Alfred Hitchcock, Part 1: Becoming the Master of Suspense — Fear, Power, and the Fight for Control

Before Psycho, before Grace Kelly, before Rear Window, before he became the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock had to start somewhere. He started in a British film industry struggling to survive — and in a fight for control that would carry him all the way to Hollywood.

Continuing our October Halloween series, this is Part 1 of our three-part look at the life of Alfred Hitchcock.

Over half a century, Alfred Hitchcock perfected the art of suspense, becoming one of the most celebrated filmmakers who ever lived and earning a title that still belongs to him and him alone: the Master of Suspense.

But before he got there, before Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho, he had to break free of a small, strictly ordered world, find his way into pictures, and turn his own fears into something he could use.

This episode follows Hitchcock from his 1899 birth in Leytonstone to his first job in pictures, designing title cards for silent films at a London studio, where he met Alma Reville — the editor who would become his wife and lifelong collaborator. From there, he became one of Britain's leading filmmakers through The Lodger, Blackmail, The 39 Steps, and The Lady Vanishes.

In 1939, David O. Selznick brought Hitchcock to Hollywood. His first American film, Rebecca, became an Oscar-winning hit — but its making also introduced him to a producer determined to control every detail. Over the next decade, as Selznick loaned him to other studios, Hitchcock directed Foreign Correspondent, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Suspicion, Shadow of a Doubt, Lifeboat, Spellbound, and Notorious, working with Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Joan Fontaine, Carole Lombard, and more of Hollywood's biggest stars.

By the end of the 1940s, Hitchcock had made himself one of Hollywood's most successful directors. But he still did not have the control he wanted. Free of Selznick at last, he was about to begin chasing it.

Part 2 of our Alfred Hitchcock series — following Hitchcock's first attempt at Hollywood independence and the extraordinary run that made his name synonymous with suspense — releases next Tuesday, October 20.

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WTWMI is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Rankin. Original artwork by Simone Beech and original music by Lionel Ziblat.

Part 2 of our Charlie Chaplin series — covering the scandal surrounding his marriage to Lita Grey, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator, political controversy, exile from America and his final years — releases next Tuesday, September 8.