Many writers on Alfred Hitchcock\'s films have never bothered to mention his screenwriters. In <em>Scripting Hitchcock: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie</em> (University of Illinois Press), Pace University English professors Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick study the great filmmaker through interviewing the screenwriters who each wrote one in the triptych of early 1960s movies in the book\'s title. There is nothing in <em>Scripting Hitchcock</em> to dissuade anyone from seeing the director as the auteur of his films, but investigating the contributions of Jay Presson Allen (<em>Marnie</em>), Joseph Stefano (<em>Psycho</em>) and Evan Hunter (<em>The Birds</em>) illuminates the creative process. Hitch provided the vision, planned many scenes in detail and spent many hours in face-to-face conversation with his writers, who nonetheless added their own insights. Although the director could sometimes be disagreeable, none of the three writers support Donald Spoto\'s dismal portrait in his influential biography of Hitchcock, <em>The Dark Side of Genius</em>.
