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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Alfred Hitchcock
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(1899–1980, KBE 1980) Film director known for thrillers laced with wit. Blackmail (1929) was the first successful British talkie. Films such as The *Thirty-Nine Steps and The *Lady Vanishes secured him a high reputation in the British film industry, but he moved in 1940 to the USA, attracted by the greater facilities. (Technical challenges were always a stimulus; Rope was constructed in 1948 from unedited 10-minute takes.) Strangers on a Train (1951) and North by Northwest (1959) were successes in his established style, but horror drove out the comedy in Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963).
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Never one for maintaining a low profile, Hitchcock kept audiences on the look-out (from as early as The Lodger, 1926) for his trademark, the single brief appearance of his own short and portly figure in every film. His flat London accent and deadpan wit became widely known through his introductions to his TV thriller series (Alfred Hitchock Presents 1955–61, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour 1961–5). The trend to regard him as a master of modern cinema was pioneered by French critics in the 1950s.
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