Page 131 – LIFE

In Praise of Hitchcock’s Leading Ladies

August 13, 2021August 13, 2012 by

Alfred Hitchcock’s movies are unlike any other filmmaker’s, for reasons that have been celebrated and analyzed for half-a-century. His unique melding of wry humor, suspense, powerhouse performances and a healthy regard for adult relationships, i.e., sex, make Sir Alfred’s films among the most entertaining and, at the same time, aesthetically rewarding in the history of the medium.

From early gems like The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes to later classics like Lifeboat, Spellbound, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, Psycho, The Birds and so many others, Hitchcock’s movies even when quite genuinely disturbing are at-once sophisticated and fun.

Here, LIFE.com pays tribute to Alfred Hitchcock by celebrating the many actresses who served as muses and, in some cases, regrettably, emotional punching bags, for the demanding and often completely besotted director.

Tippi Hedren testing for Marnie (in which she starred) in 1963. She also starred, most famously, in Hitchcock’s The Birds.

John Dominis Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Teresa Wright (Shadow of a Doubt) and Alfred Hitchcock in 1942.

Gjon Mili Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Joan Fontaine — of Rebecca and Suspicion fame — with Alfred Hitchcock and Laurence Olivier in 1939.

Peter Stackpole Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Tallulah Bankhead on the set of Lifeboat in 1943.

Peter Stackpole Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Grace Kelly (on the set of the movie The Country Girl in 1954) was one of Hitchcock’s favorite actresses, starring in To Catch a Thief, Rear Window and Dial M for Murder.

Ed Clark Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Doris Day, who starred in The Man Who Knew Too Much.

John Florea Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Julie Andrews, who starred in Torn Curtain, in 1961.

Leonard McCombe Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Anne Baxter, who starred in I Confess.

John Florea Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Eva Marie Saint, who starred with Cary Grant and James Mason in North by Northwest.

Nina Leen Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Janet Leigh, who starred in Psycho.

Allan Grant Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Ingrid Bergman, who starred in Notorious and Spellbound.

Gordon Parks Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Shirley MacLaine in 1955. She starred in The Trouble With Harry.

Loomis Dean Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Kim Novak in 1954. She starred in Vertigo, which is regarded by many as Hitchcock’s greatest film.

J.R. Eyerman Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

LIFE Goes to the Louvre, 1953

August 10, 2021August 7, 2012 by

When it comes to the excellence of their collections, the beauty of their galleries and the sheer breadth of their cultural significance, few museums on earth can match Paris’ monumental jewel, the Louvre. In 1953, when LIFE photographer Dmitri Kessel visited, many of the Louvre’s rooms had recently been reorganized and redecorated but the intrinsic, inherent grandeur of the vast place (eight miles of galleries) remained undiminished.

Here, LIFE.com presents a selection of Kessel’s pictures of the scenes inside what LIFE unhesitatingly called “the world’s top museum”—a title to which, even today, six decades later, the wonderful, storied, glorious Louvre can arguably still lay claim.

Aerial view of the Louvre and the Tuileries Garden, 1953.

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the Louvre, 1953.

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Patrons view Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the Louvre, 1953.

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The Raft of the Medusa, the Louvre

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Children take notes during a discussion of ancient Greek pottery at the Louvre, 1953.

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Venus de Milo, the Louvre, 1953.

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Married couple and their young daughter view the crown of King Louis XV at the Louvre, 1953.

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The Louvre, 1953.

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Original caption: “Loading statue, worker places Roman carving of athlete on carriage to be taken to workshop where legs, put on by an earlier restorer, will be removed.”

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Artists scrutinize their versions of a Titian portrait (left) and the Mona Lisa (right), Louvre, 1953.

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The Louvre, 1953.

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dusting a sculpture at the Louvre

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Painting of Jeanne d’Aragon by Raphael at the Louvre.

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Apollon gallery at the Louvre.

Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The Manson Family on Trial: Madness Visible

January 20, 2020August 7, 2012 by

In 1971, Charles Manson and several of his followers—Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Louise Van Houten—were convicted in the era-defining Tate-LaBianca murders that horrified not only Los Angeles, where the murders took place in the summer of 1969, but the entire nation. (Manson was convicted, in essence, as a “conspirator,” as he was not present at the killings, but ordered them to be carried out.)

The ferocity of the murders; the seeming randomness of the violence; and the chilling, bottomless weirdness of the Manson cult itself incised a terrible, indelible black mark on the late 1960s.

But it was during grand jury testimony and at the trial of Manson and his followers with the trial itself serving as a kind of bleak circus that lasted nine months, from the summer of 1970 to the spring of 1971 that the nation was able to gauge just how deeply unhinged “the Family” truly was.

Carving x’s in their foreheads? No problem. Shaving their heads to show solidarity with their leader? Done. Blocking entrances to the courthouse, chanting, singing, treating the trial and, by extension, the murders themselves like a trip to the amusement park? For the Manson clan, it was all grist for their cheery, death-adoring psychopathy.

After all, if Manson, Krenwinkel and the rest were going to be tried and (quite obviously) convicted of mass murder by the “establishment” and “the pigs” they despised, the least their brothers and sisters in the Family could do was show the world that, in the universe they inhabited, the killers were not truly criminals at all, but instead were iconoclasts. Rebels. Heroes.

Here, LIFE.com presents pictures from late 1969, when Manson and his co-defendants were finally indicted and charged in the Tate-LaBianca murders.

All these years later, the sight of Manson and his dead-eyed acolytes is still ghastly. But as long as pictures like these bear witness, the people whose lives were taken—Sharon Tate; Jay Sebring; Wojciech Frykowski; Abigail Folger; Steven Parent; Leno and Rosemary LaBianca—will remain in sight, and those who slaughtered them will be remembered not (as some would have it) as wayward, misled children, but as men and women who entered the homes of strangers and in a spasm of savagery ended life after life after life.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Charles Manson was led to court for a grand jury appearance in California in 1969.

Vernon Merritt III The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charles Manson in custody, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Charles Manson supporter outside the courthouse during his murder trial, Los Angeles, 1970.

Michael Rougier The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charles Manson supporters outside the courthouse during his murder trial, Los Angeles, 1970.

Michael Rougier The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Charles Manson supporter outside the courthouse during his murder trial, Los Angeles, 1970.

Michael Rougier The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Deputy district attorney Vincent Bugliosi in the Los Angeles Hall of Justice was interviewed at the beginning of grand jury hearings in the Tate-LaBianca murders, 1969.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Manson Family member Susan Atkins left the Grand Jury room, Los Angeles Hall of Justice, December 1969.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Manson Family member Susan Atkins, 21, emerged from a Los Angeles courtroom after grand jury testimony, December 1969.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charles Manson, 1969

Vernon Merritt III The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Manson family members Lynn “Squeaky” Fromme, 21, and Sandra Pugh, 26. Pugh brought her two-and-a-half month-old baby, Ivan, to court. They said they knew nothing of the Tate murders. “Manson was magnetic,” Pugh said. “His motions were like magic.”

Vernon Merritt III The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Manson Family members Lynn “Squeaky” Fromme and Sandra Pugh, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charles Manson and his attorney, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE Magazine December 19, 1969

Dustin Hoffman: Early Photos of an Actor on the Rise

August 11, 2021August 7, 2012 by

Look at the titles and roles for which Dustin Hoffman is best known, and you’ll see clear proof that the Los Angeles native is one of the most accomplished screen actors America has ever produced: The Graduate. Midnight Cowboy. Little Big Man. Kramer vs. Kramer. Rain Man. Papillon. Tootise. Lenny. All the President’s Men. Wag the Dog.

And then, of course there’s his television work including his role voicing Lisa’s cool, sensitive, thoughtful substitute teacher, Mr. Bergstrom, in one of the greatest episodes of The Simpsons.

Here, LIFE.com offers photographs of Dustin Hoffman—most of which never ran in LIFE—made by John Dominis when the actor was just coming into his own as an artist and a star. (Many of the photos here feature Hoffman with his first wife, Anne Byrne, and her daughter from a previous marriage, Karina.)

At the time these pictures were made, Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate were behind him. Many of his greatest, defining roles were still ahead of him. But Hoffman admitted something to the magazine in the July 11, 1969, issue of LIFE in which a few of these pictures first appeared that today sounds a bit jarring:

“I don’t think at 50 you should be doing what you did when you were 30,” he said, referring to his own plans to become a director as soon as possible. “Acting, especially film acting, seems to me to be more of a female profession. The director, who has all the creative power, really uses the actor. I don’t know many actors who enjoy the work of acting. I like the adulation, the money, the whole gimmick of it, but I don’t think I’m a natural actor.”

Then, in a kind of wistful coda, the 31-year-old Hoffman admits, “I don’t see how people who have done 70 movies keep going.”

Before he’s through, the man who has inhabited some of the most distinctive characters in film history might look back at that sort of declaration and crack that famous, crooked, knowing smile.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Dustin Hoffman, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman with his stepdaughter Karina, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman signs autographs outside the theater where he starred in the play (which he also directed), Jimmy Shine, New York City, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman in his dressing room for the play (which he also directed), Jimmy Shine, New York City, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman in his trailer during the filming of the movie, John and Mary, in which he starred with Mia Farrow, New York City, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman with his wife Anne and daughter Karina, New York, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman and family, New York, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman naps between takes on the set, 1969

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman and wife, Anne, and their dog Ratso, New York, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman with his dog Ratso, New York, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman on the way to the theater with his dog, Ratso, New York, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow on set of the film, John and Mary, New York, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman plays tennis during filming of the movie, John and Mary, New York, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman asleep on the set of the 1969 movie, John and Mary.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman chases after his dog Ratso in New York’s Riverside Park, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman during filming of the 1969 movie, John and Mary.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “On a rare day away from work, Dustin Hoffman browsed in Greenwich Village shops with Anne and later kissed her in a taxi (above), New York, 1969.”

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE on the Set of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

January 16, 2020July 24, 2012 by

Few movies are as polarizing as Stanley Kubrick’s sui generis 1968 sci-fi opus, 2001: A Space Odyssey. A good number of film critics and movie buffs argue that it’s an indispensable cinematic masterwork. Others admire its technical brilliance and the uncompromising strength of Kubrick’s vision, but find the movie’s impenetrable philosophy—whatever it might be—forbidding, or off-putting, or both. And then there are those (few, and not terribly convincing) naysayers who deride 2001 as little more than self-absorbed, emotionally sterile twaddle not far removed from an elaborate, unfunny hoax.

But even the film’s most strident critics acknowledge that there’s something about Kubrick’s strange, insular onscreen universe that commands our attention.

Here, LIFE.com offers a series of photos from the set of 2001 pictures that suggest the astonishing lengths to which Kubrick was willing to go in order to make his vision a reality. That the futuristic technology he envisioned feels authentic today speaks volumes about the man’s intellect, his dedication to the details of his craft and the boundless capacity for the human imagination to not only see, but to shape what’s to come.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Stanley Kubrick on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood listened to Stanley Kubrick on set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Stanley Kubrick on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gary Lockwood and Keir Dullea on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Keir Dullea on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Stanley Kubrick on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Keir Dullea on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gary Lockwood on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Keir Dullea on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Stanley Kubrick on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Keir Dullea on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Director Stanley Kubrick lined up a shot through a camera on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gary Lockwood on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Stanley Kubrick on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey with a Polaroid camera.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Stanley Kubrick on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Detroit Burning: Photos From the 12th Street Riot, 1967

January 16, 2020July 22, 2012 by

Decades ago, during the long, hot summer of 1967, the city of Detroit erupted in one of the deadliest and costliest riots in the history of the United States. Reportedly sparked by a police raid on an unlicensed bar on July 23, the conflagration lasted four terrifying days and nights, left scores dead and hundreds injured, thousands arrested, untold numbers of businesses looted, hundreds of buildings utterly destroyed and Detroit’s reputation in tatters.

The reasons behind the riot, of course, are far thornier—socially, economically, racially —han a mere raid on a gin joint. While Detroit in the mid-Sixties had a larger black middle class than most American cities its size—thanks in large part to strong unions, high employment and the thriving, all-powerful auto industry—it was hardly a model of racial harmony. (During World War II, for example, Detroit was the scene of an infamous race riot caused in large part by tensions between whites and blacks over jobs in auto plants that were churning out tanks, planes and other war-related goods.)

But the 1967 eruption, also known as the 12th Street riot, was remarkable not only for how long it lasted, but for the force that the city, state and federal authorities brought to bear in an effort to impose order on a city in flames. Then-governor George Romney sent in thousands of National Guard troops, while President Lyndon Johnson eventually ordered paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne on to the streets.

Long before even a semblance of calm was restored, however, chaos reined, and horrific tales of assaults, beatings, robberies and killings poured out of the city including allegations, later reported on by the great journalist John Hersey, that Detroit police officers murdered three young black men at a Detroit motel in the midst of the riots.

Throughout it all, photographer Lee Balterman (who died in March 2012 at the age of 91) was there, recording the terrible scene. Here, LIFE.com presents a selection of his most powerful pictures, most of which were never published in LIFE, chronicling one of the bleakest chapters in American history four days that stunned a nation and left scars on a great city that are still seen and felt today.

Determined to protect their property, both African-American and white store owners brought out weapons and stood ready to use them.

Lee Balterman/Life Pictures/Shutterstock