Alfred Hitchcock and His Actors Quiz

Answer: Robert Donat in "The 39 Steps"

One of the great films from his early British period, "The 39 Steps" was an important film for Hitchcock. Riding the successful coattails of 1934's "The Man Who Knew Too Much", this film clearly established Hitch as a filmmaking force to be reckoned with, both commercially and artistically. "The 39 Steps" also created somewhat of a template for future Hitchcock films that tell the story of a falsely accused man on the run.

Robert Donat won his Oscar for 1939's "Goodbye Mr. Chips" against some fierce competition--Clark Gable for "Gone With the Wind", James Stewart for "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", and Laurence Olivier for "Wuthering Heights". Hitchcock tried to recruit him for several future films but Donat was devoted to his stage work. Having suffered from acute asthma his entire life, Donat died in 1958 at the age of 53, another great talent gone way too soon.

Answer: Laurence Olivier in "Rebecca"

Impressed with Hitchcock's commercial and artistic success in Great Britain, David O. Selznick lured Hitchcock to Hollywood in the late thirties. It was a tempestuous relationship that would, nonetheless, net impressive results. Their first collaboration was "Rebecca", Daphne du Maurier's tale of a young woman who marries an aristocrat but finds herself a virtual prisoner in his gothic estate, run by the maniacal servant, Miss Danvers (Judith Anderson, in a legendary performance). "Rebecca" is the only Hitchcock film to ever win a best picture Oscar. Hitchcock lost the best director prize to John Ford for "The Grapes of Wrath".

Laurence Olivier wanted his fiancée, Vivien Leigh, to play his wife in "Rebecca". Having starred in Selznick's "Gone With the Wind" the year before, she must have seemed a shoo-in. But, alas, the role went to Joan Fontaine. Olivier, not happy with the choice, apparently treated Fontaine horribly, thus contributing to the effectiveness of her performance as a shy, intimidated, put-upon woman.

Answer: Robert Cummings in "Saboteur"

Robert Cummings was better known as Bob Cummings once he became a television sitcom star in the 1950s, starring in such shows as "The Bob Cummings Show" and "My Living Doll". When playing serious roles, such as the one he played in "Saboteur", he billed himself as Robert Cummings. He would also appear in a supporting role in Hitch's "Dial M for Murder" (which was inexplicably shot in 3-D) in 1954.

"Saboteur" follows the "innocent accused" template established by "The 39 Steps" and perfected later in "North by Northwest". Barry Kane (Cummings), an aircraft plant worker, is falsely accused of starting a fire at the plant, which takes the life of Kane's friend and co-worker. He goes on the run, trying to clear his name, and desperately trying to stop the real assailant from committing more acts of sabotage. "Saboteur" has a great climax atop the Statue of Liberty. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen the film, but it's another classic Hitchcock set-piece.

Answer: Joseph Cotten in "Shadow of a Doubt"

The term "serial killer" wouldn't be coined for decades, but there is no doubt that Joseph Cotten's Charlie Oakley in "Shadow of a Doubt" checks off all the serial killer boxes. When his adoring niece (Teresa Wright) begins to suspect a dark side to her dear Uncle Charlie, the plot kicks into high gear. Hitchcock said more than once that this was his favorite of his films. Playwright Thornton Wilder contributed to the screenplay, giving the film the same feel of small town Americana that characterized his great American stage play, "Our Town".

In the thirties, Joseph Cotten became a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre company--the same group responsible for the infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast in 1938. When Welles went to Hollywood to make movies, Cotten followed and was cast in the plum role of Jedediah Leland in Welles' "Citizen Kane". A year later, Cotten played another major role for Welles in "The Magnificent Ambersons"; he would star opposite Welles in Carol Reed's 1949 masterpiece, "The Third Man". Cotten also appeared in a classic episode of Hitchcock's fifties television program, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". The episode was directed by Hitch himself.

Answer: Cary Grant in "Notorious"

Cary Grant was the greatest movie star of all time. There, I've said it. His charisma and presence on screen were so magnetic that he managed to win us over just by letting us look at him, by letting us bask in his regal presence. The fact that he could also act--especially, but not exclusively, in comic roles--was a bonus. In his best films, and "Notorious" is one of his best films, he had a surprising complexity. In this very great Hitchcock thriller, Grant plays Devlin, an American agent tracking down Nazis hiding in South America. He employs Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) to seduce one of these men so that she can spy on him. Problem is, Devlin's also in love with Alicia. This is where the complexity comes in. Devlin is simultaneously cruel and loving towards Alicia and we both hate him and love him for it. No other actor could pull that off. It is one of the great screen performances of all time. Grant should not have only been given an Oscar, he should have been given a Nobel Prize and an extra olive in his martini. The simple fact that he could pull off a performance of this depth and then turn around and, with equal skill and dexterity, play the bumbling David Huxley in the screwball comedy "Bringing Up Baby" is proof of my claim--Cary Grant was the greatest movie star of all time.

It's no wonder that Hitch loved working with Grant and chose to do so twice more--in 1954's "To Catch a Thief" and 1959's "North by Northwest". Hitch had already worked with Grant in 1941's "Suspicion". Did I mention that Cary Grant was the greatest movie star of all...Oh, I did? OK, sorry, I'll stop.

Answer: James Stewart in "Rope"

Cary Grant (the greatest movie star of all time) was the original choice to play Rupert Cadell in "Rope". The role went to James Stewart (not too shabby as movie stars go), although Stewart himself felt that he was miscast in the role. He was 40 at the time, while the character in the original play was only 29. More than that, however, Cadell did not have the warmth of personality that we usually associate with James Stewart--think "It's a Wonderful Life" or "Harvey". In fact, Cadell is quite a cold character, advocating murder, in speech if not in action, as a means of ridding the population of inferior humans, a philosophy he comes to regret. Still, this playing against type creates a very interesting dynamic in "Rope". In fact, the point could be made that Stewart played against type--and did so brilliantly--in all of his Hitchcock films. Consider the abrasive, commitment-phobic Jeff in "Rear Window" or the dangerously obsessive Scotty in "Vertigo". Are we sure this is same actor who was so lovable in "Harvey"?

"Rope" is an unusual film for Hitch, primarily because of the way in which it was filmed. Because the action takes place in real time, Hitch decided to shoot the film in one long continuous shot. Of course, the camera only held ten minutes of film at a time so, in order to create the illusion of unbroken cuts, he had the camera go behind someone's back or zoom into a dark object to hide the edits. Loosely based on the Leopold and Loeb murder, "Rope" tells the story of two narcissistic young man who kill a friend merely for the thrill of it and then tempt fate by holding a dinner party with the dead body concealed in the same room. Yummy! What's for dessert?

Answer: Robert Walker in "Strangers on a Train"

Two men meet by coincidence on a train and, after a brief conversation, one of them presents his plan for the perfect murder. The other guy laughs it off but the first guy wasn't joking. Robert Walker plays the first guy, AKA Bruno Antony. Farley Granger is stranger number two, AKA Guy Haines. Once again, a man is falsely accused of a crime and must fight to clear his name.

After a string of box-office failures, "Strangers on a Train" was a huge hit for Hitchcock. It was also a return to form artistically and must now be counted among Hitch's masterpieces.

Certainly, one of the reasons for the film's success was the performance of Robert Walker as Bruno. He is one of the great villains in Hitchcock's films and, to a certain extent, he anticipates Anthony Perkins' chilling performance as Norman Bates in "Psycho" nine years in the future.

Sadly, Walker had a nervous breakdown shortly after filming was completed. He was institutionalized and died shortly thereafter from an accidental overdose. He was only 32, with a promising career ahead. Based on his performance in "Strangers on a Train" alone, his death must be counted as a great loss to the art of screen acting.

Answer: Raymond Burr in "Rear Window"

For those of us who grew up in the sixties, Raymond Burr will always be Perry Mason. From 1957 to 1966, Burr starred as the skilled, heroic lawyer in the long-running TV show of the same name. In the 1970s, he starred in another hit show, "Ironside", playing a wheelchair-bound detective. Glancing at his IMDB page, one can see that Burr worked regularly as an actor from the late forties straight through the fifties. He is terrific as a prosecuting attorney in George Stevens' "A Place in the Sun" and, of course, he cuts quite a menacing figure in "Rear Window."

Confined to a wheelchair due to a broken leg, L.B. Jeffries (Stewart) amuses himself by spying on his neighbors. Peering out the rear window of his apartment through binoculars, he is eventually convinced that one of neighbors, Lars Thorwald (Burr), has murdered his wife. One of three Hitchcock films that featured Hitch's favorite actress, Grace Kelly, "Rear Window" is one of the master of suspense's most profound achievements and among the greatest films ever made.

Answer: Henry Fonda in "The Wrong Man"

"The Wrong Man" was not received well by the critics when first released in 1956, but its reputation has improved considerably over the years. Martin Scorsese is a fan and cites it as an influence on his 1976 film, "Taxi Driver". "The Wrong Man" tells the story of Manny Ballestrero (Fonda), a man who is, in the Hitchcockian tradition, falsely accused of a series of robberies. The ordeal turns his tranquil family life upside down. His wife, played compellingly by Vera Miles, suffers a mental collapse as a result.

Henry Fonda's social conscience was a defining feature of his work. In films such as "The Grapes of Wrath" and "12 Angry Men" (which he also produced), Fonda demonstrated his commitment to political and social causes. "The Wrong Man", with its concerns for issues of truth and justice, is cut from the same cloth.

Answer: Leo G. Carroll in "North by Northwest"

The "wrong man" theme that runs through so much of Hitchcock's work is brought to its fullest realization in the great 1959 spy thriller, "North by Northwest". Cary Grant stars as Roger Thornhill, a New York City advertising executive who is mistaken for an American agent by a group of foreign spies. Various hijinks lead to him being, you guessed it, falsely accused! He goes on the run, meets up with a beautiful and mysterious woman (Eva Marie Saint), and tries to clear his name. It's a wild, richly entertaining ride that ends with another brilliant Hitchcock set-piece, this one on the face of Mount Rushmore.

Leo G. Carroll has a blast with the small but pivotal role of the Professor, a genuine American agent who steps in near the end to try and help Thornhill out of his predicament. Carroll, a gifted stage actor, was a favorite of Hitch's. His first Hitchcock film was 1940's "Rebecca"; "North by Northwest" would be their final collaboration. In the sixties, Carroll gained considerable fame by playing Alexander Waverly on the hit television series, "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."