The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock by Edward White (best finance books of all time TXT) 📕

unlikely sounding story he related with such conviction that it was hard to know whether it was true or not. Either way, it’s easy to imagine how Alma would have felt sidelined, humiliated even, whenever one of Hitchcock’s obsessions with a young actress took hold. Tippi Hedren claims that Alma once apologized to her for Hitchcock’s smothering possessiveness, though it’s not evident whether she had any knowledge of the assault that Hedren alleges. Charles Bennett’s memoirs claimed that the Hitchcocks’ “married life was a happy one—until a second woman became a part of it,” yet Bennett names no names, and no corroboration seems to exist. There have been similar suggestions that Hitchcock had an affair with Joan Harrison, but, again, there’s no concrete evidence. The following summer, 1949, when Hitchcock was away once more, Alma wrote Cook to tell him she was feeling “very lonely this week, and recovered my equilibrium—or I thought I had until the day’s mail arrived,” perhaps because she had received a letter from her husband that knocked her off course. A few weeks later, she again reached out to Cook for emotional support when terrible reviews came in for Under Capricorn. The press, particularly in the United States, was savage, taking aim at the script for which, despite her name being absent from the credits, Alma felt partly responsible. The Washington Post called the dialogue “unintentionally hilarious.”

It might be that Alma’s relationship with Cook resulted from a collision of feelings she had for Hitchcock her husband and those for “Hitchcock” the entity for which she had worked so hard over the years. Or, perhaps she found herself yearning for a more intense, physical connection than she had come to experience in her marriage. Cook, ten years her junior, described Alma as “extremely attractive” because of “her intelligence and her warmth,” and it’s understandable why she might have turned to this vivacious younger man at a moment of unease. The record is frustratingly silent, though one clue might be found in another of Cook’s short stories. In “Her First Island,” Clara Henderson, “a very conventional woman,” begins an affair with a man named Ted during a two-week period in which her husband, Norman, is overseas on business. Though she adores Norman—“a truly warm and fine thing she had with Norman. No one could ask for a better marriage”—she is drawn to Ted because he represents excitement and abandon, and he has no associations with her usual roles and routines. When Norman and Ted meet, they get on terrifically, despite being polar opposites. Ultimately, Clara is pleased to draw a close to her fling, because “Norman symbolized solidity and roots and strong anchors and all those firm attributes one is supposed to have in one’s life. Norman was comfort; Norman was protection.” It’s unclear quite when Cook wrote this and if he intended it as a comment on his relationship with Alma. Even if not, it’s an interesting articulation of the dynamics of a triangular relationship and the way Alma may have been feeling about her marriage as she approached her fiftieth birthday. It also nudges one into asking what Alma got out of her relationship with her husband. As Hitchcock outlined in his acceptance speech for the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award in 1979, Alma swaddled him in “affection, appreciation, encouragement, and constant collaboration.” In return, Alma found an outlet for her considerable talents, but also stability and uxorious comfort. When they were apart, Alma wrote letters to Hitchcock—and his secretaries—asking whether he was looking after himself, eating properly, sleeping well, and going for his checkups. In return, Hitchcock had a habit of making small but frequent romantic gestures, calling ahead to hotels where Alma was staying to make sure that a fresh bouquet of her favorite flowers would greet her on arrival. On the whole, theirs was a profoundly strong partnership. But at times it was difficult for Alma not to feel overlooked by Hitchcock and “Hitchcock.”

It’s possible Hitchcock thought Cook was gay: Cook’s diaries reveal he had relationships with men and women, and in the months before his apparent fling with Alma, he seems to have become involved with Douglas Dick, an actor who played a role in Rope, adding further depth to Hitchcock’s interest in the film’s theme of coded homosexuality. It’s also possible that Hitchcock knew about Alma and Cook, and that she knew he knew, but nothing was ever said about it. Unflinching self-examination was not highly valued in the Hitchcock household. Alfred was a master of dissimulation when it came to his emotions; Alma had an extreme aversion to talking about herself and her past. “There was a primary motivation in our small family to never look back but only ahead,” remarked Pat. It was an attitude that allowed Hitchcock to bounce back from failure and disappointment with astounding success—but it also allowed resentments to fester, and damage to remain unrepaired.

The Hitchcocks and Cook remained good friends for years. In 1950, Cook was a witness at Alma’s American citizenship ceremony, and a few years later they were witnesses at his wedding. Cook also worked happily on Stage Fright as well as on the next Hitchcock picture, Strangers on a Train, which featured Pat again, this time in a larger role that made excellent use of her comedic talents. Soon after, Cook made a small but important contribution to Rear Window. Pat dialed down her acting career when she married in 1952, and she had the first of her three children a year later. Subsequently, she took on a few roles in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, though her only other appearance in a Hitchcock movie was her turn as the cattily amusing Caroline in Psycho. Hitchcock said he and Alma were relieved when their daughter decided to favor motherhood over her career. Yet Pat remained part of the broader Hitchcock enterprise, and was on the payroll of the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine for several years, as associate editor, though her