Jennifer K. Lafferty's Blog: Authors' Musings - Posts Tagged "hitchcock"

Just want to let everybody know that I have recently published my non-fiction book "Rebecca: The Making of a Hollywood Classic" available on Amazon in print and e-book format. The summery is below. And if anyone would like to download a free review copy please let me know.


The making of the classic, Oscar® winning 1940 film "Rebecca" is recounted in this revealing behind the scenes book which details how the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock and legendary producer David O. Selznick ("Gone With the Wind") teamed up to create this timeless romantic thriller, based on Daphne du Maurier's novel. The off-screen drama between Selznick and Hitchcock and among the film's cast members is brought to light. The creativity, brilliance and sometimes unorthodox methods that went into the making of this iconic movie are explored in detail. Biographical sketches of Hitchcock, Selznick, cast members and other key figures are included along with trivia and anecdotal reminiscences that range from colorful to shocking.

I'm giving away a copy of my book "Rebecca: The Making of a Hollywood Classic" Enter between now and December 17, 2013

The E-book version of Rebecca: The Making of a Hollywood Classic has been marked down to .99 for a limited time. This is the nook version but it is not necessary to own a nook. It can be downloaded onto your computer. This is also the new revised version of the book with additional pages.



http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rebec...

You can also read my latest Examiner article on "She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth" by visiting Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/article/she-w...

Tony Lee Moral's book chronicling the production of one of Alfred Hitchcock's most intriguing films, Marnie, stands out for being a thoroughly researched and very detailed book. We get an insider's glimpse into how the iconic director worked. It would have seemed very unlikely, when the film was originally released in 1964 to disappointing box office results, that anyone would ever want to read a book about it. But nothing about Marnie, which follows a beautiful, mysterious compulsive thief as she tries to outrun the law and love at the same time, came easily. It was a struggle to be made and took a long time to gain the popularity it deserves. The story, director and film itself were all ahead of their time, which is part of what makes this book interesting. There has been a lot of publicity surrounding the sexual harassment allegations made by the film's leading lady Tippi Hedren about Alfred Hitchcock. This book, which came out prior to Hedren's autobiography, does not delve deeply into the alleged sexual harassment. This is primarily an exploration of a very memorable film that audiences, especially Hitchcock fans have embraced in the past few decades. The behind-the-scenes story could easily be a film itself. We read about efforts to bring Grace Kelly out of retirement to play the title role, about Hitchcock's discovery of his next ice princess -- Tippi Hedren -- how he and wife Alma gave her acting lessons in preparation for The Birds, the multiple writers who tried to tackle the adaptation of Winston Graham's novel and Hitchcock's unique way of developing and directing a project. Fans of Marnie will want to dive right in to this book.

Hitchcock and the Making of [bookcover:Hitchcock and the Making of MarnieMarnie|374984]



P.S. I would like to mention that my new novel Songbird of Culpeper County has just been released. Please take a look.

Today I'm going to highlight books about Berry Gordy, Alfred Hitchcock & David O. Selznick and Charlotte Bronte. These people would seem to have very little in common except that they were all celebrities of one kind or another in their own time and their bios all happened to be on my GR reading list for 2021.

Anyone who really loves music is probably at least a little curious about the behind-the-scenes goings on of the music industry and To Be Loved about Motown founder Berry Gordy is a great place to start. The fact that this is Berry Gordy's autobiography is a real plus in some respects. It's a very personal story a times and an inspiring one as well. However, as with most autobiographies we usually just get one side of the story so you may want to supplement this book with one of the other many books available about the history of Motown. I do want to say it is interesting to experience these remarkable events from the perspective of the man who made it happen and Gordy remembers EVERYTHING.

I think a lot of people tend to lump Charlotte Bronte together with other 19th century spinsterish writers like Jane Austen and poet Emily Dickenson but Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart dispels much of this stereotype and presents a multidimensional woman of great passion, contradiction, initiative and backbone. Bronte comes across as even more intriguing than her most famous heroine. I read this book as research for my new book The Many Faces of Jane Eyre: Film, TV and Stage Adaptations but it turned out to be very entertaining and I would highly recommend it, especially to fans of Charlotte Bronte's work.

Hitchcock and Selznick: The Rich and Strange Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and David O. Selznick in Hollywood is a little harder to get through than these other two titles, mostly because it can be very technical at times. Iconic producer David O. Selznick and legendary director Alfred Hitchcock were, in addition to both being extremely talented filmmakers, also two of the most provocative characters from the golden age of Hollywood but this book is mainly about their careers which is good news to some readers and disappointing to others. If you want a detailed analysis of the films these two geniuses made together and their often difficult working relationship then you should enjoy this one. If not, there are plenty of other titles to choose from which provide a more personal perspective.