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Alma Reville

 
Writer: Alma Reville
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  • Born: Aug 14, 1900 in England
  • Died: 1982
  • Occupation: Writer
  • Active: '20s-'40s
  • Major Genres: Thriller, Drama
  • Career Highlights: The 39 Steps, Shadow of a Doubt, The Lady Vanishes
  • First Major Screen Credit: The Ring (1927)

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, All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Alma Reville
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Alma Reville
Born Alma Lucy Reville
August 14, 1899
England
Died July 6, 1982 (aged 82)
Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California
Spouse(s) Alfred Hitchcock (1926-1980)

Alma Lucy, Lady Hitchcock (August 14, 1899, Nottinghamshire, England – July 6, 1982, Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California) was an assistant director, screenwriter and editor. She was the second daughter of Edward and Lucy Reville.

She is best known as the wife of Alfred Hitchcock, whom she met while they were working together at Paramount's Famous Players-Lasky studio in London, during the early 1920s. She converted to Roman Catholicism before their marriage.

They married on 2 December 1926 at Brompton Oratory in London. Alma became his collaborator and sounding board, with a keen ear for dialogue and an editor's sharp eye for scrutinizing 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 swallowed after her character's fatal encounter with Norman Bates' mother in Psycho (1960), necessitating an alteration to the negative.

Cinema was the couple’s passion. A talented editor, Alma worked on British films with directors like Berthold Viertel and Maurice Elvey, though her main focus was her husband’s work. She was particularly good at revising dialogue and spotting inconsistencies in his plots.

The Hitchcocks had one daughter, Patricia Hitchcock, born July 7, 1928. Patricia made a few movies, then retired to marry Joseph O'Connell, nephew of Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal William O'Connell. The couple married at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City in 1952.

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)

External links

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