OUGD401 : Hitchcock Timeline

1899
		Born Alfred Joseph Hitchcock in Leytonstone, London to William Hitchcock, a grocer and his devout Catholic wife, Ellen.   He is their third child.
	1913
		– Leaves Jesuit Classic school Saint Ignatius College near Stamford Hill after four years to study at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar.
	1914
		– Hitchcock's father dies at the age of 52.  Hitchcock lives alone with his mother until he marries in 1926.
	1915
		– Starts work as a technician with Henley Telegraph and Cable Company before transferring to the advertising department.   He is exempted from war service because of his weight and his employer's involvement in the war effort. – Attends night classes in Economics, Political History, Art History, drawing and painting at the University of London.
	1920
		– Begins working part-time as a title-card designer for the British division of Famous Players-Lasky.   Within a few months he is offered and accepts a full-time position.
	1922
		– Helps Seymour Hicks complete filming of Always Tell Your Wife when the director falls ill.  – Is given the opportunity to direct Number Thirteen, but production is halted due to lack of funds at the studio, which will close shortly afterward.
	1922
		– After assisting director Graham Cutts on five films - Woman to Woman, The White Shadow, The Passionate Adventure, The Prude's Fall and The Blackguard - Cutts informs Michael Balcon that he no longer requires Hitchcock's services.   Balcon offers Hitchcock the opportunity to direct his first feature.
	1926
	Mar -	Is hailed by the British press as ‘a young man with the vision of a master’ following the release of his directorial debut, The Pleasure Garden.
	2/12 -	Marries Alma Reville, whom he met on the set of Woman to Woman in 1923.  She is Hitchcock's assistant director on his first three films. [MORE][ADD]– The release of The Pleasure Garden marks the start of a nine-film collaboration between Hitchcock and screenwriter Elliot Stannard.
	1927
		– John Maxwell offers Hitchcock a 12-picture 3-year contract at a salary of £13,000 per year after acquiring full ownership of British National Pictures.
	1928
	7/7 -	Hitchcock's only child, Patricia, is born.
	1929
	30/6 -	Blackmail, Britain’s first sound-on-film production premieres at the Regal Cinema in Marble Arch.
	1933
		– While shooting Waltzes from Vienna as a freelance director, signs a five-picture contract with Michael Balcon at Gaumont-British. [MORE] [ADD]
	1934
		– The Man Who Knew Too Much, the first of several collaborations with Michael Balcon, Ivor Montagu and Charles Bennett which will earnHitchcock the title of 'Master of Suspence' is released.
	1935
	6/6 -	The premiere of The Thirty-Nine Steps, which is based on John Buchan’s novel of the same name, takes place at the New Gallery Theatre in London.   The film introduces filmgoers to the concept of the 'MacGuffin'.
	1937
	22/8 -	Arrives in New York aboard the Queen Mary.
	1938
	1/9 -	The Lady Vanishes is released. [MORE] [ADD]– Wins the Best Director Award from New York Film Critics.
	1939
		– Jamaica Inn, Hitchcock's final British film before leaving for America, is released. – Signs contract with Hollywood producer David O. Selznick. [MORE] [ADD]
	1940
	27/3 -	Rebecca, Hitchcock's first Hollywood movie, is released.  Based on Daphne du Maurier’s Gothic novel, it stars Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter, Joan Fontaine as his timid second wife, Judith Anderson as the sinister Mrs Danvers and George Sanders as blackmailing Jack Favell.  Hitchcock is nominated for the Best Director Academy Award but loses out to John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath.
	16/8 -	Foreign Correspondent, Hitchcock’s second American film, is released.   It stars Joel McCrea as a naïve newspaper correspondent on the eve of war and, like many films now coming out of America, offers a solidly pro-ally viewpoint.   It is nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award.
	Sep -	Buys the 200-acre Cornwall Ranch near Scotts Valley in the Santa Cruz mountains of northern California.
	1941
	31/1 -	Mr & Mrs Smith, starring Carole Lombard, is released.]
	14/11 -	Suspicion is released.   Based on the novel Before the Fact by Francis Iles, it stars Cary Grant as a seemingly attentive husband who may – or may not – be planning to murder his wife (Joan Fontaine).
	1942
	22/4 -	The tense espionage thriller, Saboteur, premieres.   Robert Cummings and Priscilla Lane star, and the film features a hair-raising finale atop the Statue of Liberty.   The film goes on general release on 24th April. – Buys a second family home at 10957 Bellagio Road, Los Angeles. [MORE] [ADD]
	1943
	12/1 -	Joseph Cotten plays Uncle Charlie, a seemingly affable man who is actually a murderer on the run in Shadow of a Doubt.   Written by Thornton Wilder, the film was shot in Santa Rosa, a real California suburb to create added authenticity.   Teresa Wright also stars as Cotten’s increasingly suspicious niece.
	26/9 -	Hitchcock's mother dies after a long illness.   His brother also dies in 1943.
	1944
	12/1 -	Lifeboat, starring William Bendix, Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak and Walter Slezak is released.   As the film takes place entirely on the lifeboat,Hitchcock’s trademark cameo is restricted to before and after photographs in a newspaper weight-loss advertisement.   Hitchcock is nominated for aBest Director Oscar for the second time in his career. – Produces two short films, Aventure Malgache and Bon Voyage, for the British Ministry of Information.
	1945
	1/11 -	Spellbound, Hitchcock’s adaptation of Francis Beeding’s novel, is released.   The film stars Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman, and features a dream sequence designed by Salvador Dali.   – Returns to Britain to make The Memory of the Camps, a documentary film about the Nazi concentration camps, but it isn't finished.   The film is eventually completed by PBS Frontline in 1985.
	1946
	15/8 -	The espionage thriller, Notorious, is released by RKO.   It stars Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains.   Grant and Bergman share a long teasing clinch that pushes the boundaries of the Production Code edict that requires screen kisses to last no longer than 30 seconds, by one of the actors inserting an occasional word before resuming their clinch which, in total, lasts two-and-a-half minutes.
	1947
		– Makes The Paradine Case, his last film for Selznick.
	1948
	23/8 -	Rope, the first film from Transatlantic Pictures, his new production company in partnership with producer Sidney Bernstein, is released.   Experimentally shot in takes lasting as long as a reel of film at times, the film stars John Dall and Farley Granger as a pair of murderous young men, and James Stewart as their former professor.
	1949
	3/1 -	Signs a contract with Warner Bros. to make four films over the following six years.
	1950
	20/4 -	Purchases the rights to Patricia Highsmith's first novel Strangers on a Train. – Begins working as an independent filmmaker, signing various contracts with different studios.