London Review of Books Letters on Hitchcock, Einstein
Readers of the London Review of Books share anecdotes about securing a rare Hitchcock film clip for a BBC drama, cataloguing folk songs about women
A BBC script editor in 1980 recounts the elaborate steps taken to secure a clip from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' for a television drama after the director's death left the film's rights in limbo. The story involves a legendary print kept in Paris and a last-minute flight to France.
Roger Gregory details the challenge faced while working on David Rudkin's BBC thriller 'Artemis 81'. A scene required a clip from 'Vertigo', but Hitchcock's recent death had entangled the film's rights. Rudkin suggested a potential solution: a private 35mm copy reportedly given by Hitchcock to Henri Langlois of the Cinémathèque Française.
Langlois had died, leaving the archive under the control of his companion, Mary Meerson. Gregory contacted a colleague in Paris, Allan Baker, who negotiated permission to view the print. Gregory, Rudkin, and several production staff flew to Paris, met Meerson, and watched the film in an empty cinema.
The Parisian Film Retrieval
The projectionist then loaded the film onto a Steenbeck editing table so graphic designer Ann Jenkins could photograph the necessary sequence. These photographs were turned into slides for use in the 'Artemis 81' scene. The team flew back to Birmingham the same evening, having circumvented the legal stalemate.
Another letter examines the folk tradition surrounding women who went to sea disguised as men. Tim Cundy, responding to an article mentioning a Black sailor named William Brown, notes that such stories were popular in sea shanties.
Cundy describes a common narrative where a woman follows a lost lover to sea. The outcomes in these songs vary dramatically, from happy reunions to tragic exposures.
Varied Fates in Sea Shanties
Cundy notes that while there appears to be no surviving song about William Brown, "clearly there should be."
A third correspondent looks at the political legacy of Albert Einstein. John Bellamy Foster highlights Einstein's 1949 essay 'Why Socialism?' calling it "one of the most succinct and powerful arguments for socialism ever written."
Einstein wrote that 'The crippling of the social consciousness' is 'the worst evil of capitalism.' He concluded, 'I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy.'
FBI Surveillance of Einstein
The FBI regarded the essay as confirmation of Einstein's 'communist sympathies.' Foster states the Bureau opened a file on the physicist in late 1932 after a report by the Woman Patriot Corporation argued he should not be admitted to the United States. The group claimed, 'Not even Stalin himself is affiliated with so many anarcho-communist international groups.' The FBI continued monitoring Einstein's socialist connections for the rest of his life.
Other letters in the issue include a brief philosophical musing on death from John Bailey and a correction from Michael A. Goodman regarding which airport featured murals by artist Arshile Gorky. Regan Scott adds context on the broader career of cartoonist and graphic artist Ken Sprague.
Benjamin Letzler offers a lengthy critique on the sincerity of political converts to Christianity, citing figures like Tony Blair and Boris Johnson. He argues that such conversions are often matters of group affiliation rather than deep faith.
