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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

The Women Behind Hitchcock

Aug 6–19, 2021
209 W Houston St, New York, NY 10014, United States

Most everyone thinks that “it was Hitchcock who made Harrison,” Christina Lane, author of a biography of Joan Harrison, wrote in AIR MAIL last year. The beautiful blonde started off as Alfred Hitchcock’s secretary in 1933, when she was just 26, and was promoted to script reader and story editor, eventually winning an Academy Award nomination for co-writing the Best Picture of 1940, Rebecca. But “when doing research for my book, Phantom Lady,” Lane wrote, “I discovered that Harrison and Hitchcock were much closer to being creative equals.” In collaboration with Lane, a festival at Film Forum turns the tables and focuses on the women who helped make Hitchcock—Alma Reville, his wife and close collaborator, and Harrison. Highlights include Rear Window, The Birds, Vertigo, and, of course, the 1944 noir film Phantom Lady, whose August 7 showing is accompanied by an in-theater Zoom introduction by Lane. —J.V.

Ella Raines and Franchot Tone in “Phantom Lady,” the first film produced by Joan Harrison. Photo courtesy of Film Forum.

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