10 Things You Didn't Know About Alfred Hitchcock

8. He Was Angry When Brian De Palma made Obsession

Brian De Palma, especially in regards to his earlier films, has been seen as an imitator of Hitchcock's style. One only needs to look at his 1980 film Dressed to Kill to see the influence Psycho had on it. In 1976, De Palma made Obsession, in which a New Orleans businessman's (Cliff Robertson) wife and daughter are killed in a rescue attempt during a kidnapping. Years later, Robertson meets another woman who looks eerily similar to his wife. This sounds very similar to Hitchcock's Vertigo, which also featured a protagonist meeting someone who reminds him of a woman he once loved. Hitchcock was reportedly angry when De Palma made this film because he viewed it as a virtual remake of Vertigo. Now, I haven't seen Obsession, but from watching Dressed to Kill, it's not too surprising Hitchcock would be see a lot of Vertigo in Obsession. Even De Palma has said the origin of the film came from he and screenwriter Paul Schrader going to a screening of Vertigo, which gave them the idea of modelling a film off that film's structure.