Anecdote
Brought to you by this week’s guest author, Martin Julien.
Alfred Hitchcock was shooting his picture Lifeboat, with showbiz goddess Tallulah Bankhead. The whole movie took place in a…well, lifeboat – which made for a very circumscribed studio environment. Creative and varied camera angles were, of course, front-and-centre, with lots of upward tilts and pans moving upwards from the roiling sea. Bankhead, for her part, was infamous for never wearing underwear… anywhere.
During one particularly innovative scene, when the camera was placed at a very low angle in regard to the action, Hitchcock was compelled to set the shot by looking up at the actors from a crouched position. After establishing Bankhead, in a gown, as the centre of the frame, he rose up on creaking knees, shook his head in bemusement, and “Oh, gracious me… I’m not sure whether to call for costume, hair or makeup.”
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Comment
- I like this: “She was famous for throwing off her clothes at parties, for leaving her bathroom door open, for working without panties on. When she was performing in Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth,” so many people in the audience complained that Actors’ Equity had to order her to wear underpants onstage.”
http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/articles/050516crat_atlarge
— eeksypeeksy Oct 31, 9:25pm # - Some people will complain about almost anything.
— matthew Oct 31, 9:53pm #
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