Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies Book PDF, ePub eBook

Join our eBook service for unlimited books & audiobooks. Get a free 7 day subscription! ↓↓↓↓↓


Book Descriptions:
“The trouble today is that we don’t torture women enough.”
—Alfred Hitchcock

It is remarkable how infrequently, over a period of more than fifty years, Alfred Hitchcock spoke about the beautiful, legendary and talented actresses he directed. And when he did, his remarks were mostly indifferent and often hostile. But his leading ladies greatly enriched his films, even as many of them achieved international stardom precisely because of their work for Hitchcock—among the dozens of women were Madeleine Carroll, Joan Fontaine, Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren. Yet he maintained a stony, insistent silence about the quality of their performances and their contributions to his art.

Spellbound by Beauty—the final volume in master biographer Donald Spoto’s Hitchcock trilogy that began with The Art of Alfred Hitchcock and continued with The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock—is the fascinating, complex and finally tragic story of the great moviemaker and his female stars, the unusual ideas of sex and romance that inform his films and the Hollywood dreams that often became nightmares.

Rich with fresh revelations based on previously undisclosed tapes, new interviews, private correspondence and personal papers made available only to the author, this thoughtful, compassionate yet explosive portrait details Hitchcock’s outbursts of cruelty, the shocking humor and the odd amalgam of adoration and contempt that time and again characterized Hitchcock’s obsessive relationships with women—and that also, paradoxically, fed his genius.

He insisted, for example, that Madeleine Carroll submit herself to painful physical demands during the making of The 39 Steps. He harbored a poignantly unrequited love for Ingrid Bergman. He meticulously and deliberately constructed Grace Kelly’s image. Finally, he stalked, harassed and abused Tippi Hedren. His treatment of his daughter, Pat, was certainly unusual, while his strange marriage to his sometime collaborator Alma Reville was a union that (according to Hitchcock himself) was forever chaste after one incident.

Spellbound by Beauty offers important insights into the life of a brilliant, powerful, eccentric and tortured artist, and it corrects a major gap in movie history by paying tribute at last to those extraordinarily talented actresses who gave so much to his films.


From the Hardcover edition.

Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies by Donald Spoto

From reader reviews:

Brian Paige:

Do you have favorite book? When you have, what is your favorite's book? Publication is very important thing for us to learn everything in the world. Each book has different aim as well as goal; it means that guide has different type. Some people experience enjoy to spend their time and energy to read a book. They can be reading whatever they get because their hobby is usually reading a book. Consider the person who don't like looking at a book? Sometime, man or woman feel need book when they found difficult problem or perhaps exercise. Well, probably you should have this Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies.

Rosa Goldschmidt:

This book untitled Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies to be one of several books that best seller in this year, that is because when you read this guide you can get a lot of benefit into it. You will easily to buy this particular book in the book retailer or you can order it through online. The publisher with this book sells the e-book too. It makes you quicker to read this book, since you can read this book in your Smartphone. So there is no reason for your requirements to past this publication from your list.

Steve Franklin:

Reading a reserve can be one of a lot of task that everyone in the world loves. Do you like reading book so. There are a lot of reasons why people enjoyed. First reading a book will give you a lot of new info. When you read a guide you will get new information due to the fact book is one of several ways to share the information or maybe their idea. Second, examining a book will make anyone more imaginative. When you examining a book especially fiction book the author will bring someone to imagine the story how the character types do it anything. Third, you can share your knowledge to other folks. When you read this Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, you can tells your family, friends and soon about yours guide. Your knowledge can inspire average, make them reading a guide.

Shirley Drago:

Why? Because this Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies is an unordinary book that the inside of the book waiting for you to snap it but latter it will surprise you with the secret the idea inside. Reading this book adjacent to it was fantastic author who else write the book in such amazing way makes the content interior easier to understand, entertaining method but still convey the meaning completely. So , it is good for you for not hesitating having this anymore or you going to regret it. This unique book will give you a lot of benefits than the other book have such as help improving your expertise and your critical thinking technique. So , still want to hold off having that book? If I were you I will go to the book store hurriedly.