Origin and education
First of all, Alfred Hitchcock is considered one of the best directors in history, because his works have been engraved in the minds of millions, and even now they are taught to many, who are trying to reach the same high level that he always distinguished himself with.
Alfred Hitchcock was born in 1899 in London. His father worked as a vegetable and poultry seller and his mother was a housewife. He had two older brothers. The family was Catholic at the time. Alfred was an only child and shy without friends, due to his excessive obesity, which prevented him from joining the army in his youth. He was exposed to a difficult situation when he was five years old, when his father sent him to the local police with a letter stating that he would be imprisoned for a short period, due to his bad behavior. This situation had a great impact on his work later. He was enrolled in Howrah House School when he was seven years old, and spent two years there.
He then went to Wode Street School, then another school near his home, then stayed for a short time at Salesian College, before Alfred moved with his family to the Stepney area in East London, when he was eleven years old, to join St. Ignatius College, which was a secondary school famous for its discipline, and its effect was fearful on him, because of the method of punishment used at that time in that school. Alfred excelled in languages such as Latin and French, and he also learned organization, but his favorite science was geography, maps, and train and tram schedules, so railway scenes were prevalent in his cinematic works after that. Alfred wanted to become an engineer, so he left St. Ignatius College at the age of thirteen, to go to the London County School of Engineering and Navigation, where he studied mechanics, electricity and navigation. While he was studying, his father died in 1914, which made him find a small job as a technical clerk in a company in London, but he continued his studies at the same time, to begin studying the history of art, drawing and economics, while the bells of the First World War were ringing, announcing the beginning of a terrible stage in history.
Professional and practical life
When World War I broke out, Alfred Hitchcock was too young to enlist, and when he was eighteen, he was assigned with a group of other students to the Royal Engineers, the engineering arm of the British Army, and participated in their training. His obesity prevented him from becoming a soldier at the time, and when the war ended in 1919, Alfred turned to writing, and the course of his life changed dramatically from that time.
His first beginnings with writing were in the Henley Inner Bulletin, where he became an editor and manager, then he was promoted to become an advertising writer for it as well, but he had been interested in films, especially those produced by American cinema, since the age of sixteen.
At that time, Paramount Pictures was about to open a studio in London, and they were preparing to shoot a film directed by Marie Corelli, so Alfred Hitchcock made some drawings for the title cards, sent them to the studio, and was hired at Islington Studios as a title card designer.
Alfred Hitchcock gained considerable experience, through his participation as a writer, artistic director and production manager in 18 silent films. Fate also gave him the opportunity to direct the film Always Tell Your Wife in 1923, which is considered the first production of the actor Seymour Hicks, who quarreled with the director of the original film and fired him, then gave Alfred the opportunity and helped him in directing this film as well.
Paramount Pictures closed in 1922, and another company was founded called Gainsborough Pictures, where Alfred worked as an assistant director, and participated in making some of its works, where he met a girl named Alma Reville in one of these works, and he was very impressed with her, and they later became engaged to each other.
In 1925, Alfred Hitchcock made his first directing experience, when he directed a film called The Pleasure Garden, but it did not have a share in commercial success, despite the praise of many for Alfred and his skillful work.
The Pleasure Garden was a co-production between Gainsborough and a German company called Emilka, and was filmed in Munich, where Alfred was impressed by the film industry there, and tried to direct a second film that was also unsuccessful, then came the year 1926, and the film The Ring was directed by Alfred, which was later considered one of the best British films.
Alfred became a member of the London Film Society, and began to communicate with others in his field, and began to put his trademark as a director, and he has a famous saying in which he says that the name of the director should remain in the minds more than the actor, because he is the main factor that causes the success of any film.
Alfred achieved good fame when he directed his first thriller, The Lodger, despite facing a problem that was prevalent at the time, which is that the star of the film refuses to be the bad guy or the killer, and this problem was repeated with him for a long time in his films. However, he continued to succeed in his films, and also in developing and spreading his trademark as a director, and he also wrote an article about the film industry.
Alfred made several films in England, including the first British talking film called Blackmail, and signed a contract with Gaumont-British in 1933 to make more films, some of which were based on novels, which Alfred presented better than the novel itself, according to some of the authors.
The New York Times described Alfred Hitchcock as the best director in the world of melodrama films, and that was in 1938, when he decided to travel to usa to try his hand there, because he had already reached the top in England.
Alfred met a film producer named David O. Selznick, who signed a seven-year contract with him, starting in 1939. Alfred then moved to Hollywood to live there. Alfred's first work in usa was a film called Rebecca, produced in 1940 and set in England. The film won the Best film award at the 13th Academy Awards, and Alfred Hitchcock was nominated for Best Director.
Alfred's second film, Foreign Correspondent, was influenced by World War II, which had begun. It told of some of the events in Europe at the time, and supported England in particular during the war. The film was nominated for Best film at the time.
Alfred continued to make various films during World War II, specifically between 1940 and 1943, and his first film as a producer and director was called Suspicion in 1941, and he also made two films for Universal Studios.
The end of 1942 brought the death of his mother Emma, whom he greatly respected, and then a few months later his brother William died due to health problems, which prompted Alfred to pay some attention to his health, as well as his eating habits, and he followed a strict diet.
Alfred after the war
Alfred participated in a documentary about the Holocaust as a therapeutic consultant, then worked again with producer David O. Selznick through the film Spellbound, then another work called Notorious, after which it was time for independence for Alfred Hitchcock to establish an independent production company, in which he partnered with his friend Sidney Bernstein, and it bore the name Transatlantic Pictures.
Alfred began making more than one film with the company, and introduced some of the modern techniques at the time in filming his films, and made his first color film, which was Robe. The new company's films were limited to only three films, one of which was filmed in England, and Warner Bros. completed its production due to the financial problems suffered by Transatlantic Pictures, and Warner Bros. distributed the other two films.
Alfred continued to make more films, some of which were produced by Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures. Among the most important works that Alfred created is Rear Window 1954, which is considered one of the best crime, mystery and thriller films. There is also Confess 1953, Strangers on a Train 1951, Dial M for Murder 1954, and many other films that proved Alfred's distinctive creativity as a director.
For a decade, Alfred was the guest on a program bearing his name. This program presented independent episodes that talked about crime stories, and their performers were different each time. The duration of the episode ranged between 25 and 50 minutes. The episodes of this program exceeded 250 episodes, and Alfred himself directed about 18 of them. He presented the episodes of this program using his satirical style most of the time, despite the fact that they talked about crime and its different stories. However, this program achieved unparalleled success, to the point that it was classified as one of the 100 best programs in history. The period in which the program appeared was from 1955 to 1965, and what distinguished it most was Alfred Hitchcock’s caricature, the music accompanying the program’s introduction, and Alfred’s satirical way of presenting it, Also in 1955, Alfred obtained American citizenship.
The name of the program was changed in 1962 to The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and in the eighties a new color version of the program was made, and this program continues to be shown to this day, due to its overwhelming popularity with millions over the years.
The success of this program was linked to the publication of a collection of short stories and written stories, bearing Alfred's name and some content that was not shown in the program. Then a magazine was also published bearing his name, which dealt with more stories of crime, mystery and excitement, and a lot of money was made from that.
The glow period and important films
Alfred made many distinguished films between 1955 and 1966, a large part of which were and still are engraved in the mind, such as Vertigo, To Catch a Thief, The Wrong Man, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Psycho, North by Northwest, Marnie, Torn Curtain, and The Birds.
During this period, specifically in the year 1957, Alfred entered the hospital to undergo a gallbladder removal operation. After the success of the operation, he resumed making films, which continued in a large and influential manner, helping to show him to the world as one of the best directors in history.
Alfred Hitchcock's films won many awards at many film festivals, despite his wife's suffering from cancer and his painful struggle with it. She was cured of it through surgery, and yet he continued his huge and distinguished artistic career.
In 1962, Alfred Hitchcock attended an interview with the French director and critic Truffaut, which lasted for 50 hours, during which he answered approximately 500 questions. This interview was filmed at Universal Studios, over 8 consecutive days. After that, the events of this interview were published in a book in 1967 entitled The Hitchcock Book, and this interview was made into material for a documentary film that was broadcast in 2015. Truffaut considered Alfred a true artist in his field, and he had better capabilities than many in his field.
The last years of Alfred
In the last 20 years of Alfred Hitchcock's life, his work declined significantly, because his health had deteriorated, and he was no longer able to work as he had before, which forced him to return to England, to make his last two films, which were Frenzy in 1972, and Family Plot in 1976.
Alfred was making a film in his last days, but it was not completed as his health completely deteriorated, and his wife also became ill. In 1980, Alfred was awarded the Order of the British Empire for knighthood, and then he died in the same year due to kidney failure, in his home in California, after which his body was cremated and his ashes were thrown over the Pacific Ocean.
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