Alfred Hitchcock was a famous English film director born in 1899 who became known as the "master of suspense". He started his career making silent films in England before moving to Hollywood in 1939. Some of his most famous and influential films include Psycho (1960), which featured the iconic shower scene, Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), and The Birds (1963). Hitchcock pioneered the psychological thriller genre and became one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of all time due to his innovative techniques and ability to keep audiences in suspense.

1. Alfred Hitchcock
Ria Patel 12.1

2. Who was Alfred Hitchcock?
• Alfred Hitchcock was born on the 13th of August 1899 and died on the 29th
of April 1980. He was born in the United Kingdom in Leytonstone. Alfred
Hitchcock was an English film director and producer. He was highly known
for his movies as he was the ‘master of suspense’. The genre of Thriller
came from Hitchcock himself. Hitchcock started off with short silent films
and then adapted into mega popular movies which the people liked. One
of his most famous films is ‘Psycho’ which is the number one seen and
favourited psychological thriller. Hitchcock also became well known
through his interviews, movie trailers and cameo appearances in his own
films.

3. Silent films
• Since a young age Alfred Hitchcock always had a passion for films as he
was a huge fan and a cinema lover. Alfred Hitchcock began his film career
at the age of twenty, working for the London branch of the American firm
as a title card designer. The development between being a title designer
and being a film director took 5 years, during the time he became a
screenwriter, art director and assistant director on a series of five films for
Balcon and Director Graham Cutts: Woman to Woman (1923), The White
Shadow (1924), The Passionate Adventure (1924), the Blackguard(1925)
and The Prude’s Fall (1925).

4. The time line of Alfred Hitchcock
1890
August 13, 1899 – Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, in London.
1900
1914 –William Hitchcock (Alfred’s father) died.
1920
1920 – Hitchcock got a full-time job at Islington Studios, and its British successor, Gainsborough,
designing titles for silent movies.
1925 – Michael Balcon of Gainsborough Pictures gave Hitchcock a chance to direct his first
film The Pleasure Garden (based on a novel by Oliver Sandys) made at UFA studios in
Germany. Starring Virginia Malli and Carmelita Geraghty, it was commercial failure and
endangered his future as a film director.

5. 1926 – Hitchcock made his debut in the thriller genre, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog which was
then released in January 1927 in the UK
December 2, 1926 – He married his personal assistant Alma Reville. Reville wrote many of Alfred’s
screenplays and worked with him on almost every film of his.
July 7, 1928 – Their only child, Patricia Hitchcock was born. She would later become an American actress
and producer, and she appeared in several of his movies.
June 30, 1929 – Blackmail was released as the first all-talkie movie, starring Anny Ondra, John Longden, and
Cyril Ritchard. It was first meant to be a silent movie, but producers later decided to make it with sound.
1930
1934 – The Man Who Knew Too Much was released, and was one of the most successful motion pictures of
Hitchcock’s British period. It starred Leslie Banks, Edna Best, and Peter Lorre. This was the only film
remade by Hitchcock, for Paramount Pictures in 1956.
1935 – Considered one of his best films of his early times, 39 Steps was released, starring Robert Donat and
Madeline Carroll. It was based on the novel by John Buchan. This film introduced the plot device of the
“MacGuffin,” something around which the whole movie revolves around, but in the end the object itself
has little relevance or importance to the story or ending of the movie.
March 1939 – Hollywood producer David O. Selznick signed Hitchcock, who moved to the United States, to
a seven year contract. Selznick had frequent money problems and often controlled the creativity Alfred
had over his films.

6. 1940
April 12, 1940 – Hitchcock made his first American movie, Rebecca, a gothic tale which infect turned out to be a
hit
January 12, 1943 – Shadow of a Doubt, was released. It starred Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. It was
nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing and Original Story. In 1991, this movie was selected for
preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
October 31, 1945 – Spellbound, a psychological mystery thriller, was released and met with critical success. It
starred Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck, and included a dream sequence designed by renowned Spanish
artist Salvador Dali. This film was nominated for 6 Oscars and won the award for Best Musical Score.
1945 – Transatlantic Pictures, a production company was founded by Hitchcock and business associate Sidney
Bernstein. However, this company dissolved after two commercial flops, Rope (Hitchcock’s first Technicolor
film) and Under Capricorn.
August 15, 1946 – Notorious was released and has remained one of Hitchcock’s most acclaimed
films. Featuring a plot about Nazis, South America, and uranium, the movie starred Cary Grant and Ingrid
Bergman. Because he used uranium as a plot device, Hitchcock was under brief FBI surveillance. Dr. Robert
Millikan of Caltech was apparently contacted by Hitchcock about the development of the atomic bomb.

7. 1950
Feburary 23 1950 – Hitchcock filmed his first movie for Warner Brothers, Stage Fright, on location in the U.K. It
was his first production for Warner Brothers, and starred Jane Wyman and Marlene Dietrich.
May 29, 1954 – Hitchcock returns to Technicolor with his film Dial M for Murder. Hitchcock tried experimenting
with 3D for this movie, but it didn’t make the final cuts.
August 1, 1954 – The critically acclaimed Rear Window releases and is considered one of Hitchcock’s most
thrilling and most exciting pictures. It spawned many remakes and retellings. In 1997, this movie was selected
for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
December 22 1956 – Hitchcock’s only film starring Henry Fonda, The Wrong Man, was released as a low-key,
black and white movie. It was based on real like incidents and was the least favourite Hitchcock film for many
years.
May 9, 1958 – Vertigo, a film that was a box office failure met with negative reviews, was released. However,
today the film is seen as a classic Hitchcock movie. It starred James Stewart.
July 28, 1959 – North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, was released and met with
favourable reviews.

8. 1960
June 16, 1960 – Psycho was released, starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin. It is often mentioned
as Hitchcock’s most well-known film, even when it was taken in black and white on a spare camera set. The shower scene
spawned many parodies and became a legacy.
March 28, 1963 – The Birds was released and it starred Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, and Jessica Tandy. It was one of the first films to
deal with an apocalyptic theme and the “revenge” of nature .
1980
April 29, 1980 – At age 81, Alfred Hitchcock died of arthritis, liver failure, and slowdown of kidney function.
Bibliography of the timeline :
• http://alfredhitchcock.weebly.com/timeline.html

9. Famous Hitchcock films