Hitchcock at the Source: The Auteur As Adapter

339 Pages·2011·6.34 MB·English

by  R. Barton Palmer

FILM STUDIES
P HitcHcock
a
The adaptation of literary works to the screen has been the subject of increasing,
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and increasingly sophisticated, critical and scholarly attention in recent years, but
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most studies of the subject have continued to privilege literature over film by taking
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the literary sources as their starting point. Rather than examining the processes at the Source
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by which a particular author has been adapted into a diversity of films by different
/ A A
filmmakers, the contributors in Hitchcock at the Source consider the processes by which B the uteur As dAptor
a varied range of literary sources have been transformed by one filmmaker into an o
impressive body of work. y
d edited by
Throughout his career, Alfred Hitchcock transformed a variety of literary sources—
r. Barton Palmer
novels, plays, short stories—into what is arguably the most coherent and distinctive
(narratively, stylistically, and thematically) of all directorial oeuvres. After an H
david Boyd
introduction surveying the nature and diversity of Hitchcock’s sources and locating and
the current volume in the context of theoretical work on adaptation, nineteen original i
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essays range across the entirety of Hitchcock’s career, from the silent period through
to the 1970s. In addition to addressing the process of adaptation in particular films
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in terms of plot and character, the contributors also consider less obvious matters
of tone, technique, and ideology; Hitchcock’s manipulation of the conventions of
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literary and dramatic genres such as spy fiction and romantic comedy; and more
general problems, such as Hitchcock’s shift from plays to novels as his major sources c
in the course of the 1930s.
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“The complexity and sweep of this book are staggering; this is a one-stop source
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for information on the literary origins of Hitchcock’s works. This is a one-of-a-kind
text, which fills a real niche in both film and Hitchcock studies.” — Wheeler Winston
k
Dixon, James Ryan Professor of Film Studies, University of Nebraska at Lincoln

“The book is replete with fresh insights into particular films and source texts, fresh a
approaches to the work of a hugely important and influential screen artist, and fresh t

evidence for the value of adaptation studies.” — David Sterritt, author of The Films t
of Alfred Hitchcock h
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r. Barton Palmer is Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature at Clemson
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University and has written and edited many books on various literary and cinematic
subjects. david Boyd is Professor Emeritus of Film and Media Studies at the o
University of Newcastle, Australia. Palmer and Boyd are coeditors of After Hitchcock: u
Influence, Imitation, and Intertextuality. r
c
e
State UniverSity of new york PreSS
www.sunypress.edu

Hitchcock at the Source
Also in the series
William Rothman, editor, Cavell on Film
J. David Slocum, editor, Rebel Without a Cause
Joe McElhaney, The Death of Classical Cinema
Kirsten Moana Thompson, Apocalyptic Dread
Frances Gateward, editor, Seoul Searching
Michael Atkinson, editor, Exile Cinema
Bert Cardullo, Soundings on Cinema
Paul S. Moore, Now Playing
Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann,
Ecology and Popular Film
William Rothman, editor, Three Documentary Filmmakers
Sean Griffin, editor, Hetero
Jean-Michel Frodon, editor, Cinema and the Shoah
Carolyn Jess-Cooke and Constantine Verevis, editors, Second Takes
Matthew Solomon, editor, Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination
Hitchcock at the Source
The Auteur as Adaptor
•
Edited by
R. Barton Palmer
and
David Boyd
“John Michael Hayes discusses with Alfred Hitchcock on location in Monaco his
script for To Catch a Thief (1955),” publicity photo courtesy of the Academy of
Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Library.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2011 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic,
electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise
without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production by Eileen Meehan
Marketing by Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hitchcock at the source : the auteur as adapter / edited by R. Barton
Palmer and David Boyd.
p. cm. — (SUNY series, horizons of cinema)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-3748-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-3749-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Hitchcock, Alfred, 1899-1980—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Film
adaptations—History and criticism. I. Palmer, R. Barton, 1946– II. Boyd,
David, 1944–
PN1998.3.H58H558 2011
791.43'60019—dc22 2011003059
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Illustrations vii
Introduction: Recontextualizing Hitchcock’s Authorship 1
David Boyd and R. Barton Palmer
1. Hitchcock from Stage to Page 11
Thomas Leitch
2. Hitchcock and the Three Pleasure Gardens 33
Sidney Gottlieb
3. Hitchcock and The Manxman: A Victorian Bestseller on
the Silent Screen 47
Mary Hammond
4. Blackmail: Charles Bennett and the Decisive Turn 67
Charles Barr
5. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934): Alfred Hitchcock,
John Buchan, and the Thrill of the Chase 77
Mark Glancy
6. Secret Agent: Coming in from the Cold, Maugham Style 89
R. Barton Palmer
7. The Lady Vanishes, but She Won’t Go Away 103
Noel King and Toby Miller
8. The Trouble with Rebecca 117
David Boyd
9. Depth Psychology on the Surface: Hitchcock’s Spellbound 129
Alan Woolfolk
v
vi Contents
10. Unrecognizable Origins: “The Song of the Dragon”
and Notorious 139
Matthew H. Bernstein
11. Morbid Psychologies and So Forth: The Fine Art of Rope 159
David Sterritt
12. Under a Distemperate Star: Under Capricorn 173
Constantine Verevis
13. Bruno’s Game, or the Case of the Sardonic Psychopath 189
Douglas McFarland
14. Alfred Hitchcock Presents Dial M for Murder: The
Submerged Televisuality of a Stage-to-Screen Adaptation 201
Ina Rae Hark
15. The Author of This Claptrap: Cornell Woolrich,
Alfred Hitchcock, and Rear Window 213
Pamela Robertson Wojcik
16. To Catch a Thief: Light Reading on a Dark Topic 229
Hilary Radner
17. Woman as Death: Vertigo as Source 239
Barbara Creed
18. Psycho: Trust the Tale 255
Brian McFarlane
19. Thirteen Ways of Looking at The Birds 267
Murray Pomerance
20. A Brief Anatomy of Family Plot 295
Lesley Brill
Appendix
Hitchcock’s Films and Their Sources 309
Contributors 313
Index 319
Illustrations
Figure 3-1. “Backwards, slowly, tremblingly.” The Queen,
20 January 1894, p. 88. All Queen images
reproduced by kind permission of the
Manx Heritage Museum, Isle of Man. 54
Figure 3-2. “Bend down so the ould man won’t hear.’”
The Queen, 20 January 1894, p. 89. 55
Figure 3-3. “And they drove away.” The Queen, 7 April 1894,
p. 515. 56
Figure 3-4. “You will be all he thinks I am, but never have been.
Farewell, my sweet Katherine.” The Queen,
28 April 1894, p. 640. 57
Figure 3-5. “Sitting on a stool with the little one on his knees,
he sobbed while the child cried.” The Queen,
5 May 1894, p. 681. 58
Figure 3-6. “As the clock was striking nine, Pete was squaring
himself at the table, pen in hand.” The Queen,
12 May 1894, p. 737. 59
Figure 3-7. “Suddenly, while he knelt there, he was smitten
as by an electric shock.” The Queen, 16 June 1894,
p. 964. 60
Figure 3-8. “‘Don’t you know me, Pete?’ she said in a
helpless way.” The Queen, 28 June 1894, p. 1005. 61
vii
viii Illustrations
Figure 3-9. Still from George Loane Tucker’s The Manx-man
(1916), produced by the London Film Company.
Reproduced courtesy of the Billy Rose Theatre
Division, New York Public Library for the
Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and
Tilden Foundations. 62
Figure 3-10. The Manxman, Alfred Hitchcock (UK, 1929).
Source: British Film Institute. 63