Hitchcock Book Cover Art #2 -- Garbo

Last week, in the first part of this series, I showed some covers from collections of Hitchcock mysteries. The theme was covers based on cultural moments of the time when the books were first published. We start off this week with another book from this category. The title is based on a pop psychology book by Eric Berne:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The book was a bestseller,. It spawned a Top 40 song:

And when it was time to put out a new Hitchcock collection, well...

This wasn't the only collection with cover art of the director playing chess with Death.

When not trying to checkmate Death, Hitchcock played billiards using a skull-and-crossbones 8-ball.

More gamesmanship. . .

 

 

 

 

This never cover has a tennis title but Russian roulette art, except its not Hitchcock's hand but Death's bony claw. Why is Death using a gun? Can't he just touch you?

Some titles, happily, are self-explanatory. 

But when you reprint you get a new title and then sometimes the self-explanatory part goes to pieces on you. Here's the first paperback edition of a collection. 

Here is the reprint version of the original above. What is going on??? Is Hitchcok's costume meant to portray him as a nobleman who collects marine curios? Is he a magician? Is that a shark's jawbone or a fierce version of the Rolling Stones logo? And you look a gift house in the mouth to see if it has good teeth. Why would you look inside an empty shark jawbone, or even a shark jawbone in situ? Explain please. 

Yet another confusing one. When I saw this, I thought "Mixed metaphors, I guess, okay"  This title would have been better  with the Murder Anyone? cover art., 

Here's another head-scratcher. I think  would have been funnier with Hitch in the pilot seat of a jet. But I suppose the ghoulish audience screaming all together would have been loud. But ghouls don't scream. They murmur and whisper and mutter, right?

Finally, on the cover of this reprint, is that funeral wagon being drawn by a snarling zombie hippo? Or is it simply rabid?

Next week: One more set of Hitchcock book covers!