![]() One was rather moved around and manipulated, but, having said that, I liked very much.” Fontaine found the making of Rebecca to be a tough experience, with Hitchcock having isolated her from the rest of the cast to enhance her performance. Nova Pilbeam, one of Hitchcock’s actresses from his British period, said Young and Innocent was, “quite the sunniest film I was involved with. It seems that the actresses signed to his personal contracts – such as Miles and Hedren – bore the brunt of his attitude, while experienced actresses and those under studio contracts, like Kim Novak with Columbia, had a form of protection, as they were already controlled by their studio. But after The Birds, when Hedren recounted how he became obsessed with him, Marnie, by all reports, was an unhappy experience for many of those involved, particularly Hedren and Diane Baker. Bergman considered him a close friend up until his death, someone she could enjoy dinner and martinis, as did Kelly and Janet Leigh. The actresses who worked with him have reported different experiences. They may not live up to their own ideals, often they cannot do so, but they do like to see them personified by their favourite film heroines.” Hitchcock himself said: “I believe that the vast majority of women, in all ranks of life, are idealists. Marion in Psycho is heartrendingly likeable and appealing, so much so that her death is devastating. Lisa in Rear Window, for example, springs into action and places herself in danger while her partner, played by James Stewart, is incapacitated. While Hitchcock’s films have been considered misogynistic for the way the women are seemingly punished, he takes the heroine’s point of view in many of his films including Rebecca, Suspicion, Notorious and The Birds, where we experience the bird attack through Melanie Daniels. In addition to being elegant and beautifully dressed, these women could be brave, plucky, sensual, complicated, obsessive, and most important, sympathetic. He looked to find another actress who could fill her shoes – first Vera Miles, then Tippi Hedren. But it was with Grace Kelly, whose allure Hitchcock was never able to fully shake off, that he cemented his reputation. Hitchcock’s heroines weren’t all blondes – there were strong, independent, dark-haired leading ladies like Teresa Wright and Margaret Lockwood, and light brown haired Joan Fontaine and Ingrid Bergman. While June and Anny Ondra were two of Hitchcock’s early blondes, Madeleine Carroll was the first heroine whose image and character he truly went out of his way to shape on screen in The 39 Steps and Secret Agent. With a career that spanned six decades, Alfred Hitchcock is both the most respected and most maligned of directors, whose idolatry of blonde women is said to border on fetishism, and who he shaped into an elegant, beautifully-costumed ideal.
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