"Hitchcock"

In Sacha Gervasi's "Hitchcock" (Fox Searchlight, 2012) the Orpheum Theatre at 842 S. Broadway is doubling for the United Artists in Chicago for the 1959 premiere of "North By Northwest." The film is a drama about Hitchcock, his difficulties deciding on a new project, the troubles with Paramount and the censors after he decided on "Psycho," and the fraught relationship with his wife and collaborator Alma Reville before and during the shoot.

The cast includes Anthony Hopkins as Hitch, Hellen Mirren as his wife Alma, Toni Colette as Hitch's assistant Peggy, Michael Stuhlbarg as Hitch's agent Lew Wasserman, Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel as Vera Miles, James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins, Danny Huston as Alma's writer friend Whitfield Cook and Richard Portnow as Paramount studio head Barney Balaban. Jeff Cronenweth did the cinematography. The film was based on Stephen Rebello's book "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho."

 

We pan down to an Orpheum view from across the street. Kurt Wahlner notes that "North By Northwest" had its world premiere at the UA in Chicago on Wednesday July 1, 1959.  In Los Angeles it opened with no premiere on Friday, July 25 at the Egyptian.

 

 

For comparison, here's a 1984 photo of the United Artists lettering on the theatre in Chicago. It's a photo by John Rice appearing on Cinema Treasures.  

 

Hitch and Alma leaving the Orpheum lobby after the premiere.  

 

 Greeting the press in the ticket lobby.  

 

 

The film ends with a second premiere, the one for "Psycho" at the DeMille Theatre in New York on June 16, 1960. It also opened at the Baronet the same day. For the De Mille, the filmmakers used both the Orpheum and the Palace Theatre, 630 S. Broadway. 

 

 

After hearing that Paramount only intended to open the film in two theatres, Hitch gets to work preparing promotional materials and producing a manual for exhibitors. Security personnel were to be conspicuously on duty and no one was to be admitted after the film started. In this shot at the Orpheum the "De Mille" staff are reading the manual as we hear Hitch dictating the copy.    

 

 

The manager telling the security guards that there may be a riot that night. We're in the ticket lobby of the Palace for this shot.   

 

 

Posters going up at the Palace.  

 

 

  

The title getting put up on the Palace marquee. Note the lettering over on the former Bullocks Department Store building at 7th and Broadway saying "St. Vincent Galleries."  

 

 Here's what the marquee actually looked like during the shot:  

 

This photo by Don Kelsen for the Los Angeles Times appeared with "Location managers for 'Luck,' 'Argo,' and 'Hitchcock' honored," an October 28, 2012 story by Richard Verrier.

 

"We will not allow you.." cutouts of Hitch being taken into the Palace lobby. 

 

Hitch on stage at the De Mille checking out the theatre the afternoon of the premiere. For this shot we're back at the Orpheum. 

 

 

Later in the day with the marquee lit and the director's name now added.  

 

Panning down from the marquee for a view of the crowd. To the right note the wall and display cases added by the film crew to hide the storefronts and office building doorway south of the Palace's entrance.

 

 

Hitch back at the theatre for the premiere. That's Toni Colette as his assistant Peggy in the blue dress. 

 

 

Coming into the theatre via an exit passage along the side of the Palace. On the left note that the doors had been changed out to match the look of the doors at the Orpheum.  

 

 

Coming into the lobby. On the left it's Michael Stuhlbarg as Hitch's agent Lew Wasserman. For this shot we're in the house left end of the Orpheum's lobby. The doors lead out to the alley, looking nothing like the view we had in the previous shot. 

 

 

A peek into the Orpheum's auditorium as the film begins.  

 

 

Taking a peek from up in the booth. Looks like we're at the Palace.  

 

 

  

Gauging the crowd's reaction by the tempo of their screams during the shower scene. We're at the Orpheum for this shot. 

 

 

Another look across the auditorium.  

 

 

With the show over, a jubilant Hitch and Alma start to leave the theatre. We're in the lobby of the Palace.

 

 

  

Alma in the Palace ticket lobby. She had commented earlier that she always gets left behind as Hitch marches on the get all the accolades. But this time he reaches back to take her hand. 

 

A promotional shot from Fox Searchlight that appeared with John Horn's December 13, 2012 L.A. Times article "'Hitchcock's' triple play."

 

Alma and Hitch leave together. The credits roll.  

 

But we're not quite done. At the end of the credits we get this shot with Anthony Hopkins again on the stage at the Orpheum. A version of this image that Suzanne Tenner shot for Fox Searchlight once appeared with "Hitchcock stages a show at the Orpheum and other L.A. landmarks," a July 3, 2012 L.A. Times story by Richard Verrier that discussed the downtown filming.

See the pages about the Palace Theatre and the Orpheum Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more information and many, many photos. The Palace opened in 1911 as the Orpheum. In 1926 the circuit moved two blocks down the street to the new theatre that still uses the Orpheum name. Both theatres are designs by G. Albert Lansburgh.

On IMDb: "Hitchcock"    

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