For my money, there was no better director than Alfred Hitchcock. His life and films are celebrated in Ken Mogg’s heavily illustrated THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK STORY, a 1999 release now in a revised edition to commemorate VERTIGO‘s 50th anniversary. It retains the introduction by Janet Leigh, who died in 2004.
Each of his 53 movies gets its own chapter, generally at least a spread, but going up to a couple once the chronological text hits the classics like REAR WINDOW, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, PSYCHO and THE BIRDS. It’s worth having just for all the vintage stills, posters from around the world and candid behind-the-scenes shots.
His earliest films are boring duds, remembered and readily available only because Hitchcock’s name is on them. That period was before he had enough clout to flee his for-hire status and assume complete creative control. Few of them are suspense — inarguably his forté — and even fewer from that first decade of work are watchable today, with THE 39 STEPS and THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH among that select group.
That’s why this STORY is probably best read sticking with the films you’ve seen or in which you at least have a passing interest. The film summaries can be tedious, but easily skippable, separated as they are from the stories behind those stories, and that’s what you’ll want to read, anyway, even if Hitchcock’s ground has been covered well before. Know what a MacGuffin is? If you’re already a Hitch fan, chances are you do.
You still may learn a tidbit or two you didn’t know, like screenwriter Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain) getting the boot from MARNIE for refusing to write the rape scene, or allegations that Hitch was banging his secretary. What makes Mogg’s book stand out are the extra chapters scattered about that extend beyond the films, such as an excellent overview of the director’s work on ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS or the history behind all the paperback story collections to which he leant his name.
Photos appear on every page, so there’s always something to draw the eye. Mine in particular fixated on two boxes for a Milton Bradley mystery board game called WHY, which featured Hitch’s mug as its branding hook. That alone is a testament to the filmmaker’s fame: Even though he never made movies for kids, he apparently was known enough by them to use as a marketing tool. —Rod Lott
Related posts:
- Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Presents Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense
- Scary Movies
- Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story
- The End of the Story: The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Volume 1
- The Strange Case of Hellish Nell: The Story of Helen Duncan and the Witch Trial of World War II
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Now this is a book that I want gracing my coffee table. I love Hitchcock as well. We just did a post at Dark Party about the movie “Rope,” which we think is one of his underrated classics. For those who are interested:
http://tinyurl.com/5mvjw9