You can find hundreds of scripts HERE.
Just click on the movie script title and the full text of the screenplay should magically appear. All except for the scripts that are zipped, or Adobe files, or Word files, that is.
WHO’S WHO?
Raymond Burr, the bad guy.
http://www.elllo.org/english/Mixer026/T041-NewsSource.htm
James Stewart, the forever good guy!
He made 4 films with Hitchcock, The Rope, Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Vertigo.
Grace Kelly. She was from a wealthy (= rich) family and she only did 3 films with Hitchcock (who loved platine blonde women) yet they are often considered as the finest in her career: Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief.
She finally married Prince Rainier of Monaco so she had to stop her career as an actress. She died in a tragic car accident.
Detective Lt Thomas J. Doyle. What does his name make you think of? 
Hitchcock’s manipulation, a good analyze HERE.
The set. Where does the action take place?
The action takes place in Greenwich Village, a famous area in Manhattan, New York city. The set was 56 meters long with 36 furnished apartments, 1000 lamps and 2000 spotlights.
This film was the most expensive closed-door affair ever shot!
LE PROLOGUE
La caméra se charge de tout dire. Il n’y a aucun dialogue mais en quatre plans, Hitchcock dit tout.
Plan 1. Générique et lever de rideau qui révèle le petit théâtre privé du héros, Jeff. A la fin du plan, la caméra passe par la fenêtre, comme une annonce de la scène finale…
Plan 2. On suit un chat… pour le moment, on ne sait toujours pas qui regarde… fin sur Jeff.
Plan 3. 90° F = 34° C. Idée de chaleur qui peut donner des hallucinations.
Plan 4. Fonction sociologique et psychologique. On assiste au réveil d’un quartier populaire. Le spectateur est déjà coupable de voyeurisme avant même que Jeff s’en passionne. La caméra produit ensuite seule la caractérisation du personnage. ‘Voir, c’est savoir’. Il est plus intéressant de découvrir les détails de cette façon plutôt que si un personnage demandait à Jeff ce qui lui était arrivé.
Ce prologue est virtuose. Tout est dit en 4 plans. Ce que permet cette fenêtre: le permis / l’interdit et la limite du cadre.
La télévision
Avènement de la TV comme média de masse. En 1950, il y a 4 millions de postes et en 1954, on est passé à 20 millions. Parallèlement, en 1943 on compte 8 millions d’entrées au cinéma. En 1954 on est passé à 4 millions. Jeff n’a pas de TV chez lui. Pour lui, sa fenêtre est la lucarne.
POSTERS AND TRAILER
Look at the different posters. What can you imagine about the film? What kind of film is it? (genre).
Watch the trailer and comment.
THE ACTORS
Who is Gene Kelly? 
He is Stanley Donen’s friend.
He is a great dancer too! He was in competition with Fred Astaire.
Who is Debbie Reynolds?
She is Carrie Fisher’s mother! Carrie Fisher is Princess Leia in Star Wars!
THE STORY
The film is about the transition from silent films to ‘talkies’ or films with sound. This is a famous silent film by Charlie Chaplin, The Kid.
Now let’s have a look at the first sound film, The Jazz Singer.
This video was made to illustrate a radio interview by Colin Edwards from the http://PacificaRadioArchives.org
« The master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, sat down for a short interview on the set of a film tentatively titled, From Amongst The Dead. The film would be released in early 1958 as Vertigo, the classic starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. In this interview, we go inside the mind of a master storyteller with a penchant for fear. »
This short video-essay examines various themes and techniques Alfred Hitchcock developed throughout his career. Using 40 titles, it includes every feature film Hitchcock made from 1934 right through to his retirement in 1976. Of the several themes on display here (falling, ascending and descending staircases, opening curtains, reading newspapers, poisoning drinks, women’s hairstyles, shoes, train compartments, sleeping and dreaming, pulling away from and dollying in on the action, overhead shots and characters looking directly into the camera), there are yet others for fellow essayists to examine further (looking through and climbing in and out of windows, nuns and clergymen, eating food, kissing in the countryside, women wearing glasses and people playing games such as tennis, hide-and-seek, fancy-dress and blindman’s bluff).
Hitchcock’s famous cameos, the article HERE or THERE.
English film director Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in 39 of his 52 surviving major films. For the films in which he appeared, he would be seen for a brief moment in a non-speaking part as an extra, such as boarding a bus, crossing in front of a building, standing in an apartment across the courtyard, or even appearing in a newspaper photograph.
This playful gesture became one of Hitchcock’s signatures; and fans would make a sport of trying to spot his cameos. His appearances became so popular that he began to make them earlier in his films so as not to distract the audience from the plot. Hitchcock confirms this in extended interviews with François Truffaut, and indeed the majority of his appearances occur within the first half-hour of his films, with over half in the first 15 minutes.
Look at the video to check all his cameos.
The art of title sequences HERE.
And THERE.
