Alfred Hitchcock was born in London on August 13, 1899, in the flat above his parents’ grocery store in East London.  He began dabbling in creative writing around the age of 18, took a job as a title card artist at Paramount’s London studio the following year and worked on several silent films during the next few years.  In 1925, he directed his first picture, The Pleasure Garden (1925), but his big break came two years later with The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927).  The film was a thriller that featured the hunt for a serial killer and showed early indications of Hitchcock’s innovative approach to film making, including scenes of the killer pacing back and forth in a room filmed through a glass floor.

After a decade of making films in the UK, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1938 and was soon creating successful and critically acclaimed films like Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Saboteur (1942), Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and Notorious (1944).  In Lifeboat (1944), he experimented with filming in a confined location, a theme that he revisited in several films including Rear Window. 

Hitchcock reached his peak of creativity during the period of 1954 to 1964.  This period saw the release of Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964).  This period saw Hitchcock working with the biggest stars in Hollywood and perfecting his craft of thought-provoking thrillers filmed in imaginative and innovative ways. 

Alfred Hitchcock was famous for making uncredited cameo appearances in his films.  In Rear Window, watch for him winding the clock in the Songwriter’s apartment. 

If you are not familiar with the work of Alfred Hitchcock, start by reading this month’s review of Rear Window, then check out some of his other films mentioned in this article.  Appreciation of classic films begins with an appreciation of its greatest stars and Alfred Hitchcock holds a place among the brightest of those stars.