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Informationen zum Autor Laurence Leamer Klappentext "Alfred Hitchcock was fixated--not just on the dark, twisty stories that became his hallmark, but also by the blond actresses who starred in many of his iconic movies. ... The lengths he went to in order to showcase (and often manipulate) these women would become the stuff of movie legend. But the women themselves have rarely been at the center of the story--until now. In [this book], bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer offers an intimate journey into the lives of eight legendary actresses whose stories helped chart the course of the troubled, talented director's career--from his early days in the British film industry, to his triumphant American debut, to his Hollywood heyday and beyond. Through the stories of June Howard-Tripp, Madeleine Carroll, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Janet Leigh, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint, and Tippi Hedren--who starred in fourteen of Hitchcock's most notable films and who bore the brunt of his fondness and sometimes fixation--we can finally start to see the enigmatic man himself"-- Leseprobe Chapter 1 A Fairy Tale Tippi Hedren was not afraid of birds. In her dressing room, the thirty-two-year-old actress had a raven named Buddy. Hedren was costarring in The Birds , Alfred Hitchcock's film set in the Northern California seaside town of Bodega Bay, whose avian population was slowly, strangely turning on the residents and attacking them. Buddy was not like those birds. He pranced around, messing with Hedren's makeup, amusing her endlessly. Buddy was her one true friend on the set, so much so that she put a sign on her dressing room door saying "Buddy and Tippi." As far as Hedren was concerned, her Hollywood story had begun as a fairy tale. One morning Hitchcock saw the blond model in an ad for a diet drink on television; the renowned director was so enraptured that he signed her to play the female lead in his next film. At her age, Hedren's days as a top model were over. She knew how lucky she was that Hitchcock had come forward. Hedren knew almost nothing about acting, but Hitchcock took her and molded her into the image he desired. That was all wonderful, but strange things started happening once The Birds began shooting. Hitchcock warned the other men involved in the production to stay away from Hedren. She was often alone on set and increasingly isolated. A single mother, Hedren was lonely and missing her child during the long shooting days. One day, she said Hitchcock tried to embrace her in the chauffeur-driven car in which they were traveling. As Hedren waited to be called to the set, the assistant director, James H. Brown, entered her dressing room. He appeared worried. "What's the matter with you?" Hedren asked. "We can't use the mechanical birds," he said, the words barely audible. "Uh, well, what are we going to use?" Hedren asked, though the answer should have been obvious. "The mechanical birds don't work, and we have to use real ones." This startled Hedren, and it took her a while to compose herself. Hedren had already suffered through the birds attacking her and various schoolchildren as they ran down the street in Bodega Bay. But that was nothing like the scores of birds set to go after Hedren this morning as she opened the attic door. In Hitchcock's four decades of filmmaking, there had never been a scene like this-two minutes so dangerous and, in the director's mind, so pleasurable to an audience seeking vicarious thrills. Hedren knew the scene had to be shot. As apprehensive as she was, what choice did she have but to leave her dressing room and walk out on the set? Hedren saw that the crew had built a cage attached to the attic door. The trainers inside wore long, thick leather gloves to protect themselves. Beside them sat four good-sized boxes full of ravens and gulls.<...
