GENTLEMAN PREFERS BLONDES (HITCHCOCK)

"Drama is life with the dull bits cut out," Alfred Hitchcock once claimed.

So what would the great director have made of the two movies based on his life that have hit the big and small screens in recent weeks?

Television viewers over Christmas were treated to a jaw dropping performance by Toby Jones as a rather creepy Alfred Hitchcock in the controversial HBO-BBC co-production, 'The Girl'.

Julian Jarold's TV movie (bravely or foolishly, depending where you stand) tried to demystify one of cinema's most admired directors by focussing on his obsession with one leading lady, Tippi Hedren (played by Sienna Miller) during the making of 'The Birds'.

According to Hedren, that obsession manifested itself in cruel behaviour on the set.

The film, however, has been slated on both sides of the Atlantic for taking Hedren's side and unfairly depicting Alfred Hitchcock as a sex pest and a bully.

Other Hitchcock movie actresses such as Kim Novak ('Vertigo'), Doris Day ('The Man Who Knew Too Much') and Eva Marie Saint ('North By Northwest') lined up to defend his honour in an article in The Daily Telegraph. 

There is no denying that the gentleman preferred blondes and he once opined: "Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints."

The director's penchant for blonde actresses also features heavily in Sacha Gervasi's biopic 'Hitchcock' which hits our screens.

But this is only one element of a movie that zones in on the huge creative gamble the director took in making 'Psycho' and the marriage - domestically and creatively - between Hitchcock and his long-time collaborator, Alma Reville.

At the start of the movie, Hitchcock (played by Anthony Hopkins) initially basks in the success of 'North By Northwest', while his wife Alma (Helen Mirren) prefers to hang about in the background, away from the spotlight.

As he struggles with his assistant Peggy Robertson (Toni Collette) at Paramount Studios to find a new project that will stretch him, Alma is wooed by a writer Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston in another oily role) who wants her to collaborate on a screenplay.

Hitchcock soon becomes obsessed with the lurid real life tale of Wisconsin mass murderer, Ed Gein (Michael Wincott) whose case would also inspire 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'The Silence of the Lambs'.

Despite efforts by Paramount boss Barney Balaban (Richard Portnow) to persuade him to make 'Casino Royale', he options the pulp horror novel, 'Psycho' by Robert Bloch and gets Joseph Stefano (Ralph Macchio) to adapt it for him.

But with Paramount unwilling to stump up the cash for a movie they believe will alienate audiences, Hitchcock and his agent Lew Wasserman (Michael Stuhlbarg) strike a deal where the director will finance the film himself in return for 40 per cent of the profits and studio backing for its distribution.

With his professional reputation and his personal fortune on the line, Hitchcock throws himself into the project with great gusto but Gervasi's film brings to the fore Alma Reville's influential role in some of the key twists of 'Psycho' - most notably, the decision to kill off Janet Leigh's character half an hour into the film.

Hitchcock and Reville's marriage in the movie is, at times, affectionate but not very intimate. The couple sleep in separate beds.

This lack of intimacy inevitably leads to sexual paranoia.

Reville hovers over the photos of blonde actresses like Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint and Kim Novak that he keeps on his desk and keeps a close eye on his behaviour around Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson).

Hitchcock suspects his wife may be having a fling with Whitfield Cook.

But the film also does not shy away from Hitchcock's feeling of betrayal over Vera Miles' (Jessica Chastain) decision to shun a Hollywood career for a family life and his attachment to Janet Leigh.

Gervasi clearly is a fan of Hitchcock but he's also anxious to ensure Alma Reville's immense contribution to his movies gets its proper place in film history.

Such is his admiration for Hitchcock's movies that he playfully deploys some of the great man's techniques - he directly references the director's monologues to camera from the TV series, 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents'. 

He inevitably recreates shots from Hitchcock classics including the umbrellas from 'The Foreign Correspondent', the nightmare scene in 'Vertigo', the bottles filled with sand in 'Notorious' and the peephole shot from 'Psycho'.

In the title role, Anthony Hopkins is also in playful mood under layers of make-up - perfectly capturing his intonation and delivery.

In many respects, Hopkins has the most difficult job of the entire cast because of the high public profile of Hollywood's greatest showman. There are few people around the Western world who are unfamiliar with the work of Alfred Hitchcock and he continues to influence new generations of filmmakers.

Faced with a difficult task, Hopkins turns in a decent performance - interpreting Hitchcock in much the same way as he put his own stamp on Richard Nixon for Oliver Stone. 

Mirren, however, has much more to gain as the relatively unknown Alma Reville and she should feel cheated out of an Academy Award Best Actress nomination. It is a typically spirited, intelligent Helen Mirren performance.

Hopkins and Mirren are surrounded by a savvy supporting cast - with Colette, Stuhlbarg, Huston and especially, James D'Arcy shining.

D'Arcy's resemblance to 'Psycho' lead actor, Anthony Perkins is often uncanny and he impressively captures the actor's insecurity as he takes on the role of the troubled Norman Bates.

And yet despite all this and despite the confident cinematography of Jeff Cronenweth and editing by Pamela Martin, the movie has a bit of a flighty feel to it.

John J McLaughlin's screenplay is playful and occasionally entertaining but the dialogue sometimes slips into the corny and the narrative is conventional.

That, in itself, is ironic given Hitchcock and Reville's tendency to push the boundaries of mainstream Hollywood storytelling. 

As a narrative device, McLaughlin and Gervasi's imaginary conversations between Hitchcock and Ed Gein eventually grates and the final pay-off joke is a bit too obvious.

Beyond the knowing references and the loving recreations of sequences from Hitchcock movies,  there is little in Gervasi's feature film directorial debut that stretches him or his audience.

Don't get me wrong. 'Hitchcock' is entertaining enough but it won't knock you off your seat unlike a lot of the work of The Master himself.

('Hitchcock' opened in the Movie House and other UK and Irish cinemas on February 8, 2013)