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Hitchcock's Blondes
"Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints."
-Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock was in the film industry for five decades, and in this time he worked with more than 40 actresses. Most of these women shared one trait: they were ice cold blondes. Because of the staggering amount of blonde leading ladies that Hitchcock employed, they were dubbed "Hitchcock's Blondes."
"Women must learn to play the game as men do." |
Hitchcock's childhood wasn't a pleasant one. Despite having siblings, he often felt neglected and highly self-conscious about his body. He did not venture outside his house if he could help it, for fear of being bullied. This reclusiveness and dislike of his own appearance contributed to Hitchcock's fascination with the blonde bombshells that he cast as the leads in his films, and he was very particular about their appearances. So much so, that to create his 'ideal woman' in North by Northwest, he made Eva Saint, who played Eve Kendall, cut her hair, claiming that "short hair gives Eva a more exotic look, in keeping with her role of the glamorous woman of my story."
In his adulthood, Hitchcock was still spiteful about his outward appearance and, consequently, enjoyed staging the downfall of his beautiful actresses. In his film The Birds, he ordered his crew to throw live gulls at Tippi Hedren while she suffered the onslaught. It was as if he wanted to punish her for her beauty and use her, and his other blondes, as scapegoats for his childhood tormentors.
Even though his leading ladies were put through a lot, Hitchcock's Blondes maintained a subtly sexy aura that easily captivated their male counterparts. They were also a mixture of fashion and fetishism, perhaps due to Hitchcock's less than glamorous youth, as mentioned above.
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Alfred's obsession with blondes seemed to take on a whole new meaning while filming The Birds and Marnie. While under contract, Tippi Hedren claimed that she was sexually assaulted by Hitchcock in her dressing room on set. When Hedren voiced her intent to expose him, Hitchcock reacted by threatening to ruin her career.
Tippi also revealed that Hitchcock tried out one of his favorite film tactics on her. He threw himself on top of her while they were riding in the back of a limo and tried to kiss her.
These allegations surfaced long after Hitchcock's death, but Tippi revealed that in the early stages of their relationship she learned a lot about acting through his guidance, and was deeply saddened by his death, despite his actions against her many years before.
Although his obsession with his leading ladies was problematic, Hitchcock was a brilliant filmmaker. A major component of his success, and the way that he differentiated himself from other filmmakers of his time, was his use of women in the form of true main characters. Up to this point, women were almost purely cosmetic. However, Hitchcock liked to cast the women in his films in controversial ways. The ladies he filmed also had character arc transformations. The most common was falling in love with their corresponding male leads. These women were more dynamic and realistically thrilling than previous films portrayed them.
Regardless of their stunning looks, Hitchcock's Blondes served a more important purpose than that of satisfying his fetish. These women were proactive and independent, and their eagerness to take action helped establish Hitchcock's nickname, "Master of Suspense," in that their behavior was always unexpected. Just as intelligent and they were attractive, Hitchcock's leading ladies had their own agenda, and their truths were rarely revealed until the end when the plot was exposed. This was achieved through classic Hitchcockian deception. For example, a beautiful woman acts distracting and seductive, and in an instant she has a gun trained on the seducee. The most surprising thing about these women was their mysteriousness and unpredictability, which helped mold Hitchcock's films into masterful suspense pieces.