Hitchcock may have had his ups and downs in America, but he ultimately won the war.įor some years, Hitchcock had been chomping at the bit to come to America, and the man who heroically brought him there – and then, ironically, became the villain in this story – was producer David O. Of course, after making one of the greatest films of all time, Welles battled the wrath of the studio system (and the Hearst machine) for the rest of his life leading to a tragic diminishment of his contributions to cinema. Contrast this to Orson Welles, who as a neophyte filmmaker in 1941 was given carte blanche by RKO to produce Citizen Kane. What Hollywood would provide Hitchcock was a larger canvas upon which to turn out finely polished thrillers that made his British films appear to be the work of, in Hitchcock’s own words, “a talented amateur.” But Hollywood would take its own sweet time giving his talents and need for supremacy on the set their full support.

The three films mentioned, along with Blackmail (1929), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and Young and Innocent (1937) more than justified his future nickname as “The Master of Suspense.”

Fifteen years of work in his native England had produced over two dozen films, including future classics such as The Lodger (1927), The 39 Steps (1935), and The Lady Vanishes (1938), establishing the 40-year old as Europe’s premiere director.

Alfred Hitchcock arrived in Hollywood in 1939 under most auspicious circumstances.

Shadow of a doubt scene analysis