Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was known as the master of suspense whose films come to be the bench mark for psychological thrillers. He was born 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone, London, England and after a long, successful career, died 29 April 1980 in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, USA. 

He was raised by his father William Hitchcock who was an East End green grocer and his wife Emma and had two older siblings, William and Eileen. Unfortunately his father died when he was fifteen. Hitchcock went to school at Saint Ignatius College which was run by Jesuits as he was raised as a strict catholic. He also went to a school for engineering and navigation. 

 In 1915 he started his first job for Henley Telegraph and Cable Company as an estimator. This is where his interest for film started and he often visited the cinema. Around 1920 Hitchcock joined the film industry drawing the sets as he was a very skilled artist.

 In 1923 he directed his first film 'The number 13', however this production was stopped. In 1925 he went on to direct a film called 'The pleasure garden' which was a British and German production. This film became very popular. Hitchcock made his first trademark film in 1926 which was ' The lodger'. This same year he married Alma Reville who he met in his first job in the film industry. They went on to have a daughter, Patricia Hitchcock who was born 7 July 1928. 

He went on to make many films in Britain including 'The lady vanishes' in 1938 and 'Jamaica inn' in 1939. Some of his films made him famous in the USA and he was asked by an American producer, David O. Selznick to move to the USA to direct the adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca which he did so in 1940.  Film companies started to call his films after him such as Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot after the making of Saboteur in 1942. 

Hitchcock was awarded the AFL Life achievement award in 1979 and said his famous quote: 

"I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation and encouragement and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat, and the fourth is as fine as a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen and their names are Alma Reville" 

Other well know quotes of his are as follows:

" The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them"

"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it"

"If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on"

"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible"

"I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body on the coach"

He began to write a screen play with Ernest Lehman which was called 'The short night' but he decided to fire Lehman and replace him with David Freeman, a young screenwriter who re wrote the script. However the film was never made because of Hitchcock's health state, but the script was later published after Hitchcock's death. 

Hitchcock was Knighted, Sir Alfred Hitchcock in late 1979 but unfortunately the following year he died due to renal failure in his sleep. 

This is a quote by Rick Altman which shows the impact Hitchcock had on the film industry:

" Under the strong influence of Alfred Hitchcock, thrillers often begin with a crime and the accusation of an innocent bystander. Were the accused to contact the authorities no doubt the case could be promptly solved, but instead the poor bystander runs from the law thus further jeopardizing life and limb"