Hitchcock's Blondes

July 15, 2023
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.

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September 4, 2023
Biographer Leamer (Capote’s Women) serves up a breezy and gossip-filled group biography of Alfred Hitchcock’s blonde leading ladies. “To Hitchcock, blond women were the epitome of female beauty, and he fixated on them,” Leamer writes, delving into the lives of June Howard-Tripp, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint, and other blonde actors “key to Hitchcock’s career.” The author dissects the complicated relationships Hitchcock had with his stars, including fawning over Ingrid Bergman on the set of Notorious and demeaning Madeline Carroll—star of The 39 Steps and, according to the director, the “first blonde who was a real Hitchcock type”—by requiring she rehearse with her costar while handcuffed and soaking wet. Focusing on the more salacious aspects of the actors’ personal lives, Leamer covers Janet Leigh’s first marriage when she was only 14 and Grace Kelly’s affair with Dial M for Murder costar Ray Milland, who was married at the time. The brisk biographical snapshots offer sometimes troubling insight into what it was like to work with Hitchcock, though Leamer falters in his dismissive coverage of Tippi Hedren’s sexual harassment allegations against the director. Still, film buffs will come away from this page-turner with a better understanding of Hitchcock and the stars that populate his films.

October 1, 2023
Alfred Hitchcock had a thing for blondes. Consider some of his most famous and acclaimed films: Rear Window, Vertigo, Notorious, The Birds. All starred leading ladies who fit his ideal image, which deemed blondes to be "superior beings, Valkyries with coolness as pure as the Arctic snows encasing fiery inner beings that . . . opened up in lusty wantonness." From Ingrid Bergman to Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint to Kim Novak, Tippi Hedren to Janet Leigh, female leads often were cast based on this physical ideal rather than any theatrical talent. And while he had a reputation for worshipping his stars from afar, Hitchcock treated them miserably once filming began, playing mind games off-screen to break their spirit, enabling him to exert the ultimate influence over the character they would portray onscreen. Indeed, Hitchcock considered himself a Svengali, molding mediocre actors into Hollywood mega-stars. Prolific author Leamer provides ample biographical background regarding each actor to buttress his revelations concerning Hitchcock's Machiavellian modus operandi and enhances his premise with just enough titillating behind-the-scenes details to entice devoted movie buffs.

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