Writing with Hitchcock: The Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and John Michael Hayes [Kindle Edition]

The jumping off point for this story is when Hitchcock was getting ready to film "Torn Curtain", one of his less successful spy adventures. Hitchcock ignored pleas from those close to him to call on John Michael Hayes for a rewrite. The resulting film was a disaster.

The author then brings us back ten years to when Hitchcock himself called on Hayes to pen "Rear Window" The results were so successful, the director kept Hayes on board for the next three films, which include: "To Catch a Thief," "The Trouble with Harry," and "The Man Who Knew Too Much."

The author describes the making of each film, with particular attention to the writing, as suggested by the title, while always providing a sense of the ever-changing dynamic between a powerful producer-director and a young Hollywood writer, courtesy of interviews with Hayes himself, as well as other surviving crew members. The story of their breakup is sad, but typical of Hollywood, where many make the mistake of beginning to believe their own press.

DeRosa knows his stuff and his research is exhaustive. I would have to liked to have seen more storyboard to script comparisons and comments from other writers and directors but that probably would have changed the scope of the book (and the focus). Without tarnishing Hitch's reputation, Writing With Hitchcock makes a strong case for the importance of Hayes contribution to Hitch's film.

After they had a falling out Hitch would frequently dismiss Hayes contributions to his films in print( such as in Truffaut's interview with Hitchcock. Hitch was generally pretty good about recognizing the importance of his collaborators)

Luckily that bitterness can't color the fine work of these well matched collaborators. This book along (with the inteviews Hayes granted for the DVD editions of their four films) finally puts it all into perspective. It also allows one to celebrate the great art and entertainment of Hitch and Hayes.

In "Writing With Hitchcock", Steven DeRosa gives Hayes his long overdue credit. Hayes' contributions to each of the films are described in detail, as are the steps taken by the censors to reign things in - to protect audiences from the idea that Cary Grant and Grace Kelly would have premarital relations, or that Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day's boy was kidnapped, are just a couple of examples! Each film is gone over in detail from the writing phase to release, and the reader is given a chance to see the relationship between the writer and director blossom, and then die.

There are lots of anecdotes and a summarizing of both Hitchcock and Hayes' careers after they parted which is very illuminating, especially the potential sequel to Rear Window that Hayes worked on that would have been far more interesting than the Chris Reeve tv version. The final chapter is an analysis of each of the screenplays, and this was especially interesting to me as an aspiring screenwriter. Well worth the price of admission! I only wish it was in hardcover.