The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock

No one but a tortured genius could have created such brooding, suspenseful, and utterly original films as The 39 Steps, Spellbound, Vertigo, Frenzy, Psycho, The Birds, Rear Window, Marnie, and over forty others.

Now Alfred Hitchcock, the intensely private and often bizarre creator of these masterpieces, is fully revealed. Donald Spoto traces the roots of Hitchcock's obsessions - with murder, food, and idealized love - to the childhood that made them all but inevitable. He explores Hitchcock's marriage to a gifted co-worker, his crude and often practical jokes, and his many fantasy romances, culminating in a dangerous obsession with a beautiful young blond actress.

Most of all, Spoto recreates with compelling immediacy the amazing technical expertise and awesome perfectionism that made Hitchcock one of the world's most famous and revered filmmakers.

Based on impeccable research, on interviews with Hitchcock's writers, actors and longtime associates, and on recently discovered information from studio archives, "The Dark Side of Genius" is truly the definitive biography of Alfred Hitchcock.