Something I featured recently deserves to be mentioned more on Turner Classic Movies — Old Time Radio shows that were adapted from movies of the time.
In 1950, Alfred Hitchcock introduced a radio play of his 1944 film Spellbound. The Theramin sound gets to be a bit much, but it’s an interesting adaptation. Five years later, the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents began its long run.
For now, there is a complete copy of Spellbound available on YouTube. The movie includes the famous dream sequence that was created in collaboration with Salvador Dali. In the finished film it was directed not by Hitch, however, but by William Cameron Menzies, who has been the subject of some recent posts.
https://youtu.be/lNThFiBh7Ck
https://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-space-between-literature-and-culture-1914-1945/vol14_2018_king
On a related note, Donald Spoto died a couple of weeks ago. I read Spoto’s Hitchcock biography, The Dark Side of Genius, as soon as it came out in paperback, 39 years ago. I remember reading it on airplanes and in hotels while traveling on business. I was halfway through the book when I accidentally left it in the seatback pocket of a plane while in a rush to catch a connecting flight. Realizing my mistake, I had just enough time to buy another copy at an airport bookstore to continue my reading on the next flight. That copy I didn’t lose.
To me, Spoto’s take on Hitch smacked of him having a thesis that was more like an agenda, and force-fitting some facts to back it up. I had a similar reaction to David Michaelis’ biography of Charles Schulz.
