The Blondes Who Knew Too Much - The Hitchcock Women during the Monroe Era

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Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2, 0 (B), LMU Munich (American Studies Institute), course: Hauptseminar: Women, Sexuality and Popular Culture in Twentieth Century America, 18 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Thesis Statement: Hitchcock's Blondes were a formation of the director's own creative vision, the image of women in film during the Monroe Era did not influence him in his depiction of women Without question, Alfred Hitchcock is considered one of the most important and most influential film directors of the Twentieth Century. Throughout his career, which lasted more than 50 years, he directed over 50 feature films, many of which are now considered classics. Interestingly, he directed his most critically acclaimed movies during the relatively short life and career of one distinctive actress: Marilyn Monroe. It is a striking fact, however, that Marilyn Monroe never starred in a Hitchcock film, although it seems that her blond hair and her star-status would have made her the perfect 'Hitchcock Blonde'. In this paper I will attempt to compare Hitchcock's female characters during the Monroe Era with the image of women in film and how they differed from each other. For this purpose, it is necessary to first take a closer look at Marilyn Monroe and the image she embodied as well as women's role in general during that period. In addition, Hitchcock's background, education and attitude towards his leading ladies must also be examined. In my analysis I will focus on three films by Hitchcock: Vertigo (1958), North By Northwest (1959) and The Birds (1963). I chose these films in particular because they not only show a certain progression in Hitchcock's work in the way he treats and presents his female characters, but also because these films were highly successful. Granted Hitchcock's rich body of work has been analyzed under various points of view by many scholars, I have not been able to locate a work solely concerned with the female characters in his films during the Monroe Era. But before turning to Alfred Hitchcock and some of his works, it is important to circumscribe the period we are looking at by focusing on the life, career and image of Marilyn Monroe.