This first comprehensive study of the relationship between the tales of Edgar Allan Poe and the films of Alfred Hitchcock uncovers an unexpected range of affinities underlying the director's well-known regard for Poe. As an adolescent Hitchcock avidly read Poe and later acknowledged a direct influence: "I can't help but compare what I try to put in my films with what Poe put in his stories." Hitchcock's chief take-home lesson from Poe was that "fear...is a feeling people like to feel when they are certain of being in safety." Thus, Poe's legacy to Hitchcock was an obsession to delight and...