John Billheimer

John Billheimer argues that Alfred Hitchcock was adroit at manipulating the censors in England and the United States to create the films he had in mind. The screen image and story-telling montage were more important to him than the elements of plot and dialog. He would often make small compromises in dialogue and plot details to save montages that were crucial to him. In the shower scene in psycho, he removed one overhead shot that briefly showed one of Janet Leigh’s butt cheeks because it was the only shot in which all the censors could agree they saw unacceptable nudity. The shower scene itself was a breakthrough because, for most of his career, the code prevented Hitchcock from showing a toilet on screen. Billheimer suggests that though the code occasionally inspired Hitchcock to invent creative solutions that improved his filmmaking, most of the changes were silly and damaging. Hitchcock was never free from censorship. In England, the film board constrained political speech in films like The 39 Steps. During World War II, he had to run films by the War Office. Even after the code went away, he was constrained by the TV market. Billheimer provides introductory discussions of the code and film-by-film analysis. Although he provides brief plot summaries, Billheimer writes for those who have seen many of the films. 4 stars.… (más)

I read (listened to) the audiobook version for this entire series. I believe this added to my enjoyment, because I liked the narrator's accent. It was a very personable, homey, southern accent that fit in well with the story.

The story was fairly interesting, but I think it's more a vehicle for the humor, sort of like the Douglas Adams books. I loved some of the terms he used to describe various people and places. Some of the reviewers seemed to miss the point with the humor, and commented on the story being boring, or the characters doing dumb things. I suggest they try to obtain a sense of humor, and don't take everything so seriously. Absent that, they need to be more careful about what they read.… (más)

A local dam breaks, sending a black ribbon of coal sludge cascading miles and miles through the hollows across the region. It turns out that Owen knows the owner of the coal mine. What's more, the owner knows that finding out why things fail is Owen's specialty, and he hires him on the spot to figure out just what went wrong.

Owen works with the sheriff to investigate what went wrong in the mine. Owen is honest and responsible. The sheriff knows the locals and who the troublemakers are. He is cynical and skeptical of some of Owen’s suspicions. This story was a good balance between the investigation and Owen’s personal life. I enjoyed it and plan to read more in this series.… (más)