The unmade Alfred Hitchcock movie Walt Disney prevented
Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock are two names that cannot go unmentioned when discussing the history of cinema. Whereas the former was a leader of animation, creating family-friendly movies that eventually spawned multiple amusement parks, Hitchcock paved the way for the thriller and horror genres with prolific efficiency. Thus, it’s unsurprising that the pair didn’t exactly see eye to eye – they essentially existed in different cinematic realms.
Disney got his start in the movie business in the 1920s, setting up the Disney Brothers Studio, which would eventually morph into the global enterprise we know today. After conceiving the popular cartoon character Mickey Mouse, he began making short films featuring his illustrations, welcoming his iconic creation to the big screen with 1928’s Steamboat Willie.
However, by the 1930s, Disney was ready to make feature films, choosing the classic fairytale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as the source material for the studio’s first full-length project. Released in 1937, the movie became the first feature-length animation produced with colour and sound. Of course, it was a huge success and, to this day, remains staple childhood viewing worldwide. Through the following decades, Disney’s animated movies transformed the entertainment industry, creating theme parks, stores, hotels, and countless merchandise based on his brand.
Meanwhile, Hitchcock also made his directorial debut in the 1920s with the silent film The Pleasure Garden. By 1929, he’d made the first British ‘talkie’, a thriller called Blackmail. Through the following decades, he continued to release thrillers, earning himself the title ‘The Master of Suspense’. From The 39 Steps to Dial M For Murder, Hitchcock’s work was highly revered, cementing him as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.
However, Hitchcock’s career-defining effort was Psycho, one of the most influential horror movies to grace our screens. As the censorial Hays Code began to ease its restrictions, directors could feature more nudity, sex and violence within their films. In Psycho, the filmmaker depicted a murder which remains one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history. Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane is killed as she showers, with Hitchcock showing the massive knife, blood pouring down the drain, and close-ups of the actor’s exposed body about to experience the fatal stabs.
For Disney, Psycho was an abhorrent cinematic sin. Naturally, due to Hollywood’s previous restrictions, audiences weren’t used to seeing such explicit violence, leaving many in shock. In fact, Disney’s disgusted reaction to the movie actually prevented Hitchcock’s next project, The Blind Man, from coming to fruition.
The Blind Man, co-written by Ernest Lehman, was set to star James Stewart as a blind jazz pianist who undergoes an eye transplant. After the groundbreaking surgery, the musician soon realises that images of the donor’s murderer are etched into his eyeballs, leaving him unable to look away from a potential killer on the loose. One of the script’s key features is a chase through an amusement park, which Hitchcock envisioned as Disneyland.
Disney was not comfortable with a director like Hitchcock potentially filming a violent scene within one of his parks. Thus, he actively prevented this from happening, and The Blind Man never saw the light of day – at least under Hitchcock’s direction. In 2015, an audiobook version was released by BBC Radio 4, completed by screenwriter Mark Gatiss. Still, we can’t help but wonder how terrific the movie could’ve been if Disney had given it the go-ahead.
