Alfred Hitchcock and Films

ALFRED HITCHCOCK was born in London in 1899, and came to America in 1940 to make his mark as a film director. He became one of the most renowned and emulated directors of horror and suspense film. Many of his films are still considered classics, such as "The Birds," "Psycho," "Rear Window," and "North by Northwest," and they starred some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Cary Grant, James Stewart, and Grace Kelley.

Hitchcock also created many film techniques, but he is probably most famous for creating the "MacGuffin," a plot device that lives on today in numerous films. "MacGuffin (n.) 1. In a film, a plot device whose sole purpose is to set the action in motion, such as a suitcase with unknown contents. Often, the MacGuffin turns out to be a decoy, causing men to make fools of themselves in pursuit of futile ends. Word origin: Coined by Alfred Hitchcock, 1939" (Enders).

Hitchcock's directing created suspense that often left the audience wondering until the very last minute, as in "Psycho," when Anthony Perkins beholds his dead mother's skeleton in the last scene. Like a good mystery book the reader cannot put down, the films draw the viewer inside, and keep them on the edge of their seats until the very end. Alfred Hitchcock was a genius who knew how to use camera angles, lighting, and scripting effectively and with great cinematic suspense.

His films live on as classics because they were created by a master, who was a perfectionist about his craft. He once told an interviewer, "The chief requisite for an actor is his ability to do nothing well. That is not so easy as it sounds. He must be willing to be used by the director and the camera. It is the camera which must decide what to emphasize and what is most dramatic'" (Tuska 79). That is one reason his films are still so popular today,.