Hi Henry. Several times I have noticed over the years that some 'touch' in a Hitchcock film, or an 'innovation' therein, might overlap with a similar aspect in another director's film. Hitchcock prided himself on keeping up with the industry, and he always kept his ear to the ground for 'developments' both at home and abroad. He also took 'inspiration' from wherever he might get it, and might make a last-minute modification to a film's screenplay to give the film added currency - even in just a matter of style or treatment.
The use of overlapping dialogue in SHADOW OF A DOUBT reflected Hitch's admiration for Orson Welles. I seem to recall reading that the day Joe Cotten first arrived on the set, Hitch took him aside and quizzed him about his recent work on THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS - then proceeded to make arrangements for overlapping dialogue in the household scenes of SHADOW. (I don't think that AMBERSONS had yet opened.)
On the matter of Hitchcock's many and manifest 'borrowings' (invariably with added touches and changes), I fully agree with Jane Sloan, who writes: 'Hitchcock's primary method was in fact "formal reinvention" - of literary work, of other films, of stories in the newspapers, of others' ideas, of his own ideas ... Far from the lonely romantic artist, he appears to have been more of a sponge, eager to adapt the point of view that would sell, and open to any idea that seemed good, insistent only that it fit his design'. ('Alfred Hitchcock: A guide to references and resources', 1995, p. 37)
Btw, my own latest 'take' on this matter is my article called "Hitchcock's Ingenious Adaptations", forthcoming in a special Hitchcock issue of the UK academic journal 'Clues'.
- Ken Mogg
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