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Alfred Hitchcock (1949) Under Capricorn Original Shrinking Head Prop

Currency:USD Category:Memorabilia / Movie - Memorabilia Start Price:300.00 USD Estimated At:4,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
Alfred Hitchcock (1949) Under Capricorn Original Shrinking Head Prop
An exciting and very rare treasure of Hollywood History! Of all the collectables perhaps one of the hardest to find, and one of the most sought after, is a prop from the extraordinary work of Alfred Hitchcock. We are proud to be able to offer one of his most iconic pieces. Of all of Hitchcock’s movies, one of the strangest was the 1949 “Under Capricorn”, based on the popular novel. It was made through his own production company, in America, and was also one of his first films in Technicolor. The subject matter made for a much more leisurely paced movie than audiences were used to from the great director. By the late forties, Hitchcock was already known as the master of suspense, and audiences were expecting the same type of movie from “Under Capricorn”. However, the movie is rather faithful to the book, and is more of a “love triangle” between Ingrid Bergman and Joseph cotton and Michael Wilding than it is a thriller. In order to help the box office, the studio insisted that Hitchcock put in some of his trademark shockers. To appease them, Hitchcock created two scenes utilizing human shrunken heads, which ironically are the scenes that most people remember from the film. The evil housekeeper, Millie (Margaret Leighton) tries to drive an emotionally unstable Bergman crazy by putting a shrunken head in her bed. The shrunken head was such a surprise, and so out of place to the style of the movie, that Hitchcock created the famous scene at the very beginning of the film where a black marketer,
(Martin Benson), approaches Joseph Cotton and tries to sell him a real human shrunken head. Cotton is appalled by the intrusion of this man, and violently pushes him away, knocking the head out of his hands. The horrifying head falls to the ground, in close-up, to create great shock and fanfare to the audience. Cotton makes it clear that these are sold on the island, and are illegal. Therefore, when we see a shrunken head later, it makes perfectly good sense that such a thing exists. This is the actual screen-used hero shrunken head that was used in that first establishing scene. It has survived over sixty years, and is in good shape. The actual hair and teeth from the original have miraculously survived. Props from Hitchcock movies, especially his older classics, are virtually nonexistent, which makes this iconic piece that much more valuable and collectable. The human shrunken head comes with a Letter of Provenance from the son of the man who received the head personally from Mr. Hitchcock right after filming of “Under Capricorn” in 1949 (he was Hitchcock’s personal accountant). (The head is approx 7x5x6).