Alfred
        Hitchcock
                "The Master of Suspense"

      The acknowledged master of the thriller genre he virtually invented, Alfred Hitchcock was also a brilliant technician who deftly blended sex, suspense and humor. He was the son of East End greengrocer William Hitchock and his wife Emma. Raised as a strict Catholic and attending Saint Ignatius College, a school run by Jesuits, Hitch had very much of a regular upbringing. His first job outside of the family business was in 1915 as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company. His interest in movies began at around this time, frequently visiting the cinema and reading US trade journals.
      In 1920 Hitch learned that Lasky were to open a studio in London and managed to secure a job as a title designer. He designed the titles for all the movies made at the studio for the next two years. In 1923 he got his first chance at directing when the director of Always Tell Your Wife (1923) fell ill and Hitch completed the movie. Impressed by his work, studio chiefs gave him his first directing assignment on Number 13 (1922), however, before it could be finished, the studio closed its British operation. Hitch was then hired by Michael Balcon to work as an assistant director for the company later to be known as Gainsborough Pictures. In reality Hitch did more than this - working as a writer, title designer and art director. After several films for the company, Hitch was given the chance to direct a British/German co-production called The Pleasure Garden (1925). Hitchcock's career as a director finally began. Hitchcock went on to become the most widely known and influential director in the history of world cinema with a significant body of work produced over 50 years.

Selected Movies

• Rope (1948)
• Strangers on a Train (1951)
• Dial "M" For Murder (1954)
• Rear Window (1954)
• To Catch a Thief (1955)
• The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
• Vertigo (1958)
• North By Northwest (1959)
• Psycho (1960)

Recommended Reading

• The Art of Alfred Hitchcock by Donald Spoto, Doubleday, 1976.
• Find the Director and Other Hitchcock Games by Thomas M. Leitch, University of Georgia Press, 1991.
• Hitchcock: The Definitive Study by François Traffaut, Simon & Schuster, 1983.
• Hitchcock -- The Murderous Gaze by William Rothman, Harvard Film Studies, 1982.

Wit and Wisdom

• "When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'"
• "Seeing a murder on television can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some."
• "I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the manmade sound never equalled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig."
• "The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder"
• "Drama is life with the dull bits left out"
• "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."
• "We try to tell a good story and develop a hefty plot. Themes emerge as we go along"