Reassessing the Hitchcock Touch: Industry, Collaboration, and Filmmaking

Description

This volume is dedicated to the elusive category of the Hitchcock Touch, the qualities and techniques which had manifested in Alfred Hitchcock’s own films yet which cannot be limited to the realm of Hitchcockian cinema alone. While the first section of this collection focuses on Hitchcock’s own films and the various people who made important artistic contributions to them, the subsequent chapters draw wider circles. Case studies focusing on the branding effects associated with Hitchcockian cinema and its seductive qualities highlight the paratextual dimension of his films and the importance of his well-publicized persona, while the final section addresses both Hitchcock’s formative period, as well as other filmmakers who drew upon the Hitchcock Touch. The collection not only serves as an introduction to the field of Hitchcock scholarship for a wider audience, it also delivers in-depth assessments of the lesser-known early period of his career, in addition to providing new takes on canonical films like Vertigo (1958) and Frenzy (1972). Front Matter ....Pages i-xiv Introducing the Hitchcock Touch (Wieland Schwanebeck)....Pages 1-17 Front Matter ....Pages 19-19 Facing the Past as Well as the Future: Music and Sound in Hitchcock’s Early British Sound Films (Claudia Bullerjahn)....Pages 21-40 Between Caméra Stylo and the Making of Images: Hitchcock’s Cinematographers (Ralf Heiner Heinke)....Pages 41-58 Hitchcock’s Plotting (Hans-Ulrich Mohr)....Pages 59-76 Hitchcock’s Brunettes: Visualizing Queerness in the 1940s and 1950s (Gesine Wegner)....Pages 77-95 Gazing and Constructing: Imag(in)ing Madeleine in Vertigo (Eckhard Pabst)....Pages 97-109 Front Matter ....Pages 111-111 “If I Won’t Be Myself, Who Will?” The Making of a Star Persona in Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (Nadine Seligmann)....Pages 113-135 Alfred Hitchcock: Cinematic Seducer Frenzy and the Seduction Theory of Film (Marcus Stiglegger)....Pages 137-151 The Visual Peak: Saul Bass as Hitchcock’s ‘Pictorial Consultant’ (Stefan Jung)....Pages 153-169 Alfred Hitchcock’s Three Investigators Series (H. Alan Pickrell)....Pages 171-181 Front Matter ....Pages 183-183 Jack of All Trades: Alfred Hitchcock’s Apprenticeship in Neubabelsberg, 1924/25 (Andy Räder)....Pages 185-198 Hitchcock—Powell—Ford (Charles Barr)....Pages 199-220 Uncommon Dangers: Alfred Hitchcock and the Literary Contexts of the British Spy Thriller (Alan George Burton)....Pages 221-240 Jaws: Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Wieland Schwanebeck)....Pages 241-257 Back Matter ....Pages 259-273