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Alfred Hitchcock
Discusses all of Hitchcock's feature films, looks at the shows he directed for his television series, and identifies some of the main themes of his work
211 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1984
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August 30, 2014
Gene D. Phillips' book does a good enough job for people in search of short summaries of a Hitchcock movie or some extra background information on its production afterwards. Most of his movies appear to be mentioned (I saw Mary wasn't there, Hitch's German version of Murder) in the book, so as a go-to guide it seems perfectly adequate, furthermore because attention is also given to the British and silent Hitchcock films
As a book on Hitchcock however, it's not highly recommendable because the film after film summation nature of the book makes it a hard read. I've seen 15 of Hitchcock's films, but that's only a small piece of his filmography. This effectively means reading plot summaries about film after film that one has not seen. I can't imagine people doing that for more than 50 films, especially since the plot with a Hitchcock film is often (granted, not always) thematically not that different from his other films. His Motifs often remain the same.
What made me put the book away (for now at least) however, was the massive spoilers. Phillips often needlessly describes movies climaxes and the spoiler content was just to high for me.
In short, to look up some background info of Hitchcock films, the book has reasonable merit, but as a biography or descriptive book about Hitchcock it's lacking. Anyone looking up movies that they have not yet seen, be aware of possible (and likely) spoilers.
3*
As a book on Hitchcock however, it's not highly recommendable because the film after film summation nature of the book makes it a hard read. I've seen 15 of Hitchcock's films, but that's only a small piece of his filmography. This effectively means reading plot summaries about film after film that one has not seen. I can't imagine people doing that for more than 50 films, especially since the plot with a Hitchcock film is often (granted, not always) thematically not that different from his other films. His Motifs often remain the same.
What made me put the book away (for now at least) however, was the massive spoilers. Phillips often needlessly describes movies climaxes and the spoiler content was just to high for me.
In short, to look up some background info of Hitchcock films, the book has reasonable merit, but as a biography or descriptive book about Hitchcock it's lacking. Anyone looking up movies that they have not yet seen, be aware of possible (and likely) spoilers.
3*
Displaying 1 of 1 review