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Alfred Hitchcock by Peter Ackroyd (view source)
Revision as of 11:48, 18 August 2020
, 11:48, 18 August 2020no edit summary
Overall, though I thought that Ackroyd treated his subject with a certain detachment. There is something of the feeling of an extended obituary, in that the pages summarise his life story and his achievements very efficiently, but do little to scratch the surface and really show us the man underneath. This may not necessarily be his fault. Hitchcock gives the impression of being a guarded man who wore a mask throughout his life, and which he rarely allowed to slip.
I also found the end of the last chapter a little rushed. One short paragraph refers to the knighthood he received in the new year's honours of 1980, and the next his fading away, losing interest in the world and turning his face to the wall until his death a few weeks later, swiftly followed by the decline of Alma 'as she retreated into a world where she still lived' and death two years after his. There is no measured postscript, no summing up of his character, or assessment of his place in cinema history and the impression is of a somewhat hurried job. As a brief life , it does the job well, but readers looking for something deeper will doubtless be tempted elsewhere.
For further reading, one aspect of his professional life is fully explored in [[Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies by Donald Spoto]]; as is the life of another contemporary movie icon in [[Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford by Donald Spoto]]. You could shelve ''Alfred Hitchcock '' alongside [[Charlie Chaplin by Peter Ackroyd|Charlie Chaplin]] by Peter Ackroyd.
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