Evening Chronicle (20/Jun/2008) - Book reviews

(c) Evening Chronicle (20/Jun/2008)

• keywords: "Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies" - by Donald Spoto, Alfred Hitchcock, Alma Reville, Donald Spoto

---

Book reviews

Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and his Leading Ladies. By Donald Spoto. Hutchinson, pounds 20. Available now.

The majority of Hitchcock's films are steeped in an uncomfortable atmosphere of misogyny and biographer Donald Spoto's latest tome on the larger-than-life subject reinforces this. This doesn't take away from the fact that this is an informative read. It's not subjective, by any means, but still entertaining and illuminating.

For example, who would have believed that Alfred's wife, Alma, was really the one pulling the strings, or that although the majority of the films in Hitch's career manifested themselves through blatant sexual discrimination, his complex, unresolved feelings about women forced him to draw deeply from a reservoir of imagery and dream, fear and longing.