Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man [Mass Market Paperback]

Pat Hitchcock O'Connell (Author), Laurent Bouzereau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 2004

Alfred Hitchcock's films are a testament to his perfectionism and his autonomy, yet there was one person whose advice he valued above all others: his wife, Alma. What was her impact on one of the most creative collaborations in film history?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

All Alfred Hitchcock needed to produce his psychological thrillers was the love of a good woman, according to this pleasant but superficial memoir of the famed director and his wife, by their daughter. O'Connell traces her mother's life from her early career as a film editor, scenarist and silent-movie actress to her ongoing collaboration on the scripting, casting and direction of her husband's movies. She structures her narrative around a breezy filmography of her father's movies, notes the development of Hitchcock trademarks like the "MacGuffin," and regales readers with Hollywood anecdotes (Carole Lombard once brought cows onto the set after Hitchcock likened actors to cattle) and homespun reminiscences of her avowedly normal childhood. O'Connell is at pains to highlight her mother's every contribution to her father's oeuvre, and produces many quite lengthy testimonials from relatives, actors, friends, long-term care providers and Hitchcock himself to vouch for her warm personality, impeccable manners, superb cooking, gracious hostessing and influence on Hitchcock's creative process. Alma does seem like a lovely and highly intelligent woman, but despite her daughter's best efforts she is overshadowed by her husband, whose quirks and achievements make him the more vivid character even in the unrevealing and protective portrait of him sketched in the book. O'Connell's account of Alma's life is sometimes touching, like a breezy tour through a family album, but its public significance for all but the most obsessive Hitchcock fans remains elusive. Photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

So much has been written about Alfred Hitchcock that no aspect of his career hasn't been explored. Some remain underexplored, however, such as the role that his wife of 54 years played in his career. Starting out as a 16-year-old film editor, Alma Hitchcock began her movie career before Alfred began his. She contributed significantly to his films at every stage of production and received screenplay credit for several of his classics. The couple's daughter Pat, who has small on-screen roles in several of her father's films, recounts the making of the Hitchcock oeuvre, but the personal anecdotes she tells--stories of her parents' vacations and friendships, examples of her father's notorious practical jokes--will most delight Hitchcockians, few of whom, however, will go so far as to try out the recipes with which she concludes the book. She can be accused of overstating her mother's cinematic importance, but readers will likely wind up agreeing with critic Charles Champlin, who wrote, "The Hitchcock touch had four hands, and two were Alma's." Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (July 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425196194
• ISBN-13: 978-0425196199
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,925,627 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing insight only Hitchcock's daughter could provide!, May 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind The Man (Hardcover)

I have been a Hitchcock fan for years and have always been intrigued by the quiet, petite woman beside the giant behemoth of a man. Now I know her story thanks to this intimate memoir written by the Hitchcocks' only child Pat Hitchcock O'Connell. Pat delves deep into the recesses of her memory, it seems, to bring the reader the details of life in the Hitchcock home. Alma was a remarkable woman, very instrumental in the production of all of her husband's films and a wonderful homemaker to boot. She was a little spitfire of energy, but also quite reserved. She put "Hitch" in his place when he acted up and she was always there by his side when he needed her--which was always! The photos and Alma's recipes and menus in teh back of the book add another level of intimacy to this memoir, practically bringing the reader into the family fold and the Hitchcok world. Alma was quite the successful gourmet cook--as her husband's corpulence proved! While it seemed Pat included a bit too many interviews with friends and family, it just only served to confirm Alma's enormous influence and presence in the Hitchcock legacy.

I highly recommend this book to ALL HITCHCOCK FANS and to all who love to read a good family biography! Thank you, Ms. Hitchcock O'Connell for this long-awaited glimpse into your family life.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a worthwhile addition, but nothing special, November 24, 2004

By 

Bryant Burnette "Bryant Burnette" (Tuscaloosa, AL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind The Man (Hardcover)

In skmming through the other customer reveiews for this book, it seems that they split between the typically gushing five-star reviews and the typicallly dismissive one-star reviews that are the bane of this website. Folks in both camps... please learn how to be sensible. You're not helping anybody by being shutter-eyed.

That said, maybe this review will provide some actual perspective on the book. Pat Hitchcock O'Connell's aims with her memoir are to chronicle her mother's contributions not only to Alfred Hitchcock's films, but to the emerging medium of film itself.

Is she successful in these aims? Well, not, not really. The book is not insightful enough to become truly noteworthy; too many of the passages are merely reflections, as opposed to examinations. But neither does she totally fail. After reaing the book, it is impossible to not feel as though Alma was, indeed, a tremendous part of what we now think of as the Hitchcock legacy. We may not find out as much about her contributions as we would like, but this book does seem once and for all the establish Alma as a vital element in Alfred's films.

Another problem: the book is way too breezy. When the making of a seminal masterpiece like "Rear Window" is covered in a mere page or two, something has gone wrong. I suspect that much of this is due to O'Connel's lack of any real knowledge of what went on collaboratively between alma and Alfred.

This breeziness is also something of a virtue, as well. It makes a relatively swift journey from the beginning of the Hitchcocks' careers through to their deaths, and that approach may not be terribly detailed, but it is easy to digest, in the same way that a suite from a musical is easy to digest when compared to the whole score. It cannot, and never should be, a replacement for the whole score; but it's satisfying enough in and of itself.

I also rather enjoyed the section in which many of Alma's recipes and dinner menus are reprinted. This may actually be the book's most significant contribution to the Hitchcock mythos, as it provides a peek into the inner workings of the family that no other writer has yet offered. I can't make much of an analysis of the recipes, since I am anything but a good cook; but they made me hungry as I read through them, and seemed sufficiently challenging to a culinary doofus like myself to make them seem to be genuinely good recipes.

Final thoughts: if you're a serious Hitchcock fan, then this book ought to be on your shelf. Don't expect any sort of a masterpiece, but it is certainly well worth reading.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There's No Substitute for Writing Skills, July 24, 2007

By 

Kathleen Chamberlain (Emory, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man (Mass Market Paperback)

I feel bad saying anything critical about this book, since it's obviously written with love and care. But. . .it's also a testament to an important truth: even if you have a fascinating family, even if you have good stories to tell about them, even if you have an interesting (though not fully convincing) premise -- it's all for naught if you can't write. And Ms. O'Connell, bless her, really cannot. There are so many significant grammar errors, disorganized and under-developed paragraphs, confusing transitions, and badly-identified quotations that at times I simply could not follow the text. Even when the meaning was clear, the errors were such a distraction that I couldn't finish.

And why do so few of the photos have captions? It would be helpful to have some names, dates, places, contexts.