John Billheimer argues that Alfred Hitchcock was adroit at manipulating the censors in England and the United States to create the films he had in mind. The screen image and story-telling montage were more important to him than the elements of plot and dialog. He would often make small compromises in dialogue and plot details to save montages that were crucial to him. In the shower scene in psycho, he removed one overhead shot that briefly showed one of Janet Leigh’s butt cheeks because it was the only shot in which all the censors could agree they saw unacceptable nudity. The shower scene itself was a breakthrough because, for most of his career, the code prevented Hitchcock from showing a toilet on screen. Billheimer suggests that though the code occasionally inspired Hitchcock to invent creative solutions that improved his filmmaking, most of the changes were silly and damaging. Hitchcock was never free from censorship. In England, the film board constrained political speech in films like The 39 Steps. During World War II, he had to run films by the War Office. Even after the code went away, he was constrained by the TV market. Billheimer provides introductory discussions of the code and film-by-film analysis. Although he provides brief plot summaries, Billheimer writes for those who have seen many of the films. 4 stars. ( )