The Thirties

85 min., b/w.
Prod: John Maxwell for British International.
Scr: Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville based on a stage play by Sean O'Casey.
Ca: Jack Cox.
Cast: Sara Allgood (Juno), Edward Chapman (Captain Boyle), Sidney Morgan (Joxer).
Remark: One of the very few movies were Hitchcock is credited as a scriptwriter.

92 min., b/w.
Prod: John Maxwell for British International.
Scr: Alma Reville and Walter Mycroft based on the novel and stage play "Enter Sir John" by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson.
Ca: Jack Cox.
Cast: Herbert Marshall (Sir John), Nora Baring (Diana), Phyllis Konstam (Dulcie Markham), Edward Chapman (Ted Markham), Esme Percy (the transvestite actor).
Remark: This movie was also produced in a German version entitled "Mary"; the cast in the German version: Alfred Abel, Olga Tchekowa, Paul Graetz, Lotte Stein, Ekkehard Arendt. After this experience he decided never to produce another movie in a foreign language.

85 min., b/w.
Prod: John Maxwell for British International.
Scr: Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville based on a stage play by John Gainsworthy.
Ca: Jack Cox.
Cast: Jill Esmund (Jill), Edmund Gwenn (Mr. Hornblower), C.V. France (Mr. Hillcrest), Helen Haye (Mrs. Hillcrest), Pyllis Constam (Chloe), Frank Lawton (Rolf).
Remark: Hitch wrote one of his rare scripts. He wrote the script for the two succeeding movies as well - in this period of his life he didn't work as described, but it was a little early in his career.

63 min., b/w.
Prod: John Maxwell for British International.
Scr: Alma Reville, Alfred Hitchcock and Rodney Ackland based on a novel and stage play by Jefferson Farjeon.
Ca: Jack Cox.
Cast: John Stuart (the detective), Anne Grey (the girl), Leon Lion (Ben).

83 min., b/w.
Prod: John Maxwell for British International.
Scr: Alma Reville, Alfred Hitchcock and Val Valentine from an original story by Dale Collins.
Ca: Jack Cox.
Cast: Henry Kendall (Fred), Joan Barry (Emily), Betty Amann (the prinsess), Percy Marmont (Gordon).

80 min., b/w.
Prod: Tom Arnold.
Scr: Alma Reville and Guy Bolton based on a stage play by Bolton.
Ca: Glenn MacWilliams.
Mu: Johann Strauss, the elder and the younger.
Cast: Esmond Knight (Johan Strauss the younger), Edmund Gwenn (Johan Strauss the elder), Jessie Matthews (Rasi), Fay Compton (the countess).
Remark: This was a musical movie. In addition at was a kind of movie Hitchcock didn't like to make, a costume movie (a historical movie that requires the actors to wear peculiar articles of clothing from another era); when he was asked why he didn't like that kind of movies, he explained himself like this: if I can't even imagine how they go to the toilet wearing that garment, I can't film them. This was, however, not his only costume movie, he made two more: "Jamaica Inn" and "Under Capricorn".

74 min., b/w.
Prod: Michael Balcon for Gaumont-British.
AP: Ivor Montagu
Scr: Edwin Greenwood, A.R. Rawlinson and Emlyn Williams from an original story by Charles Bennett and Wyndham Lewis.
Ca: Curt Courant.
Mu: Arthur Benjamin.
Cast: Leslie Banks (Bob), Edna Best (Jill), Peter Lorre (Abbott), Nova Pilbeam (Betty), Pierre Fresnay (Louis Bernard), Frank Vosper (the murderer).

87 min., b/w.
Prod: Michael Balcon for Gaumont-British.
AP: Ivor Montagu
Scr: Charles Bennett and Ian Hay based on a novel by John Buchan.
Ca: Bernard Knowles.
Ass: Alma Reville.
Mu: Louis Levy.
Cast: Robert Donat (Richard Hannay), Madeleine Caroll (Pamela), Lucie Mannheim (Annabella Smith), Peggy Ashcroft (the farmer's wife), John Laurie (the farmer), Godfrey Tearle (the professor), Wylie Watson (Mr. Memory).

86 min., b/w.
Prod: Michael Balcon for Gaumont-British.
AP: Ivor Montagu
Scr: Charles Bennett and Ian Hay based on the stage play by Campbell Dixon inspired by Somerset Maugham's "Ashenden" stories.
Ca: Bernard Knowles.
Ass: Alma Reville.
Mu: Louis Levy.
Cast: John Gielgud (Edgar Brodie/Richard Ashenden), Madeleine Caroll (Elsa), Peter Lorre (the general), Robert Young (Robert Marvin).

76 min., b/w.
Prod: Michael Balcon for Gaumont-British.
AP: Ivor Montagu
Scr: Charles Bennett, Ian Hay and Helen Simpson based on the novel "The Secret Agent" by Joseph Conrad.
Ca: Bernard Knowles.
Ass: Alma Reville.
Mu: Louis Levy.
Cast: Sylvia Sidney (Mrs. Verloc), Oscar Homolka (Mr. Verloc), Desmond Tester (Stevie), John Loder (the detective).

84 min., b/w.
Prod: Edward Black for Gainsborough/Gaumont-British.
Scr: Charles Bennett, Edwin Greenwood, Gerald Savory and Anthony Armstrong based on the novel "A Shilling for Candles" by Josephine Tey.
Ca: Bernard Knowles.
Ass: Alma Reville.
Mu: Louis Levy.
Cast: Derrick de Marney (Robert), Nova Pilbeam (Erica), Percy Marmont (her father).

97 min., b/w.
Prod: Edward Black for Gainsborough/Gaumont-British.
Scr: Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder based on the novel "The Wheel Spins" by Ethel Lina White.
Ca: John Cox.
Ass: Alma Reville.
Mu: Louis Levy.
Cast: Margaret Lockwood (Iris), Dame May Whitty (Miss Froy), Michael Redgrave (Gilbert), Paul Lukas (Dr. Hartz), Cecil Parker (Todhunter), Linden Travers (his mistress), Naunton Wayne (Caldicot), Basil Radford (Charters), Mary Clare (the baroness), Catherine Lacey (the nun).
Remark: This exceptional movie was without any doubt the culmination on his British era. The New York Critics Circle awarded him Best Director, he was on his way to Hollywood and everything was just perfect. But unfortunately he was under an obligation to make one more movie before he left, "Jamaica Inn" (see below).

98 min., b/w.
Prod: Erich Pommer and Charles Laughton for Mayflowers Production.
Scr: Sidney Gilliat, Joan Harrison and J.B. Priestley based on a novel by Daphne du Maurier.
Ca: Harry Stradling, Bernard Knowles.
Mu: Eric Fenby.
Cast: Robert Newton (Jem Traherne), Charles Laughton (Sir Humphrey), Maureen O'Hara (Mary), Leslie Banks (her uncle), Mary Ney (her aunt).
Remark: This freak of a movie was without any doubt a project he used to pass the time while he was waiting to move to Hollywood, where he would proceed his career. It was the last movie in Hitchcock's British production, which is all there is to say about this movie - it is not the brillant conclusion "The Lady Vanishes" would have been. In addition it was something Hitch didn't like, a costume movie - see Waltzes from Vienna for details.