Themes and plot devices in Hitchcock films Clift at a dinner party around the filming of "I Confess" (1953) to swallow a carafe of brandy, which caused the actor to pass out almost immediately. In "Torn Curtain" and "Topaz", brandy is defined more closely as cognac. Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) is offered a brandy by Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette), and after being attacked by the birds, drinks the brandy offered by Mitch (Rod Taylor). In "Rear Window", Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) is "just warming some brandy". In "Frenzy", Richard Blaney is sacked for supposedly stealing brandy, and can be seen in several sequences to be drinking brandy.
Hitchcock (film) much fun and so suspenseful that it would make the original Hitchcock proud ... It's a serious contender for Best Picture, Lead Actor, Lead Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Makeup, Music Score, and maybe Art Direction." John Patterson of "The Guardian" called the film "clever and witty"; "the making of "Psycho" is depicted in detail without our seeing one frame of the completed movie" and concluding "it lives and breathes through Hopkins and Mirren." Upon its theatrical release, Mary Pols of "Time" called the film "a feel-good frolic, which is fine for anyone who prefers their Hitchcock history tidied up, absent the