Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie
By (author) Tony Lee Moral
Publication date:
29 July 2013Length of book:
340 pagesPublisher
Scarecrow PressISBN-13: 9780810891074
After a decade of successful films that included Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock produced Marnie, an apparent artistic failure and an unquestionable commercial disappointment. Over the decades, however, the film’s reputation has undergone a reevaluation, and both critics and fans alike have come to appreciate Marnie’s many qualities.
In Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, Tony Lee Moral investigates the cultural and political factors governing the 1964 film’s production, the causes of its critical and commercial failure, and Marnie’s relevance for today’s artists and filmmakers. Hitchcock’s style, motivation, and fears regarding the film are well-documented in this examination of one of his most undervalued efforts. Moral uses extensive research, including personal interviews with Tippi Hedren and Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano—as well as unpublished excerpts from interviews with Hitchcock himself—to delve into the issues surrounding the film’s production and release.
This revised edition features four new chapters that provide even more fascinating insights into the film’s production and Hitchcock’s working methods. Biographies of Winston Graham—the author of the novel on which the film is based—and screenwriter Jay Presson Allen provide clues into how they brought a feminist viewpoint to Marnie. Additional material addresses Hitchcock’s unrealized project Mary Rose and his efforts to bring it to the screen, the director’s visual style and subjective approach to Marnie, and an exploration of the “real” Alfred Hitchcock. The book also addresses criticisms of the director following the HBO television movie The Girl, which depicted the filming of Marnie.
With newly obtained access to the Hitchcock Collection Production Archives at the Margaret Herrick Library, the files of Jay and Lewis Allen, and the memoirs of Winston Graham—as well as interviews in 2012 with the Hitchcock crew—this new edition of Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie provides an invaluable look behind the scenes of a film that has finally been recognized for its influence and vision. It contains more than thirty photos, including a storyboard sequence for the film.
In Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, Tony Lee Moral investigates the cultural and political factors governing the 1964 film’s production, the causes of its critical and commercial failure, and Marnie’s relevance for today’s artists and filmmakers. Hitchcock’s style, motivation, and fears regarding the film are well-documented in this examination of one of his most undervalued efforts. Moral uses extensive research, including personal interviews with Tippi Hedren and Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano—as well as unpublished excerpts from interviews with Hitchcock himself—to delve into the issues surrounding the film’s production and release.
This revised edition features four new chapters that provide even more fascinating insights into the film’s production and Hitchcock’s working methods. Biographies of Winston Graham—the author of the novel on which the film is based—and screenwriter Jay Presson Allen provide clues into how they brought a feminist viewpoint to Marnie. Additional material addresses Hitchcock’s unrealized project Mary Rose and his efforts to bring it to the screen, the director’s visual style and subjective approach to Marnie, and an exploration of the “real” Alfred Hitchcock. The book also addresses criticisms of the director following the HBO television movie The Girl, which depicted the filming of Marnie.
With newly obtained access to the Hitchcock Collection Production Archives at the Margaret Herrick Library, the files of Jay and Lewis Allen, and the memoirs of Winston Graham—as well as interviews in 2012 with the Hitchcock crew—this new edition of Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie provides an invaluable look behind the scenes of a film that has finally been recognized for its influence and vision. It contains more than thirty photos, including a storyboard sequence for the film.
[A]n exemplar of revision; not only does Moral’s book correct and update an earlier work, but also expands and enhances with new content that shapes our previous understanding. And this is a timely re-release, given the recent surge of interest in Hitchcock, coalescing around the 90th anniversary—in 2012—of him making his first film, as well as the appearance of contentious biopics The Girl (2012) and Hitchcock (2012). What results, in the hands of Moral, is a book that celebrates the uneasy position of Marnie as, depending upon your point of view, the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning of Hitchcock’s directing career.