Great Marketing 101: Part 1

”The fabulous Mr. Alfred Hitchcock is about to escort you on a tour of the location of his new motion picture, Psycho.”

And so begins the delightful original 1960 trailer for Psycho, which features Hitchcock himself offering a guided tour of the Bates Motel murder scene and Bates residence. The trailer was one of the most effective aspects of the ingenious publicity campaign that accompanied the release of Psycho.

In the trailer, Hitchcock plays up his mischievous persona, teases the audience with hints about the movie, shows us the bathroom where the first murder takes place, and lingers over the toilet (much to the shock & irritation of Hollywood censors, as depicting a toilet onscreen was a major taboo in 1960), all building up to the surprise ending.

Full Salvador Dalí-designed dream sequence in Spellbound (1945, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

“Traditionally, up to that time, dream sequences in film were all swirling smoke, slightly out of focus with all the figures walking through the mist, made by dry ice with smoke pumped across the top. It was convention. I decided to do these hallucinatory dreams in this style, which was just the opposite of the swirling misty dreams. I could have chosen [Italian surrealist] de Chirico, Max Ernst - there are many who follow that pattern, but none as imaginative as Dalí.”

-Alfred Hitchcock

Blooper reels are rarely available for films that are over 70 yrs old, but luckily that’s not the case for My Man Godfrey (1936).

Carole Lombard was famous for having the mouth of a sailor and she admirably lives up to that reputation in this outtake reel for My Man Godfrey.

Another blooper reel (from Warner Brothers Studios) of actors cussing & flubbing their lines, this one featuring Bogart & Bacall, Jimmy Stewart, Bette Davis, Ronald Reagan, and James Cagney, among others.

Great Marketing 101: Part 2 - original trailer for The Birds (1963, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

“Mr. Hitchcock would like to say a few words to you.”

An Old Hollywood blooper reel (circa 1935-1945) featuring the very amusing Bette Davis, in which we learn that while “goddamn” is one of her favorite words, “son of a bitch” is Bette’s expletive of choice.

Other blooper reels previously posted here (Carole Lombard & William Powell) & here (Bogart & Bacall, Jimmy Stewart, etc.)

Footage of Josephine Baker in late 1920’s Paris, performing her notorious “Banana Dance” & making moves that will look familiar to anyone who’s seen a music video in the last 20 years.

A good piece on Baker’s dance career & how her shows were received in France & the US here.

A wonderful blooper reel featuring footage of Chaplin flubbing his “lines”, pranking his co-stars, & cracking up mid-scene during the making of his late 1910’s-early 1920’s films (most of this footage via the excellent documentary The Unknown Chaplin)

Things that will never stop being funny:

Mel Brooks tells Johnny Carson about his short-lived bromance with Cary Grant.