HITCHCOCK'S MOTHER TRILOGY
"Indeed the centrality of the mother's role in the film makes it possible to consider The Birds (1963) as the middle film of a trilogy including Psycho (1960) and Marnie (1964)." Margaret M. Horwitz, A Hitchcock Reader, chapter 21, The Birds: A Mother's Love
... Norman and his mother, Mitch's mother Lydia, and then there is Miss Bernice, Marnie's mother... could these three mothers be responsible for the odd, the mystery, and the horror of these three films?
You can't tell too much about Psycho, just in case there is that one person who hasn't seen the film and doesn't know what it is about. I would hate to ruin the middle or the end of this film for anyone because I would love to be that person. Could you imagine going into a theatre to see Psycho not knowing what was going to happen? It would be the thrill of a lifetime. I think it is safe to say that Janet Leigh has one distinction over all other Hitchcock blondes and that is: she was not only in Alfred Hitchcock's most famous scene but arguably the most famous scene in film history. She went on to garner, in 1960, an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Psycho, and Mr. Hitchcock was nominated for Best Director.
The Most Icy Blonde by Scott Levine*
Grace, Janet, Eva Marie, Kim? Well, no. Our favorite Hitchcock blonde is Tippi.
The former model from Minnesota appeared in other films (notably Chaplin's A Countess from Hong Kong with Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren), but her indelible roles were Hitchcock's Melanie (in The Birds) and Marnie (in... Marnie). All of the great director's beautiful blondes were deemed icy, but Hedren was especially haughty and brittle, all the better for splintering under the director's storytelling pressures.
In The Birds she's ensnared by a romantic flirtation with Rod Taylor into two almost equally formidable conflicts--first with his mother (Jessica Tandy) and then with those oddly behaving birds. That Princess Grace (Grace Kelly) considered coming out of retirement the following year to play Marnie created a what-could-have-been lament that did Ms. Hedren no favor. But today can anyone imagine Kelly's creamy movie star comfort surpassing Hedren's moving and furiously defiant emotional distress?
Hitchcock's own feelings about the actress became conflicted when his advances were not requited. The story about the doll coiffed and dressed like Hedren that was presented in a pine box to her young daughter Melanie Griffith is not apocryphal.
*Scott Levine, a former publicity executive at Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Pictures, programmed films at the Art Institute of Chicago and taught cinema studies at the University of Rhode Island. Most recently he was unit publicist on Ted, directed by Seth MacFarlane.
" ... I see that older viewers were used to a galaxy of established Hitchcock stars like Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly, whose sensibility belonged to a slightly earlier era. Because of The Birds and its spellbinding successor, Marnie (1964), both of which I saw in brilliant colour in widescreen commercial theatres, Tippi Hedren was and remains for me the ultimate Hitchcock heroine." Camille Paglia, The Birds, page 7
| Psycho | $14 | |||
| The Birds | $14 | |||
| Marnie | $14 |
The more you watch these films the more you see, the more they reveal. This is probably true of all of Hitchcock's oeuvre but especially true of these three films along with Vertigo (1958). I have rarely had so much fun reading about them than with A Hitchcock Reader, edited by Marshall Deutelbaum and Leland Poague. Although it was written to be a textbook, it is for any Hitchcock or film fan and granted that it covers areas of film history and theories I'm not familiar with, that obviously didn't stop me from buying it, nor should it you, lol.
The book also covers and discusses other Hitchcock films besides Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie.
Then there is Camille Paglia's The Birds. I didn't think anyone could love this movie as much as I do but it's possible Paglia does. I may not agree with all of her analyses but it's fascinating to read and if you're a fan of The Birds then it's a must. You may also be interested in three other books, Hitchcock and The Making of Marnie by Tony Lee Moral, The Moment of Psycho by David Thomson, and a new book, Scripting Hitchcock: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie by Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick.
| A Hitchcock Reader | $40 | |||
| The Birds | $15 | |||
| The Mother Package Includes the three films and the two books | $90 |