Writing with Hitchcock: The Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and John Michael Hayes [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Steven DeRosa (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 11, 2001

An entertaining, in-depth look at the films, including Rear Window, made by Alfred Hitchcock with screenwriter John Michael Hayes.

In spring 1953, the great director Alfred Hitchcock decided to take a chance and work with a young writer, John Michael Hayes. The decision turned out to be a pivotal one, for the four films that Hitchcock made with Hayes over the next several years -- Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry, and The Man Who Knew Too Much -- represented an extraordinarily successful change of style. Each of the movies was distinguished by a combination of glamorous stars, sophisticated dialogue, and inventive plots -- James Stewart and Grace Kelly trading barbs in the tensely plotted Rear Window, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly engaging in witty repartee in To Catch a Thief -- and resulted in some of Hitchcock's most distinctive and intimate work, based in large part on Hayes's exceptional scripts.

Exploring for the first time the details of this collaboration, Steven DeRosa follows Hitchcock and Hayes through each film from initial discussions to completed picture and presents an analysis of each screenplay. He also reveals the personal story -- filled with inspiration and humor, jealousy and frustration -- of the initial synergy between the two very different men before their relationship fell apart. Writing with Hitchcock not only provides new insight into four films from a master but also sheds light on the process through which classic motion pictures are created.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Alfred Hitchcock: The name conjures up incredible suspense, mordant laughs, the surprise ending. But Hitch's unique vision was not his alone. In this detailed analysis of the filmmaker's collaboration with screenwriter Hayes, DeRosa reveals how Hitchcock's basic artistic instincts were often radically reshaped and transformed by Hayes's nimble writing. The Hitchcock-Hayes collaborations--Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry and The Man Who Knew Too Much--form a transitional period in the director's career, with the writer contributing a kinder vision of the human condition, highly sophisticated dialogue and a sense of humor to Hitchcock's works. DeRosa, a former film archivist, has soundly researched his subject and carefully compares the original versions of each film with its ensuing treatments, scripts and multiple revisions. Relying heavily on interviews with Hayes as well as on studio memos and production notes, DeRosa gives us not only an in-depth portrait of this working relationship but a comprehensive look at the industry in the late 1950s, when it was struggling to reassert itself after the emergence of television. The author also engagingly describes the cultural politics of the time (Joseph Breen and the Production Code were vigilant in attacking Hayes's edgy, urbane representations of sexuality). DeRosa also brings convincing drama to Hayes and Hitchcock's breakup and charts Hayes's later career writing such films as Peyton Place and The Children's Hour. While overly specific for the general reader, this is an important study for film and Hitchcock scholars.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Despite Hitchcock's well-known flair for visual filmmaking, the director insisted on employing topnotch writers, including Raymond Chandler and Thornton Wilder. Hitchcock was particularly productive during the 1950s, when he collaborated with the young John Michael Hayes on four films: the innovative (Rear Window), the witty (The Trouble with Harry), the stylish (To Catch a Thief), and the stodgy (the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much). These films proved popular with audiences. Unfortunately, however, Hitchcock could be egotistical and unforgiving, and a disagreement over the writing credit for Man abruptly ended their personal and professional relationship. Hayes continued to work but eventually grew disenchanted with Hollywood; meanwhile, Hitchcock went on to direct three of his greatest films toward the end of the decade. Here, DeRosa, a writer and film archivist, outlines the careers and creative partnership of Hayes and Hitchcock and analyzes the four screenplays. He notes that Hitchcock envisioned a film as a "mosaic" of set pieces or highlights more than a coherent whole, which led to problems for scriptwriters like Hayes. A supplementary purchase for libraries with large holdings on the film suspense master.DStephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber; 1st edition (July 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571199909
• ISBN-13: 978-0571199907
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,169,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steven DeRosa is a screenwriter and film historian that has also worked as an editor of movie theater previews. He has lectured on screenwriting and film at NYU's Hitchcock Centennial Conference, The American Museum of the Moving Image, Film Forum, and New School University, and has been a contributing writer to the Writers Guild of America Awards.

Steven can be seen on-screen in the documentary, The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style, available on Warner Home Video's 50th Anniversary Blu-ray of North by Northwest, as well as in featurettes on Paramount's DVD release of To Catch a Thief.

You can join the Writing with Hitchcock Facebook community at
facebook.com/writingwithhitch

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Dark and the Light Side, July 7, 2001

By 

Eric Johnson (Longmont, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Writing with Hitchcock: The Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and John Michael Hayes (Paperback)

With big thumbs up from the likes of Donald Spoto (Hitch's biographer) and Joseph Stefano (screenwriter of Hitch's "Psycho") there's no question Steven DeRosa's "Writing with Hitchcock" is compulsory reading for the serious Hitchcock fan. But written with a style both enjoyable and accessible, this book will entertain and enlighten anyone with even a casual interest in the movies, mostly because there's a darn good story here

The jumping off point for this story is when Hitchcock was getting ready to film "Torn Curtain", one of his less successful spy adventures. Hitchcock ignored pleas from those close to him to call on John Michael Hayes for a rewrite. The resulting film was a disaster.

The author then brings us back ten years to when Hitchcock himself called on Hayes to pen "Rear Window" The results were so successful, the director kept Hayes on board for the next three films, which include: "To Catch a Thief," "The Trouble with Harry," and "The Man Who Knew Too Much."

The author describes the making of each film, with particular attention to the writing, as suggested by the title, while always providing a sense of the ever-changing dynamic between a powerful producer-director and a young Hollywood writer, courtesy of interviews with Hayes himself, as well as other surviving crew members. The story of their breakup is sad, but typical of Hollywood, where many make the mistake of beginning to believe their own press.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fair balanced presentation of Hitchcock-Hayes collaboration, July 3, 2001

By 

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Writing with Hitchcock: The Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and John Michael Hayes (Paperback)

When the auteur myth took root it managed to both change the stature of directors and displace a lot of talented writers. While there's no doubt that Hitchcock is still a giant in cinema, many of the books written about him tend to focus only on Hitch's contribution. DeRosa's book provides fair balance and recognizes writer Joh Michael Hayes' contribution to a fruitful collaboration. The four pictures that Hayes worked on (Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, To Catch A Thief and the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much)are all among Hitch's best work as a director. This isn't to suggest that Hitch didn't contribute to story ideas; he would frequently sketch out a general plot but writers like Hayes (or Ernest Lehman to name another strong Hitch collaborator) would be left along to write the script once the basic plot was discussed.

DeRosa knows his stuff and his research is exhaustive. I would have to liked to have seen more storyboard to script comparisons and comments from other writers and directors but that probably would have changed the scope of the book (and the focus). Without tarnishing Hitch's reputation, Writing With Hitchcock makes a strong case for the importance of Hayes contribution to Hitch's film.

After they had a falling out Hitch would frequently dismiss Hayes contributions to his films in print( such as in Truffaut's interview with Hitchcock. Hitch was generally pretty good about recognizing the importance of his collaborators)

Luckily that bitterness can't color the fine work of these well matched collaborators. This book along (with the inteviews Hayes granted for the DVD editions of their four films) finally puts it all into perspective. It also allows one to celebrate the great art and entertainment of Hitch and Hayes.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chalk one up for the writers!, June 27, 2001

By 

Liz (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Writing with Hitchcock: The Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and John Michael Hayes (Paperback)

At last someone has challenged the myth that Hitchcock did everything himself. Not so. He had some very skilled writers whose talents helped make his films so memorable. One of those writers - perhaps the most important - was John Michael Hayes, whose screenplays for Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Trouble with Harry and the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, had a tremendous impact on Hitchcock's films of the fifties, and on the way we view Hitchcock today.

In "Writing With Hitchcock", Steven DeRosa gives Hayes his long overdue credit. Hayes' contributions to each of the films are described in detail, as are the steps taken by the censors to reign things in - to protect audiences from the idea that Cary Grant and Grace Kelly would have premarital relations, or that Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day's boy was kidnapped, are just a couple of examples! Each film is gone over in detail from the writing phase to release, and the reader is given a chance to see the relationship between the writer and director blossom, and then die.

There are lots of anecdotes and a summarizing of both Hitchcock and Hayes' careers after they parted which is very illuminating, especially the potential sequel to Rear Window that Hayes worked on that would have been far more interesting than the Chris Reeve tv version. The final chapter is an analysis of each of the screenplays, and this was especially interesting to me as an aspiring screenwriter. Well worth the price of admission! I only wish it was in hardcover.