Mayfair Times – September 2019

28 MAYFAIRTIMES.CO.UK

Tony’s interest in Hitchcock developed

into a professional project when he met

Winston Graham – author of Marnie and the

Poldark novels – at The Savile Club in Brook

Street, Mayfair. A member of the club, Tony

now lives on the same street and is further

surrounded by Hitchcock connections with

Claridge’s on his doorstep.

“Hitchcock and Alma always would stay

at Claridge’s when they were in London and

they had their particular suite,” he says. “The

last time they were there was in the 1970s.

When he was making Frenzy in 1972, a

return to form, he came back to London as it

was set in Covent Garden.”

Born in Leytonstone in 1899, Hitchcock

was, Tony says, very much a Londoner. “He

was the son of a grocer and he loved Cockney

rhyming slang and limericks.

“He entered the film industry in 1920 and

was inspired by London if you think of his

early films like The 39 Steps and The Man

Who Knew Too Much.” The 39 Steps put

Hitchcock on the map in America and having

moved across the pond to direct Rebecca, he

never moved back. “He became an American

citizen, and that is probably where he did his

best work from the 1940s to the early ‘60s”.

While he is widely considered one of the

greatest filmmakers in history now, his

films like Dial M For Murder and To C a tc h

A Thief and a lot of his films were seen as

lightweight. People saw Fellini and Bergman

as the great European directors, but they

didn’t really take Hitchcock seriously.

“That began to change as Ver t igo and

Psycho came out and North by Northwest.”

What do people think of Hitchcock now?

Tony says the #MeToo movement has raised

questions of the director being something of

a misogynist, but he hasn’t discovered any

evidence personally.

“I’ve interviewed so many women who

worked with him and they said he was a

real gentlemen and he treated them very

well. It’s one or two people really because of

their individual circumstances and that has

tarnished it a little bit,” he says.

He is looking to write a fourth book on

Hitchcock, which will focus on his reputation.

He will draw on a wealth of material he

amassed during his time in California.

“I have a lot of things I have uncovered

which I can’t go into detail at the moment...

with everyone there are two sides to every

story. The public presentation has been very

inaccurate in the media the last few years and

I’m hoping to set the record straight.”

The Haunting Of Alice May, by Tony Lee,

is out now.

CULTURE

TONY LEE MORAL IN THE BAR AT CLARIDGE’S.

PHOTOGRAPHER: ANDY LOWE

CAPTION BOB GELDOF AT LAST XZXZX

reputation didn’t receive the critical acclaim

it deserved until the ‘60s. Tony says the

inf luence of a French new wave – particularly

the publication of François Truffaut’s book

in 1967, which featured groundbreaking

interviews with the director – had a big

impact. “Prior to the ‘60s, he had made

“HITCHCOCK

AND ALMA

ALWAYS

WOULD STAY

AT CLARIDGE’S

WHEN THEY

WERE IN

LONDON

AND THEY

HAD THEIR

PA RT IC U L A R

SUITE”