Phantom Lady
Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman behind Hitchcock
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Phantom Lady
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Narrated by:
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Gabra Zackman
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By:
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Christina Lane
About this listen
Phantom Lady chronicles the untold story of Hollywood’s most powerful female writer-producer of the 1940s. In 1933 Joan Harrison was a 26-year-old former salesgirl with a dream of escaping her stodgy London suburb and the dreadful prospect of settling down with one of the local boys. A few short years later, she was Alfred Hitchcock’s confidante and the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of his first American film, Rebecca. Harrison had quickly grown from being the worst secretary Hitchcock ever had to one of his closest collaborators, critically shaping his brand as the “master of suspense.”
Forging an image as “the female Hitchcock,” Harrison went on to produce numerous Hollywood features before becoming a television pioneer as the producer of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. A respected powerhouse, she acquired a singular reputation for running amazingly smooth productions - and defying anyone who posed an obstacle.
Author Christina Lane shows how this stylish, stunning woman, with an adventurous romantic life, became an unconventional but impressive auteur - one whom history has overlooked.
©2020 Christina Lane (P)2020 Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
Joan Harrison is, or should be, an icon. Her story doesn't require a lot of condescending verbiage about women's ongoing oppression. I fast-forwarded several times during this audiobook when the author (and narrator robot) got going with this type of lecture.
Great story, but....
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Once Joan and Hitch part ways, there’s still much of interest uncovered- it’s pointed me towards many films that I will enjoy tracking down.
The narrator’s voice is fine, but there are some real clangers where words are not pronounced in the usual way.
Great book, some iffy narration
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Superb biography
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The book tells the story of a woman who was so much more than Hitchcock's 'secretary'.
She was an empowered, creative and free thinking woman. Her own person. Really, enjoyed the book!
A Beautiful Book
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Even a cursory reading of this nutritious book shows that to be a serious omission. Harrison's apprenticeship with Hitch brought much-needed tailoring to his material, and saw her fly through the ranks of the Hollywood movie-making machine. After which... well, there was no infrastructure to support her further, was there?
That's why, as they say, women have so often had to be twice as good at what they do; and indeed, this book is twice as good as many recent Hitchcock-themed efforts.
Author Christina Lane handles her subject in a deft and sophisticated way that is often lacking in books attached to the lucrative Hitchcock name. I've read too many filler-stuffed tomes starting at The Pleasure Garden, ending at Family Plot and offering precious little in the way of insight in between. But Lane's intelligent selection and corroboration of evidence -- and unfakeable immersion in the subject -- means she needs to assume very little, and makes persuasive arguments for Harrison's place in the movie-making firmament. No filler here.
I hope Lane has some other projects bubbling away, because I'll be looking out for any future books by her, in the fullness of time.
From a Hitchcock perspective: excellent
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