Hitchcock: A Gentleman who Preferred Blondes: Hitchcock and The Girl

Making films about famous historical figures is a dangerous business, as viewers invariably come to the cinema loaded with rumours and misinformed assumptions – and that's before they are presented with the filmmaker's own interpretation. Brian McFarlane considers how these factors play out in two 2012 films about the controversial master of suspense.

Additional keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, 1960s cinema, The Girl, Hitchcock, Sacha Gervasi, Julian Jarrold, HBO, Tippi Hedren, misogyny, The Birds, Psycho, Janet Leigh, Anthony Hopkins, Toby Jones, BBC.