Hitchcock's Blondes

The Unforgettable Women Behind the Legendary Director's Dark Obsession

By: Laurence Leamer

Narrated by: Sharmila Devar

Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Bestselling author of Capote’s Women Laurence Leamer shares an engrossing account of the enigmatic director Alfred Hitchcock that finally puts the dazzling actresses he cast in his legendary movies at the center of the story.

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 director of North by Northwest, Rear Window, and other classic films didn’t much care if they wore wigs, got their hair coloring out of a bottle, or were the rarest human specimen—a natural blonde—as long as they shone with a golden veneer on camera. 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 Hitchcock’s Blondes, 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. After all, “his” blondes (as he thought of them) knew the truths of his art, his obsessions and desires, as well as anyone.

From the acclaimed author of Capote’s Women comes an intimate, revealing, and thoroughly modern look at both the enduring art created by a man obsessed…and the private toll that fixation took on the women in his orbit.

©2023 Laurence Leamer (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

One of Entertainment Weekly’s 41 New Fall Books We’re Most Excited to Read
One of CrimeReads’ Most Anticipated Crime Reads of Fall 2023
One of PureWow’s 9 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in October

“Through their work and place as the prism for Hitchcock's obsessions and desires, we come to understand the inner workings of his mind—and how these women were key to constructing a legend of his own devising” —Entertainment Weekly

"Laurence Leamer peels away the glamour of Hollywood to detail the director’s troubling relationships with eight high-profile blonds who starred in his movies. Readers unfamiliar with Alfred Hitchcock’s methods will learn about his obsession with these women and, explicitly, how he controlled every aspect of their lives.” —Washington City Paper

“The bestselling author of Capote’s Women turns his focus to Alfred Hitchcock in his latest…In Hitchcock’s Blondes, Leamer offers an intimate look into the lives of eight legendary actresses—including Ingrid Bergman and Tippi Hedren—whose stories helped propel the troubled, talented director’s career forward, from Janet Leigh’s first marriage (when she was 14 years old) to forcing The 39 Steps star Madeline Carroll to rehearse while handcuffed and soaking wet.” —PureWow

Probably Most Effective If You’ve Never Seen a Hitchcock Film

I am a big fan of Hitchcock’s work and admire his cinematic innovations, but I think familiarity with his films set my expectations too high for this book. I didn’t feel there was much new information here, and a huge portion of the book is detailed, at times scene-for-scene description of the movies. If you don’t mind spoilers, this might be interesting to you. If you’ve seen the movies, you’ll be bored with having them recounted in painstaking detail for no apparent reason.

The author’s tone was somewhat judgmental and at times overtly hostile toward the actresses around whom the book is structured, while Hitchcock’s “eccentricities” are glossed over. I enjoyed the gossipy nature of the stories about the actresses, but question their veracity at times. Leamer doesn’t go out of his way to establish the credibility of many of his statements. This is really a book about the sex lives of women who happened to work with Hitchcock, not so much about their experiences on his sets.

In terms of narration, Devar has a lovely voice and confident tone, but I was distracted at several points by words she mispronounced (Oenophile, Marbella [Spain], etc.) I find that very frustrating in a professionally- narrated nonfiction book. She did a good job overall, but once I started noticing the mistakes I couldn’t stop.

Jaw Dropping

A jaw dropping book that pulls back the curtain on Hitchcock and his Blondes. Not sure which is more eye opening the story of the director himself and the movies he made or the women who starred for him. I am a huge Rear Window fan and Grace Kelly fan but oh my oh my. I could not believe her story.

Fascinating story

Very interesting info but the vocal affectation of the reader was at times too much

What a book. Cinephiles rejoice

If anyone knows the works of Mr Leamer they will know he has a remarkable talent of creating astonishing non-fiction with characters and stories woven together to take you on a journey. His only weakness is banal titles that may make people dismiss the books as one-dimensional. They are not. To my mind, Laurence Leamer is one of the best non-fiction writers in the USA today. The performance by Ms. Devar is flawless and she doesn't narrate the story, she inhabits the characters. It is a delight to listen to. This is an auditory journey not to be missed (as is Capote's Women) and I literally inhaled it.

Hatchet Job on Tippi Hedren

The author seems quite biased against Ms Hedren. He doubts that Alfred Hitchcock lunged at her in a car, even though he quoted a French actress as saying the exact same thing happened to her. And he quotes Hedren‘s hairdresser on the same page talking about Hitchcock’s inappropriate behavior at the time. Other than that, the book was fine.