- Tippi Hedren, Marnie, 1964.
The most famous of all directors, Alfred Hitchcock, became fixated upon the then-TV director Sydney Pollak’s young TV actress wife – after she appeared in Hitch’s final tele-film: I Saw the Whole Thing, in 1962. He played Vertigo with her, changing her look, shooting test scenes from Anastasia (“you’re better than Ingrid was”) and, in particular, To Catch A Thief. She had to mimic Princess Grace’s every gesture. “I was very touched by his evident need to re-create Grace Kelly – or whoever it was he wanted to re-create out of the raw material that was me – but I didn’t really want to go along with that sort of thing.” He also tried to build a rivalry between Claire and Tippi Hedren – and the two pals from New York modelling days were not interested in rivalry. Nor in Marnie. Relieved when Hitch finally selected Tippi, Claire was dropped from her Hitchcock contract on becoming pregnant – the usual get-out for any actresses avoiding Hitch’s by now increasingly kinky clutches. Said Pollack: “Hitchcock was furious!”
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