The Hollywood Years

	REBECCA (1940), starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, won an Academy Award for Best Picture.   > Buy the DVD

Alfred Hitchcock had been growing increasingly frustrated by the limitations of the British film industry—and the soggy British climate. Like many directors before him, Hitchcock looked longingly toward Hollywood. And he was not without prospects. In 1937 Hollywood producers Walter Wanger and Myron Selznick (whose younger brother was David O. Selznick) began discussions with Hitchcock about a possible Hollywood career. He turned down a one-picture deal with MGM, but soon embarked on an American tour to promote a movie—and to test the waters for a possible move to Hollywood. Hitchcock and his wife Alma, with nine-year-old daughter Pat in tow, set sail aboard the Queen Mary. It was the first time Hitchcock had ever visited the United States.

Back in England, Hitchcock completed The Lady Vanishes before heading off to America once again. In the summer of 1938 he went to Hollywood for the first time. It was no sightseeing tour; he was hoping to conclude a deal. After over a month of negotiations, with many ups and downs, Hitchcock at last signed a contract with David O. Selznick in early July. It was for less than Hitchcock wanted, but he needed a chance to show Hollywood what he could do. (Selznick later sweetened the deal after The Lady Vanishes had been a hit in its American run.)

Hitchcock returned to England to direct his last British picture, Jamaica Inn with Charles Laughton as both actor and producer (along with the German Erich Pommer, who would also end up in Hollywood). As soon as possible, even before the film had been edited, Hitchcock and his family sailed off to America for good on March 4, 1939. Meanwhile, Selznick had finally decided which project was to be Hitchcock's first Hollywood film. The film version of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca was released in 1940.

This filmography is divided chronologically into several sections: UK and German silents, UK sound, and Hollywood (below). For more about Alfred Hitchcock, see Part 1 of our Hitchcock section.
 

Alfred Hitchcock Films - Hollywood (as director) 1940-1949

Rebecca (1940) Selznick International, 130 min., B&W
Screenplay: Robert E. Sherwood, Joan Harrison (based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier). Camera: George Barnes. Music: Franz Waxman. Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, Galdys Cooper. Cameo: Alfred Hitchcock appears as a passerby at a phone booth toward the end of the film. Academy Award for Best Picture.
    > Buy the DVD: REBECCA

Foreign Correspondent (1940) Walter Wanger, 119 min., B&W
Screenplay: Charles Bennett, Joan Harrison. Camera: Rudolf Maté. Music: Alfred Newman. Cast: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Albert Bassermann, Robert Benchley, Edmund Gwenn. Hitchcock appears as a pedestrian reading a newspaper as he strolls by McCrea's hotel early in the film.
    > Buy the DVD: FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) RKO-Radio Pictures, 95 min., B&W
Screenplay: Norman Krasna. Camera: Harry Stradling. Music: Edward Ward. Cast: Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery, Gene Raymond, Jack Carson, Philip Marivale, Lucile Watson.
    > Buy the DVD: MR AND MRS SMITH

Suspicion (1941) RKO-Radio Pictures, 99 min., B&W
Screenplay: Samson Raphaelson, Joan Harrison, Alma Reville (based on the novel Before the Fact by Frances Iles). Camera: Harry Stradling. Music: Franz Waxman. Cast: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty.
    > Buy the DVD: SUSPICION

Saboteur (1942) Frank Lloyd Prod.-Universal, 108 min., B&W
Screenplay: Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison, Dorothy Parker. Camera: Joseph Valentine. Music: Frank Skinner. Cast: Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, Otto Kruger, Alan Baxter, Clem Bevins.
    > Buy the DVD: SABOTEUR

DVD Set: The Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection - 9 DVDs
Strangers on a Train (2-Disc Edition), North by Northwest, Dial M for Murder, Foreign Correspondent, Suspicion, The Wrong Man, Stage Fright, I Confess, Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

DVD Set: The Best of Hitchcock Volume 2 - 8 DVDs
Saboteur, The Trouble with Harry, Vertigo (Special Edition), The Birds (Special Edition), Marnie, Torn Curtain, Frenzy, Alfred Hitchcock Presents #3, with 4 of the 17 TV series Hitchcock directed.

Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Universal-Skirball, 108 min., B&W
Screenplay: Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, Alma Reville. Camera: Joseph Valentine. Music: Dimitri Tiomkin. Cast: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, MacDonald Carey, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge, Hume Cronyn, Wallace Ford. Hitchcock's cameo: A player in a bridge game on a train.
    > Buy the DVD: SHADOW OF A DOUBT

Hitchcock's classic suspense tale Notorious (1946) stars Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. > Buy the Criterion DVD

Lifeboat (1944) 20th Century-Fox, 96 min., B&W
Screenplay: Jo Swerling. Camera: Glen MacWilliams. Music: Hugo W. Friedhofer. Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezack, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn. Hitchcock is seen in a newspaper ad.
    > Buy the VIDEO: LIFEBOAT (VHS, not on DVD)

British Propaganda: In 1944 Hitchcock also directed two short propaganda films for the British Ministry of Information: Bon Voyage (26 min.) and Aventure Malgache (31 min.), both filmed by the German cinematographer Günther Krampf, who also filmed Die Büchse der Pandora (1929, “Pandora's Box”) for G.W. Pabst (with the American actress Louise Brooks).

Spellbound (1945) Selznck International, 111 min., B&W
Screenplay: Ben Hecht. Camera: George Barnes. Music: Miklós Rózsa. Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll, John Emery, Norman Lloyd. Hitchcock cameo: Carrying a violin case and smoking a cigar as he leaves the hotel elevator.     > Buy the DVD: SPELLBOUND

Notorious (1946) RKO Radio, 101 min., B&W
Screenplay: Ben Hecht. Camera: Ted Tetzlaff. Music: Roy Webb. Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin, Rheinhold Schünzel, Moroni Olsen, Ivan Triesault, Alex Minotis, Lester Dorr, Eberhard Krumschmidt (1904-1956, born in Berlin; Notorious was his only film). Hitchcock cameo: Drinking champagne at the party at the mansion.
    > Buy the Criterion DVD: NOTORIOUS

The Paradine Case (1947) Selznick International, 116 min., B&W
Screenplay: David O. Selznick. Camera: Lee Garmes. Music: Franz Waxman. Cast: Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn, Ethel Barrymore, Louis Jordan, Alida Valli, Leo G. Carroll, Joan Tetzel. Hitchcock cameo: Carrying a cello while getting off a train.
    > Buy the DVD: THE PARADINE CASE

Rope (1948) Transatlantic Pictures, 80 min., color
Producers: Alfred Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein. Screenplay: Arthur Laurents, Hume Cronyn (based on the play “Rope's End” by Patrick Hamilton). Camera: Joseph Valentine, William V. Skall. Music: Leo F. Forbstein. Cast: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier, Douglas Dick, Edith Evanson. Hitchcock cameo: Seen briefly on a neon sign. This film is notable for being Hitchcock's first color movie and the camera technique he used. He shot the film on a single set with long continuous shots (up to 10 minutes) and almost no editing.
    WEB > Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (Wikipedia)   > Buy the DVD: ROPE

Under Capricorn (1949) Transatlantic Pictures, 117 min., color
Producers: Alfred Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein. Screenplay: James Bridie, Hume Cronyn (based on the novel by Helen Simpson) Camera: Jack Cardiff. Music: Louis Levy. Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Josepg Cotten, Michael Wilding, Margaret Leighton, Cecil Parker. Hitchcock cameo: He is seen twice, first in Sydney's town square, and later among the men on the steps of Government House.
    > Buy the DVD: UNDER CAPRICON

On the next page, Hitchcock's Hollywood films released in the years 1950 to 1976...

N E X T > Hollywood: Hitchcock Films 1950-1976

POSTERS > Alfred Hitchcock Posters/Photos

B A C K > Filmography 1922-29 | Filmography 1930-39

B A C K > Alfred Hitchcock - Part 1

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