
This was one of the more entertaining and engrossing books I've read in a while. I've pretty much always been a movie buff, particularly of suspense movies of the nineteen-thirties, -forties, and -fifties.
This book covers Hitchcock's life from his birth (of course) in 1899, his movie career from his early days as a title-card writer and general dogsbody in the silent era through to his last film as director, and then to his death in 1980.
Since I'm almost as interested in the details behind movies as I am in the actual movies, I found the details of how his movies came to be made to be fascinating. He hardly ever got the stars he initially wanted. He was in constant conflict with studios over one thing and another.
Each movie he made is subject to an in-depth description of creation, shooting, and editing here… this book is 20270+ locations, all text and no pictures. The index from the DTB version is included, but there is a note at the beginning that the page numbers aren't valid and the reader should use he Search function of his/her ebook reader. This is the first time I've seen a publisher acknowledge this fact.
I found Hitch's writing process to be a bit surprising. He would hire a writer (or writers) and they would spend months developing a script, then when it was finished he would let that writer go and hire another and redo the job. Sometimes he even hired a third writer to finish it. He always took the last cut but never put his name on the writing credits, despite the fact that most of the work ended up being his (or at least he made major tweaks). He worked with some of the most famous writers of the day, including James Agee, Eric Ambler, Robert Benchley, Robert Bloch, Evan Hunter, Raymond Chandler, and others (all mostly uncredited).
His wife Alma Reville was his constant assistant, and much of his success can be attributed to her influence. He didn't appear to do much without her approval and/or collaboration.
This book also has an entry what seems to be all the TV episodes. It's interesting that his contract with the network gave him the ownership of the episodes after broadcast (if I recall correctly), an unheard-of concession at the time. Or even now.
I'm in the midst of a re-watch of most of his pictures, courtesy of Turner Classic Movies and Netflix. Next up is
Blackmail (1929), credited as Britain's first talkie. Hitchcock filmed this movie as both a silent and (secretly) as a talkie version. I plan to re-read each of the sections of the biography after watching the associated movie. I have the silent version recorded*. I have seen it as a talkie.
I tried watching one of the films he made for the British government as a war propaganda effort, but it was in French and I wasn't in the mood for what was essentially a documentary.
I'll likely be re-reading parts of it for years to come.
I watched the movie
Hitchcock this week. While not entirely accurate (at least according to
this biography), it had the general idea of things. I didn't entirely buy Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock, but liked the film nonetheless. Helen Mirren was fine as Alma, and Scarlett Johansson was OK as Janet Leigh.
Mike
* Later: Contrary to the statement of the fellow who introduced the film, it was the talkie version.