Writing With Hitchcock

An entertaining, in-depth look at the films, including Rear Window, made by Alfred Hitchcock with screenwriter John Michael Hayes. In spring 1953, the great director Alfred Hitchcock decided to take a chance and work with a young writer, John Michael Hayes. The decision turned out to be a pivotal one, for the four films that Hitchcock made with Hayes over the next several years -- Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry, and The Man Who Knew Too Much -- represented an extraordinarily successful change of style. Each of the movies was distinguished by a combination of glamorous stars, sophisticated dialogue, and inventive plots -- James Stewart and Grace Kelly trading barbs in the tensely plotted Rear Window, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly engaging in witty repartee in To Catch a Thief -- and resulted in some of Hitchcock's most distinctive and intimate work, based in large part on Hayes's exceptional scripts. Exploring for the first time the details of this collaboration, Steven DeRosa follows Hitchcock and Hayes through each film from initial discussions to completed picture and presents an analysis of each screenplay. He also reveals the personal story -- filled with inspiration and humor, jealousy and frustration -- of the initial synergy between the two very different men before their relationship fell apart. Writing with Hitchcock not only provides new insight into four films from a master but also sheds light on the process through which classic motion pictures are created.

In spring 1953, the great director Alfred Hitchcock made the pivotal decision to take a chance and work with a young writer, John Michael Hayes. The four films Hitchcock made with Hayes over the next several years-Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry, and The Man Who Knew Too Much-represented an extraordinary change of style. Each was distinguished by a combination of glamorous stars, sophisticated dialogue, and inventive plots, and resulted in some of Hitchcock's most distinctive and intimate work, based in large part on Hayes's exceptional scripts. Screenwriter and film historian Steven DeRosa follows Hitchcock and Hayes through each film from initial discussions to completed picture and also reveals the personal story-filled with inspiration and humor, jealousy and frustration-of the initial synergy between the two men before their relationship fell apart. Writing with Hitchcock not only provides new insight into four films from a master but also sheds light on the mysterious process through which classic motion pictures are created. This updated edition includes previously unpublished archival material such as Alfred Hitchcock's dubbing notes for Rear Window, deleted script sequences, Hitchcock's own notes on John Michael Hayes's screenplay for The Man Who Knew Too Much, and forty-four illustrations.

Scripting Hitchcock explores the collaborative process between Alfred Hitchcock and the screenwriters he hired to write the scripts for three of his greatest films: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie. Drawing from extensive interviews with the screenwriters and other film technicians who worked for Hitchcock, Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick illustrate how much of the filmmaking process took place not on the set or in front of the camera, but in the adaptation of the sources, the mutual creation of plot and characters by the director and the writers, and the various revisions of the written texts of the films. Hitchcock allowed his writers a great deal of creative freedom, which resulted in dynamic screenplays that expanded traditional narrative and defied earlier conventions. Critically examining the question of authorship in film, Raubicheck and Srebnick argue that Hitchcock did establish visual and narrative priorities for his writers, but his role in the writing process was that of an editor. While the writers and their contributions have generally been underappreciated, this study reveals that all the dialogue and much of the narrative structure of the films were the work of screenwriters Jay Presson Allen, Joseph Stefano, and Evan Hunter. The writers also shaped American cultural themes into material specifically for actors such as Janet Leigh, Tippi Hedren, and Tony Perkins. This volume gives due credit to those writers who gave narrative form to Hitchcock's filmic vision.

Winner of the 2022 Edgar Award for Best Biography An Economist Best Book of 2021 A fresh, innovative biography of the twentieth century’s most iconic filmmaker. In The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock, Edward White explores the Hitchcock phenomenon—what defines it, how it was invented, what it reveals about the man at its core, and how its legacy continues to shape our cultural world. The book’s twelve chapters illuminate different aspects of Hitchcock’s life and work: “The Boy Who Couldn’t Grow Up”; “The Murderer”; “The Auteur”; “The Womanizer”; “The Fat Man”; “The Dandy”; “The Family Man”; “The Voyeur”; “The Entertainer”; “The Pioneer”; “The Londoner”; “The Man of God.” Each of these angles reveals something fundamental about the man he was and the mythological creature he has become, presenting not just the life Hitchcock lived but also the various versions of himself that he projected, and those projected on his behalf. From Hitchcock’s early work in England to his most celebrated films, White astutely analyzes Hitchcock’s oeuvre and provides new interpretations. He also delves into Hitchcock’s ideas about gender; his complicated relationships with “his women”—not only Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren but also his female audiences—as well as leading men such as Cary Grant, and writes movingly of Hitchcock’s devotion to his wife and lifelong companion, Alma, who made vital contributions to numerous classic Hitchcock films, and burnished his mythology. And White is trenchant in his assessment of the Hitchcock persona, so carefully created that Hitchcock became not only a figurehead for his own industry but nothing less than a cultural icon. Ultimately, White’s portrayal illuminates a vital truth: Hitchcock was more than a Hollywood titan; he was the definitive modern artist, and his significance reaches far beyond the confines of cinema.

After a decade of successful films that included Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock produced Marnie, an apparent artistic failure and an unquestionable commercial disappointment. Over the decades, however, the film’s reputation has undergone a reevaluation, and both critics and fans alike have come to appreciate Marnie’s many qualities. In Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, Tony Lee Moral investigates the cultural and political factors governing the 1964 film’s production, the causes of its critical and commercial failure, and Marnie’s relevance for today’s artists and filmmakers. Hitchcock’s style, motivation, and fears regarding the film are well-documented in this examination of one of his most undervalued efforts. Moral uses extensive research, including personal interviews with Tippi Hedren and Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano—as well as unpublished excerpts from interviews with Hitchcock himself—to delve into the issues surrounding the film’s production and release. This revised edition features four new chapters that provide even more fascinating insights into the film’s production and Hitchcock’s working methods. Biographies of Winston Graham—the author of the novel on which the film is based—and screenwriter Jay Presson Allen provide clues into how they brought a feminist viewpoint to Marnie. Additional material addresses Hitchcock’s unrealized project Mary Rose and his efforts to bring it to the screen, the director’s visual style and subjective approach to Marnie, and an exploration of the “real” Alfred Hitchcock. The book also addresses criticisms of the director following the HBO television movie The Girl, which depicted the filming of Marnie. With newly obtained access to the Hitchcock Collection Production Archives at the Margaret Herrick Library, the files of Jay and Lewis Allen, and the memoirs of Winston Graham—as well as interviews in 2012 with the Hitchcock crew—this new edition of Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie provides an invaluable look behind the scenes of a film that has finally been recognized for its influence and vision. It contains more than thirty photos, including a storyboard sequence for the film.

Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most revered filmmakers of the 20th century. Not only was he the "Master of Suspense," he was also an innovator of storyboarding, directing, framing, editing, and marketing. Hitchcock regularly engaged with his audiences and gave lectures at film institutes, universities, and film schools across the country. Now in this Movie Making Master Class, Hitchcock author and aficionado Tony Lee Moral takes you through the process of making a ?motion picture, Hitchcock-style.

Architecture plays an important role In the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Steven Jacobs devotes lengthy discussion to a series of domestic buildings with the help of a number of reconstructed floor plans made specially for this book.