Random Extremely Bizarre Things Most People Don't Know About Alfred Hitchcock (15 items)

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  (#15) His Wife Was His Biggest Collaborator

  In 1923, film editor Alma Reville received a job offer from Hitchcock. In 1926, he also gave her a marriage proposal. She accepted, and became Hitchcock's biggest collaborator, as well as his wife. Reville is credited with everything from assistant director to screenwriter on 19 Hitchcock films, and is said to have convinced the director to keep Bernard Herrmann's now legendary string music during the Psycho shower scene.

  Although the couple had one child, their marriage was primarily celibate, which fueled speculation Hitchcock was a homosexual in denial.
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  (#3) He Had A Demented Sense Of Humor That Involved Laughs At The Expense Of The Safety And Sanity Of Others

  Hitchcock loved perverse jokes and cruel pranks. He was known to use blue food coloring in dinner guests' meals, once crammed a horse in an actor's tiny dressing room for fun, and spiked a crew member's drink with a laxative after chaining him to a piece of film equipment.

  Many of his pranks were employed to get actors into character, such as when he coaxed an uneasy and shy performance from Joan Fontaine in 1940's Rebecca by saying the cast and crew hated her. He was also known to make jokes like, “Call me Hitch. Hold the cock,” and referred to Anthony Perkins as Master Bates on the Psycho set.
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  (#8) Walt Disney Said 'No Thanks' To Hitchcock's Filming Request

  In the early 1960s, Hitchcock approached Walt Disney about filming an unknown project on location in the Disneyland theme park. Despite Hitchcock's popularity at the time and the extra recognition his project would bring to the park, Disney turned him down. His reason? "That disgusting movie Psycho."
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  (#4) He Used Homosexuality To Create Uneasiness

  Homosexuality is associated with crime, violence, and villainy in many of Hitchcock's films. Gay antagonists, and lots of subtext, can be found in 1948's Rope and 1951's Strangers On A Train. In the 1950s, homosexuality was still seen as a mental disorder by mainstream society.

  Hitchcock used the uneasiness surrounding homosexuality to build tension in several films, including a housekeeper's strange behaviors in Rebecca and Norman Bates's cross dressing practices in Psycho.
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  (#6) He Wanted Cary Grant To Have A Sneezing Fit Inside Lincoln's Nose In 'North By Northwest'

  Throughout the early 1950s, Hitchcock toyed with an idea he referred to as The Man In Lincoln's Nose. The project was conceived as a movie about a wrongly accused man trying to exonerate himself, and would include a scene in the United Nations, as well as a climatic scene at Mount Rushmore.

  While developing the idea, Hitchcock wanted to include a scene in which Cary Grant's character hides in Lincoln's nose on Mount Rushmore and has a sneezing fit. The film was eventually named North By Northwest and Mount Rushmore refused permission for filming, requiring a reproduction set to be made. The sneezing idea was abandoned.
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  (#11) He Helped Make A Holocaust Documentary That Was Lost Until the 1980s

  In 1945, Alfred Hitchcock was asked to help with a documentary about the atrocities of Nazi concentration camps. The director was so appalled by the footage he was shown of Bergen-Belsen, he stayed away from the studio for a week. The film was created in an attempt to hold Germany more accountable for the Holocaust, but changing political circumstances resulted in it being shelved once it was complete.

  It was virtually forgotten until the 1980s, when it was shown at the 1984 Berlin Film Festival.

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