All Things Hitch

Hi, Everyone,

i've been busy today working on--or maybe I should say reworking--a short piece for Medium.com.

One of the perks of growing up in the 1950s was sitting in a theater and watching Alfred Hitchcock make screen history with hit after hit.

First off here's the link to my post on Medium.com: https://medium.com/@paulalanfahey/hit...

I thought I'd add a few of my favorite Hitchcock bios here that might be of interest to you. I know I return time and again not only to his films but to the wonderful books that analyze his work.

Here's a short list of some of my favorites.

1) Hitchcock/Truffaut
I think this one is my favorite. I bought the book in 1967 when everyone was talking about it. H/T was revised in 1984 and is a running conversation between Francois Truffaut and Hitchcock; the book highlights his films from the silent era to his last film, Family Plot. Truffaut explores camera techniques, storylines, and intimate details about Hitchcock's filmography. Definitely one of the best books ever on Hitchcock. Recently the actual film of the running conversation was released on DVD. Another don't miss.

2) The Hitchcock Story by Ken Mogg In the late 1990's, I wrote a short piece for Ken Mogg's international journal on Alfred Hitchcock. The article's focus was the first staging of the original screenplay of Rope by Arthur Laurents at our local community college. The book contains complete synopses of his films along with sophisticated and compelling commentary.

3) Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho Concentrating completely on one of Hitchcock's most talked-about films, Mr. Rebello delves deeply into Psycho from the true story that was the basis of the Robert Block novel to the planning, shooting, production, post-production, publicity, and release phases. In fact it was the basis of the film, Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins as Hitch and Helen Mirren as his wife and collaborator, Alma.

4) I promised this would be a short list but I must add one more: Psycho by Janet Leigh. If you were a Janet Leigh fan as I was--or just an admirer of her work in the film as Marion Crane--this was a book you just had to have in your library. Talk about an inside story. Ms. Leigh gives you a front row seat in the filming of the famous shower scene and with her easy-going style of writing--and she was a good writer of memoir--this book is completely irresistible.

Okay, till we meet again, remember . . .

The best is yet to come.

Warmly,

Paul