Hitchcock S Partner In Suspense

The colorful life and creative career of the writer behind six of Hitchcock’s thrillers: “An intriguing and revealing story.” —Times Literary Supplement With a career that spanned from the silent era to the 1990s, British screenwriter Charles Bennett lived an extraordinary life. His experiences as an actor, director, playwright, film and television writer, and novelist in both England and Hollywood left him with many amusing anecdotes, opinions about his craft, and impressions of the many famous people he knew. Among other things, Bennett was a decorated WWI hero, an eminent Shakespearean actor, and an Allied spy and propagandist during WWII, but he is best remembered for his commercially and critically acclaimed collaborations with directors Sir Alfred Hitchcock and Cecil B. DeMille. The fruitful partnership with Hitchcock began after the director adapted Bennett’s 1929 play Blackmail as the first British sound film. Their partnership produced six thrillers: The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, Sabotage, Secret Agent, Young and Innocent, and Foreign Correspondent. In this witty and intriguing book, Bennett discusses how their collaboration created such famous motifs as the “wrong man accused” device and the MacGuffin. He also takes readers behind the scenes with the Master of Suspense, offering his thoughts on the director’s work, sense of humor, and personal life. Featuring an introduction and additional biographical material from Bennett’s son, editor John Charles Bennett, Hitchcock’s Partner in Suspense is a richly detailed narrative of a remarkable yet often-overlooked figure in film history.

For a decade from 1955, Alfred Hitchcock worked almost exclusively with one composer: Bernard Herrmann. From The Trouble with Harry to the bitter spat surrounding Torn Curtain, the partnership gave us some of cinema's most memorable musical moments, taught us to stay out of the shower, away from heights and never to spend time in corn fields. Consequently, fascination with their work and relationship endures fifty years later. This volume of essays explores their tense working relationship as well as their legacy, from crashing cymbals to the sound of 'The Birds'.

Alfred Hitchcock had a gift for turning the familiar into the unfamiliar, the mundane into the unexpected. A director known for planning the entire movie before the first day of filming began by using the storyboard approach, Hitchcock was renowned for his relaxed directing style, resulting in an excellent rapport with his actors. Decades later, Hitchcock’s films stand as sterling examples of innovative technique, infused with meaning that only repeated viewing can reveal. This work examines themes, techniques, and the filmmaking process in 15 of Hitchcock’s best known films: The 39 Steps, Rebecca, Shadow of a Doubt, Spellbound, Notorious, Rope, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, Frenzy and Family Plot. It explores the auteur’s treatments of psychoanalysis, voyeurism, and collective fears during the Cold War. Also presented are key stories behind several Hitchcock classics, such as the director’s stormy relationships with Raymond Chandler and David O. Selznick that resulted in synergetic success for some of his most successful films. The book includes numerous photographs and an extensive bibliography.

Nicholas Haeffner provides a comprehensive introduction to Alfred Hitchcock's major British and Hollywood films and usefully navigates the reader through a wealth of critical commentaries. One of the acknowledged giants of film, Hitchcock's prolific half-century career spanned the silent and sound eras and resulted in 53 films of which Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960) are now seen as classics within the suspense, melodrama and horror genres. In contrast to previous works, which have attempted to get inside Hitchcock's mind and psychoanalyse his films, this book takes a more materialist stance. As Haeffner makes clear, Hitchcock was simultaneously a professional film maker working as part of a team in the film factories of Hollywood, a media celebrity, and an aspiring artist gifted with considerable entrepreneurial flair for marketing himself and his films. The book makes a case for locating the director's remarkable body of work within traditions of highbrow, middlebrow and lowbrow culture, appealing to different audience constituencies in a calculated strategy. The book upholds the case for taking Hitchcock's work seriously and challenges his popular reputation as a misogynist through detailed analyses of his most controversial films.

Screenwriter Charles Bennett was Alfred Hitchcock''s inspiration and mentor. Between 1929-1940 Bennett wrote seven scripts establishing Hitchcock''s reputation as the "Master of Suspense." The first was Bennett''s 1928 play "Blackmail" (1929) adapted as Britain''s first "full length all-talkie super-film." This was followed by Hitch''s adaptation of "Bulldog Drummond''s Baby" (1931) as "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934). Then came "The 39 Steps," "Secret Agent," "Sabotage," "Young and Innocent," and "Foreign Correspondent." But because Hitchcock did not want his reliance known, he crafted a "Lie of Omission" to misdirect attention away from Bennett''s influence, successfully misleading journalists, critics, and historians to consider the director as the "auteur" (author), while Bennett became critically maligned, insulted, and disregarded. Part One of this study, "The Rise of the Modern Thriller: "The Partnership," corrects the film history by walking the reader through Hitchcock''s obfuscations to reveal how Bennett created the technically "Modern" mystery thriller and "hero''s Journey" construction. It explains that Bennett''s "one story" derived from his love of Jules Verne''s novels, coupled with theatrical knowledge accumulated through twenty years experience as a stage actor. After a successful start as an innovative London playwright (five plays produced before 1930), Bennett brought his Modern thriller into film by a set of experimental "quota quickies." In 1931 John Maxwell, Chairman of British International Pictures, contracted Bennett to write the "Bulldog Drummond" screenplay under Hitchcock''s supervision. There now came a chapter unknown to film history when Hitchcock was fired from B.I.P. owing to his too whimsical camera direction applied to a Bennett screenplay. And in a stroke of deception, Hitchcock denied Bennett a screenplay credit for its adaptation, "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934). When Bennett''s "wrong man" scenario became acclaimed in "The 39 Steps," Hitchcock countered he adapted the Buchan-inspired film. And though after the release of "Secret Agent," Bennett was designated as England''s top scenarist, film history mischaracterized him as Hitch''s stenographer. In two 1938 interviews Hitchcock undermined Bennett''s reputation, claiming responsibility for 99.44% of his films'' content, misappropriating Bennett''s journey construction as his own, and explaining how he preferred to work with inexperienced writers amenable to his instruction. Then, in 1940, the director misattributed Bennett''s Oscar-nominated screenplay "Foreign Correspondent" to his wife Alma and secretary Joan Harrison. Where Part One challenges scholars to correct the history, Parts Two and Three--"Hero''s Journey" and "Story Closeups"--drill deeply into Bennett''s narrative constructions. The volume explains how Bennett''s influential hero''s journey construction predated Joseph Campbell''s scholarship by twenty years. Analyses are made of Bennett''s stories, themes, and dramatic ideas, his contributions to the thriller subgenres (mystery, crime, terror, romance, comedy), and his character types and thriller motifs including: false accusation, forewarning, MacGuffin, time limit, double jeopardy and double chase, theme of the couple, joint quest, partners-on-the-run, doubt, and suspense. The study concludes on a study of the partners'' dialectic, exposing the director''s terror that his reliance on Bennett would be found out. In 1995 the Writer''s Guild of America-West honored Bennett with its Screen Laurel Award for lifetime achievement, particularly for the Hitchcock films; but his historic role as author of the technically Modern mystery thriller and hero''s journey construction remained undisclosed. "The Rise of the Modern Thriller" reveals the breadth of Bennett''s achievements, and answers a great many questions that have confounded Hitchcock Studies. The study is available in two separate volumes or in a single volume edition.

The first book-length study in English of Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948), Perpetual Movement offers both a production history that draws extensively upon little-known archival materials, including set drawings and drafts of the screenplay, and a close examination of the film in which Neil Badmington analyzes each of Rope's eleven shots. Writing in an accessible and engaging style, Badmington explores the film's treatment of space, sound, editing, sexuality, source material, design, intertexuality, narrative, and music. He looks at Hitchcock's struggle with censorship while planning, shooting, and distributing the film. Perpetual Movement also addresses Rope's reception and legacy, explaining why the film's unusual qualities provide such lasting appeal for viewers.

Who Said Men Get to Monopolize the Glory? Discover the Little Known Women Who Have Put the World's Alpha Males on the Map. From ancient times to the present, men have gotten most of the good ink. Yet standing just outside the spotlight are the extraordinary, and overlooked, wives and companions who are just as instrumental in shaping the destinies of their famous—and infamous—men. This witty, illuminating book reveals the remarkable stories of forty captivating females, from Constance Lloyd (Mrs. Oscar Wilde) to Carolyn Adams (Mrs. Jerry Garcia), who have stood behind their legendary partners and helped to humanize them, often at the cost of their own careers, reputations, and happiness. Through fame and its attendant ills—alcoholism, infidelity, mental illness, divorce, and even attempted murder—these powerful women quietly propelled their men to the top and changed the course of history. Meet the Untold Half of History, Including: •Alma Reville (Mrs. Alfred Hitchcock) •Elena Diakonova (Mrs. Salvador Dali) •Winifred Madikizela (Mrs. Nelson Mandela) •Ann Charteris (Mrs. Ian Fleming, a.k.a. Mrs. James Bond) •Ruth Alpern (Mrs. Bernie Maddoff) And 35 more!

This book treats six beloved films of Hitchcock: The 39 Steps, Saboteur, and North by Northwest, plus Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief. Padilla reviews their production histories with an eye to classical influences, and then analyzes their links with Greek art, poetry, and philosophy.