The Masters  
The Powell & Pressburger Pages

Dedicated to the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and all the other people, both actors and technicians who helped them make those wonderful films.

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Kim hunter


A nice story found in the rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc newsgroup soon after Kim's death was announced.

Posted by Ian W. Hill
Subject: Re: R.I.P.: Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter dies at 79)
Date: 2002-09-14 05:28:08 PST

Terribly sad. I was lucky enough to meet her once, briefly (just to shake hands) at a screening of Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM where the director was present.

As I was waiting to shake hands with Powell, the guy in front of me, for some reason, began enthusing about how beautiful Kim Hunter was in A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, and proclaiming that he had fallen in love with her.

Michael Powell said, "Well, that's very nice, why don't you tell her, she's standing right behind you." And everyone turned to look at Hunter, who was smiling charmingly and somehow both shyly and slyly. That was 13 years ago so she would have been 66. Still beautiful. And seemed to like greeting fans who had fallen for her earlier screen self (in my case it was THE SEVENTH VICTIM). I'm horrified in retrospect that I didn't remember at the time that she was also Stella and Dr. Zira.

Michael Powell discovered her when he went to Hollywood to cast MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH and asked his old friend Hitchcock for recommendations. Hitchcock had been forced by David Selznick to shoot a screen test of a starlet to try to sell her to Powell for the film. Hitchcock said to Powell that the starlet was only talented in terms of "chest development," but that the contract player who had been feeding the starlet lines from behind the camera might be good.

Powell: "Is she from Los Angeles?"
Hitchcock: "No, she is a lady."

And she was.

Pumaman
Brooklyn, NYC


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