Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho

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Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho (book).jpg
Author Stephen Rebello
Country United States
Language English
Genre Non-fiction
Publisher St. Martin's Griffin
Publication date
 April 15, 1990
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages 224 (first edition, hardback)
ISBN 0-312-20785-9
OCLC 40395537

Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho is a non-fiction book by Stephen Rebello. It details every aspect of the creation of director Alfred Hitchcock's famous thriller Psycho released to theaters in 1960.

The book was first published in April 15, 1990 by Dembner Books and distributed by W. W. Norton and Company. Stephen Rebello researched the film thoroughly through Hitchcock's personal records and archives and he interviewed virtually every surviving cast and crew member. Prior to the book's publication, Rebello's initial research appeared as a 22-page article in the April 1986 issue of Cinefantastique magazine entitled "Psycho: The Making of Alfred Hitchcock's Masterpiece".[1] That research was expanded for the book version.

Synopsis

From Hitchcock's acquisition of the original novel by Robert Bloch to his work with two different screenwriters, casting, filming, editing, scoring, and promotion, the book takes readers into the day-to-day lives of moviemakers who believed they were making a modestly budgeted, black-and-white shocker that represented a radical departure from the elegant, suspenseful films that had made director Hitchcock's reputation, including Rope, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Man Who Knew Too Much and North by Northwest.

The project Hitchcock tackled in part as an experiment to compete with financially successful, low-budget, youth-oriented horror movies went on to astound many by becoming a cultural watershed, an international box-office success, a film classic, and a forerunner of the violent, disorienting films and real-events of the turbulent Sixties.

Publication history

Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho was initially distributed in hardcover print by W.W. Norton for Dembner Books on April 15, 1990 in the United States. A trade paperback edition was released in the United States in 1998 by St. Martin's Griffin. Subsequently, the book has been published in hardcover and paperback by Marion Boyars Limited in Great Britain and Australia. It has also been published in translated international editions in Japan by Byakuya Shobo, France, Germany, and in Italy by Il Castoro. The book has since become a standard and continues to be used in film studies classes on director Alfred Hitchcock.

In 2010, Open Road Media launched the first ebook version of the book, which in 2013 was re-published in a motion picture tie-in edition in the U.S.. The book has been re-published in early 2013 in the England, Italy and Japan, as well as published for the first time in Brazil, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Korea, and China. Blackstone Audio in 2013 released an unabridged audiobook narrated by Paul Michael Garcia.

Critical reception

The book received considerable praise upon its publication as well as in subsequent years for reprints.

On the publication of the hardcover first edition in 1990, critic Richard Schickel called the book "indispensable and marvelously readable" and "one of the best accounts of the making of an individual movie we've ever had." Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of the New York Times declared it a "meticulous history of a single film production."[2] Anthony Quinn in The Sunday Times wrote; "[the book] combines a gossipy retrospective with a serious work of criticism, presenting an articulate guide to Hitchcock's idiosyncratic approach to film-making and the collaborative efforts that underpinned it. The author has conducted interviews with all those involved in the making of Psycho – its casting, scripting, art design, lighting, editing, selling – in the course of it, we inch closer to the bizarre, unpredictable quality of its director."

Psycho star Anthony Perkins called the book, "Meticulously researched and irresistible ... Required reading not only for Psycho-files, but for anyone interested in the backstage world of movie-creation."[3] Images Journal reviewer Gary Johnson called it "one of the best books ever written about the making of a movie."[4] Gerald Kaufman of the Sunday Telegraph found it "joyously entertaining."

Entertainment Weekly, referring to Rebello's revealing how Hitchcock arrived at the sound of the knife stabbing the heroine in the shower, opined "the melon tale alone is worth the price of [the book]."[5] Another top critic wrote that, unlike other books about films and filmmakers, it "reads more like a gripping novel than detached intellectualism."

In a January 6, 2010 Newsweek story called "The Mother of All Horror Films," Malcolm Jones called the book "fascinating" and Robert Graysmith, true crime author of the non-fiction book Zodiac, termed the book "groundbreaking." Leonard Maltin, in his "Movie Crazy" blog entry of October 29, 2010, called the book "landmark."[6] In 2012, a writer for The Hollywood Reporter declared the book "a masterpiece about a masterpiece." The Guardian critic John Patterson called the book "enthralling" and, on February 1, 2013 in The Guardian described the book as "revelatory." Wrote David Pitt of Booklist: "There are a handful of Hitchcock biographies—Donald Spoto’s "The Dark Side of Genius" and Patrick McGilligan’s Alfred Hitchcock, among them—but here, though focusing on a single film, Rebello offers a close-up look at the director that is perhaps more revelatory about the man’s character and working style than any full-length biography. A wonderful, absolutely essential book."

Table of contents

  • Foreword
  • The Awful Truth
  • The Trouble with Alfred
  • The Novel
  • The Director
  • The Deal
  • The Screenplays
  • Pre-production
  • Shooting
  • Post-production
  • Publicity
  • The Release
  • Afterglow and Aftermath
  • Cast and Credits
  • The Films of Alfred Hitchcock
  • A Note on Sources
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Index

Film adaptation

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Main article: Hitchcock (film)

Production commenced on April 13, 2012 of a film based upon the book.[7] The film is directed by Sacha Gervasi and stars Anthony Hopkins as director Alfred Hitchcock, Helen Mirren as his wife Alma Reville, Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel as Vera Miles, and James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins.[8][9][10] Produced by The Montecito Picture Company and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, the film was released in 17 U.S. cities on November 23, 2012.[11]

References

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External links

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