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- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsClare GreetErnest ThesigerThe story was about low-income residents of a building, financed by The Peabody Trust, founded by American banker-philanthropist George Foster Peabody, to offer affordable housing to needy Londoners.Hitchcock's first few films faced a string of bad luck. His first directing project came in 1922 with the aptly titled Number 13, filmed in London. The production was cancelled because of financial problems; the few scenes that had been finished at that point have been lost.
The picture was never actually completed or shown. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsVirginia ValliCarmelita GeraghtyMiles ManderTwo couples' romances are fancifully intertwined.Michael Balcon gave Hitchcock another opportunity for a directing credit with The Pleasure Garden, a co-production of Gainsborough and the German firm Emelka, which he made at the Geiselgasteig studio near Munich in the summer of 1925. The film was a commercial flop.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsBernhard GoetzkeNita NaldiMalcolm KeenIn the Kentucky hills, a store keeper tries to win the love of an innocent schoolteacher. She runs away and seeks refuge with a hermit.Next, Hitchcock directed a drama called The Mountain Eagle (1926, possibly released under the title Fear o' God in the United States).
This film is lost. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJune TrippIvor NovelloMarie AultA landlady suspects that her new lodger is the madman killing women in London.Hitchcock's luck changed with his first thriller, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, a suspense film about the hunt for a Jack the Ripper type of serial killer in London. It was a major commercial and critical success in the United Kingdom. As with many of his earlier works, this film was influenced by Expressionist techniques Hitchcock had witnessed first-hand in Germany.
Some commentators regard this piece as the first truly "Hitchcockian" film, incorporating such themes as the "wrong man".
On 2 December 1926, Hitchcock married his assistant director, Alma Reville, at the Brompton Oratory in South Kensington, London. Alma was to become Hitchcock's closest collaborator, but her contributions to his films (some of which were credited on screen) Hitchcock would discuss only in private, as she was keen to avoid public attention. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsCarl BrissonLillian Hall-DavisIan HunterTwo boxers compete for the love of a woman.The Ring is Hitchcock's only original screenplay although he worked extensively alongside other writers throughout his career.
The film, while widely considered a minor work, features photography tricks Hitchcock would use again years later in films like The Man Who Knew Too Much, most notably during the climactic boxing sequences.
The film was a major critical success on its release. However, when it went on general release it was considered a box office failure. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsIvor NovelloBen WebsterNorman McKinnelBound by honor, a successful schoolboy takes the blame for his roommate's indiscretion, and it's all downhill from there.The film is based on the play, Down Hill, written by its star Ivor Novello and Constance Collier under the combined alias David L'Estrange.
Hitchcock's emerging style is well demonstrated in this film. He used a variety of screen techniques to tell the story with a minimum of title cards, preferring instead to allow the film's visual narrative tell the story. A good example is the scene after Roddy leaves home. It opens with the title card "The world of make-believe". This is followed by a closeup of Roddy in a tuxedo. The camera pulls back to reveal Roddy is actually playing a waiter on stage in a theatre. Hitchcock also incorporated shots of a descending escalator at Maida Vale tube station as a visual metaphor for Roddy's downhill descent. He experimented with dream sequences by shooting them in super impositions and blurred images. He played with shadow and light in much the same way as directors of German expressionist films of the time.
In the original prints of the film, the scene involving Novello's voyage home on a boat was tinted a "sickly" green to express mental torment and nausea. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJameson ThomasLillian Hall-DavisGordon HarkerAfter his daughter weds, a middle-aged widower with a profitable farm decides to remarry, but finds choosing a suitable mate a problematic process.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsIsabel JeansFranklin DyallEric Bransby WilliamsA recently divorced woman hides her scandalous past from her new husband and his family.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsBetty BalfourJean BradinFerdinand von AltenA spoiled heiress defies her father by running off to marry her lover. However, Daddy has a few tricks up his sleeve.Hitchcock's attempt at a change of pace with a comedy was poorly received when released. Although his expanding visual technique continued to draw recognition and praise, they were not enough to distract the audience from the film's lack of usual suspenseful plot lines. The "mysterious man" at the beginning of the film proved to be misleading, which further displeased the audience.
Hitchcock would later voice his unhappiness with the film in François Truffaut's book-length interview Hitchcock/Truffaut. Hitchcock told Truffaut "The film had no story to tell". - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAnny OndraCarl BrissonMalcolm KeenA fisherman and a rising young lawyer, who grew up as brothers, fall in love with the same girl.It was the last silent film Hitchcock directed before he made the transition to sound film.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAnny OndraJohn LongdenSara AllgoodAfter killing a man in self-defense, a young woman is blackmailed by a witness to the killing.It was an early 'talkie', often cited by film historians as a landmark film, and is often considered to be the first British sound feature film.
Blackmail began the Hitchcock tradition of using famous landmarks as a backdrop for suspense sequences, with the climax of the film taking place on the dome of the British Museum.
It also features one of his longest cameo appearances, which shows him being bothered by a small boy as he reads a book on the London Underground. In the PBS series The Men Who Made The Movies, Hitchcock explained how he used early sound recording as a special element of the film, stressing the word "knife" in a conversation with the woman suspected of murder. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsSara AllgoodEdward ChapmanBarry FitzgeraldDuring the Irish Civil War in 1922, a family earns a big inheritance. They start leading a rich life, forgetting what the most important values are.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsHerbert MarshallNorah BaringPhyllis KonstamA juror in a murder trial, after voting to convict, has second thoughts and begins to investigate on his own before the execution.
- DirectorAndré CharlotJack HulbertPaul MurrayStarsTommy HandleyGordon BeggTeddy BrownA series of nineteen musical and comedy "vaudeville" sketches presented in the form of a live broadcast hosted by Tommy Handley (as himself). There are two "running gags" which connect the sketches. In one, an actor wants to perform Shakespeare, but he is continually denied air-time. The other gag has an inventor trying to view the broadcast on television. Four of the sketches are in color (in shades of yellow and brown only).Co-director.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsEdmund GwennJill EsmondC.V. FranceAn old traditional family and a modern family battle over land in a small English village and almost destroy each other.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAlfred AbelOlga TschechowaPaul GraetzA juror in a murder trial, after voting to convict, has second thoughts and begins to investigate on his own before the execution.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsHenry KendallJoan BarryPercy MarmontBelieving that an unexpected inheritance will bring them happiness, a married couple instead finds their relationship strained to the breaking point.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsLeon M. LionAnne GreyJohn StuartA gang of thieves gather at a safe house following a robbery, but a detective is on their trail.Hitchcock returned to England from a trip to the Caribbean with a new idea for a film. He told John Maxwell about it, but Maxwell said that Walter C. Mycroft had a different film for him to do, a filmed version of Joseph Farjeon's play Number Seventeen.
Hitchcock was unhappy with this, as he considered the story to be too full of cliches and he wanted to do a version of John Van Druten's London Wall. The director who eventually got to do London Wall at the time, wanted to direct Number Seventeen.
In the book Hitchcock/Truffaut (Simon and Schuster, 1967), Hitchcock called the film "A disaster". - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsEdmund GwennEsmond KnightJessie MatthewsThe story of Johann Strauss the elder and younger. Senior thinks little of Junior's musical abilities while Junior is torn between baker's daughter Resi and countess Helga who both contribute to his composing the famous "Blue Danube".Hitchcock told François Truffaut that this film was the lowest ebb of his career. He only agreed to make it because he had no other film projects that year, and wanted to stay working. He never again made a musical film.
The comment to Truffaut mentioned above has not prevented film scholars from trying to find value in this unusual Hitchcock film, as they point to Waltzes from Vienna as the foundation for many revolutionary ideas that appeared in his more highly regarded films. For example, Jack Sullivan and David Schroeder both agree that Hitchcock used this film to explore the potential of the waltz, which he used as a musical device that carried sinister meaning or accompanied dangerous situations in films like Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, and Torn Curtain. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsLeslie BanksEdna BestPeter LorreAn ordinary British couple vacationing in Switzerland suddenly find themselves embroiled in a case of international intrigue when their daughter is kidnapped by spies plotting a political assassination.Hitchcock was once again working for Michael Balcon at Gaumont British. His first film for the company The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) was one of the most successful and critically acclaimed films of Hitchcock's British period.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsRobert DonatMadeleine CarrollLucie MannheimA man in London tries to help a counter-espionage agent, but when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to save himself and stop a spy ring that is trying to steal top-secret information.The 39 Steps was a major British film of its time. The production company, Gaumont-British, was eager to establish its films in international markets, and especially in the United States, and The 39 Steps was conceived as a prime vehicle towards this end. Where Hitchcock's previous film, The Man Who Knew Too Much, had costs of £40,000, The 39 Steps cost nearly £60,000. Much of the extra money went to the star salaries for Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. Both had already made films in Hollywood and were therefore known to American audiences. At a time when British cinema had few international stars, this was considered vital to the film's success.
The film was acclaimed in Britain, and it made Hitchcock a star in the United States, and established the quintessential English "Hitchcock blonde" Madeleine Carroll as the template for his succession of ice cold and elegant leading ladies. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJohn GielgudMadeleine CarrollRobert YoungAfter three British Agents are assigned to assassinate a mysterious German spy during World War I, two of them become ambivalent when their duty to the mission conflicts with their consciences.Typical Hitchcockian themes used here include mistaken identity and murder.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsSylvia SidneyOscar HomolkaDesmond TesterA Scotland Yard undercover detective is on the trail of a saboteur who is part of a plot to set off a bomb in London. But when the detective's cover is blown, the plot begins to unravel.Mrs. Verloc was Sylvia Sidney’s only role for Hitchcock. Reportedly, they did not get along and she refused to work for him again.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsNova PilbeamDerrick De MarneyPercy MarmontA man on the run from a murder charge enlists the help of a beautiful stranger who must put herself at risk for his cause.It is notable for an elaborately staged crane shot Hitchcock devised towards the end of the film, which identifies the real murderer.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsMargaret LockwoodMichael RedgravePaul LukasWhile travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.A fast-paced comedy thriller film about the search for kindly old Englishwoman Miss Froy who disappears while on board a train in the fictional country of Bandrika.
Although the director's three previous efforts had done poorly at the box office, The Lady Vanishes was widely successful, becoming the most successful British film to that date. It also confirmed American producer David O. Selznick's belief that Hitchcock indeed had a future in Hollywood cinema.
The film frequently ranks among the best British films of all time.