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Title: Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man by Pat Hitchcock, Laurent Bouzereau, Pat Hitchcock O'Connell ISBN: 0-425-19005-6 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A daughter's tribute to her mother
Comment: I really enjoyed reading this biography because I have been a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock for years and have always wondered what his family life was like. Who better to tell us than his and Alma's one and only daughter. While it was interesting to read about the film stuff in this book, I am so happy she did not go into analyzing them because ultimately I don't see this as a critical film book. As a family memoir and biography, this worked for me. While I would never try them, I loved reading through the menus and recipes in the back of the book because it gives you and extra special peek into the Hitchcock daily life. Alma was a wonderful woman, feisty like nothing else, a huge contributor to his films and others, and obviously a wonderful mother. Pat Hitchcock did a great job bringing us into her childhood and family life.
Rating: 2
Summary: Disappointed
Comment: I have been waiting for someone to write a book that would recount the huge contribution that Alma Reville Hitchcock made to the films for which she received little or no credit. Unfortunately Pat's book does not do this in any depth.
The book is poorly written and disorganized skipping from one time period to another without transition. At times it is difficult to know who the speaker is with the use of many long quotes.
She is obviously uncomfortable calling her parents Alma and Hitch and so switches back and forth between those names and Mama and Daddy.
The book is not a bio of Alma but rather a blend of the work of Alma, Hitch, and Pat. There is little fleshing out of characters and aside from mentioning that Hitch listened to Pat or that Pat codirected or wrote a film script there is little detail of what Alma did.
Alma is portrayed as a mother of her time who was content largely to stay at home and cook. Pat portrays an idyllic family with a "daddy knows best" philosophy. If this book is intedned to document Alma's huge contribution to Hitch's films, it falls short.
Rating: 1
Summary: Disappointed
Comment: I have been eager for someone to write a bio of Alma Hitchcock who is said to have been an even greater cinematographer than her husband. When I saw her daughter had a bio coming out I rushed to get it.
I can't tell you how disappointed I am. The writing is terrible. The book is extremely disorganized. The author is obviously uncomfortable referring to her parents as Alma and Hitch rather than Mama and Daddy so she constantly switches back and forth. Worse than that she praises and affirms her mother's choice to be "modest" and not claim for herself the MAJOR role Alma played in nearly all Hitch's films once they met. Pat praises Alma's choice to emphasize being mother, wife, cook when the reality is still that Alma never gave up her career and actually codirected a number of "his" films - a fact she gives passing reference to.
Also in spite of the fact that the rumors that he was, at the least, difficult to live with abound, she paints an idyllic picture of family life with virtually few ripples. She is not a good story teller. Having just finished reading "An affair to Remember" (Hepburn and Tracy)and being nearly wiped out by the emotion of it, I found this one is as far opposite as one could get. I guess it will fall to someone else to write honoring and analysing rather than simply refering to the amazing art of Alma Reville Hitchcock.
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Title: Alfred Hitchcock : A Life in Darkness and Light by Patrick McGilligan ISBN: 006039322X Publisher: Regan Books Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco by Jeff Kraft, Aaron Leventhal, Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell ISBN: 1891661272 Publisher: Santa Monica Pr Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie (Filmmakers Series, 95) by Tony Lee Moral ISBN: 0810842750 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (Non NBN) Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Alfred Hitchcock: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) by Sidney Gottlieb ISBN: 1578065623 Publisher: Univ Pr of Mississippi (Trd) Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title:Under Capricorn ASIN: B000093NSH Publisher: Image Entertainment Pub. Date: 17 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.99 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $17.99 |
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