The rest is history, as, for the next 36 years, Hitch -- his Hollywood nickname -- was the creator of sophisticatedly thrown shadows and constantly hinted of the macabre lurking just under the surface of the ordinary.
His last name became synonymous with Suspense, and, to this day, every great new thriller is, at best, described as 'Hitchcockian.'

A typical list of favourites would include: Psycho, Rear Window, North By Northwest, The Man Who Knew too Much, Rope, Vertigo, The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Lifeboat, and the director's personal pick, Shadow Of A Doubt.

Hitchcock was once famously quoted as hating actors because he referred to them as cattle. He responded with a horrified face, saying, 'My actor friends know I would never be capable of such a thoughtless, rude and unfeeling remark... What I probably said was that actors should be treated like cattle.'