Noël Simsolo

This reads more like an illustrated trivia book than a dramatized biography. It is densely packed with anecdotes from the dozens of films on which Hitchcock worked and peopled with the dozens and dozens of major stars, writers, directors and producers with whom Hitchcock worked, lingering longest with Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, and Alma Hitchcock, Hitchcock's wife and collaborator. It is told in framing sequences with Hitchcock regaling people with stories from his career, mostly progressing chronologically but frequently skipping around in time in a manner that confuses as much as it helps make a point about his career.

I disliked that the allegations of toxic workplace, sexual harassment, and sexual assault made by Tippi Hedron are not addressed, though her book came out previous to the two original volumes of this work collected here. Indeed, the author seems to go out of his way to lay the groundwork for gaslighting by highlighting the pranks Hitchcock would play on set with many of his cast and crew and portraying Hitchcock as an asexual person who simply had innocent, boyish crushes on the many blondes he hired -- y'know, except for all the leering double entendres he tosses out in the course of the book.

Too worshipful. Too crammed.… (more)