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 To Catch a Thief, 1955
Between 1952 and 1960, Hitchcock completed three feature films for Warners, six for Paramount, and one for MGM. With the successful launching of his televison series in 1955, he also became the first Hollywood director to become a genuine TV star.
Hitchcock's first major box office hit in the 50s was Rear Window (1954), starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, who would replace Ingrid Bergman as Hitchcock's favorite leading actress.
What most reviewers found especially engaging about Rear Window was its clever blending of suspense, droll comedy, and romancequalities that critics were quick to point out had made Hitchcock's early works, such as The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes, so successful. The critical response to Rear Window helped revive and strengthen the view of Hitchcock as a master entertainer--a view reinforced by a number of his subsequent 50s films, such as To Catch A Thief (1955), the re-make of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and North By Northwest (1959).
A factor that may have worked to keep Hitchcock from gaining critical respect in America during the late 50s and early 60s was the enormous commercial success of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the television show he hosted for ten years beginning in 1955. While it wasnt readily apparent to his fans, Hitchcocks involvement in the show was peripheral; he directed only twenty of the 370 teleplays produced by Shamley Productions in the decade, and offered only occasional suggestions to his associates, Joan Harrison and Norman Lloyd, who were the creative powers behind the show.
What the TV show did for Hitchcock was make him an even bigger star. Indeed, the fact that he hosted the show, and that the episodes were made to evoke little Hitchcock movies, helped make him a household name all over the world. Many knew him as the host of a popular TV show and not for the films he directed.
The text in the Chronology section has been adapted from "Alfred Hitchcock" by Robert E.
Kapsis, from American National Biography, edited by John Garraty. © 1999
by the American Council of Learned Societies. Used by permission of Oxford University
Press, Inc.
Adapted by Robert E. Kapsis, Kathie Coblentz, and Amy Stoller.
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