
Hitchcock’s Partner in Suspense
The Life of Screenwriter Charles Bennett
- 328 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
Hitchcock’s Partner in Suspense
The Life of Screenwriter Charles Bennett
About this book
With a career that spanned from the silent era to the 1990s, British screenwriter Charles Bennett (1899–1995) lived an extraordinary life. His experiences as an actor, director, playwright, film and television writer, and novelist in both England and Hollywood left him with many amusing anecdotes, opinions about his craft, and impressions of the many famous people he knew. Among other things, Bennett was a decorated WWI hero, an eminent Shakespearean actor, and an Allied spy and propagandist during WWII, but he is best remembered for his commercially and critically acclaimed collaborations with directors Sir Alfred Hitchcock and Cecil B. DeMille.
The fruitful partnership began after Hitchcock adapted Bennett's play Blackmail (1929) as the first British sound film. Their partnership produced six thrillers: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), Secret Agent (1936), Young and Innocent (1937), and Foreign Correspondent (1940). In this witty and intriguing book, Bennett discusses how their collaboration created such famous motifs as the "wrong man accused" device and the MacGuffin. He also takes readers behind the scenes with the Master of Suspense, offering his thoughts on the director's work, sense of humor, and personal life.
Featuring an introduction and additional biographical material from Bennett's son, editor John Charles Bennett, Hitchcock's Partner in Suspense is a richly detailed narrative of a remarkable yet often-overlooked figure in film history.
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Information
Table of contents
- Front cover
- Copyright
- Contents
- To Charles at Eighty
- Preface
- 1. Sowing the Wind
- 2. Duty, Honour, Country
- 3. Shakespearean Actor
- 4. Keith Chesterton
- 5. Sensation
- 6. Alfred Hitchcock and My Early Talkies
- 7. Alfred Hitchcock
- 8. Cause for Alarm
- 9. The British Film Colony and Errol Flynn
- 10. War in His Pocket
- Photographic Illustrations
- 11. A Secret Agent
- 12. Unto the Beach
- 13. A Foreign Correspondent
- 14. Unconquered
- 15. No Escape
- 16. Curtain Call
- 17. Where Danger Lives
- 18. The Avenger
- A Tribute
- The Works of Charles Bennett
- Charles Bennett's Awards and Distinctions
- Notes
- Suggestions for Further Research
- Index