Overview
Re-viewing Hitchcock approaches Alfred Hitchcock's prolific career in film and television from a reception focus, charting the changing fortunes of the master auteur's work from 1926's silent The Lodger to his penultimate film, the controversial Frenzy of 1972. Each of the chapters, written by eminent international film scholars, critics and historians, offers a detailed analyses of the historical reception of key Hitchcock films. These include films that have enjoyed consistent critical success, such as Rebecca (1940), Rear Window (1954), and North by Northwest (1959), as well as those that have received shifting degrees of critical and scholarly praise, such as Sabotage (1936), Rope (1949), Strangers on a Train (1951), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), and The Birds (1963). The contributors assess the significance of these changing critical perspectives and the extent to which they influence the meaning and significance of Hitchcock's films and filmmaking. The book also sheds light on Hitchcock’s lesser-known television work of the 1950s and the 60s, reassessing its relationship to his film career. In addition, it expands the focus beyond Anglo-American contexts to consider how Hitchcock’s films have been received and interpreted in Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
Full Product Details
Author: Robert E. Kapsis (City University of New York, USA.)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint: BFI Publishing
Dimensions:
Width: 19.40cm
, Height: 3.20cm
, Length: 24.20cm
Weight: 1.440kg
ISBN: 9781839026201
ISBN 10: 1839026200
Pages: 472
Publication Date: 19 February 2026
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Availability: To order 
Table of Contents
Introduction by Robert Kapsis PART 1: ENDURING TRIUMPHS 1. The Lodger (1927): The First True Hitchcock Film Henry K. Miller 2. The Two Blackmails From 1929: A Reputation Crosses the Sound Barrier Bryony Dixon 3. “No Manners at All and Always Seeing Things”: The Return of Hitchcock’s Vanished Englishwomen in The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938) J.E. Smyth 4. Rebecca’s Gendered Reception: 1941 to the Present Patricia White 5. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and Notorious (1946): Two Hollywood – and Definitively American – Masterworks Thomas Schatz 6. Re-Viewing Rear Window (1954) Janet Staiger 7. North by Northwest (1959): Nothing But Entertainment Thomas Leitch PART 2: CHANGING RECEPTIONS 8. “A director who can impose his own personality on his pictures”: British critics and Sabotage (1936) James Chapman 9. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956): as a Critical Lens on American Culture Paula Marantz Cohen 10. “She Isn’t Quite Herself Today.” Psycho (1960): Before and After Queer Theory David Greven 11. #MeToo and Angry Nature: The Changing Tides of Approaches to The Birds (1963) Lucy Caroline Bolton 12. Vertigo (1958) and Marnie (1964): Two Reception Histories on Steroids Robert Kapsis 13. Rope (1948): A Late Bloomer Neil Badmington PART 3: FILMS ON AN UPWARDS TRAJECTORY 14. Downhill (1927) Henry K. Miller 15. Under Capricorn (1948) Richard Allen 16. Trouble with Harry (1955) Sidney Gottlieb 17. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) Elizabeth Bullock 18. The Wrong Man (1956) Jason Isralowitz and Robert Kapsis PART 4: FOUR RECEPTION ANOMALIES 19. Hitchcock and His Critics: The Fall and Rise of Strangers on a Train (1951) Robert Kapsis 20. Frenzy (1971): “Dark, Nasty, Full of Bile” …and a Masterpiece? Tania Modleski 21. ‘One of the most uneven films in the history of cinema’: Topaz (1969) James Chapman 22. What the Two Versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much Reveal About Film Criticism in the United States and Britain Robert Kapsis PART 5: HITCHCOCK’S TELEVISION SERIES 23. The Final Frontier: Hitchcock’s Television Work Thomas Leitch 24. Towards a New Appreciation of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and Shamley Productions Christina Lane 25. Life after Death: Preserving and Promoting Hitchcock’s TV Persona Robert Kapsis 26. Travels in Hitchcock’s Multiverse Joel Gunz PART 6: GLOBAL HITCHCOCK: BEYOND THE US AND THE UK Western and Eastern Europe 27.France Tifenn Brisset 28. Germany Jaimey Fisher 29. Italy Andrea Minuz and Francesca Cantore 30. Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia Sergei Kapterev Asia 31.South Korea Hye Seung Chung 32. Japan Daisuke Miya 33. Mainland China Sun Yi Spanish-Speaking Territories 34. Spain Dona M. Kercher 35. Mexico Ana Rosas Mantecón 36. Argentina Dona M. Kercher APPENDIX A A “Signature Pattern” : The Importance of Music in Hitchcock’s Films Jack Sullivan APPENDIX B Deserter or Honored Exile? Views of Hitchcock from Wartime Britain Charles Barr
Reviews
In addition to wide-ranging reassessments of Hitchcock’s key films, this innovative collection offers game-changing analyses of his TV shows and ground-breaking chapters dealing with his impact outside the English-speaking world. It is a windfall for cinema scholars and movie buffs alike. -- David Sterritt, author of 'The Films of Alfred Hitchcock' (1993) and 'Simply Hitchcock' (2017), USA Robert E. Kapsis is the go-to scholar regarding the reception of Alfred Hitchcock’s oeuvre. For this volume, he has assembled an A-team for taking stock of Hitchcock’s reputation in a wider geography than usual and for providing critical reconsiderations of individual films and the authorship overall. A must read. -- Jan Olsson, Professor Emeritus (Cinema Studies), Stockholm University, Sweden
In addition to wide-ranging reassessments of Hitchcock’s key films, this innovative collection offers game-changing analyses of his TV shows and ground-breaking chapters dealing with his impact outside the English-speaking world. It is a windfall for cinema scholars and movie buffs alike. -- David Sterritt, author of 'The Films of Alfred Hitchcock' (1993) and 'Simply Hitchcock' (2017), USA Robert E. Kapsis is the go-to scholar regarding the reception of Alfred Hitchcock’s oeuvre. For this volume, he has assembled an A-team for taking stock of Hitchcock’s international reputation, and to for provide critical reconsiderations of both individual films and their authorship. A must read. -- Jan Olsson, Professor Emeritus (Cinema Studies), Stockholm University, Sweden This book illuminates the full breadth of Alfred Hitchcock’s metaverse, with in-depth discussions of his films and television series framed within the context of audience reactions (and rejections) around the world. Robert E. Kapsis is to be commended for undertaking the deconstruction and analysis of Hitchcock’s massive oeuvre in a new and refreshing format that will enhance film studies. -- Historian and author of 'The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock' (2022), USA
Author Information
Robert E. Kapsis is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Film Studies at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is author of Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation (1992); the e-book version was released in 2022. Shortly after its publication, Kapsis developed “Multimedia Hitchcock,” an innovative, interactive software project. Originally conceived as a pedagogical tool for his college courses on Hitchcock, the project grew into an interactive kiosk exhibited at MoMA, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and at other museums and nonprofit institutions celebrating the Hitchcock Centennial in 1999. Kapsis is also editor of Woody Allen: Interviews, Revised and Updated Edition (2016), Jonathan Demme: Interviews, Charles Burnett: Interviews, and Conversations with Steve Martin; and coeditor (with Kathie Coblentz)of Clint Eastwood: Interviews (2006). He is currently working on a book on Hitchcock’s posthumous reputation, to be published by Bloomsbury. Kapsis’s work on Hitchcock and “the Hitchcockian” has been featured in many publications and venues, including the New York Times, Oxford University Press’s American National Biography, American Film, The Sociological Quarterly, Hitchcock Annual, Cineaste, and the Village Voice. It has also influenced the creation and development of documentaries about Hitchcock for the BBC, PBS’s American Masters series, Universal’s Dial H for Hitchcock: The Genius Behind the Showman, and promotional materials for the release of a Hitchcock stamp from the United States Postal Service.
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