Are you looking at me?

Terry asks ...

“WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT WHEN YOU ARE WATCHING A MOVIE?

Peggy Robertson was Alfred Hitchcock’s assistant in 1949 when he was filming “Under Capricorn”, starring Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotton, and Michael Wilding, and she tells us this story.

“We were just starting to dub the sound onto the film, when a 17-year old boy in the lab called out....

“What’s that man doing there?”

In the distant background of a shot was a man in a white painter’s jacket, working on the set. Not even the sharp-eyed editors had picked up on it. So, Peggy went to see Hitchcock. “What’s the matter?” he asked. And so she told him. “Don’t be ridiculous’, he said, ‘let’s have a look at it.” He came down to the dubbing studio, and looked at the shot which no one had found fault with before. “Well, if people are paying proper attention to the story they won’t be looking for a man in a white jacket. Leave it in, no one will notice. And no one ever did. It’s still in the film after 71 years. But I’d like to bet that I know one or two people, not a million miles away who would spot it!