 "A bit of a stretch" | 2009-06-30 |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User |
All of us have dark side and Hitch was no exception. But some of the conclusions of this author can be a bit of a stretch. At times he finds a turkey bone and reconstructs a dinosaur from it . You may find it hard to believe this dark sided person if you have seen the interview with his granddaughter who remembers the man who calls her up after her bunny dies to invite her over to spend time with her grandparents to get over the loss of the bunny.
Or have heard Pat Hitchcock say the only trauma she had on the ride on the set of Strangers on a Train was she never got the money she was promised for getting on the ride. Take note the since Dad and Grandpa are now gone most would take the opportunity to set the record straight if he had been that dark and they haven't .
What you get from the Hitchcock women is a loving memory that is hard to fake in this age of reality TV. |
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 "A magnificent achievement." | 2008-10-23 |
| - Reviewed By flickfreak from USA |
This is the best biography of a person in the
entertainment field I have ever read -- and one of
the best biographies, period. Spoto shows how Hitchcock's demons were expressed in his films in a way that resonated with millions of viewers, thus transmuting the personal into the universal. At the same time Spoto provides insightful, intelligent criticism that enables the viewer to appreciate Hitchcock's films on more levels than one would have thought possible. There are few books I would call "essential," but for anyone who has the slightest interest in Alfred Hitchcock, that is exactly what this book is. |
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| "Undeservedly Excoriated" | 2008-06-02 |
| - Reviewed By Lit Nerd from Detroit, MI |
| I have to disagree with those who trash this book. I've read it more than once, and find it quite good. The amateur psychoanalysis doesn't dominate the proceedings, while you do get a very well written overview of an enormous career. Readability counts! - most Hitch books are boring junk, based on some dire Lacanian theory or whatnot. Okay, so Spoto feels he must "explain" Hitch's often morbid sensibility - if you notice, Spoto is also very interested in Christian subject matter. Possibly he feels there is something naughty about Hitch flicks, and must apologize for/excuse his interest in this way. (Speaking of amateur psych...) But that wouldn't be reason enough to pan the book. It's a compelling read, and much of it seems to be accurate. I believe its trashy rep is overstated. Read it, you'll probably be won over. |
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| "The Champ" | 2006-09-18 |
| - Reviewed By Kevin Killian from San Francisco, CA United States |
Nearly 25 years later Donald Spoto's book on Hitchcock, which caused sch a stir when it appeared, is still the champ. You could read it for its salacious details, such as the real reason he wanted Madeleine Carroll in handcuffs. Or you could read it to see him organize Hitchcock's different films into categories, classifying them not only by way of theme but with reference to studio politics. Think of how different Hitchcock's "Warners" films are than his Selznick pictures, even with the understanding that the same auteur created them.
Spoto is unable to make out what was really going through Hitchcock's head while making VERTIGO. Did he really want the insipid Vera Miles to play the part(s) of Judy and Madeline, and then grow impatient with Kim Novak largely because she was no Vera Miles (thank goodness). If he was so furious with Miles, why did he then cast her in THE WRONG MAN, where she's so dreadfully bland one forgets she's in the picture? (And later he used her in his longrunning TV series.) If, as Spoto says, Hitchcock had an erotic fetish for blondes, did it somehow turn itself off when confronted with Kim Novak, one of the most obsessable women in film? I don't believe it!
However Spoto is spot on when it comes to Hitchcock's last passion, for the actress "Tippi" Hedren with whom he made his two best films. Another reviewer here dismisses Ms. Hedren as a "mediocre performer at best who should have been grateful for a great man's attention and adoration," but under Hitchcock's skilled direction, she was able to pull off quite capably two of the most intense and primal roles ever created in the American cinema. People might have been startled by her work at the time, but it just keeps looking better and better where some of the other performances he elicited aren't looking that good any more, for he could make good actors look bad (Olivier, Fonda, Clift, Paul Newman, etc)--like the cattle he thought of them as.
Our views of Hitchcock will continue to evolve, but we will always be grateful to Donald Spoto for expressing a certain biographical turn with great elegance and, almost, wit. |
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 "Scandal-Ridden Junk" | 2005-09-08 |
| - Reviewed By John P Bernat from Kingsport, TN USA |
Of course, in 2005 we're accustomed to knowing a lot more about celebrities than we really ought to. When this book was first published twenty years ago, this fixation had not quite gotten to where it is today.
No - instead, on the heels of Spoto's "The Art of Alfred Hitchcock," which gave Spoto free access to the late director and to his archives, Spoto insists that knowing way too much information about Hitch's private life is essential, somehow, to understanding his art.
To a certain extent, that's the case. But some of this stuff is simply gratiutous. How relevant to art is the "Marnie" incident with Tippi Hedren? What possible addition to an important body of knowledge does that story make?
If you want gossip, it's here. If you want to gain some insight into our greatest director's artistic character, it's promised here but maybe not delivered. |
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| "A fascinating insight into the enigma" | 2005-01-19 |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User |
"Some of our most exquisite murders have been domestic, performed with tenderness in simple, homey places like the kitchen table."
...and here is the Master of Suspense. While Hitchcock happens to be one of the better-known directors of the 20th century, he surely is the only master of enigma. Spoto has done an admirable job in depicting the life of a man always shrouded in mystery.
The book follows Hitch from his childhood. A rather unattractive mother's boy, he was an outcast at public school. It continues his story from humble beginnings, through the discovery of genius, and ends at his death in 1980, at the age of 81. Throughout the pages, Spoto covers Hitchcock's life in detail, including his many quirks, obsessions bizarre sense of humour.
Hitchcock's life was indeed bizarre - his personality and obsessions manifesting themselves in his over-eating and his dry, often macabre sense of humour. However, as the author rightly points out, the director also revealed this side of himself through the images of his movies. This makes a fascinating study once you have read the book and you'll never view Hitch's films at face value again.
Because of her desire to protect her father's privacy, Hitch's daughter, Pat, refused Spoto any assistance in the writing of this book. He went instead to a veritable legion of actors and screenwriters who knew him and worked with him. The result is an extremely revealing and often very dark portrait of a man whose character was as shadowed as his films.
But not all is dark and foreboding. There are several amusing anecdotes, which highlight Hitch's macabre sense of humour. Like the time he had a dummy made in his own likeness and sent it floating on its back down the Thames river as a publicity stunt for his movie "Frenzy" in 1972.
My own personal favourite is the story of a woman who accosted him and complained that the "Psycho" shower scene so frightened her daughter that the girl would no longer shower. His laconic reply was, "Then, Madam, I suggest you have her dry cleaned."
He also did not suffer actors gladly. While he did have his stable of favourites that he worked with, he once claimed that actors were cattle. Later he said, "I didn't say that actors are cattle - I said they should be treated as cattle." Another story says that when an actress asked Hitchcock if her right or left profile was better, he told her, "My dear, you're sitting on your best profile."
Some of Spoto's claims I can't help but treat with a little scepticism. I do know that Hitch had a fascination with murder but the tender way in which he presents it in his films is classic Hitchcock. However, the author's statement that scenes in Hitch's movies reflect kind of voyeurism, I feel that with his trademark camera pans through windows, the director was trying to give the audience a bird's eye view of the scene - no more and no less. It is his way of allowing us to enter the private lives of his characters.
When all is said and done, this is a fascinating book of a fascinating man. A genius in his own time, but also a frustrated enigma, with a taste for the truly macabre. I highly recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in learning about the man behind the mystery, although it is a little heavy at times.
I'll leave the last word to the Master of Suspense himself:
"Television has brought back murder into the home - where it belongs. |
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