HITCHCOCK'S BLONDES

The author of Capote’s Women digs into Hitchcock territory.

Donald Spoto covered this territory in Spellbound by Beauty, but Leamer puts his own distinctive spin on it—breezy, juicy and eminently readable. Ever since the devoutly Catholic Hitchcock was young, “blond women were the epitome of female beauty, and he fixated on them.” He was always trying to mold his heroines “into the heroine of my imagination.” The eight actors Leamer profiles “knew the truths of his art as well as anyone.” His silent film The Lodger, starring June Howard-Tripp, a beloved musical star, “revealed his passion for blondes and his pleasure in making them suffer.” Madeleine Carroll was his wife’s choice for The 39 Steps. He quickly agreed, calling her a “real Hitchcock type,” but he would soon turn on her in “measures both deliberately cruel and casually thoughtless.” During the filming of Secret Agent, her co-star John Gielgud said Hitchcock was “beastly to her.” Hitchcock’s move to Hollywood led to Spellbound with Ingrid Bergman, his “ultimate woman.” He was totally smitten with her. With Under Capricorn, he gave her a “film expressly conceived to allow her to soar.” Dial M for Murder brought Grace Kelly into Hitchcock’s world, and he treated her with “deference that he had shown with none of his other actresses.” She would return for the brilliant Rear Window, “considered by critics one of the best thrillers of all time,” and the playful To Catch a Thief. With Kelly married to a prince, Hitchcock emotionally wore down the underrated Kim Novak until she was ready for Vertigo. For North by Northwest, Hitchcock “transformed” the demure Eva Marie Saint into a “svelte, sexually provocative woman of his imagination.” In Psycho, Janet Leigh dies early but hovers over the entire film. The attack of poor Tippi Hedren in The Birds, notes the author, was the “most controversial scene Hitchcock ever filmed.”

Leamer excels at dissecting Hitchcock’s filmic genius and odd proclivities.