Book Review: "The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock" by Edward White

When I read about film - as someone who has a Master’s Degree in the subject, I like to read very specific things. The first type of book I enjoy is a critical analysis of the era or type of movie I have been watching. Books such as “The Big Goodbye” by Sam Wasson have normally done some good in my life. The next type of book I love to read about film are the ones about specific films and their directors, the analysis surrounding them and what they did for film. These are probably the most common film books people read and for this the most famous one I can think of from the top of my head is possibly “Stephen King at the Movies” by Ian Nathan. Finally, there are the books about filmmakers that are slightly different - they are a mix between the life of the filmmaker and the things they have made - no, they may not be those large books that come in cardboard covers about Tarantino, PTA and Wes Anderson, but they are just as good, if not far more detailed. One of the best books I have read in this category includes Simon Callow’s “One Man Band” and the current review on this book on Alfred Hitchcock is no different.

Starting off with the very beginnings of Hitchcock’s life, this book explores the director and master of suspense in twelve different roles which are important for piecing together much more than just the man who made the movies everyone knows and loves. With chapters entitled “The Dandy” and “The Family Man” all the way through to some of the stuff you kind of wish you did not know about Sir Alfred Hitchcock, this book makes an excellent case as to not just be viewed as a book about Hitchcock’s work and life, but is also a book about how the two blended together to create a man who became, arguably, much bigger than his movies.

One of the aspects that I loved about this book is that it tries to explain why certain things happen in Hitchcock’s films by using ideas and themes from his own life. For example: the birds attacking the small town and the school, it is something (that I will not reveal since that will give some spoilers to the understanding of the book) that is connected to events earlier on in Hitchcock’s life and this is something that we, as not only readers, but as the audience of his films, must understand and watch for when we revisit the movies. It is written in absolutely brilliantly because it keeps every identity of Alfred Hitchcock sort of working off the other, as if none of them really disappear, they just evolve for the time and place.

When it comes to the treatment of the star of “The Birds” - Tippi Hedren, we can honestly say that there was something not quite right about it at all and Hitchcock probably was not wholly a bad person, but he was definitely a bad person to her. As it is stated in the book, he treated actresses like Ingrid Bergman with the utmost respect and his female stars could not stop talking about his manners normally, but I think that this is also why people found it so hard to believe the way Alfred Hitchcock basically harassed Tippi Hedren on set - even though that is exactly what he did according to the people who were on set. It is quite a dark and disturbing part of the book.

In conclusion, I think this book shows us that we are wrong to entirely idolise Alfred Hitchcock and that he too, like other filmmakers, has his flaws and failures - but we also have to admit something else: he did create some damn good movies.