Birth of a Genius

In Spring 1920, a 20-year-old draughtsman called Alfred Joseph Hitchcock began work at the Famous Players Lasky film studios in Islington. Some five years later, the now 25 year-old completed his first feature film as a director, The Pleasure Garden. In between, the young apprentice learned the skills that would equip him for a lifetime in filmmaking.

The ambitious junior doggedly worked his way around the studio, progressing to art direction, to scenario-writing and finally to assistant director. He learnt from the talented but chaotic director Graham Cutts, and in Germany observed masters of silent cinema like F.W. Murnau at work. No-one could have known it at the time, but a genius was being born.

The Shaping of Alfred Hitchcock