Customer Reviews

The Alfred Hitchcock Story (New Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Reference books make great gifts because they can be pretty useful for years to come. Some of them are even attractive enough to leave out on coffee tables for guests to flip through when conversation drags. <The Alfred Hitchcock Story> by Ken Mogg (Taylor Publishing Company, 1999) is probably the most attractively produced book on that much written about director. It is well organized, each of the Master's films getting anywhere from one to five or six pages, well illustrated, with several specialized items to keep us abreast of trends in Hitch's career. For example, there is a list of all his cameo appearances in his films, a brief examination of his film techniques, his use of famous locations, and so on. Especially welcome are little inserts of trivia, such as the story behind the song the children are singing as The Birds are massing outside in the playground, and a generous number of lobby card reproductions. There is also a good discussion of his television series and even his paperback anthologies. In short, Mr. Mogg does not concentrate entirely on the films, although they do take up the bulk of the volume. By the way, listing Janet Leigh as co-author on this website is misleading: she only wrote a one-page introduction that is quite amusing. My only complaint is that 211 pages are not enough room to handle this wealth of material; and here and there I feel much more of value could have been said had the author been given more space. (Hence the one star less in my rating.) Still such a comment merely shows how much I like this book and many of you will too.

Interested in the films he directed, or just a hitchcock fan? Either way this book is a must. Not only does it cover every film he directed, but there are nice little extras on the stars he worked with, the writing process and even a look at films he inspired. The book is beautifully laid out, yet if you are looking for close analysis then this is not what you want. It looks at each film and talks about them, but there is no hard depth to this material - this is just a good look at the entire canon.

...more appropriately, this book should have been called "Ken Mogg Uses the Films of Alfred Hitchcock to Show Off His Erudition." Here's a very representative example from the section about "Vertigo":

Camille Paglia has a brilliant comment on "Faust", about what happens when Faust tries to materialize the spirit of his lost Helen, and it seems to apply to "Vertigo". Paglia notes that Faust retains a repressed feminine side. Accordingly, when he journeys to the supernatural realm of "the Mothers", they frustrate his attempts. In Paglia's words, "The male struggles through his sexual stages, returning to the mother even when he thinks himself most free of her." And "Vertigo's" nun, or mother-superior, is the Great Mother who has the final say yet again.

If THAT'S the kind of stuff you want to read "about" Hitchcock and his movies, you're in luck, because this book is full of it. If, on the other hand, you'd like to know why Janet Leigh had to spend a week soaking wet in order to get the famous "shower scene" in "Psycho, well, I'm afraid you're out of luck.

The book is beautifully designed with lots of pix, and there are interesting digressions dealing with things like Hitchcock's TV series, but otherwise, there is way too much socio-psychological analysis of the scripts/characters and not near enough about what Hitchcock was doing when he was making these films.

Film director Alfred Hitchcock was a master of suspense: this survey of his film contributions gathers over 300 photos from throughout his life, providing an excellent collection of revealing images spiced with film reviews and sidebars of facts. Highly recommended for any Hitchcock fan.

Published in Britain, Ken Mogg's assessment of Hitchcock's films is highly regarded for its breadth and depth of coverage and and balanced assessments. That is not this book. It can't possibly be. This "new edition" is a handsomely produced, beautifully illustrated, but substantively lean volume better suited for the coffee-table than the scholar's shelf. I decided to keep it, however, because (1) it was not terribly expensive and (2) is a happy reminder of the movies when I'm not actually watching them. In brief, this is a good book for what it is--but it isn't what I thought I'd be getting. Caveat emptor.

This is a beautifully laid-out book, with a nice attention to page design (at least in this 2008 reissue). Unfortunately the contents is not quite up to snuff, at least not for readers who already own other reference books on Hitchcock.

As it covers chronologically his life and career, it boils down to the usual film-by-film survey, with a few short asides to assess some particular stages or periods of interest. Essays by other contributors bring more substance to the package (and justify the 2 star rating), but again they are limited in their achievements by space constraints.

Because of these, Mogg cannot elaborate on the few original thoughts or opinions he expresses. For example, he has a much higher regard for Torn Curtain than other viewers generally express and goes as far as to praise highly John Addison's score, which sounds rather banal on its own and even more so when compared to the few cues Bernard Hermann did compose before being fired. But Mogg cannot really expand beyond simply stating these and the reader is therefore left hanging because he misses out on what could have been an interestingly challenging argument, running against the generally accepted wisdom.

In all, this is a nice introductory book for people who are just beginning to explore the director' work and need a general reference books. But for those who are already well stocked on that front, it is better to look elsewhere, despite the book being reasonably priced for such a well produced object.