Hitch and the Movies

Ackroyd, Peter.  Alfred Hitchcock: A Brief Life.  New York: Doubleday, 2016. 
         ISBN: 978-0-385-53741-4

So you want to investigate the life and movies of Alfred Hitchcock, but do not want a "tell all" book that details every camera shot in every movie?  Well, you are in luck!  Peter Ackroyd provides a nicely laid out biography that provides a balance between the details and the big picture of  Hitchcock's life in movies.

In eleven chapters, Peter Ackroyd takes your from Hitchcock's birth (13 August 1899) in England to his death in America (29 April 1980).  After a quick examination of Hitchcock's early life and home situation, Ackroyd focuses on his life in film, documenting his climb from general help to assistant director to director.  He also lays out the relationship between Alfred and his wife Alma whom he met on the movie set. The rest of the book meanders through his life in movies outlining his planning, layout and directing of the numerous movies he produced while referencing his home life and trips in relation to those movies.

In Alfred Hitchcock: A Brief Life, the reader will gain a superficial knowledge of the movie director and his movies, enough to satisfy many a bar question while only whetting the appetite of film buffs.