Master of Suspense

[Holly]

This day in history: 13 August 1899
Alfred Hitchcock was born in London, the youngest of three children of William Hitchcock, a greengrocer and poulterer, and Emma Jane Hitchcock (née Whelan). His mother and paternal grandmother were of Irish extraction. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native England in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen while retaining his British citizenship.

Hitchcock made several films with a political theme using his flair for creating tension to involve the audience. Below is an excellent example of his early work, Sabotage (1936), with a terrorist bomb on a London bus.

Lots of people have their own favorite Hitchcock movie.

Editing Clip - YouTube

[TotalMayhem]

I recently read somewhere that parts of a very early Hitchcock movie from 1923 have been discovered in a film archive in New Zealand.

[Justin Casey]

A great director who summed film up neatly when he said "cinema isn't a slice of life, it's a piece of cake". Some delicious pieces in The 39 Steps, Rear Window and North By Northwest (actually a meaningless phrase that was a working title).

A compilation of Hitchcock's trademark cameos

Glad to see that Hitchcock's influence lives on in street tube art:

http://boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/350528808.jpeg

[Holly]

I recently read somewhere that parts of a very early Hitchcock movie from 1923 have been discovered in a film archive in New Zealand.

Yes, TM, I read a report in the Los Angeles Times of August 3, 2011 that the National Film Preservation Foundation and the New Zealand Film Archive were to announce that day the discovery of the first 30 minutes of a 1923 English film, The White Shadow, considered to be the earliest feature film in which Alfred Hitchcock has a credit.
Hitchcock, who was just 24 at the time, was the writer, assistant director, editor, and production designer on the melodrama.