Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock

by Donald Spoto

Book Overview

"Absolutely compulsory reading." The New York Times Book Review No one but a tortured genius could have created such brooding, suspenseful, and utterly original films as SPELLBOUND, PSYCHO, and THE BIRDS. Now Alfred Hitchcock, the intensely private and often bizarre creator of these masterpieces, is fully revealed in a masterful biography that traces the roots of his obsessions back to a childhood in which the seeds of his future films were sown.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 034531462X
• ISBN13: 9780345314628
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 10 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Undeservedly Excoriated

I have to disagree with those who trash this book. I've read it more than once, and find it quite good. The amateur psychoanalysis doesn't dominate the proceedings, while you do get a very well written overview of an enormous career. Readability counts! - most Hitch books are boring junk, based on some dire Lacanian theory or whatnot. Okay, so Spoto feels he must "explain" Hitch's often morbid sensibility - if you notice, Spoto is also very interested in Christian subject matter. Possibly he feels there is something naughty about Hitch flicks, and must apologize for/excuse his interest in this way. (Speaking of amateur psych...) But that wouldn't be reason enough to pan the book. It's a compelling read, and much of it seems to be accurate. I believe its trashy rep is overstated. Read it, you'll probably be won over.

Extremely informative, interesting

Donald Spoto has done a tremendous work in obtaining first-hand accounts from Hitchcock's friends, colleagues, family, and even Alfred, himself. There is not one iota of information about Hitchcock left out of this monumental work. He traces the ghosts of psychology that haunted Hitchcock from a very young child on until his pitiful death. Hitch's wants, desires, insecurities, and love affairs (one-sided) are intricately outlined and analyzed in a biography that has few contemporaries. This truly is the ultimate work on Hitchcock's life.

It's torturously and sadistically good!

Awesome read! During the spring 2002 college semester I attended a film class where we, the students, had the opportunity to study Alfred Hitchcock the whole semester length. This was one of the books my teacher had us use as a resource book for our reports for the class. The book is well written and in depth. It covers it's bases through different perspectives/aspects of Hitchcock's life from birth to death. It's a good solid read for anyone. As Hitchcock would probably love to hear -- it's torture to give up such a good book.

Portrait of the Artist as a Dog

Spoto's life of Hitchcock, originally published in 1983, is one of the best biographies of a film director we have in English. It's a warts and all portrait, but instead of pitying or disliking Hitchcock for his idiosyncrasies and meannesses, we come to admire him even more for his singular dedication to the art of movies (and he was an artist, not merely "the master of suspense", to use an essentially narrow and insulting characterization). And as far as sheer technique goes, sheer mastery of the medium, Hitchcock probably was/is unsurpassed among modern day filmmakers.Spoto gives us detailed accounts of the making of each of Hitchcock's major films. He really did dislike actors, calling them cattle, but he of course had a fascination with blonde actresses. The book's most poignant segment is the episode invovling Hitchcock's infatuation with Tippi Hedren (a mediocre performer at best who should have been grateful for a great man's attention and adoration), which ultimately ended in humiliation and unhappiness for both of them. Spoto is wrong, however, about MARNIE. It is one of the director's greatest movies, as moving and sad a depiction of desperation as has been committed to celluoid. It fully deserves its late revival in critical favor.This is a clearly written, highly entertaining biography, and one of the closest glimpses we are liking to get straight from the director's chair.

The Dark Side of Genius is a work of genius!

A powerfully written biography about an intriguing figure. Spoto has a tremendous talent for research, and incorporates the perspectives of many of the stars and behind-the-scenes crew, family, and friends, as well as Hitchcock's own point of view. The reader really gets a sense of all sides of Hitch, whether good or bad. This is a must-read for biography fans, classic film buffs, and Hitchcock-philes.