On set with Alfred Hitchcock: Behind the scenes photos of the Master of Suspense, 1930-1970

Known as the "Master of Suspense", Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema.

In a career spanning six decades, he directed more than 50 feature films, many of which are still widely viewed and read today.

Hitchcock grew up in London's East End in an environment that was once haunted by the infamous serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, whose talk was still present two decades later in Hitchcock's youth.

Although he had two siblings, he remembered his youth as a loner, with a father who was a strict disciplinarian; It is said that she once ordered Alfred to appear at the local police station with a note stating that he was misbehaving, after which the sergeant on duty (at the request of Hitchcock's father) Locked him for a few minutes, of sufficient length. It's time to give Alfred a fear of enclosed spaces and a strong concern for wrongful imprisonment, both of which would be involved in his later work.

Hitchcock was studying engineering at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation when, in 1914, his father suddenly died, forcing him to drop out of school to help support his family.

Highly interested in the then new industry of filmmaking, he took his first foray into filmmaking when he was hired as a title card designer at the London branch of Famous Players-Lasky.

There, he gained experience in writing, editing, and production management, and was eventually assigned his first film as a director, "The Pleasure Garden" (1925).

Collaborating with his wife, writer, screenwriter and editor Alma Reville almost from day one, Hitchcock made a name for himself as a director a little later with his first thriller, "The Loser: A Story of the London Fog". will build. ”(1927).

By 1939, she was recognized internationally and producer David O'Selznick persuaded her to move to Hollywood. A series of successful films followed, including Rebecca (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Suspicion (1941), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and Notorious (1946). Rebecca won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Hitchcock was nominated for Best Director; He was also nominated for Lifeboat (1944) and Spellbound (1945).

After a brief commercial lull, he returned to form with Strangers on a Train (1951) and Dial M for Murder (1954); He then directed four films, often ranked among the greatest of all time: Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960), the first and last of these. He got Best Director. Enrollment

The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964) were also financially successful and are highly regarded by film historians.

Film critic Robin Wood wrote that the meaning of the Hitchcock film "is in the method in progress from shot to shot. A Hitchcock film is a creature, containing every detail as a whole and every detail relating to the whole."

Hitchcock made several films with some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including four with Cary Grant in the 1940s and 1950s, three with Ingrid Bergman in the late 1940s, in a span of ten years beginning in 1948. Four were involved with James Stewart. and three with Grace Kelly in the mid-1950s. Hitchcock became a US citizen in 1955.

Very touches of humor and the occasional tomb intrusion round out this mix of cinematic elements. There are three main themes in Hitchcock's films.

The most common is the innocent person who is mistakenly suspected or accused of a crime and who must track down the real perpetrator in order to clear himself up (for example, The Loser and North by Northwest).

The second theme is that of a guilty woman who surrounds a male protagonist and either destroys or is saved by him (eg, Chakkar and Marnie).

The third theme (often psychotic) is that of the killer, whose identity is established in the course of working outside the plot (eg, Shadow of a Doubt and Psycho).

Hitchcock's greatest gift was his mastery of the technical means of creating and maintaining secrets. To this end, he used innovative camera approaches and movements, elaborate editing techniques and effective soundtrack music, often supplied by Bernard Herrmann in his best films.

He had a good understanding of human psychology, as manifested in the believable behavior of his everyday life and the stressful and nightmare situations encountered in his more exciting films.

His ability to vividly evoke human danger, deceit, and fear gave his psychological thrillers great effect while maintaining their subtlety and credibility.

He was also a master of something called a "MacGuffin"—that is, the use of an object or person who, for storytelling purposes, continues to move the plot forward, even though that thing or person is not actually the center of the story.

As of 2021, nine of his films had been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, including his personal favorite, Shadow of a Doubt (1943).