Basic info on Alfred Hitchcock

1. ‘The master of suspense’

2. 13th August 1899 London – 29th April 1980 California
He was raised as a strict Catholic and attended Saint Ignatius College (a school run by Jesuits)
He got his first job in 1915 as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company. This is
when his interest in movies as he frequently visited the cinema and read US trade journals.
In 1920 Hitchcock joined the film industry as a set artist. It was there that he met Alma Reville.
He first became a director when the director of Always Tell Your Wife (1923) became ill and took
over directing the film. This is when he became close to Reville.
In 1923 he began to direct his first full film which was Number 13; however it was not completed
due to the studios closure.
Again in 1925 he began to direct The Pleasure Garden which was a British/German production and
became extremely popular.
Hitchcock's first trademark film The Lodger was made in 1927. Later on that year in December he
married Reville. They had one child together, Patricia Hitchcock (7th July 1928).
His success grew when he made many films such as The Lady vanishes (1938) and Jamaica Inn
(1939).
In 1940, the Hitchcock family moved to Hollywood, where David O. Selznick , hired him to direct an
adaptation of 'Daphne du Maurier’ .
The majority of his fame grew after Saboteur (1942) was completed.
In 1960 he produced his famous ‘Psycho’.
Critics then began to call his films with the use of his name eg ‘Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960).
In March 1979 Hitchcock was awarded the Afl life achievement award.
At this time he was very ill with angina and his kidneys had began to fail.
In late 1979 he was knighted.
In April 1980 he died a peaceful death due to renal failure.

3. Rear window
(1954)
Vertigo
(1958)
Psycho
(1960)
North by
north west
(1954)
Rebecca
(1940)
The man
who knew
too much
(1956)

4. Psycho was one of his most
influential films as it contains an
extremely famous 45 second
murder clip. This led to ‘America
Loving Murder’ due to it being
one of the most violent scenes
ever shot for American film.
He filmed it in black and white
to partly cut costs but to also
make sure the film got past
censors of the time
Psycho opened a gate for other
films and allowed them to also
capture graphic murders which
had never been done before
http://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=8VP5jEAP3K4
Psycho’s influence on 50 years of cinema
Genre Bonnie
and
Clyde
(1967)
Jaws
(1975)
Halloween
(1978)
Fatal
Attraction
(1987)
Scream
(1996)
Violence • • • • •
Sex •
‘Slasher’
• •
films
Killer/Villai
ns POV
• • •
Humour • •
Use of
• •
music