Crush of the Week : The Hitchcock Blonde

The exquisite Kim Novak in Vertigo, 1958

I cannot honestly say when I saw my first Hitchcock film, but I know it was sometime in the1970's when I was in my teens. I wasn't aware of the " Hitchcock Blonde " as an icon of not only cinema but culture in general, but there was one thing this young man knew : these women were both cool and hot and slightly dangerous. If one was to dally in their yard, one had better bring his " A " game. 

Tippi in Marnie, 1964

The ones that got to me the most were, I suppose, the one's I saw first, and I started with some of Hitch's best : Psycho, Notorious, North By Northwest, The Birds, Marnie. Saw them on TV in the 70's, sometimes in primetime, like Psycho on KABC channel 7, but I do remember seeing Marnie, for the first time on Movie Til' Dawn on Channel 5 out of Los Angeles, probably at about 3 in the morning. With commercials. However, in those days of youth I was more resilient than this old carcass is today and didn't have trouble finishing up the movie about 5:30am. Also, I worked the night shift at Taco Bell then, which made it easier to stay up to til the wee hours of the morn. I can also remember catching up with some of the lesser known films in Sir Alfred's canon : I Confess, which The Master made in 1952, I caught up with on KCOP-13 [ one of LA's least predigious local stations ] one night. It starred Anne Baxter fresh from All About Eve in 1950 and, most important to this misunderstood youth, Montgomery Clift as a priest, who takes the confession of a man who has just committed murder but, because of the vows to his faith, cannot reveal to the police who the killer is and, therefore, becomes a suspect himself. The forgotten Mr & Mrs. Smith [ not the one with Brangelina ] with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery, a lightweight comedy [ Hitch's only out and out non-suspense American film ] that is not without it's pleasures.

Grace gives Cary her best " Come hither ". To Catch a Thief, 1955

All thru my Hitch education, there were 5 films I had never seen and these were reputed to be among some of his best : 1948's Rope, the first of four Hitch made with James Stewart. 1954's Rear Window also with Jimmy, but this time with the supreme Hitchcock leading lady Grace Kelly. Hitch's 1956 remake [ the original coming out of his English period in 1934 ] of The Man Who Knew To Much with Doris Day giving one of her best performances. Vertigo, Hitch's darkest tale of obsessive desire, from 1958 with Kim Novak and James Stewart and, finally, the black comedy The Trouble With Harry, with Shirley MacLaine in her film debut, from 1956. All 5 of these films had been held back from release for, I don't know -10 or 15 years - so that when Universal Pictures decided to have a major re-release in 1984, it was a big deal. The result of which, these movies now completely restored, were seen by a new generation [ like moi ] for the first time. And on the big screen in theaters all around the country. Just like they were meant to be seen years ago when they had first been made.

Alfred, with Doris Day, on location in London. The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956

  I didn't get the chance to view all five in a theater when these movies were back in circulation. But I was able to catch up with three of the five: Rear Window and Vertigo with my wife at the time at home in Santa Barbara at the Riviera theater and The Man Who Knew Too Much, which I saw on my own in a Costa Mesa multi-plex [ I was there on business, don't ask ]. I have to admit that, at the time, most of Vertigo eluded me. I found the first half to be a compelling story of a man falling in love with the woman he is hired to follow, but for most of the second half I found myself thinking, " No way could this guy not know that this girl is the same one he followed in the first part of the movie. No way! " The second half seemed silly and impractical. I did, however, find Vertigo's tragic ending emotionally satisfying, moving and dark. More than dark. The ending is black as pitch. Now, having grown older [ wiser? ] I understand Stewart's obsessive desire for a woman he possesses briefly, only to ultimately lose her forever. Having watched Vertigo many, many times since, I find the whole film an experience unlike few I have ever seen. It has become one of The Master's movies I revisit on a yearly basis, usually when I find myself feeling melancholy and fragile, much like Jimmy Stewart in the movie. It is a great film to watch when one is a little lost in life. And Kim Novak as the object of Stewart's lust and obsession is ethereal. Maybe more than any blonde in a Hitchcock film, Novak encapsulates  [ or rather Hitch captures within her ? ] the elusive, sad, lonely, sexy, mercurial presence that Hitchcock had been trying to catch and bottle for over 25 years. One can completely understand Stewart being caught in her sway. Vertigo is also well known for the Hitchcock gaze. Hitch's camera loved nothing more than to gaze upon his leading ladies by the male who is fixated on her. So many of his films do this and we, the audience, become conspirators in Hitchcock's little game of voyeurism.

A blonde like no other. Kim Novak, Vertigo 1958

Hitchcock blondes always put up with alot on screen [ and off ? ]. From Joan Fontaine in Rebecca and Suspicion, Ingrid Bergman in Spellbound and Notorious, Grace Kelly in Dial M For Murder, Doris Day in The Man Who Knew Too Much, up to his last film Family Plot with Barbara Harris, Hitch put his blonde heroines thru a nail-biting ringer. The blonde in his films were also sexy, playful, suspicious and withholding and she usually had the upper hand in his films, maybe that is why Hitch put her though so much and treated her, at least at first, roughly, before he became totally beastly towards her. Beginning with Madeline Carroll in 1935's The 39 Steps, Hitch presented a woman who instantly distrusts her male counterpart, in this case Robert Donat in a familar Hitchcock conceit : the man falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit who must then try to prove his innocence, not just with the authorities but more importantly, to the blonde who initially neither trusts nor believes him. This was one of Hitch's favorite theme's played out again and again in Saboteur, Spellbound, To Catch A Thief, The Wrong Man, North By Northwest, Frenzy.

Stewart, Kelly and Alfred at work on Rear Window, 1954.

Inevitably, the older Hitch got the more frustrated he became and the object of his fixation would come to a bloody gruesome end, as one can see from the YouTube clips above. In Donald Spoto's celebrated biography The Dark Side of Genius, the author suggests Hitch was a very sexually frustrated man, locked into a loveless marriage to a woman he respected and did indeed love [ in fact couldn't live without her ] but who held no romance for him, one in which his sexual longings and desires remained dormant. Someone once said Hitch cast Jimmy Stewart in the roles in which he saw himself and cast Cary Grant in roles in which he wished to be seen. If one looks at these two actors and the roles they play, Stewart from Rope in 1948 to Vertigo  in 1958 and Grant in 1941's Suspicion to 1959's North By Northwest the theory makes an enormous amount of sense. Grant being pursued by the likes of Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest and Grace Kelly in To Catch A Thief, sexually available and wanted and Stewart being limited and hesitant his affection for Grace Kelly in Rear Window and his lust and pursuit of Kim Novak in Vertigo, unable to fully explore and share his obsession for the beautiful apparition that has so entranced him and consequently has him completely frozen with fear. 

The blonde bookworm : Eva Marie Saint, North By Northwest, 1959

 Another thing to remember is that Hitchcock totally shaped and created each of his blondes to his exact specifications. From the hair shape and color and length of it, to the color and design of her dress, type of shoes and so on. Notice in some of the pictures I've posted, that a lot of these ladies look an awful lot alike. Doris Day and Kim Novak  wear practically the same outfit. The hair on many of these women are also similar. Sir Alfred have a very definite type of woman he liked.  Not only that but, obviously in his direction of them: " Turn your head this way", " Oh no, my dear. Your leg must reach this height " or " I want you to look at him like he is a roast beef sandwich. " In his movies, unlike his life, Hitch had complete control over not only his characters, but more importantly, his women.

Hitchcock's obscure object of desire: Tippi Hedren, The Birds, 1963

                                                                                                             
Recently there have been two films that deal with Hitchcock and his obsessions with blondes. Hitchcock, with Anthony Hopkins as the Master of Suspense and his making of Psycho, for theatrical release and HBO's The Girl with Toby Jones as Hitch and Sienna Miller as Tippi Hedren about the making of The Birds, in which Sir Alfred supposedly forsook all his decorum and compose in the thrall of Miss Hedren's beauty, and lost himself completely, making unseemly advances toward her. Believe it or not. I for one do not discount Hitchcock's losing his control for a much younger blonde woman whom he plucked out of obscurity, tries to make into a star and feels that the least she should do is show him her appreciation. This theory seems consistent with his character. If you don't believe me watch his films.                                                        

Alfred, Tippi and friend.  Doing publicity for The Birds

My favorite Hitchcock Heroines { or victim  }:
Joan Fontaine in Rebecca - 1940, and Suspicion - 1941
Ingrid Bergman - Notorious - 1946
Alida Valli in The Paradine Case - 1947
Laura Elliott in Strangers on a Train -1951
Grace Kelly in Rear Window - 1954, and To Catch a Thief - 1955
Janet Leigh in Psycho - 1960
Tippi Hedren in The Birds - 1963, and Marnie - 1964
Joan Chandler in Rope - 1948
Priscilla Lane in Saboteur - 1942

The forgotten blonde : Priscilla Lane in Saboteur, 1942

Sources: Dark Side of Genius by 

Donald Spoto

Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies :

Cary Grant by Jerry Vermilye

James Stewart by Howard Thompson

BFI Film Classics : Vertigo by Charles Barr

The Birds by Camille Paglia

And the films of Alfred Hitchcock