Alma Reville, Lady Hitchcock (14 August 1899 - 6 July 1982) was an English
assistant directorA film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
,
screenwriterScreenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and editor. She was the second daughter of Edward and Lucy Reville.
She is best known as the wife of Sir
Alfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, whom she met while they were working together at
ParamountParamount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
's
Famous Players-Lasky studioFamous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created on July 19, 1916 from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company -- originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays -- and Jesse L...
in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, during the early 1920s. She converted to Roman Catholicism before their marriage. Alma was one day younger than her husband.
They married on 2 December 1926 at Brompton Oratory in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Alma became his collaborator and sounding board, with a keen ear for dialogue and an editor's sharp eye for scrutinizing a film's final version for continuity flaws so minor they escaped Hitchcock's own notice and that of his crew. It was Reville who noticed
Janet LeighJanet Leigh , born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis....
inadvertently swallowed after her character's fatal encounter with Norman Bates' mother in
PsychoPsycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
(1960), necessitating an alteration to the negative.
Cinema was the couple’s passion. A talented editor, Alma worked on British films with directors such as
Berthold ViertelBerthold Viertel , born in Vienna, Austria was a screen writer and film director.-Arrival in America:He was married to screenplay writer and actress Salka Viertel from 30 April 1918 to 20 December 1947. The pair came to Los Angeles in 1928 planning to stay for just three years...
and
Maurice ElveyMaurice Elvey was the most prolific film director in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year....
, though her main focus was her husband’s work. She was particularly good at revising dialogue and spotting inconsistencies in his plots.
The Hitchcocks had one daughter,
Patricia HitchcockPatricia "Pat" Hitchcock O'Connell is a British-born American actress and producer.-Early life and career:Born in London as the only child of film director Alfred Hitchcock and film editor Alma Reville, the family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1939, as her father would quickly make his mark...
, born July 7, 1928. Patricia made a few movies, then retired to marry Joseph O'Connell, nephew of Archbishop of Boston,
CardinalA cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
William O'Connell. The couple married at
St. Patrick's CathedralThe Cathedral of St. Patrick is a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral church in the United States...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1952.
Alma Reville died of natural causes at the age of 82, two years after Hitchcock's death. She had suffered from
breast cancerBreast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
some years before her death, but made a full recovery from the illness.
Further reading
- Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man by Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell and Laurent Bouzereau (Berkley, 2003)
External links