Highly readable confrontations between irresistible force David O.
Selznik, hypermanic producer of Gone with the Wind, and his
immovable but malleable British import, director Alfred Hitchcock.
Joan Fontaine, star of the filmmakers' first collaboration,
Rebecca, recalled that when "Selznick entertained at a restaurant.
. .he told everyone what to have, then went into the kitchen to
tell the chef how to prepare it." Famed for his nonstop memos.
Benzedrine-addict Selznick tried to dominate every aspect of
production on his quality-conscious pictures. Before Selznick
beckoned from Hollywood, Hitchcock was famed for his brilliant
little British thrillers. Ever inventive and seeking the
Hitchcockian moment, movement, image, or layering of suspense,
roly-poly Alfred saw Hollywood as the highway to more control over
his pictures and the full release of his cleverness as a
storyteller. But Selznick actually wanted a slave, and bound
Hitchcock to a contract that manacled the suspense master as much
as it ensured his income. In any event, it soon became clear to
Selznick that Hitchcock himself needed a great deal of direction or
else all sense of humanity and rounded characterization would be
sacrificed to "filmic moments" (Hitchcock had contempt for
"plausible" storytelling, and was quite willing to throw away logic
in favor of riveting melodrama). Collaboration between the two
began with three great hits - the spellbinding, novelettish
Rebecca, the less spellbinding Spellbound, and the masterful
Notorious - and died in the floppo The Paradise Case. Readers will
never view Rebecca again without being aware of the enormous amount
of dubbing going on to bolster Fontaine's amateurish reading - or
without being aware again that the trembling amateur, derided by
her peers in the picture, gave a deathless performance. Essential
film history. (Kirkus Reviews)
"Hitchcock and Selznick" is the story of one of the oddest
partnerships in Hollywood history, the union of a reticent,
overweight Englishman with a flair for striking detail and a
penchant for the perverse, and a dynamic movie mogul with a keen
eye for successful entertainment on the grand scale. It began in
1938, when producer David O. Selznick agreed to bring director
Alfred Hitchcock from England, where he was already gaining
widespread acclaim for his "little thrillers," and the
collaboration resulted in the making of such masterpieces as
"Rebecca," "Spellbound," and "Notorious,"
Hitchcock was soft-spoken and meticulous; Selznick was
confrontational and chronically disorganized. They were, moreover,
two geniuses with wholly different approaches to filmmaking. The
sparks that flew between them over the next eight years ignited
into some of Hitchcock's most memorable achievements, but they made
collaboration impossible in the end. Drawing on unpublished
documents, early drafts of script treatments, and humorous
production anecdotes--and including a wealth of previously unseen
photographs--Leonard Leff has written a book for specialist and
layman alike, a fascinating behind-the-scenes portrait not only of
two great Hollywood figures but of the film industry itself.
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