Abstract/Summary

Miller explores the professional relationship of C.A. Lejeune and Alfred Hitchcock that has a classic rise-and-fall structure. It began at the start of both their careers in the early 1920s, started to turn around the time of Hitchcock's move to Hollywood in 1939, and came to an unhappy end on the afternoon of Thursday Aug 4, 1960 at the Plaza Cinema on Lower Regent Street, during the London preview of Psycho (1960). By her own account, Lejeune had in fact left the screening before Walker, keeping the ending secret by default, for the simple reason that I grew so sick and tired of the whole beastly business that I didn't stop to see it. She filed her final review for the paper at the end of the year.