Hitchcock - master or misogynist - one or both, or is it not for us to decide?
Hello there all you movie fans who are reading this. I recently went to see Hitchcock at the Barbican cinema with a very good friend of mine because we are both big fans of his and realise his genius as a film director. Whilst I enjoyed the film, I did however find myself questioning the fascination we all have with the private life of famous and talented people like Alfred Hitchcock. I suspect that he was really quite a private man, who devoted his life to his craft as well as to his wife. I doubt very much if he even had an inkling that all these years later, his audience would be in the least bit interested with his private life.
I also doubt very much that he and his wife Alma ever thought that their private married life would make a good film in itself - and they would have been right! Yes, it's interesting that as a couple they collaborated on most of the films and that those films form part of the most innovative and ground breaking films of the last century. And yes, it is interesting that Alfred Hitchcock had a keen fascination for all his beautiful blond leading ladies and that he may have crossed a professional line in some cases. But, I do ask you to consider the idea that most men probably would have reacted in a similar fashion. Most men, when their senses are stirred and they are working in very close proximity and in a very intense situation with such irresistible sirens of the silver screen, would I think react in some way and some would have even gone further than he did, I venture to suggest.
So yes, whilst he did in some cases react very badly to having his male ego battered by any one of these screen goddesses (naming no names nor going into any detail) I submit that he reacted in much the same way as many a man who has been scorned. Especially when he is no real oil painting himself and when all he has is a cracking sense of humour, talent, genius and his portly belly to keep him warm. Oh yes, and his thirty year or so marriage to his soul-mate and long suffering wife Alma.
I also submit that Alma also possessed a certain amount of genius and talent of her own; in that she helped in the whole of the creative process on the films and indeed deserves more recognition for that fact. But does she deserve to be pitied for being this long suffering wife of a suspected misogynist? Just how true would that be, and does anyone deserve to have their private life raked over the coals for all to speculate about? I submit that many a marriage would not survive such close scrutiny and many a marriage negotiates and brokers many a deal between its partners.
I also submit that Alfred Hitchcock was no more a misogynist than any other man in his situation and that Alma knew this more than any other person. That's why I think she stayed with him for over thirty years. I think she must have understood the situation; his sexual, emotional and psychological fascination with his alluring leading ladies and their inextricably entwined relation to his work and the nature of the films. Even though it must have hurt her deeply.
Mr Alfred Hitchcock in my view was a genius of the genre he excelled in, regardless of the foibles he fell victim to. Here's to all the great films in his oeuvre!
