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Hitchcock - The Early Years in Britain
itchcock is one of the few directors whose name is instantly recognized by most people anywhere in the civilized world. But not even most serious film buffs know that Alfred Hitchcock spent some of the early, formative years of his directorial career in studios and on movie locations in Germany and Austria. The three silent films he directed or co-directed in Germany may have been long forgotten, but the Expressionist influences of German cinema and German directors can be seen in most of Hitchcock's later films.
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born into a Catholic family in Leytonstone, England, not far from London on August 13, 1899. (Leytonstone was then in Essex; now it's a district of London.) He was the family's third and last child; he had a brother, William, Jr., and a sister, Ellen or Nellie. His father, William Hitchcock, was a greengrocer, and the family lived on the second floor above the shop. His mother, Emma Jane Whelan, was the daughter of a policeman. She has been described as sensible and intelligent with “a black-Irish sense of humor.”
As time went on, the family business (now dealing in fish) prospered and grew. The Hitchcocks moved closer to central London; young Alfred grew up along the Thames and soon knew his way around the big city. He especially enjoyed riding the new electric trams that had been introduced in 1906. Hitchcock attended Catholic elementary schools until 1910, when he enrolled at St. Ignatius College, a Catholic day school at Stamford Hill. He was an above-average student St. Ignatius, ranking at or near the top of his class. But he left the school at age 14 to study engineering at a trade school in London. Hitchcock's engineering studies were interrupted in December 1914 when his father died. Alfred was only 15 years old.
During his engineering studies, Hitchcock had been hired by W.T. Henley's Telegraph Works, a firm that manufactured and installed electrical cables and insulators. His first job was to calculate the sizes and voltages of Henley's cables, but he soon worked his way up to the sales department. By early 1918 he had managed to get a position in Henley's advertising department, where he gained valuable experience for his next job—in films.
A bit bored with his work at Henley's, in 1919 Hitchcock decided to try something new. He was a movie fan who watched British, American, and German films in London cinemas. So the man who would later become the master of suspense and surprise endings began his career in the British cinema industry as a “captioneer,” a designer of silent movie intertitles for the newly established London branch of Paramount's British Famous Players-Lasky, Ltd. (later just Paramount). A captioneer's job included providing art designs to go with the text of the intertitle cards. Hitchcock kept his job at Henley's until 1921, when he finally gained a full-time position at Famous Players-Lasky. The atmosphere at the British studio, located in Islington, had a decidedly American flavor. Most of the directors, other staff, and even actors came from the US branch of Famous Players-Lasky. Hitchcock enthusiastically took on increased responsibility as a set designer, script writer, and doing other studio jobs. He later said of his time there: “I'm American-trained... All of the personnel at the studio was American.”
American Stars in Britain and Germany
In the 1920s, when Alfred Hitchcock was directing silent films in England and Germany, it was common for the studios to “import” American and other actors to appear in British or German productions. Since there was no sound, the various languages and accents didn't matter. > More in Part 2 |
Hitchcock Posters and Photos
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By the summer of 1922 British Famous Players-Lasky was in financial trouble, but before the studio changed hands, Hitchcock got his first opportunity to direct. He already had experience as a set designer and assistant director, so when the original director of Always Tell Your Wife fell ill, Hitchcock was the natural choice to take on the job of director for this two-reeler comedy about a philandering husband. The picture (produced in 1923) may have never been released, but one reel of Alfred Hitchcock's directorial debut is preserved in the archives of the British Film Institute in London.
Another film, Number Thirteen, may also have been Hitchcock's first, but nothing remains of it other than a few stills. This film, also known as “Mrs. Peabody,” is considered lost. (In order to view an intact version of an early Hitchcock-directed film, researchers must turn to his German films made for Gainsborough Productions at the Emelka studios in Munich.) Another picture, The Passionate Adventure, co-directed by Hitchcock (what biographer Patrick McGilligan terms a “quasi Hitchcock film”) is the only one of his early British pictures to survive completely intact. Hitchcock was the assistant director, co-scriptwriter, and art director for this movie, which was directed by Graham Cutts, with whom Hitchcock worked as assistant director on several other films.
HITCHCOCK BIOGRAPHY
Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light
by Patrick McGilligan (from Amazon.com)
Now working for Michael Balcon's Gainsborough Productions, which had taken over Paramount's former British Famous Players-Lasky studios at Islington, Hitchcock helped Cutts film The Passionate Adventure in 1924. Two of the cast members in this murder drama were Americans. Alice Joyce played the rich man's wife, while Marjorie Daw was her best friend. Daw was married to Hollywood director A. Edward Sutherland, and she had appeared previously in Douglas Fairbanks pictures. The film was quickly filmed, edited, and made ready for its opening.
The Passionate Adventure premiered in July 1924, and now Alfred Hitchcock was about to receive a crucial part of his education as a director. Once more he would assist Cutts on a picture, but this one was to be filmed at the Ufa studios near Berlin. Ufa was then Europe's biggest and most important movie studio. Its only serious rivals were in Hollywood. Hitch was about to meet and learn from some of his German cinematic idols in person.
Next, Hitchcock meets Murnau...
POSTERS > Hitchcock Movie Posters and Photos
N E X T > Hitchcock in Germany
M O R E > Alfred Hitchcock Filmography
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