Charlotte Chandler is the author of three higly acclaimed books, HELLO, I MUST BE GOING: GROUCHO AND HIS FRIENDS, THE ULTIMATE SEDUCTION, and I, FELINI.
As almost all of his actors and collaborators note in this well-reported biography, Hitchcock (1899-1980) was never particularly forthcoming on the subject of himself. Through canvassing a broad swath of now-deceased major stars (Grace Kelly, Janet Leigh, Cary Grant), Hitchcock's longtime technicians, his daughter, wife and the filmmaker himself, veteran Hollywood writer Chandler (Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder; etc.) quotes several insights into Hitchcock's technical genius, creative worldview and personality. Hitchcock meticulously planned each shot before filming began, but as his daughter recalls, "at home he said he was happy if he got 75 percent of what he'd seen in his head." Hitchcock's wife, Alma, emerges as the revered ultimate authority in her husband's life and creativity, managing and smoothing out his problems to a loving and remarkable degree (although when he proposed to her on a ship, she was "looking green" and burped instead of saying "yes"). Chandler allows her sources to reminisce at great length, and they tend to tell fascinating stories. The bio remains maddeningly inert, however, because despite the aper?us Chandler gleans, she doesn't manage to tie them together into a cohesive portrait of the filmmaker or offer any analysis of Hitchcock's personality despite her access to him. The book may be categorized as a personal biography, but its subject remains a cipher. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
This spring marks the 25th anniversary of the death of master suspense filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, who once said, "My films aren't a slice of life, but a slice of cake." While recent books (e.g., Donald Spoto's The Dark Side of Genius) have emphasized Hitchcock's darker side, Chandler (Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder; A Personal Biography) prefers to highlight his playfulness and essentially romantic vision. The book's strongest feature is the extensive research; Chandler tracked down surviving actors and crewmembers, who fondly recall Hitchcock's professionalism and incredible visual sense, which allowed him to storyboard the completed movie before it was shot. Other topics include Hitchcock's well-known fear of authority figures, dislike of "method" actors, and avoidance of explicit gore in favor of "frightmares," which left the real horrors to the viewer's imagination. Chandler gives credit to Hitchcock's fruitful partnership on and off screen with his filmmaker wife, Alma Reville. While the book is lively and informative, the anecdotes are sometimes trivial, and Chandler minimizes some of Hitchcock's undeniably negative qualities. Nevertheless, this book is recommended as a solid supplementary purchase for public and academic libraries owning Spoto's book and Patrick McGilligan's Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light.-Stephen Rees, Levittown Lib., PA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
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