Writing with Hitchcock: The Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and John Michael Hayes - Softcover

DeRosa, Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571199909 ISBN 13: 9780571199907

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2001

Synopsis

An entertaining, in-depth look at the films, including Rear Window, made by Alfred Hitchcock with screenwriter John Michael Hayes.

In spring 1953, the great director Alfred Hitchcock decided to take a chance and work with a young writer, John Michael Hayes. The decision turned out to be a pivotal one, for the four films that Hitchcock made with Hayes over the next several years -- Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry, and The Man Who Knew Too Much -- represented an extraordinarily successful change of style. Each of the movies was distinguished by a combination of glamorous stars, sophisticated dialogue, and inventive plots -- James Stewart and Grace Kelly trading barbs in the tensely plotted Rear Window, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly engaging in witty repartee in To Catch a Thief -- and resulted in some of Hitchcock's most distinctive and intimate work, based in large part on Hayes's exceptional scripts.

Exploring for the first time the details of this collaboration, Steven DeRosa follows Hitchcock and Hayes through each film from initial discussions to completed picture and presents an analysis of each screenplay. He also reveals the personal story -- filled with inspiration and humor, jealousy and frustration -- of the initial synergy between the two very different men before their relationship fell apart. Writing with Hitchcock not only provides new insight into four films from a master but also sheds light on the process through which classic motion pictures are created.

About this title

About the Author

Steven DeRosa is a writer and former film archivist. He previously managed the MGM and Warner Brothers outtake collections for an archival footage library and also worked as an editor of movie theater previews. He lives in Westchester County, New York.

From the Inside Flap

From back cover:

"With diamond clarity, Steven DeRosa defines the art, the joy, the rewards - and the hazards - of screenwriting for a cinematic genius like Alfred Hitchcock."

Joseph Stefano, screenwriter of Psycho

"John Michael Hayes wrote the screenplays for a quartet of Alfred Hitchcock's perennially popular film classics. Steven DeRosa skillfully shows just how the works took shape and why Hayes must be ranked as one of Hollywood's great writers."

Donald Spoto, author of The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock

"How could a film as great as The Man Who Knew Too Much ever get made? Steven DeRosa shows it wasn't by way of a single thunderbolt of genius, but rather by tweaks and prods, creative nudges and shrewd polishes - two talented men working as a team." Ed Sikov, author of On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder

Reviews

Alfred Hitchcock: The name conjures up incredible suspense, mordant laughs, the surprise ending. But Hitch's unique vision was not his alone. In this detailed analysis of the filmmaker's collaboration with screenwriter Hayes, DeRosa reveals how Hitchcock's basic artistic instincts were often radically reshaped and transformed by Hayes's nimble writing. The Hitchcock-Hayes collaborations--Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble with Harry and The Man Who Knew Too Much--form a transitional period in the director's career, with the writer contributing a kinder vision of the human condition, highly sophisticated dialogue and a sense of humor to Hitchcock's works. DeRosa, a former film archivist, has soundly researched his subject and carefully compares the original versions of each film with its ensuing treatments, scripts and multiple revisions. Relying heavily on interviews with Hayes as well as on studio memos and production notes, DeRosa gives us not only an in-depth portrait of this working relationship but a comprehensive look at the industry in the late 1950s, when it was struggling to reassert itself after the emergence of television. The author also engagingly describes the cultural politics of the time (Joseph Breen and the Production Code were vigilant in attacking Hayes's edgy, urbane representations of sexuality). DeRosa also brings convincing drama to Hayes and Hitchcock's breakup and charts Hayes's later career writing such films as Peyton Place and The Children's Hour. While overly specific for the general reader, this is an important study for film and Hitchcock scholars.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Despite Hitchcock's well-known flair for visual filmmaking, the director insisted on employing topnotch writers, including Raymond Chandler and Thornton Wilder. Hitchcock was particularly productive during the 1950s, when he collaborated with the young John Michael Hayes on four films: the innovative (Rear Window), the witty (The Trouble with Harry), the stylish (To Catch a Thief), and the stodgy (the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much). These films proved popular with audiences. Unfortunately, however, Hitchcock could be egotistical and unforgiving, and a disagreement over the writing credit for Man abruptly ended their personal and professional relationship. Hayes continued to work but eventually grew disenchanted with Hollywood; meanwhile, Hitchcock went on to direct three of his greatest films toward the end of the decade. Here, DeRosa, a writer and film archivist, outlines the careers and creative partnership of Hayes and Hitchcock and analyzes the four screenplays. He notes that Hitchcock envisioned a film as a "mosaic" of set pieces or highlights more than a coherent whole, which led to problems for scriptwriters like Hayes. A supplementary purchase for libraries with large holdings on the film suspense master.DStephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When Alfred Hitchcock directed Rear Window (1953), he embarked on his most commercially and critically successful period and first worked with John Michael Hayes, whose previous experience had been mostly writing radio dramas. The collaboration continued through three more films, only to end abruptly when Hayes challenged Hitch by going to arbitration over his onscreen credit. Hitchcock's career flourished subsequently, but he never made consecutive films with a single screenwriter again. Meanwhile, the highlights of Hayes' later work were adaptations of the panting pop novels Peyton Place and The Carpetbaggers. DeRosa interviewed Hayes extensively, and the screenwriter's anecdotes about his four films with Hitch are the prime attraction here, though film scholars will appreciate DeRosa's comparisons of the screenplays to the final films. Hitchcock is perhaps the leading proof case of the auteur theory of film criticism, which maintains that the director is the ultimate author of a film, and his collaborators have gotten short shrift over the years. DeRosa's book modestly starts to redress that situation. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571199909
• ISBN 13: 9780571199907
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336