Until a short time ago, my familiarity with the 1951 Swedish film Miss Julie—much acclaimed in its day and a top prizewinner at the Cannes Film Festival—was largely limited to the knowledge that Alfred Hitchcock, after seeing it, signed up its star, Anita Björk, for the female lead in I Confess (1953). American Puritanism scotched those plans, however. When Ms. Björk arrived in the United States with her lover and out-of-wedlock child, Hitchcock was forced by the powers-that-be at Warner Bros. to go looking elsewhere. Anne Baxter played the role instead.
Given that Miss Julie and Ms. Björk made such a strong impression on my main man Hitch, I'm frankly surprised at myself for not seeking it out earlier. I'm glad I finally did. (A friend's enthusiastic recommendation was the nudge I needed.) I found the movie so remarkable, in fact, that it inspired me to write an essay about one of its several memorable flashback sequences. Click here if you're interested in reading it.
