Scripting Hitchcock: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie Walter Raubicheck 9780252036484

Scripting Hitchcock explores the collaborative process between Alfred Hitchcock and the screenwriters he hired to write the scripts for three of his greatest films: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie. Drawing from extensive interviews with the screenwriters and other film technicians who worked for Hitchcock, Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick illustrate how much of the filmmaking process took place not on the set or in front of the camera, but in the adaptation of the sources, the mutual creation of plot and characters by the director and the writers, and the various revisions of the written texts of the films.

Hitchcock allowed his writers a great deal of creative freedom, which resulted in dynamic screenplays that expanded traditional narrative and defied earlier conventions. Critically examining the question of authorship in film, Raubicheck and Srebnick argue that Hitchcock did establish visual and narrative priorities for his writers, but his role in the writing process was that of an editor. While the writers and their contributions have generally been underappreciated, this study reveals that all the dialogue and much of the narrative structure of the films were the work of screenwriters Jay Presson Allen, Joseph Stefano, and Evan Hunter. The writers also shaped American cultural themes into material specifically for actors such as Janet Leigh, Tippi Hedren, and Tony Perkins. This volume gives due credit to those writers who gave narrative form to Hitchcock's filmic vision.

Creative collaborations that gave Hitchcock his finest films

About the Author
Walter Raubicheck is a professor of English at Pace University and the coeditor of Going My Way: Bing Crosby and American Culture.Walter Srebnick is Professor Emeritus of English at Pace University and the coeditor of Hitchcock's Rereleased Films: From Rope to Vertigo.

Reviews

Nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America in the category of Best Critical/Biographical, 2012.

"A gracefully conceived study of the role of the scriptwriter in three key works from Hitchcock's later career. Convincingly substantiating received wisdom about Hitchcock's working methods, Raubicheck and Srebnick enhance our understanding of collaborative authorship--a topic that is important not only for the study of Hitchcock but for the field as a whole."

--Richard Allen, professor of cinema studies, New York University

"This wonderful, sensible study should be devoured by film students of all ages. Highly recommended."--Choice

Awards
Nominated for 2012.



Book Information
ISBN 9780252036484
Author Walter Raubicheck
Format Hardback
Page Count 160
Imprint University of Illinois Press
Publisher University of Illinois Press
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 18mm