The actor Alfred Hitchcock was “double-crossed” into working with: “I ran into another problem”
Even though he was one of the United Kingdom’s most acclaimed and innovative filmmakers before he’d even set foot in Hollywood, Alfred Hitchcock wasn’t instantly welcomed with open arms on the other side of the Atlantic and given carte blanche to wield unlimited creative freedom.
The industry in America was still caught in the throes of the studio system, which meant that directors rarely had the last word on their productions. They had to answer to the people above their pay grade, ensuring that the ‘Master of Suspense’ had to make certain compromises he wasn’t comfortable with.
That’s probably an understatement in this regard, seeing as Hitchcock made it perfectly clear in the years to come that if it were up to him, he never would have considered hiring the leading lady foisted upon him by Universal, which was likely even more frustrating because his first two choices for the main roles turned him down.
1942’s Saboteur saw the auteur on familiar ground, helming a slick and stylish espionage thriller that traded heavily in deception. Ironically, the shoe was already on the other foot by the time he’d even started shooting the picture because Priscilla Lane had been thrust into the female lead as Patricia Martin without Hitchcock having a say in the matter.
He’d always dreamed of collaborating with Gary Cooper, whom he’d envisioned headlining the ensemble as Barry Kane. Not for the first time, though, the actor rejected his advances. Barbara Stanwyck was at the forefront of Hitchcock’s thinking for Martin, but scheduling commitments ruled her out, too. Instead of embarking on a casting search, he was simply told by his boss who’d be taking the part.
“I ran into another problem on this picture,” he told Francois Truffaut, referring to his repeated run-ins with the boardroom during his early years in Hollywood. “I was on loan by [David] Selznick to an independent producer releasing through Universal. Without consulting me, they imposed the leading lady on me as a fait accompli.”
While Hitchcock praised Lane for having the “resolute and daring attributes typical of American girlhood” and bringing them to the forefront of her performance, that wasn’t what he really thought. With some distance between himself and Saboteur, he came clean and informed Truffaut that “she simply wasn’t the right type for a Hitchcock picture.”
He was under contract with Selznick, so there wasn’t anything he could do about it, but Hitchcock was already stung by Saboteur after pitching the idea directly to the mogul and then having it dismissed, leading to his gaffer weaponising the small print, sending the filmmaker out to other studios to see if there were any takers, raking in the profits once the script was sold, and then completely omitting him from the casting of Lane.
Summing up his feelings on the matter, the ‘Master of Suspense’ didn’t beat around the bush: “I was double-crossed on that.” Saboteur isn’t one of his best works, nor was it one of his favourites, with Hitchcock feeling like he’d had his hands tied behind his back from the start.
