|
|
Alfred Hitchcock
The Master of Suspense - Alfred Hitchcock
He was born Alfred Joseph Hitchcock on the 13th of August 1899 in Leytonstone, London, UK. The third son to greengrocers William Hitchcock (1862-1914) and Emma Jane Whelan (1863-1942), his older brother was called William Hitchcock JR (Born 18900 and his sister was called Eileen (Born 1892). They were all strict Roman Catholics.
It is a popular (and true) story that when Alfred Hitchcock was around 5 years old (His exact age when the incident took place varies in different accounts) his father sent him down to the local police station with a note telling an officer to put him in a cell for 5 minutes, when they released young Alfred Hitchcock the officer reportedly said "This is what we do to naughty little boys."
Hitchcock attended a College in Stamford Hill until the age of 14 when his father died and then he attended a school of Engineering and Navigation. After graduating he became a draftsman and an advertising designer with a cable company and a telegraph company.
In 1920, Hitchcock heard that Lasky were opening a studio in London, he was quickly assigned as a title designer, he was then moved up the ranks. In 1922, when the director of the film Always Tell Your Wife (Hugh Croise) fell ill, Hitchcock completed the film. The studio were impressed by his work and they assigned him as director on a film called Number 13 but the studio closed its British Operation and the project was scrapped during the production and all that was shot has now been lost. Afterwards, Michael Balcon as assistant director in Gainsborough Studios, there he met his future wife Alma Reville who was only a day younger than he was. In 1925 Balcon gave the chance to direct The Pleasure Garden and until 1939, Hitchcock made British films which are regarded as some of the greatest films ever made, including the first British talkie called Blackmail, The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1934 starring Peter Lorre in his first English language film (He remade it in 1956 starring James Stewart and Doris Day) and The 39 Steps in 1935 starring Robert Donat.
In 1940 he signed a 7 year contract with David O. Sleznick, there he made Rebecca with Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine and George Sanders, he was loaned out several times and made classics like Foreign Correspondent with Joel McCrea and George Sanders, Shadow Of A Doubt starring Joseph Cotton and Teresa Wright. Towards the end of the 40s he made with Selznick as producer Spellbound starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman, Notorious with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman and then The Paradine Case with Gregory Peck.
The 1950s is regarded as the heyday not only for Hollywood but for Hitchcock as well, he made classics such as Strangers On A Train, Murder.html">Dial M For Murder, Rear Window, To Catch A Thief, The Wrong Man, Vertigo, and in 1959, North by Northwest. Also in the 50s Hitchcock started his highly successful television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
In 1960, Hitchcock made his most famous film, Psycho starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles and John Gavin. Then in 1963 he made The Birds starring Rod Taylor his new star Tippi Hedren. Hitchcock slowed down his film making speed and made only five more film over the course of the next 13 years. In 1979 he was awarded the Life Time Achievement Award and a knighthood. He was planning to make another film but died during pre-production due to renal failure peacefully in his sleep at 9:17 AM 29th April 1980
News |
What members say |
Filmography
| Watch online (6)
Alfred Hitchcock - news / articles
-
-
Hitchcock returns to the big screen -
11 February 2009
-Legendary director Alfred Hitchcock is to be brought back to life in a movie about his early years.-
-Kung-Fu Panda and Good Luck Chuck star Dan Fogler has signed on to play the heavyweight auteur in Number 13 - alongside stars Ewan McGregor and Emily Mortimer. -
- The
-
-
The Essential Guide to Alfred Hitchcock -
9 September 2008
- The Essential Guide to Alfred Hitchcock-
Born 1899, Leytonstone, England-
Died 1980, Bel Air, USA -
-
-More books have been written about Alfred Hitchcock than any other filmmaker, alive or dead. He was the self-styled “master of suspense”. In a care
-
-
Hitchcock tops Oscars that never were -
24 January 2005
The man behind The Birds, Psycho and Vertigo should have been given an Oscar, according to a new poll.-Alfred Hitchcock was nominated six times as best director at the Academy Awards but he was never actually given the gong.-But voters in a survey by the Turner Classic Mo
Alfred Hitchcock - what members say
Alfred Hitchcock - filmography
-
-
Family Plot
on DVD
(1976)
Starring: Bruce Dern, Karen Black, William Devane
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Hitchcock's diabolically funny and exciting movie about a search for a missing heir proved to be his final film. Starring Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris, William Devane, and Karen Black, Family Plot is the story of a cabbie (Dern) and a psychic (Harris) who team up to find a dead man who's not really ..read more »
Rate this:

58%
from 1,030 member
-
-
Frenzy
on DVD
(1972)
Starring: Jon Finch, Alec McCowen, Barry Foster
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
FRENZY was Alfred Hitchcock's penultimate film--and the first film he'd made in England in 20 years. Based on an Arthur La Bern novel, the film focuses on many of the same motifs that Hitchcock had obsessively examined throughout his life's work: the wrong man theme, doubling (in which one person ..read more »
Rate this:

66%
from 2,255 members
-
-
Torn Curtain
on DVD
(1966)
Starring: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
TORN CURTAIN was Alfred Hitchcock's 50th film and signals a return to the espionage-romance theme the director showcased in such films as SECRET AGENT and THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. Hitchcock created a distinct look for the film, subduing lighting and gauzing the lens to give a more natural, less ..read more »
Rate this:

61%
from 1,452 member
-
-
Marnie
on DVD
(1964)
Starring: Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Diane Baker
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
This thriller, based on a best-selling novel by Wilson Graham, revolves around Marnie (Tippi Hedren), a pathological liar and compulsive thief who is befriended by her latest victim, Mark Rutland (Sean Connery). Despite his sincere love, dashing looks, and wealth, some deep-seated neurosis makes ..read more »
Rate this:

68%
from 3,157 members
-
-
The Birds
on DVD
(1963)
Starring: Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Jessica Tandy
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
In THE BIRDS, Alfred Hitchcock's heart-pounding followup to PSYCHO, the director couples a tone of rigorous morality with dark humor to create a thriller that begins as a light comedy and ends as an apocalyptic allegory. Wealthy, reformed party girl Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) enjoys a brief ..read more »
Rate this:

71%
from 13,374 members
-
-
Psycho
on DVD
(1960)
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Credited with inventing the genre of the modern horror film, PSYCHO has had its share of sequels and imitators, none of which diminishes the achievement of this shocking and complex horror thriller. Alfred Hitchcock's choreography of elements in PSYCHO is considered so perfect it inspired a shot-by-..read more »
Rate this:

73%
from 22,081 members
-
-
Vertigo
on DVD
(1958)
Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
DVD special features: The Birds: All About The Birds - Making Of, Tippi Hedren's Screen Test, Universal News Reel Stories x 2, Storyboard Sequence: Deleted Scene (Script Pages), Alternative Ending (Sketches & Storyboards), Production Photographs. Family Plot: Plotting Family Plot - Making Of, ..read more »
Rate this:

73%
from 18,488 members
-
-
The Wrong Man
on DVD
(1956)
Starring: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Henry Fonda plays musician Manny Balestro, a man full of visible but unspoken rage at his wrongful arrest. Vera Miles is his distraught wife Rose, driven to madness by the ordeal.
Rate this:

67%
from 881 members
-
-
The Man Who Knew Too Much
on DVD
(1955)
Starring: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda De Banzie
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH is Hitchcock's remake of his own 1934 film of the same title. While vacationing in French Morocco, an American family becomes accidentally involved in a series of international incidents after the father overhears an assassination plot. Compared with its 1934 predecessor, ..read more »
Rate this:

67%
from 3,839 members
-
-
The Trouble With Harry
on DVD
(1955)
Starring: Shirley MacLaine, John Forsythe, Edmund Gwenn
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
This black comedy from Alfred Hitchcock was based on Jack Turner's novel. When a retired sea captain, out doing a little rabbit hunting, discovers Harry's lifeless body in the hilltops of small-town Vermont, he erroneously believes that he is responsible for Harry's untimely demise. So he decides ..read more »
Rate this:

63%
from 1,212 member
-
-
To Catch A Thief
on DVD
(1955)
Starring: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, John Williams
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
A supposedly reformed cat burglar, out to prove himself innocent of a recent crime spree, tries to capture the thief who's terrifying the French Riviera. Cary Grant is devastatingly elegant as the former thief, John Robie, and charming enough to attract the attention of the lovely Frances Stevens (..read more »
Rate this:

70%
from 4,703 members
-
-
Rear Window
on DVD
(1954)
Starring: Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
The weather is getting hotter, and photographer L.B. Jefferies (James Stewart) is stuck in his apartment with a broken leg and nothing to do--that is, nothing to do but spy on his neighbours through their open windows across the way in the apartment complex. There's an attractive and scantily clad ..read more »
Rate this:

77%
from 21,295 members
-
-
I Confess
on DVD
(1953)
Starring: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Father Logan apparently a model of clerical piety, hears a killer's conffesion. Eyewitnesses point to a priest as the murderer and the sacrament penance forbids Logan to speak out - even in his own defense - when circumstancial evidence targets Logan as the prime suspect!
Rate this:

67%
from 767 members
-
-
Strangers On A Train
on DVD
(1951)
Starring: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, based on the Patricia Highsmith novel, quickly became one of Alfred Hitchcock's most successful thrillers and remains one of his most popular films. En route from Washington, D.C., champion tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger) meets pushy playboy Bruno Anthony (Robert ..read more »
Rate this:

72%
from 6,032 members
-
-
Rope
on DVD
(1948)
Starring: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Based on the famous Leopold and Loeb murder case (from which two other films, COMPULSION and SWOON, were also derived), ROPE both challenges and terrifies the audience. Alfred Hitchcock disdained the whodunit crime story, which he felt lacked emotional force, and ROPE shows the director's ..read more »
Rate this:

71%
from 5,050 members
-
-
The Paradine Case
on DVD
(1947)
Starring: Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Considering Alfred Hitchcock's lifelong fascination with murder and suspense, it is remarkable that THE PARADINE CASE stands as a rare Hitchcock courtroom drama. A beautiful woman (Maddalena Anna Paradine, played by the enchanting Alida Valli) stands accused of murdering her wealthy, blind husband. ..read more »
Rate this:

59%
from 771 members
-
-
Notorious
on DVD
(1946)
Starring: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
NOTORIOUS is Alfred Hitchcock's classic romantic espionage thriller, with passionate, brilliant performances by Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, featuring one of the most famous screen kisses in film history. At the end of World War II, American military intelligence drafts the alluring daughter (..read more »
Rate this:

70%
from 5,263 members
-
-
Spellbound
on DVD
(1945)
Starring: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Rhonda Fleming
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Drawing on psychoanalysis to frame a transcendent love story, Alfred Hitchcock's SPELLBOUND is a mind-bending study of just how far people might go to escape trauma or to pursue passion. Gregory Peck is introduced as Dr. Edwardes, the newly arrived director of a mental asylum. However, when ..read more »
Rate this:

68%
from 2,745 members
-
-
Lifeboat
on DVD
(1944)
Starring: William Bendix, Tullulah Bankhead, Walter Slezak
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Based on a story by John Steinbeck, LIFEBOAT tells of the desperate struggle for survival of a group of people whose boat was torpedoed by a German U-boat during the Second World War. In this gripping character study about eight diverse survivors, tensions mount after a Nazi is brought aboard. ..read more »
Rate this:

70%
from 680 members
-
-
Saboteur
on DVD
(1942)
Starring: Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, Norman Lloyd
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
A forerunner to Hitchcock's NORTH BY NORTHWEST, SABOTEUR is the story of defense plant worker Barry Kane (Robert Cummings), who stands falsely accused of planning a factory explosion that killed his good friend. Recognizing that he has been set up and that no one is likely to believe his story, ..read more »
Rate this:

63%
from 1,524 member
-
-
Suspicion
on DVD
(1941)
Starring: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Cedric Hardwicke
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Cary Grant and Oscar-winner Joan Fontaine star in this Hitchcock thriller in which Fontaine (as Lina) suspects Grant (as her husband) of trying to murder her. The plot is typical of Hitchcock, a brain twister sewing together a series of circumstantial events that leads Lina to the inevitable ..read more »
Rate this:

65%
from 1,946 member
-
-
Mr And Mrs Smith
on DVD
(1941)
Starring: Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery, Gene Raymond
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Although Alfred Hitchcock had some lighter moments in early English productions like RICH AND STRANGE, MR. AND MRS. SMITH was Hitchcock's only American comedy and may have come about through Hitchcock's friendship with star Carole Lombard. The film opens with Lombard and Robert Montgomery as a ..read more »
Rate this:

53%
from 768 members
-
-
Foreign Correspondent
on DVD
(1940)
Starring: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
It is 1939 and Johnny Jones, a naive police reporter, is sent by his even more naive boss to cover a "crime" story that's unfolding in Europe: the potential outbreak of a second world war. Unprepared for the dangerous political landscape he's entering, Johnny manages to land smack in the middle of ..read more »
Rate this:

65%
from 1,422 member
-
-
Rebecca
on DVD
(1940)
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
A string of classic suspense films produced in England had earned Alfred Hitchcock a reputation in the United States, and his first American production, REBECCA, cemented his fame. Based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, REBECCA was conceived to rival producer David O. Selznick's previous epic, ..read more »
Rate this:

73%
from 7,573 members
-
-
Jamaica Inn
on DVD
(1939)
Starring: Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, Leslie Banks
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Watch now: Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package.
Set in 19th-century Cornwall, this tale of a young woman who visits her aunt, only to discover she's residing in a haven for throat-slashing pirates, is one of Hitchcock's lesser-known films. A period melodrama, the film features an excellent Maureen O'Hara in one of her earlier roles. JAMAICA INN ..read more »
Rate this:

56%
from 1,199 member
-
-
Young And Innocent
on DVD
(1938)
Starring: Nova Pilbeam, Derrick De Marney, Percy Marmont
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
'Young and Innocent' finds a case of mistaken identity which sets off a chase through the Cornish countryside to find a murderer. Also features Basil Rathbone in The Woman in Grenn, and Hitchcock's The Man who Knew too Much
Rate this:

58%
from 238 members
-
-
Sabotage
(1936)
Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Desmond Tester, John Loder
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Watch now: Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package.
An innocent boy becomes the innocent victim of a foreign agitator when he unwittingly carries a bomb aboard a busy bus.
Rate this:

61%
from 517 members
Not currently released
-
-
The 39 Steps
on DVD
(1935)
Starring: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
A classic British spy mystery, and one of Hitchcock's best, THE 39 STEPS is the story of an innocent man who struggles to prove his innocence. Robert Donat gets more than he bargained for when he brings home a mysterious woman who confesses to be a British agent on the hot trail of a dangerous spy ..read more »
Rate this:

70%
from 8,932 members
-
-
The Man Who Knew Too Much
on DVD
(1934)
Starring: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Watch now: Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package.
Hitchcock's first and arguably superior production of the same story he retold in 1956 with James Stewart and Doris Day, and critics continue to argue the film's merits versus its successor. An English couple on holiday in Switzerland find themselves embroiled in an international plot to ..read more »
Rate this:

64%
from 1,367 member
-
-
Early Hitchcock - Number Seventeen
on DVD
(1932)
Starring: Leon M.Lion, Anny Ondra, Anne Grey
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
An early Hitchcock effort that mixes the suspense, scares and humor prevalent in his later masterpieces. A tramp joins a group of jewel thieves, a pretty girl and a detective in a search for a valuable stolen necklace. The search starts in a spooky house and leads to a train and a bus.
Rate this:

57%
from 63 members
-
-
Early Hitchcock - Rich And Strange
on DVD
(1931)
Starring: Anny Ondra, Henry Kendall, Joan Barry
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Fred and Emily believe that their lives would be enriched if they were more financially well off. After writing to a relative to obtain an inheritance in advance, the couple soon embark upon a life that they could previously only dream of, but will riches bring them happiness?
Rate this:

52%
from 169 members
-
-
Early Hitchcock - Skin Game
on DVD
(1931)
Starring: Helen Haye, Edmund Gwenn, Phyllis Konstam
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
A rich family, the Hillcrests, is fighting against the spectacular, Hornblower, who sends away poor farmers to build factories on their lands. When Mrs. Hillcrest finds out that Chloe Hornblower was a prostitute, she uses this secret to blackmail the spectacular and force him to stop his business.
Rate this:

58%
from 72 members
-
-
Juno And The Paycock
on DVD
(1930)
Starring: Barry Fitzgerald
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
During the Irish revolution, a family earns a big inheritance. They start leading a rich life forgetting what the most important values are.
Rate this:

42%
from 216 members
-
-
Early Hitchcock - Blackmail
on DVD
(1929)
Starring: Anny Ondra, Sara Allgood, Charles Paton
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Alice White is the daughter of a shopkeeper in 1920's London. Her boyfriend, Frank Webber is a Scotland Yard detective who seems more interested in police work than in her. Frank takes Alice out one night, but she has secretly arranged to meet another man. Later that night Alice agrees to go back ..read more »
Rate this:

66%
from 131 members
-
-
Easy Virtue
on DVD
(1928)
Starring: Isabel Jeans, Franklin Dyall, Eric Bransby Williams
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
A music-score-enhanced silent film follows the circuitous path of a woman's love life beginning with an older abusive husband. After divorcing the rogue, she carries on an affair with a young painter and then marries a sweet young man who knows nothing of her past. Hitchcock uses crafted fades, ..read more »
Rate this:

43%
from 84 members
-
-
Early Hitchcock - The Ring
on DVD
(1927)
Starring: Carl Brisson, Lilian Hall-Davis, Ian Hunter
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
The film, like its title, oscillates between marriage and boxing - the dramas of a boxing ring and the troubles of the heart. The story follows two fighters who are in love with the same woman. One man is a title-holder, while the other is a carnival booth fighter hired to be his boxing partner.
Rate this:

64%
from 44 members
-
-
Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season One
(6 discs)
on DVD
Starring: Vera Miles, Elisha Cook Jr., Joseph Cotten
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Join the legendary "Master of Suspense," Alfred Hitchcock, in all 39 original episodes of the first season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the Emmy Award-winning murder-mystery series. Join stellar guest stars including Cloris Leachman, Charles Bronson, Claude Rains, Lorne Green, Joanne Woodward, ..read more »
Rate this:

68%
from 512 members
Alfred Hitchcock - watch online
-
-
Bon Voyage
to Watch Now
(1941)
Starring: John Blythe
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Watch now: Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package.
Run time: 26 minutes
A young Scottish RAF gunner is debriefed by French officials about his escape from occupied territory, and in particular one person who may or may not have been a German agent
Rate this:

55%
from 2 members
-
-
Jamaica Inn
to Watch Now
(1939)
Starring: Charles Laughton, Horace Hodges, Hay Petrie
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Watch now: Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package.
Run time: 107 minutes
Set in Cornwall where the young orphan, Mary, is sent to live with Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss who are the landlords of the Jamaica Inn.
Mary soon realizes that her uncle's inn is the base of a gang of pirates who lure ships to their doom on the rocky coast. The girl starts fearing for her life...read more »
Rate this:

61%
from 12 members
-
-
Secret Agent
to Watch Now
(1936)
Starring: Madeleine Carroll, Peter Lorre, John Gielgud
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Watch now: Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package.
Run time: 83 minutes
A bizarre cat and mouse game is played out in the Swiss Alps and many of Hitchcock's famed set-pieces, including the fake funeral, the murder on the mountainside and the gripping climax in the chocolate factory.
Rate this:

61%
from 6 members
-
-
Sabotage
to Watch Now
(1936)
Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Oskar Homolka, John Loder
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Watch now: Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package.
Run time: 73 minutes
An innocent boy becomes the innocent victim of a foreign agitator when he unwittingly carries a bomb aboard a busy bus....
Rate this:

86%
from 6 members
-
-
The Man Who Knew Too Much
to Watch Now
(1934)
Starring: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Watch now: Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package.
Run time: 84 minutes
Hitchcock's first and arguably superior production of the same story he retold in 1956 with James Stewart and Doris Day, and critics continue to argue the film's merits versus its successor. An English couple on holiday in Switzerland find themselves embroiled in an international plot to ..read more »
Rate this:

76%
from 16 members
-
-
Downhill
to Watch Now
(1927)
Starring: Ivor Novello, Ben Webster, Robin Irvine
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Certificate: 
Watch now: Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package.
Run time: 80 minutes
A sixth-form schoolboy is suspected and accused of theft. He is expelled in disgrace, but his main worry is that he will not be able to play for the Old Boys! He has to leave the area and is sent to Marseilles where his antics go from bad to worse. However, when he is found innocent, what path will ..read more »
Rate this:

60%
from 2 members
|
Alfred Hitchcock facts
|