Book review
Written by Donald Spoto
Hutchinson hardback
Release date Out now

A revisionist biography of Alfred Hitchcock, focusing on his dubious relationships with his female stars, from the 1930s to the 1960s…

Donald Spoto has written two previous, in-depth books on the films and life of Alfred Hitchcock, director of 50 movies - among them Psycho and Vertigo - so what’s possessed him to return to the subject a third time? According to Spoto’s introduction to this slim take on the rotund auteur, enough time has passed that he can draw on material that he couldn’t use previously. Many of the interviewees for Spoto’s previous works offered off-the-record testimony or information that could only be used after their deaths. This material, of course, throws a less than flattering light on Hitchcock, so when it is all put together in one volume (and, indeed, is the reason for its existence) rather than as part of a fuller, more rounded biography, it does have a tendency to accentuate the negative at the expense of anything else.

Spoto focuses here on the actresses who worked with Hitchcock. He explores the director’s own fixation with icy cool blondes, and his attempts to remake several of his stars into the image he required (the very theme of his best movie, Vertigo). Much has been known previously, but revelations from actresses like Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren leads Spoto to baldly accuse Hitchcock of straightforward sexual harassment, if not near-assault. He also explores his subject’s sexual inadequacies and the effect they had on his life and work.

There has always been something odd about Hitchcock’s obsessions, often excused by co-workers and critics as they led to great movies that still work today due to their psychological depth. There’s no reason to doubt the fidelity of the stories Spoto retells, but his cursory material on the creation of the movies (skimpy as he’s covered the territory before) puts the spotlight firmly on Hitchcock’ aberrations. This is not a book to be read alone (as it paints Hitchcock in an unremittingly negative light), but in conjunction with other, more rounded portraits of the still-relevant director. Brian J. Robb

VERDICT: 8/10
New light, with supporting detail, is thrown on Alfred Hitchcock’s psychology, but at the expense of a more complete, rounded portrait.