (novel)|Psycho]]'', which was inspired by the case of [[Ed Gein]],<ref>{{harvnb|Rebello|1990|pp=7–14}}</ref> the film was produced on a tight budget of $800,000 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|0.8|1960|r=1}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) and shot in black-and-white on a spare set using crew members from ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=261}}</ref> The unprecedented violence of the shower scene,{{efn|A documentary on ''Psycho''{{'}}s shower scene, ''78/52'', was released in 2017, directed by [[Alexandre O. Philippe]]; the title refers to the scene's 78 camera setups and 52 cuts.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Owen |last=Gleiberman |title=Film Review: '78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene' |magazine=Variety |date=24 January 2017 |url=https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/7852-review-psycho-1201966555/|access-date=12 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213011034/https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/7852-review-psycho-1201966555/|archive-date=13 December 2017}}{{pb}}
{{cite news |last1=Bradshaw |first1=Peter |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/13/7852-review-hitchcock-psycho-shower-scene |title=78/52 review – Hitchcock's Psycho shower scene gets an expert autopsy |work=The Guardian |date=13 October 2017|access-date=27 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227195616/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/13/7852-review-hitchcock-psycho-shower-scene|archive-date=27 December 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>}} the early death of the heroine, and the innocent lives extinguished by a disturbed murderer became the hallmarks of a new horror-film genre.<ref>{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=262}}</ref> The film proved popular with audiences, with lines stretching outside theatres as viewers waited for the next showing. It broke box-office records in the United Kingdom, France, South America, the United States and Canada, and was a moderate success in Australia for a brief period.<ref name="Leigh 1995">{{harvnb|Leigh|Nickens|1995|p=99}}</ref>

''Psycho'' was the most profitable of Hitchcock's career, and he personally earned in excess of $15&nbsp;million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|15|1960|r=-1}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}). He subsequently swapped his rights to ''Psycho'' and his TV anthology for 150,000 shares of [[MCA Inc.|MCA]], making him the third largest shareholder and his own boss at Universal, in theory at least, although that did not stop studio interference.{{Sfn|Rebello|1990|p=182}} Following the first film, ''Psycho'' became an American horror [[Media franchise|franchise]]: ''[[Psycho II (film)|Psycho II]]'', ''[[Psycho III]]'', ''[[Bates Motel (film)|Bates Motel]]'', ''[[Psycho IV: The Beginning]]'' and a colour [[Psycho (1998 film)|1998 remake]] of the original.{{sfn|Verevis|2006|p=22}}

====Truffaut interview====
{{further|Hitchcock/Truffaut|Hitchcock/Truffaut (film)}}
<!--expand-->On 13 August 1962, Hitchcock's 63rd birthday, the French director [[François Truffaut]] began a 50-hour interview of Hitchcock, filmed over eight days at Universal Studios, during which Hitchcock agreed to answer 500 questions. It took four years to transcribe the tapes and organise the images; it was published as a book in 1967, which Truffaut nicknamed the "Hitchbook". The audio tapes were used as the basis of a documentary in 2015.{{sfn|Truffaut|1983|p=12}}<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jeffries |first1=Stuart |title='Actors are cattle': when Hitchcock met Truffaut |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/12/when-hitchcock-met-truffaut-hitchcock-truffaut-documentary-cannes |work=The Guardian |date=12 May 2015|access-date=16 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117131315/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/12/when-hitchcock-met-truffaut-hitchcock-truffaut-documentary-cannes|archive-date=17 January 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Truffaut sought the interview because it was clear to him that Hitchcock was not simply the mass-market entertainer the American media made him out to be. It was obvious from his films, Truffaut wrote, that Hitchcock had "given more thought to the potential of his art than any of his colleagues". He compared the interview to "Oedipus' consultation of the oracle".{{sfn|Truffaut|1983|pp=11–12}}

====''The Birds''====
{{further|The Girl (2012 TV film)|Tippi Hedren#Sexual harassment}}
[[File:The Birds trailer (1963).webm|thumb|left|Trailer for ''[[The Birds (film)|The Birds]]'' (1963), in which Hitchcock discusses humanity's treatment of "our feathered friends"]]
The film scholar Peter William Evans wrote that ''[[The Birds (film)|The Birds]]'' (1963) and ''[[Marnie (film)|Marnie]]'' (1964) are regarded as "undisputed masterpieces".{{sfn|Evans|2004|p=}} Hitchcock had intended to film ''Marnie'' first, and in March 1962 it was announced that Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco since 1956, would come out of retirement to star in it.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Alden |first1=Robert |title=Princess Grace Will Star in Hitchcock Movie |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1962/03/20/archives/princess-grace-will-star-in-hitchcock-movie-she-accepts-her-first.html |work=The New York Times |date=20 March 1962|access-date=11 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612213711/https://www.nytimes.com/1962/03/20/archives/princess-grace-will-star-in-hitchcock-movie-she-accepts-her-first.html|archive-date=12 June 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> When Kelly asked Hitchcock to postpone ''Marnie'' until 1963 or 1964, he recruited [[Evan Hunter]], author of ''The Blackboard Jungle'' (1954), to develop a screenplay based on a [[Daphne du Maurier]] short story, "[[The Birds (story)|The Birds]]" (1952), which Hitchcock had republished in his ''My Favorites in Suspense'' (1959). He hired [[Tippi Hedren]] to play the lead role.<ref>{{harvnb|McGilligan|2003|pp=611–613}}; {{harvnb|MacDonald|2012|p=36}}</ref> It was her first role; she had been a model in New York when Hitchcock saw her, in October 1961, in an NBC television advert for [[Sego (diet drink)|Sego]], a diet drink:{{sfn|Moral|2013|p=15}} "I signed her because she is a classic beauty. Movies don't have them any more. Grace Kelly was the last." He insisted, without explanation, that her first name be written in single quotation marks: 'Tippi'.{{efn|Thomas McDonald (''The New York Times'', 1 April 1962): "Starring in the film are Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, Jessica Tandy and 'Tippi' Hedren. Hitchcock signed Miss Hedren, a New York model, to a contract after having seen her in a television commercial. He insisted that she enclose her first name in single quotation marks, but would not explain why."<ref name=McDonald1April1962>{{cite news |last1=McDonald |first1=Thomas |title=Watching 'Birds': Happy Hitchcock Films Terror-Ridden Tale |url=http://partners.nytimes.com/library/film/040162hitch-birds-making.html |work=The New York Times |date=1 April 1962|access-date=3 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204193415/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/film/040162hitch-birds-making.html|archive-date=4 December 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Spoto|2008|p=245}}}}

In ''The Birds'', Melanie Daniels, a young socialite, meets lawyer Mitch Brenner ([[Rod Taylor]]) in a bird shop; [[Jessica Tandy]] plays his possessive mother. Hedren visits him in [[Bodega Bay, California|Bodega Bay]] (where ''The Birds'' was filmed)<ref name=McDonald1April1962/> carrying a pair of [[lovebird]]s as a gift. Suddenly waves of birds start gathering, watching, and attacking. The question: "What do the birds want?" is left unanswered.{{sfn|Rothman|2014|p=203}} Hitchcock made the film with equipment from the Revue Studio, which made ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents''. He said it was his most technically challenging film, using a combination of trained and mechanical birds against a backdrop of wild ones. Every shot was sketched in advance.<ref name=McDonald1April1962/>

An [[HBO]]/[[BBC]] television film, ''[[The Girl (2012 TV film)|The Girl]]'' (2012), depicted Hedren's experiences on set; she said that Hitchcock [[Tippi Hedren#Allegations of sexual harassment|became obsessed with her]] and sexually harassed her. He reportedly isolated her from the rest of the crew, had her followed, whispered obscenities to her, had her handwriting analysed and had a ramp built from his private office directly into her trailer.<ref>{{harvnb|Spoto|1999|pp=451–452, 455–457, 467–468, 472–473}}; {{harvnb|Spoto|2008|pp=250–251, 264}}</ref><ref name=Goldman5October2012>{{cite news |last=Goldman |first=Andrew |title=The Revenge of Alfred Hitchcock's Muse |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/magazine/the-revenge-of-tippi-hedren-alfred-hitchcocks-muse.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=5 October 2012|access-date=5 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623181500/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/magazine/the-revenge-of-tippi-hedren-alfred-hitchcocks-muse.html|archive-date=23 June 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Diane Baker]], her co-star in ''Marnie'', said: "[N]othing could have been more horrible for me than to arrive on that movie set and to see her being treated the way she was."{{sfn|Spoto|2008|p=265}} While filming the attack scene in the attic{{snd}}which took a week to film{{snd}}she was placed in a caged room while two men wearing [[evening glove|elbow-length protective gloves]] threw live birds at her. Toward the end of the week, to stop the birds' flying away from her too soon, one leg of each bird was attached by nylon thread to elastic bands sewn inside her clothes. She broke down after a bird cut her lower eyelid, and filming was halted on doctor's orders.{{sfn|Spoto|1999|pp=457–459}}

====''Marnie''====
[[File:Marnie (1964) trailer.webm|thumb|Trailer for ''[[Marnie (film)|Marnie]]'' (1964)]]

In June 1962, Grace Kelly announced that she had decided against appearing in ''[[Marnie (film)|Marnie]]'' (1964).<!--explain why?--> Hedren had signed an exclusive seven-year, $500-a-week contract with Hitchcock in October 1961,<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|1996|p=270}};
{{harvnb|Moral|2013|p=16}}</ref> and he decided to cast her in the lead role opposite [[Sean Connery]]. In 2016, describing Hedren's performance as "one of the greatest in the history of cinema", [[Richard Brody]] called the film a "story of sexual violence" inflicted on the character played by Hedren: "The film is, to put it simply, sick, and it's so because Hitchcock was sick. He suffered all his life from furious sexual desire, suffered from the lack of its gratification, suffered from the inability to transform fantasy into reality, and then went ahead and did so virtually, by way of his art."<ref name=Brody17Aug2016>{{cite magazine |last1=Brody |first1=Richard|author-link=Richard Brody |title="Marnie" Is the Cure for Hitchcock Mania |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/marnie-is-the-cure-for-hitchcock-mania |magazine=The New Yorker |date=17 August 2016|access-date=2 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103072926/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/marnie-is-the-cure-for-hitchcock-mania|archive-date=3 January 2018|url-status=live}}{{pb}}
{{cite magazine |last1=Brody |first1=Richard|author-link=Richard Brody |title=Tippi Hedren's Silence |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/tippi-hedrens-silence |magazine=The New Yorker |year=2012|access-date=5 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105180346/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/tippi-hedrens-silence|archive-date=5 January 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> A 1964 ''New York Times'' review called it Hitchcock's "most disappointing film in years", citing Hedren's and Connery's lack of experience, an amateurish script and "glaringly fake cardboard backdrops".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Archer |first1=Eugene |title=Hitchcock's 'Marnie,' With Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery |url=http://partners.nytimes.com/library/film/072364hitch-marnie-review.html |work=The New York Times |date=23 July 1964|access-date=3 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170511180850/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/film/072364hitch-marnie-review.html|archive-date=11 May 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the film, Marnie Edgar (Hedren) steals $10,000 from her employer and goes on the run. She applies for a job at Mark Rutland's (Connery) company in Philadelphia and steals from there too. Earlier, she is shown having a panic attack during a thunderstorm and fearing the colour red. Mark tracks her down and blackmails her into marrying him. She explains that she does not want to be touched, but during the "honeymoon", Mark rapes her. Marnie and Mark discover that Marnie's mother had been a prostitute when Marnie was a child, and that, while the mother was fighting with a client during a thunderstorm{{snd}}the mother believed the client had tried to molest Marnie{{snd}}Marnie had killed the client to save her mother. Cured of her fears when she remembers what happened, she decides to stay with Mark.<ref name=Brody17Aug2016/><ref name=Cleaver13Aug2012>{{cite news |last1=Cleaver |first1=Emily |title=My favourite Hitchcock: Marnie |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/aug/13/my-favourite-hitchcock-marnie |work=The Guardian |date=13 August 2012|access-date=27 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227122740/https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/aug/13/my-favourite-hitchcock-marnie|archive-date=27 December 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Pat Nixon Alfred Hitchcock 1411-15A.jpg|thumb|upright|The Hitchcocks with First Lady [[Pat Nixon]] and first daughter [[Julie Nixon Eisenhower]] in 1969]]

Hitchcock told cinematographer [[Robert Burks]] that the camera had to be placed as close as possible to Hedren when he filmed her face.{{sfn|Spoto|1999|p=471}} [[Evan Hunter]], the screenwriter of ''The Birds'' who was writing ''Marnie'' too, explained to Hitchcock that, if Mark loved Marnie, he would comfort her, not rape her. Hitchcock reportedly replied: "Evan, when he sticks it in her, I want that camera right on her face!"<ref>{{harvnb|Moral|2013|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=2WFCQednbTMC&pg=PA37 37]}}, citing Evan Hunter (1997). ''[[Me and Hitch]]''.</ref> When Hunter submitted two versions of the script, one without the rape scene, Hitchcock replaced him with [[Jay Presson Allen]].{{sfn|Moral|2013|pp=38–39}}