The Girl: Hitchcock Revealed

Alfred Hitchcock directed some of the most iconic movies of the 20th century (Psycho, anyone?) and was also immensely prolific. He directed more than fifty films, many of them instant classics, starring some of the most recognizable movie stars of the day, including Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jimmy Stewart, and Ingrid Bergman. While I am partial to those stars and their early Hitchcock films, like Suspicion or Rear Window, Hitchcock's last great muse was the actress Tippi Hedren. She was plucked from obscurity to be his next blonde leading lady, and together they made two movies: The Birds and Marnie. Last month, HBO Films released The Girl, a behind-the-scenes look at the twisted relationship between Hitchcock and Hedren.

Sienna Miller plays Tippi Hedren while Toby Jones effortlessly slips into the shoes of Alfred Hitchcock. The Girl follows their relationship from the very beginning when Hitchcock is attempting to replace his former muse Grace Kelly, who has inconsiderately left Hollywood to become Princess Grace of Monaco. His wife, Alma (played by the great Imelda Staunton) spots Hedren in a TV commercial and encourages Hitch to call her in for an audition. Everyone in the industry knows that Hitchcock is looking for a star for his latest venture, The Birds, but the guileless Hedren imagines she is in the running for a bit part - after all, who would cast a complete unknown as the star of a huge movie? But Hitchcock knows what he likes, and he likes Hedren. 

Filming commences on The Birds and Hedren is thrilled to have the part. She has a daughter to support (if you didn't know, that daughter is future actress Melanie Griffith) and this opportunity seems like a chance of a lifetime to provide for her child and pursue her acting ambitions. Hitchcock and Alma coach her extensively, revealing just how involved Hitch got in every level of filmmaking. Unfortunately, this time, he gets a bit too involved. He develops an obsession with the beautiful Hedren, one that is psychosexually disturbing enough to be worthy of a Hitchcock film in its own right. Hedren firmly rejects his advances leading to scenes of deliberate psychological manipulation throughout the filming of The Birds. He withholds crucial information from Hedren, subjecting her to a cruel series of filming days where she is repeatedly pecked and scratched by real birds, instead of the mechanical puppets that she had been expecting. But she stoically endures his twisted punishments, hoping that if she doesn't give in, he'll just give up.

Like any HBO film, The Girl is beautifully made, with painstaking attention paid to costumes, make-up, and locations. Scenes from Marnie and The Birds are vividly recreated and you can often forget that you aren't actually watching Tippi Hedren on screen. It's a fairly dull story for someone with no interest in Hitchcock, but it's quite fascinating for a Hitchcock fan and is based on a biography by Donald Spoto. It's interesting to see that the man who made such a study of disturbing human psyches was so skewed himself, and I now want to read more biographies to get a sense of how he treated his other leading ladies. Overall, The Girl is a revealing look at a famous Hollywood duo and illustrates that sometimes, real life can be just as creepy as a Hitchcock film.