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Alfred Hitchcock Director and “Master of Suspense” 1899-1980

There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.
—ALFRED HITCHCOCK

nown as the “Master of Suspense,” director Alfred Hitchcock may have acquired his gift for creating films, as he put it, “to simply scare the hell out of people,” from a rather chilling event in his own youth. When he was about four or five, Alfred committed some transgression that his father, William, felt needed more than the usual scolding.
William sent his son down to the police station with a note to give to the chief suggesting a punishment that would teach Alfred a lesson. The chief put Alfred in a cell and locked the door. The memory of “the sound and the solidity of that closing cell door and bolt,” said Hitchcock, stayed with him forever. Though only behind bars for a few minutes, it must have seemed like an eternity to a five-year-old. Before letting Hitchcock depart, the chief punctuated his “visit” by telling him, “That’s what we do to naughty boys.”
The genius of the thriller film genre was born Alfred Joseph Hitchcock on August 13, 1899, in Leytonstone, London. His father was a poultry and produce dealer; his mother, the former Emma Whelan, a homemaker. Alfred, the youngest of three children, had a brother and sister who were several years older. Alfred often felt left out of things because of the age gap between himself and his siblings and had a rather lonely childhood.
Alfred was raised in a strict Irish-Catholic household. Strongly influenced by his Catholic upbringing, Alfred retained his fear of authority and punishment during his years as a student at St. Ignatius College, a Jesuit school. Corporal punishment was routinely doled out as a means of discipline there, A rap on the knuckles with a ruler was the usual method, and Alfred felt that such incidents were “like going to the gallows.” As a rather shy, introverted child, he had few friends and preferred solitude to the companionship of his peers.
At an early age Hitchcock took solo rides on a London bus or wandered around the shipping docks and terminals. As a teen, he often found himself a spectator listening to a murder trial at the Old Bailey, a historic criminal court. He was also a frequent visitor to the Black Museum at Scotland Yard. Later in his life Alfred wrote, “I have always been fascinated by crime. . . . The British take a peculiar interest in the literature of crime.”
Hitchcock’s fascination with disturbing events and his fear of authority and reproach later emerged in many of his movies. He wove his fears into such films as The WrongMan (1956) and North by Northwest (1959). A compelling feature of his filmmaking was that Hitchcock’s characters were everyday people drawn into unexpected and often terrifying situations. The villain in one of his movies could very well be your next-door neighbor or someone you see at the market everyday.
Hitchcock began his film career after studying engineering and navigation at the University of London. He enjoyed drawing and drafting and collected maps and timetables as a hobby. His first job was as a technical clerk at the W. T. Henley Telegraph Company. His interest in drawing prompted him to take evening classes in art, and he attended the cinema and theater. Eventually Hitchcock’s interest shifted to filmmaking. In 1920 Famous Players-Lasky (later known as Paramount Studios) opened a studio in London and hired Hitchcock to create title cards for silent films.
Learning every aspect of filmmaking, Hitchcock worked his way up to assistant director in just three years. During that time he met freelance editor Alma Reville. They married in 1926, and she gave up her own career to work with Hitchcock on every phase of production. They had one child, a daughter named Pat, who would later be cast in minor roles in many of her father’s films.
Hitchcock got his first hig directorial break with the 1926 release of the silent film The Lodger. The film would become Hitchcock’s trademark style-chock-full of intrigue and suspense. The plot revolves around a man falsely accused of a crime, who must find a way to prove his innocence. The film was also creative and unusual, another of Hitchcock’s consistent film styles. In The Lodger, Hitchcock has an actor pace back and forth over a piece of glass upstairs where the heroine can hear him. The audience, on the other hand, gets to see the footprints.
Over the next several years Hitchcock released thirteen sound films, including Murder! (1930), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), and Sabotage (1936). These films were quite successful in Europe, and Hitchcock had become one of Britain’s top directors. Feeling he would have even more opportunities to produce his kinds of films in Hollywood, Hitchcock arrived in America in 1939. His instincts proved right. American producer David O. Selznick offered Hitchcock an unprecedented $800,000 to make five films. Hitchcock’s first American film was Rebecca, made in 1940. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the film the Best Picture Oscar.
With World War II raging in Europe and the Pacific, Hitchcock made a few films whose themes reflected the fears of the times—military espionage, terror, and sabotage, including the highly lauded Foreign Correspondent (1940) and the cross-country chase thriller Saboteur (1942). Inevitably a woman, preferably a blonde, was somehow woven into the story. Hitchcock would return to this style in later films like Notorious and North by Northwest.
In Hollywood, in addition to his works with a military theme, Hitchcock made many of the psychological thrillers he is most recognized for. In those films Hitchcock always included some dysfunctional dynamic—evil, criminal, or even voyeuristic. In Hitchcock’s films evil didn’t necessarily have to emerge in an act of physical violence; it could be psychological cruelty—the mere plotting and planning to drive someone mad.
All of Hitchcock’s films had his signature elements, from Jimmy Stewart’s portrayal of a voyeuristic photographer who witnesses a murder in Rear Window (1954), to Anthony Perkins’s knife-slashing scene with Janet Leigh in Psycho (1960). Beyond building the suspense, what made Hitchcock’s films even more powerful was the way he chose to create the imagery to achieve that end. Charles Ramirez Berg explains in “Alfred Hitchcock: A Brief Biography” (The Encyclopedia of Film, 1996):
Psycho (I960) is famed for its shower murder sequence, a classic model of shoe selection and editing that was startling for its (apparent) nudity, graphic violence and its violation of the narrative convention that makes a protagonist invulnerable. Moreover, the progressive shots of eyes, beginning with an extreme close-up of the killer’s peeping eye and ending with the open eye of the murder victim, subtly implied the presence of a third eye—the viewer’s.
In all, Hitchcock made fifty-three full-length motion pictures, working with some of the biggest stars in the industry. He also hosted two successful television series—Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. The show ran until 1965, offering Hitchcock-style intrigue through thirty-minute mystery-dramas. He drew the pencil-sketch profile of himself that appeared on screen at the beginning and ending of the shows.
Though a Best Director Oscar eluded him, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Hitchcock an honorary statuette in 1968. In 1979 the American Film Institute honored Hitchcock with its Life Achievement Award. Just a few months before his death an August 13, 1980, Queen Elizabeth IT knighted the English native son. He was the master of subtlety, surprise, and suspense. The next time you watch a Hitchcock movie, look for him to make a cameo appearance near the start of the film. He did so in all but his first two films.

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