In “The Dark Side of Genius”, Donald Spoto shows Alfred Hitchcock´s biography, one of the most influential
directors, whose films have become a reference for the spectators and later generations filmmakers.
“The Dark Side of Genius” traces a route around Hitchcock´s life and films, beginning with his birth in Great Britain in 1899 in the heart of a catholic humble family. The readers will find out that his first contacts with the
film industry will take place in an American film enterprise set in London where he´ll start designing headings for silent films. Later, the young Hitchcock, showing his value and intelligence, will have the opportunity to write screenplays and direct his own films, where we can distinguish two stages: the first one about films made in Great Britain ( “ Thirty nine steps”, “Innocence and Youth”… ) and the second one about films made in USA (“Notorious”, “North by Northwest”, “Vertigo”, “Psycho”, “The Birds”…) achieving success and awards as well as the fame that would precede him forever.
This book reveals us about his way of making films, the subjects he wanted to show in his films and what he wanted to communicate to the spectators, without forgetting the relationship with “his” actresses and actors (Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, “Tippi” Hedren,
Cary Grant, James Stewart, Gregory Peck…) as well as his famous concept : the “MacGuffin” (the excuse or reason that starts the plot).
However, the most important aspect of the biography is the psychological analysis of his personality: a fascinating intimate travel ( like those ones he liked so much and showed in “Spellbound” and “Marnie”). With an easy and, at the same time, exhaustive prose, Spoto reveals the reader the details of Hitchcock´s childhood and youth, which, as it happens in any of his best thrillers, are illuminating , step by step, one of the deepest figures in the film industry.
His contradictory relationship with women, the picture he had about them, his fears, obsessions, wishes, the sin…everything is here and, the reader, the more he reads, the more understanding he has about why Alfred Hitchcock was “The Master of Suspense”: his own reserved and introverted personality, as well as his observant nature (a sort of “voyeurism” that he makes James Stewart use in “Rear Window”) made him a master in the “art” of telling mystery and intrigue stories. Stories that were created by a prolific imagination full of repressed feelings and wishes which found in the films a way to escape, providing the spectators with some of the most claustrophobic and disturbing moments never seen before and that, nowadays, any director won´t probably get , in spite of the development of the special effects.
In short, the American writer Donald Spoto gives us a brilliant and detailed portrait of this genius of the film industry, a portrait that will make the film fans get closer to his movies with a much richer perspective and, as it happens in his best works, will make them be able to find out, little by little, more clues and details that lead us to the “treasure” of his soul, a “treasure” that will probably contain more mysteries and enigmas than all his films together. Recently, Spoto has published another book: “Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and his leading ladies” that promises to be as interesting and suggestive as the preceding one.
Spoto has written too another important biographies like Ingrid Bergman´s, Marilyn Monroe´s and Audrey Hepburn´s.