Alfred Joseph Hitchcock

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock.

Alfred Hitchcock Fact File 

• Name:  Alfred Joseph Hitchcock
• Year Born: 13 August 1899
• Birth Place: Leytonstone, London, England
• Year of Death: 29 April 1980
• Place of Death: Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, United States

Alfred Hitchcock also known as 'The master of suspense' was one of the greatest directors of the world. He was a pioneer in the film industry directing some of the greatest thrillers such as 'Psycho' and 'Spell bound'. Alfred worked in the film industry for 55 years from 1921 to 1976 before retiring at age 77 and passing 3 years later at 80 year of age.

The nickname of 'Master of Suspense' was given to Alfred for the soul reason that his films dealt with a great deal of suspense and tension. Alfred's films quickly became a bench mark for psychological thrillers. Alfred said that he found his films were much greater when he put his own fears in the films. He believed that the only way to overcome his fears was to cast them in his movies. Alfred is well known for including famous techniques in his films such as Maguffins, Enigmas and Red herrings. These are 3 of the many great techniques that Alfred uses allot within his films.

A Maguffin is a plot element that catches the audiences attention and helps drive the plot forward. It is something which the characters in the film are willing to do and risk everything in order to obtain it regardless of what the maguffin is. The maguffin may be undefined or completely unimportant to the film. Some common examples of maguffins are money, victory or a source of power. Maguffins are very common in films particularly thrillers made by Alfred Hitchcock. Usually the Maguffin is the general focus of the film but the importance of it decreases through out the film and by the end it may be forgotten or it can simply rise in importance again. Sometimes films can use multiple maguffins, this technique is often referred to as plot coupons.

An enigma is often a puzzle or riddle needing to be solved within the plot of the film. This is usually something that the protagonist of the film must encounter and then figure out. A protagonist is usually the hero or main character of the film. To solve these enigmas the protagonists usually have to undergo a large amount of activities to overcome the enigma or find the answer to it. An example of an enigma is many murder mystery films where the protagonist usually being the detectives must find out who the murderer is an arrest them.

A red herring is often a device or person that which intends to divert the audiences attention away from the plot and make it less obvious. By hiding the truth until the plot is completely revealed right near the end the audience is taken by surprise. In allot of films red herrings can work together with the enigmas in the film to create allot of suspense in the plot. An example of this is the film 'North by North West' our main character is in a bar with some clients. A bus boy is shouting for a Mr Kaplen, which some gangster's are looking for. Our main character starts to wave over the bus boy to order a drink and is mistaken by the gangsters to be this Mr Kaplen. In the scene you can see that this Mr Kaplen does not exist so therefore is the red herring and diverts the audience away from the true plot.