What biography or biographies would be considered the definitive account of the legendary Alfred "Hitch" Hitchcock's life and career?
shareAlthough this is a late reply, I am going to try it anyway.
A great biography is: Alfred Hitchcock, A Life in Darkness and Light by Patrick McGilligan.
Donald Soto's "The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock" (1983). Also try to find the out of print (?) Robin Wood book "Hitchcock's Films" (1965) For definitive analysis of his big movies. Those 2 are great books.
share I think that's a typo. You meant Donald Spoto! I have all three of his books on Hitchcock. The one you mentioned, The Art of Alfred Hitchcock and Spellbound by Beauty:Alfred Hitchcock and and His Leading Ladies.
The last book really gets into the psyche of the man through his choice of leading ladies, his involvement in shaping their roles and his (sometime) obsession with them. Some of his leading ladies liked and admired him. Some couldn't get away from his controlling behavior fast enough.
Hitchcock had somewhere around 50 books written about him or his films, I think.
But there are only three that are considered "official" biographies:
1978 -- "Hitch" by John Russell Taylor. This was written while Hitchcock was still alive(barely, he died in 1980) and with his approval and so it pulls some punches -- particularly when it reaches "whatever happened with Tippi Hedren?" The book speaks to her not getting along with him and "insulting him over his weight," and that's about it on that topic.
1983 -- "The Dark Side of Genius" -- by Donald Spoto. Spoto had written a comprehensive critical look Hitchcock's films("The Art of Alfred Hitchcock" ) in 1977, that was perhaps most famous for making the case for Vertigo as an all-time masterpiece that Spoto saw 30 times on release(critic Robin Wood had ALSO called Vertigo THE Hitchcock masterpiece in 1965, but Spoto sealed the deal.) Hitchcock was alive when Spoto worked on that book, they met a few times, I think.
But the 1983 book seemed very much like "Spoto betrays Hitchcock." The book got into good details about the making of the great films, and revealed first details of the unmade "First Frenzy" of 1967 and provided other good data.
But Spoto elected to linger long and hard on Hitchcock's alleged sexual harassment of Tippi Hedren(quoting her extensively) and painted a portrait of a heavy-drinking man, a cruel tyrant when he was on the top, a pathetic alcoholic has been on the way down. Many of Hitchcock's friends and associates were outraged by Spoto's book, and very angry that they had given him interviews. And many of Hitchcock's female stars said that he never harassed them. After all, both Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly made three films apiece with him.
20 years after Spoto's 1983 hatchet job, Patrick McGilligan gave us "Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light" and it ends up being two things: (1) the final "real" Hitchcock biography(only a few of Hitchcock's stars and writers are alive today) and, indeed, the "best" Hitchcock biography, because it includes material about and from ALL the great books on Hitchcock...plus the bad Spoto book.
McGilligan is able to cover:
Hitchcock/Truffaut -- the great Truffaut interview book with Hitchcock.
Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho -- Stephen Rebello's great detailing of the most famous Hitchcock movie and how it was made.
The Making of Vertigo -- Dan Auiler's detailed(if less juicy) telling of the making of the other most famous Hitchcock movie(well, less The Birds maybe, or North by Northwest, or Rear Window.)
Spoto's The Dark Side of Genius: all the Hitchcock friends who hated Spoto and his book get to vent at him here.
Russell's "Hitch" -- noted as a "small scale puff piece" written when Hitch was alive.
In some ways, McGilligan ends up covering the same old stories -- even Spoto beat him to a few of them. I found that McGillilgan's most interesting angle is on all of Hitchcock's screenwriters(John Michael Hayes, Ernest Lehman, Joe Stefano, Evan Hunter, Anthony Shaffer) -- McGilligan rather sets the record straight on some of these writers jealously trying to claim credit for Hitchcock's own writerly acheivements. Its a weirdly "anti-writer" book. But that's the story McGilligan wants to tell.
Personally, I think that Hitchcock -- like many great men and women of great fame and wealth and power -- DID do some bad things. He may have verbally harassed Tippi Hedren, but many more actresses said he was the greatest. Still, "the Tippi story" is forever there. I think the WORST thing he did was to fire composer Bernard Herrmann (the man who scored Vertigo, NXNW and Psycho) off of Torn Curtain but -- we sense that Hitchcock was a scared old man trying to do the studio's bidding and to keep working. Later, he also fired the great Henry Mancini off of the late-breaking comeback hit Frenzy, a Herrmann-like act of petty jealousy, it seems.
But all of those bad acts were to be played off against a 50-year plus career that gave us some of the greatest movies ever made and a sense of cinematic style that influenced everybody from Spielberg to Scorsese to Nolan to Tarantino(not to mention Brian DePalma.)
Hitchcock was a great man, deserving of many fine biographies. He got at least one: the McGilligan "final final."
Beside the three Donald Spoto books, I also have some of the other books you listed. I have the Truffaut book, "Hitch" and the making of Psycho and Vertigo.
I also have Janet Leigh's account of Psycho. She doesn't have a bad word to say about "Hitch".
I'm sure he had a "dark side" as does everyone, except Hitchcock's was out there on celluloid, documented for everyone to see. Most of us are lucky enough to be able to keep our dark side hidden from the public!
Also, some of the stories circulated about the director seem a bit exaggerated and Hitchcock didn't do much to discourage them. I think it added to the lore about his dark side.
Like his supposed "terror" of police and his refusing to drive because of it. In one of his bios, the author says that Hitchcock regularly drove his family to church on Sunday. In other ways, he seemed a man who led an ordinary life. Actors like to work with him because he kept regular hours. He quit at five to go home and have dinner with his wife and daughter.
I've watched some of his older interviews, like the Dick Cavett one. Hitchcock seems like an overgrown imp with some of his answers. He would give a sly smile and his comments seemed tongue in cheek as if he didn't take himself too seriously.
Beside the three Donald Spoto books, I also have some of the other books you listed. I have the Truffaut book, "Hitch" and the making of Psycho and Vertigo.
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Good books, all. Look, even "The Dark Side of Genius" -- despite its ultimately anti-Hitchcock agenda (why? I've always wondered...to sell books on a pretty dull man?) -- has a lot of good information that McGilligan could only repeat.
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I also have Janet Leigh's account of Psycho. She doesn't have a bad word to say about "Hitch".
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Janet Leigh seems to have been "Hitchcock's Ultimate Cheerleader." She spent a lot of the 70's, 80s and 90's talking about Psycho and her great love and respect for Hitchcock. Eva Marie Saint of the great North by Northwest was his other big fan(and still lives today!) Kim Novak was hard to coax out, and Hitch evidently didn't treat her very well, but even SHE spoke well of him as an artist and a human being.
We can be sure that when Hitchcock picked Tippi Hedren out of obscurity and made her the star of his first movie after the blockbuster "Psycho," he had some ego issues going on. Hedren had no star clout, nor even a husband(Leigh had Tony Curtis) as protection from Hitchcock's predations. But those predations all seem pretty sad to me, if they DID occur.
I mean, take a look at some of the weirdness of Tippi Hedren AFTER she broke with Hitch. She had no star career, because she was never a star. There's that movie she made with her family '-- "Roar" -- in which REAL lions and other animals REALLY attack and menace actors, including her daughter, young Melanie Griffith. Something was always a little "off" about Tippi Hedren, and I think the other Hitchcock women felt she had an axe to grind. But who knows?
I'm sure he had a "dark side" as does everyone, except Hitchcock's was out there on celluloid, documented for everyone to see. Most of us are lucky enough to be able to keep our dark side hidden from the public!
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Yes. Some found the movies very troubling from Psycho (the shower murder and other horrors) to The Birds(the man with the pecked out eyes) to Marnie(the marital rape, the sex and violence of the final flashback, queasily centered on a little girl); Torn
Curtain(the "fun" of NXNW replaced with a long grueling murder of man that takes about ten minutes to do); to Topaz(with many protagonists dying , some by torture) to Frenzy(the "worst of them all" with its extended rape and strangling)...reflected a man whose dark side -- and sexual fantasies -- were suddenly being financed in million dollar budget movies.
But hey -- some of those movies were classics, good to great studies in man's inhumanity to man(and woman, and birds, who fight back). The WORLD has a dark side -- and Hitchcock was ALWAYS studying it. Early censored pictures like Shadow of a Doubt, Lifeboat, Rope, Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window -- ALL have a fair amount of perversity, brutality and darkness --its not like Hitchcock only got kinky at the end, its just that he could show more at the end.
I think, in the end, Hitchcock's great sense of style and suggestion -- along with Herrmann to often couch the movies in aural magic -- allowed him to get away with his darkness.
Also, some of the stories circulated about the director seem a bit exaggerated and Hitchcock didn't do much to discourage them.
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Great point! I recall Jack Nicholson, in his sexy prime, saying that not all the sex stories about him were true, but "they are good for business, y'know what I mean?"
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I think it added to the lore about his dark side.
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And he DUG on that dark side. Who else would make a music album called "Music to Be Murdered By"(which has now been "covered" with the same cover by...Eminem?)
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Like his supposed "terror" of police and his refusing to drive because of it. In one of his bios, the author says that Hitchcock regularly drove his family to church on Sunday. In other ways, he seemed a man who led an ordinary life.
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A very regular life. Many directors -- particularly the 70's directors -- had affairs all over the place. (A 70's producer named Mike Medavoy said, "the books are wrong about drugs - we didn't take that many. The books are NOT wrong about sex -- we had a lot.") Not Hitch. He just filmed actors having affairs FOR him.
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Actors like to work with him because he kept regular hours. He quit at five to go home and have dinner with his wife and daughter.
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And on Thursdays, he ended the day early to go have dinner at Chasen's. Hitch made a lot of his movies on soundstages in Hollywood, so indeed his actors could just go home, too. "It was like working at a bank," aid William Devane (Family Plot.)
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I've watched some of his older interviews, like the Dick Cavett one.
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That's probably the longest and best one we have on YouTube. I remember rushing home from a party in 1972, just to watch it -- we had no tapes or DVRs. Hitch was in a great mood -- Frenzy was very well reviewed -- and he'd been almost in hiding for a few years. It was like he "came out of hiding" to get honored all over again.
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Hitchcock seems like an overgrown imp with some of his answers. He would give a sly smile and his comments seemed tongue in cheek as if he didn't take himself too seriously.
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Exactly. Looking at the 1972 interview today, I'm surprised that while he looked very old and unhealthy, he actually had great vigor of mind and energy. It was "Frenzy" that did it -- suddenly he was hot again, just like when Psycho came out. Well...almost.
One last and rather derogatory thought about Donald Spoto(because I really don't like much of what he wrote about Hitch, and much of it seemed to be his own opinion.)
In Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," there is a rather snaky and portly little "reporter" who keeps attaching himself to gunfighters to write glorious books about them. As each gunfighter fades in the reporter's estimation, he betrays and deserts them...and moves on to the next gunfighter/host. He goes from being their best pal, to their biggest betrayer(until he tries this with Eastwood at the end; no dice.)
Donald Spoto has always reminded me of that guy. He made a career first on praising Hitchcock(The Art of Alfred Hitchcock) and then he made a career out of writing trash about the man and his leading ladies.
Still I can't believe all the terrible things written about Hitchcock. He's not here to defend himself. Also, he managed to get many A-list actors to work for him. Except for Tippi Hedren, there weren't many actors who had derogatory things to say about him.
Despite the rumors, I think the Hitchcocks had a solid marriage. There is an anecdote in one of the bios that an actress tells. I forget who it was, maybe Doris Day? You'd probably know. It took place in Europe during one of those rare times the director filmed on location.
Anyway, she (the actress) said that she got in big trouble with the director. She said that she took Alma Reville, Mrs. Hitchcock, out for the day to do some sightseeing and they were late getting back to the hotel.
She added that Hitch was seated in the hotel dining room just fuming because he always dined with his wife and she was late. To me that shows a certain closeness. He definitely seemed to need his wife to be with him.
Also didn't Alma read the scripts that were offered to her husband? And if she passed on them, so did Hitchcock. He seemed to value her opinion quite highly.
Still I can't believe all the terrible things written about Hitchcock. He's not here to defend himself.
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Indeed not. Nor his wife Alma. His daughter Pat(a star of Psycho) is still alive but little seen these days in her 90's. Still, Pat vigorously defended her father in the years of attack. One of her points was that Hitchcock had many women who were his key advisors -- Joan Harrison, Peggy Robertson, and of course Alma herself -- and that he much preferred the company of actresses to male actors(who always rather intimidated him.) Joan Fontaine worked for twice(winning an Oscar one time); Bergman, three times. Kelly, three times. Heck, even Tippi Hedren got two times.
Plus, Hitch only had a daughter(Pat) and she only gave him female grandchildren. He was surrounded by women!
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Also, he managed to get many A-list actors to work for him. Except for Tippi Hedren, there weren't many actors who had derogatory things to say about him.
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This is true. Even Paul Newman and Julie Andrews -- who made a "bad" movie with a "bad" script called Torn Curtain with Hitch(I don't agree, but critics think so ) both said that they liked Hitch and that he was entirely polite with them (whereas Otto Preminger insulted Newman a time or two on "Exodus.")
All that said, Hitchcock -- a powerful man and a survivor of decades in the Hollywood shark tank -- DID do some ruthless and mean things , but they were "business, not personal" to him. And even his crew members largely got to stick around for many movies -- they were loyal, too.
Despite the rumors, I think the Hitchcocks had a solid marriage.
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Very solid..when Alma had a cancer scare in the late 50s(when cancer was less treatable and more of a killer most of the time) Hitchocck fell into a crying depression, said his daughter Pat. He couldn't imagine life without Alma. Some years later, even as Hitch had his own ailments, Alma suffered a stroke while Frenzy was being made in London and Hitch almost abandoned work on the film. He completed it largely to please his sick wife.
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There is an anecdote in one of the bios that an actress tells. I forget who it was, maybe Doris Day? You'd probably know. It took place in Europe during one of those rare times the director filmed on location.
Anyway, she (the actress) said that she got in big trouble with the director. She said that she took Alma Reville, Mrs. Hitchcock, out for the day to do some sightseeing and they were late getting back to the hotel.
She added that Hitch was seated in the hotel dining room just fuming because he always dined with his wife and she was late. To me that shows a certain closeness. He definitely seemed to need his wife to be with him.
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Great anecdote and I do think it makes the point well -- Alfred and Alma were pretty inseparable. But she did largely stay away from his film sets and dressing rooms, and I suppose that's where Hitch could do or say what he did or said to Tippi.
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Also didn't Alma read the scripts that were offered to her husband? And if she passed on them, so did Hitchcock. He seemed to value her opinion quite highly.
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All very true. We can assume that Alma Hitchcock personally nixed any number of potential Hitchcock films...