The Women Who Knew Too Much

By Tania Modleski,

Book cover of The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory

Book description

Originally published in 1988, The Women Who Knew Too Much remains a classic work in film theory and feminist criticism. The book consists of a theoretical introduction and analyses of seven important films by Alfred Hitchcock, each of which provides a basis for an analysis of the female spectator as…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Women Who Knew Too Much as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

If one wants to learn about Hitchcock’s complex relation with women, one can turn to Donald Spoto’s The Dark Side of Genius or Laurence Leamer’s recent Hitchcock’s Blondes, but if one wants to contemplate the aesthetic question, how are women portrayed in Hitchcock, Modleski is far more rewarding.

I learned much from her weighing of Hitchcock’s ambivalence toward women. The book offers a strong feminist account of seven films, and I have consistently recommended it to my students as one of the best books on Hitchcock. 

From Mark's list on Alfred Hitchcock.

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