Alma Reville
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Alma Reville
Biography
Alma Reville is perhaps best known as the wife of director Alfred Hitchcock, but she was also an assistant director, a screenwriter, and adaptor. She was raised near her father's workplace, Twickenham Film Studios, so it seemed only natural that she herself would begin working there at 15 as a rewind girl in the cutting rooms. She was soon promoted to editor/continuity girl. In this capacity she worked on The Prisoner of Zenda (1915). In 1922, she began working for Famous Players-Lasky Studios where she met Hitchcock. Together they went to work at the UFA Studios in Berlin. By 1925, they had returned to Gainsborough Studio, England where Hitchcock made his directorial debut with The Pleasure Garden. Reville worked as his assistant director. Thus began a working relationship that would last until his death, even though they did not marry until 1936. In addition to her formal professional duties, Reville also provided the great director with invaluable constructive criticism, functioning as his 'ultimate authority,' throughout his long career. She also occaisionally wrote scripts for other writers. ~ Sandra Brennan, RoviRelated Videos:
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Alma Reville
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Alma Reville
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Alma Reville
| Alma Reville | |
|---|---|
| Born | Alma Lucy Reville 14 August 1899 Nottinghamshire, England |
| Died | 6 July 1982 (aged 82) Bel Air, Los Angeles, California |
| Spouse | Alfred Hitchcock (m.1926-1980; his death) |
| Children | Patricia Hitchcock (born 1928) |
| Parents | Matthew Edward Reville (father) Lucy Somebody (mother) |
Alma Reville, Lady Hitchcock (14 August 1899 – 6 July 1982) was an English assistant director, screenwriter and editor. She was the second daughter of Matthew Edward and Lucy Reville (née Somebody).[1]
She is best known as the wife of Sir Alfred Hitchcock, whom she met while they were working together at Paramount's Famous Players-Lasky studio in London, during the early 1920s. A talented editor, Alma worked on British films with directors such as Berthold Viertel and Maurice Elvey, though her main focus was her husband’s work. Cinema was the couple’s passion. She converted to Roman Catholicism before their marriage.[2] Alma was one day younger than her husband.
They married on 2 December 1926 at Brompton Oratory in London; their daughter Patricia Hitchcock was born on 7 July 1928. Alma became his collaborator and sounding board, with a keen ear for dialogue and an editor's sharp eye for scrutinising a film's final version for continuity flaws so minor they escaped Hitchcock's own notice and that of his crew. It was Reville who noticed Janet Leigh inadvertently swallowing after her character's fatal encounter with Norman Bates' mother in Psycho (1960), necessitating an alteration to the negative. She was particularly good at revising dialogue and spotting inconsistencies in his plots.
Alma Reville died of natural causes at the age of 82, two years after Hitchcock's death. She had suffered from breast cancer some years before her death, but made a full recovery from the illness.
Further reading
- Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man by Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell and Laurent Bouzereau (Berkley, 2003)
References
- ^ Alma Reville
- ^ Adair, Gene. Alfred Hitchcock: Filming Our Fears. Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-19-511967-3
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