Rich and Strange, Number 17, Waltzes from Vienna

An in-depth consideration of one of Hitchcock’s best and most undervalued films, Rich and Strange, in which he draws unerringly precise, layered, and touching work from four actors: Henry Kendall and Joan Barry, who play a straying married couple on holiday; Percy Marmont, who plays a shy British major in love with Barry’s timid wife; and Elsie Randolph, who gives a performance as the outcast Miss Imbrie that is as terrifying as anything in Psycho or The Birds. Hitchcock was not happy with either the thriller Number 17 (1932) or the operetta Waltzes from Vienna (1933), where he found no common ground with musical star Jessie Matthews, but the first period of his successful sound thrillers soon followed.

James Pickering Kendall, 30 July 1889 - 14 June 1978

James Kendall was born in the small village of West End, Chobham, Surrey. His father, William Henry Kendall, served for 21 years in the Royal Horse Artillery and subsequently as an instructor in the Gordon Boys’ School, the national memorial to General Gordon, until his retiral in 1910. His mother, Rebecca Pickering, was of West Country stock and was his father’s second wife. Kendall attended the village school, Holy Trinity Church School, West Chobham, which consisted of two rooms: one for infants and one for the older children, and later in 1900 obtained a scholarship which enabled him to attend Farnham Grammar School, some thirteen miles distant. One of his contemporaries at Farnham was E. K. Rideal—later Sir Eric Rideal, F.R.S. Kendall became head boy and in 1907 obtained a County Major Scholarship with the help of which he entered Edinburgh University. The choice of this university is interesting and had been settled two years previously. Kendall wished to go to Cambridge, but was prevented from doing so by financial considerations. His parents suggested London University, but Kendall wanted ‘to spread his wings’ (as he expressed it). Considerable family discussion ensued and it was decided to consult his headmaster. In the course of the interview the headmaster put the question: ‘What’s the boy intending to do after he leaves the university?’