With a sharp eye for social detail and the pressures of class inequality, Alfred Hitchcock brought to the American scene a perspicacity and analytical shrewdness unparalleled in American cinema.
Murray Pomerance works from a basis in cultural analysis and a detailed knowledge of Alfred Hitchcock’s films and production techniques to explore how America of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s is revealed and critically commented upon in Hitchcock’s work. Alfred Hitchcock’s America is full of stunning details that bring new light to Hitchcock’s method and works. The American ‘spirit of place, ‘ is seen here in light of the titanic American personality, American values in a consumer age, social class and American social form, and the characteristic American marriage. The book’s analysis ranges across a wide array of films from Rebecca to Family Plot, and examines in depth the location sequences, characterological types, and complex social expectations that riddled American society while Hitchcock thrived there.
Table of Content
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Alfred Hitchcock in America 1
1 Hitchcock’s American Scapes 18
2 Hitchcock’s American Personalities 71
3 Hitchcock and American Values 123
4 Hitchcock and American Social Form 176
5 Hitchcock and the American Marriage 225
Works Cited and Consulted 284
Index 305
About the author
Murray Pomerance is Professor of Sociology at Ryerson University. He is also editor of the Techniques of the Moving Image series and his previous works include
An Eye for Hitchcock (2004) and
Shining in Shadows: Movie Stars of the 2000s (2011).
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