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Photo: Ante Brkan, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.Test your knowledge on Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary filmmaker who redefined the thriller genre. Discover the secrets behind his iconic camera tricks, famous cameos, and cinematic milestones!
Suspicious Beginner 0–4 · Master of Suspense Fan 5–8 · Director's Chair Elite 9–10
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The thrilling final chase of North by Northwest occurs on the faces of Mount Rushmore. Hitchcock originally wanted to call the film 'The Man in Lincoln's Nose' but the National Park Service refused to let them film actual action scenes on the monument. The actors had to perform on realistic studio replicas instead.
Photo: Copyrighted by Loew's, Incorporated. Incorporates artwork by Saul Bass, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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Despite being nominated five times for Best Director—for classics like Rebecca, Rear Window, and Psycho—Hitchcock never won a competitive Oscar. The Academy finally honored him in 1968 with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement, where he gave one of the shortest acceptance speeches ever: 'Thank you.'
Photo: Ante Brkan, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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The dolly zoom, also known as the 'Vertigo effect', was created by second-unit cameraman Irmin Roberts. By zooming the lens in while moving the camera backward, the background distorts while the foreground stays the same size, creating a disorienting sense of falling. It has since been used in countless films, including Jaws.
Photo: GDallimore, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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To get the perfect squishy, chilling sound of a knife entering flesh, Hitchcock and his crew tested various materials before settling on a Casaba melon. The sound designer literally stabbed multiple melons to find the one with the most dramatic acoustic quality. Hitchcock actually rejected several other options, including sirloin steak, because they sounded too flat on tape.
Photo: Designed by Macario Gómez Quibus. "© Shamley Productions, Inc.", Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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Hitchcock popularized the term 'MacGuffin' for a plot device that the characters care about, but the audience does not need to understand. Examples include the stolen money in Psycho or the microfilm full of government secrets in North by Northwest. He explained that in a thriller, it is simply the thing that the spies are looking for.
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Daphne du Maurier wrote the 1952 novelette 'The Birds', which Hitchcock adapted into his terrifying 1963 film. This was not their first collaboration; Hitchcock also adapted her novels 'Rebecca' and 'Jamaica Inn'. The movie version moved the setting from a rural English farm to coastal California but kept the creeping dread.
Photo: Copyrighted by Universal Pictures Co., Inc.., Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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Rope is famous for being shot in extremely long takes, carefully edited to appear as a single, uninterrupted shot. Because film reels at the time could only hold about ten minutes of film, Hitchcock hid about half of the cuts by moving the camera into dark objects like the backs of jackets, so one take flowed seamlessly into the next.
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Since the entire movie takes place on a tiny boat with a handful of actors, Hitchcock couldn't easily walk across the screen. Instead, he appeared in a newspaper read by a character, starring in a fictional 'before and after' advertisement for a weight-loss product called Reduco. He was actually on a diet at the time and loved the gag!
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Alma Reville was married to Hitchcock for 54 years and was his most trusted creative partner. She was already working as a film editor at 16 and had a sharp eye for tiny mistakes everyone else had missed. When he received a lifetime award in 1979, Hitchcock thanked her as a film editor, a scriptwriter, the mother of his daughter and a wonderful cook.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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Rebecca won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1941, though the Oscar technically went to producer David O. Selznick rather than Hitchcock himself. Surprisingly, Vertigo, which is now often ranked as one of the greatest movies ever made, was not even nominated for Best Picture at the time of its release.
Photo: "© 1939 by United Artists Corporation.", Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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