Alfred Got Pimpy with Tippi



I love Alfred Hitchcock movies and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.  I own several of his movies, and, if I don't own one, I've most likely seen it.  As for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, I've watched every episode.

A few of my favorite Hitchcock movies include Stage Fright with the glamor puss Marlene Dietrich; Rope with it's ingenious, deceptive one shot camera trick; Strangers on a Train and its deviant lesson in how to get away with murder; and The Birds because of its sex kitten-ish Tippi Hedren and her near fatal trip to the idyllic Bodega Bay.

An HBO movie titled The Girl has aired or is going to air soon, and it portrays the sexual harassment and harsh, abusive physcological torment that Hitchcock forced upon Hedren during the filming of The Birds.

It's no secret that Hitchcock had a weakness for beautiful, cool, somewhat aloof blondes with maybe the exception of a warm Grace Kelly in Dial M for Murder and Rear Window.  These blondes who Hitchcock collected like china dolls were always coiffed with no hair out of place despite rain, wind, birds, murder, and being chased.  Books have been written about his penchant or obsession for blonde leading ladies.  Read Spellbound by Beauty if an insider look into old Hollywood fascinates you like it does me.

What The Girl has promised is to give an insider look into the specifics of Hitchcock's abusive relationship with Tippi Hedren.  Hedren was an unknown actress when Hitchcock cast her to play the lead female role in The Birds, and she had to be overcome with excitement to have been cast in a movie directed by the Great Hitchcock.  It's safe to say that her excitment quickly faded when he ordered real, live birds be thrown at her.  In one scene, he order the birds be tied to her.  She made no objections being an unknown actress with her first big break as an actress in the hands of Hitchcock.  During the one of the violent bird scences, she narrowly escaped having one of her eyes pecked out by an especially predatorial bird.  She was injured, scratched, and shat upon by the birds. 

Despite the shit and bloody cuts, Hitchcock sexually harassed her, and, when she refused to cave in  to his sexual advances, he got angry and unleashed hell on her.  He paid staff to do surveillance on her, and she couldn't shake the gum shoes.  They tailed her too closely, and Hitchcock knew intimate details about her that were not meant to be for his eyes.  He told her he'd ruin her career for not bending to his will, and he told her she'd never work for anyone but him ever again, because he was not going to allow her to break her contract.  He supposedly kept her on contract without giving her any work, with the exception of Marnie, and she continued to recieve wages without working because of her contract.  As a result of not working, her career went South and when her contract ran out there was little interest in her anymore.  We'll never really know whether Tippi had the acting chops that The Birds suggests she did, and isn't that just sad?