Contents Title Page Dedication Epigraph Acknowledgments Preface One LOVE IN HANDCUFFS (1920–1926) Two OF SOUND AND SENSE (1926–1934) Three THE MASTERY OF MYSTERY (1934–1935) Four SHAKING THE DUST (1936–1938) Five PASSPORT TO HOLLYWOOD (1939–1940) Six CHILLING ELEGANCE (1941–1942) Seven FROM RAW STUFF TO POETRY (1943–1944) Eight DESIRES AND PULSATIONS (1945–1946) Nine BREAKING AND ENTERING (1947–1948) Photo Insert Ten THE LURE (1949–1950) Eleven ANNE, AND A YEAR OF GRACE (1951–1954) Twelve WOMEN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1954–1957) Thirteen NO ONE AT THE CENTER (1958–1960) Fourteen OBSESSION (1961–1962) Fifteen THE END OF ART (1963–1964) Afterword THE LEADEN ECHO AND THE GOLDEN ECHO (1964–1980) Notes Bibliography Also by Donald Spoto Copyright For Mona and Karl Malden, with grateful love and devotion why are we so haggard at the heart, so care-coiled, care-killed…so cumbered, when the thing we freely forfeit is kept with fonder a care, fonder a care kept than we could have kept it… GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, “The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo” (1882) Acknowledgments My first debt is to Alfred Hitchcock, with whom I spent many hours between 1975 and 1980. He granted me a number of taped interviews in which I found him astonishingly frank on important issues. He also invited me to lunch more than once, and during those times, the talk flowed very freely indeed. Conversations with those who appeared in his films were of critical significance in the original preparations for both of my earlier books—The Art of Alfred Hitchcock (1976) and The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983). During the years of my research for those books (1974 through 1982), some people asked me to suppress certain material for a period of time, because of his recent death; in some cases, they asked that details not be set down during their own lifetimes. That explains some of the lacunae in my earlier work and further justifies Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies. I wish to acknowledge, therefore, interviews granted to me by the following actresses: Diane Baker, Anne Baxter, Ingrid Bergman, Karen Black, Doris Day, Joan Fontaine, Dolly Haas, Barbara Harris, Tippi Hedren, Grace Kelly (Princess Grace of Monaco), Janet Leigh, Margaret Lockwood, Vivien Merchant, Mildred Natwick, Claire Griswold Pollack, Elsie Randolph, Eva Marie Saint, Sylvia Sidney, Jessica Tandy, Ann Todd, Kathleen Tremaine, Alida Valli, Josephine Wilson (Lady Miles) and Teresa Wright. A number of actors also cooperated generously: Brian Aherne, Martin Balsam, Hume Cronyn, Bruce Dern, William Devane, Jon Finch, John Forsythe, Barry Foster, John Gielgud, Farley Granger, Karl Malden, Lord Bernard Miles, Reggie Nalder, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, Anthony Perkins, James Stewart and Rod Taylor. Hitchcock’s writers knew him in important ways others never could, for they sat with him for months and came to know how his prodigious mind worked. I was fortunate to have the confidence of Jay Presson Allen, Charles Bennett, David Freeman, John Michael Hayes, Evan Hunter, Arthur Laurents, Ernest Lehman, Brian Moore, Anthony Shaffer, Joseph Stefano and Samuel Taylor. Among Hitchcock’s creative team, I also knew and interviewed Saul Bass, Henry Bumstead, Herbert Coleman, Edith Head, Peggy Robertson, Leonard South and Albert Whitlock. The original idea for this book sprang from conversations with two of my closest friends, Gerald Pinciss and Lewis Falb. They have enthusiastically endorsed my writing for many years. Once again, my brother-in-law, John Møller, dispatched the difficult creative task of transferring photographs onto disks. John is not only a talented designer but also a superb technician, and I am grateful for his generous allotment of time on behalf of this book. Claus Kjær and his colleagues at the Danish Film Institute, Copenhagen, have welcomed me warmly to that prestigious archive and film library, and they have graciously invited me to be a frequent guest lecturer at the Cinematek. I am very happy in my ongoing association with the DFI. For over thirty years, I have been represented by my friend Elaine Markson, whose name evokes respect, admiration and affection in the world of international publishing. In her New York office, I am supported by the practical help and abiding friendship of Elaine’s associates Gary Johnson, Geri Thoma and Julia Kenny. Once more, I am very fortunate to be published by Shaye Areheart at Harmony Books—a perceptive, generous, and wise friend with an unerring sense of a book’s development. And my editor has again been the gifted and gracious Julia Pastore, whose creative contributions to my work I very much cherish. In her office, Kate Kennedy has cheerfully dispatched many daily tasks and has been, like Shaye and Julia, consistently helpful. No writer could ask for a better publishing team. Ole Flemming Larsen, with whom I share my life, gives me more, every day, than I can ever deserve. With enormous gratitude and devotion, I dedicate this book to my dear friends Mona and Karl Malden. Their presence in my life, and their loving endorsement of me and my work, mean more than I can say. D. S. Sjælland, Denmark January 2008