Alfred Hitchcock pushed the boundaries of onscreen permissiveness as much as any artist/entertainer of the twentieth century. John Billheimer meticulously catalogs the filmmaker's battles with the censors, both mischievous and profound, in fantastically readable fashion. A vital and fun addition to Hitchcock scholarship.
~Eddie Muller, author, Film Noir Foundation founder, and Turner Classic Movies Host
Many Hitchcock books and articles include accounts of censorship, and many books and articles on censorship include material on Hitchcock films. I don't know of any other work that brings the man and the topic together in as businesslike a way as is done in Hitchcock and the Censors. It is an attractive study that offers a valuable, fresh angle on Hitchcock's career.
~Charles Barr, coauthor of Hitchcock Lost and Found: The Forgotten Films
A meticulous deep dive into the sweaty tango between Hitchcock and the Code. Amazing to witness how arbitrary and stringent the rules were and the resulting sacrifices movies had to make. Hitchcock rose to the challenge and made the debates part of his expression—but what a bloody tiresome waste of his time.
~Darren Aronofsky
Here is a book that should have (and could have) been written years ago. Kudos, then, to Billheimer for slogging through the paper trail of correspondence between the British Board of Film Censors and Motion Picture Production Code Office (better known as the Breen Office) and Alfred Hitchcock regarding the content of his many provocative films. Each movie has a history all its own, and while passing reference has been made to censorship in other studies of Hitchcock, this is the first comprehensive book on the subject. No more be said: this is by definition an important piece of work.
~Leonard Maltin
Throughout his career, Alfred Hitchcock battled governmental and industry censors of his films. These struggles are alluded to in many of the biographies and critical studies of this most written about of film directors, but Billheimer's is the first to concentrate on issues of censorship, including a general history of its occurrence from the beginning of the motion picture industry.
~Mystery Scene Magazine
John Billheimer's Hitchcock and the Censors proves that there is always something new to discover about The Master of Suspense. This book is informative even for post-production professionals who are familiar with Hitchcock's mastery of editing, creative use of sound, and memorable music.
~CineMontage
If you are a Hitchcock fan, or just interested in Hollywood history, this book is a must-read, with a chapter on each film.
~Vienna's Classic Hollywood Blog
If you love reading about film and doing research on it, then this is really one of the most definitive books. It goes above and beyond to express why censorship is a terrible thing and that filmmakers should always have complete and utter control of their 'babies', film babies that is.
~Cinema Sentries
Hitchcock aficionados will find much pleasure in Hitchcock and the Censors, which provides abundant evidence of how far mainstream cinema has traveled—for better and perhaps for worse—from its earlier history in more straitlaced, censorious times.
~Hitchcock Annual
