Alfred Hitchcock knew fear.

Once, when he was 5 and created some mischief, his father sent him to the local police station with a note. After reading the note, a sergeant put the boy in a cell for a few agonizing moments.

The policeman returned and let Alfred go, telling him, "This is what we do to naughty boys."

His mother also instilled fear in young Hitchcock by often making him stand at the foot of her bed for hours if he misbehaved. This incident was recalled by the character Norman Bates, the mother-hating killer in perhaps Hitchcock's most famous film, "Psycho" (1960).

Themes of guilt and redemption — and frequently murder — permeated Hitchcock's work.

"I am scared easily," he once said. "Here is a list of my adrenaline: production, 1; small children, 2; policemen, 3; high places, 4; that my next movie will not be as good as the last one."

Hitchcock (1899-1980) parlayed his takes on fear to become one of the most influential and widely emulated directors in film history. His career spanned six decades and more than 50 films, and he reigns as the undisputed Master of Suspense.

Alfred Hitchcock was born on Aug. 13, 1899, in Leytonstone, England, the third child of William Hitchcock, a grocer, and Emma Jane Hitchcock. His childhood was lonely and sheltered, and he suffered from a weight problem.

Despite his strict Catholic upbringing, he was independent and loved to attend movies and plays. He also read widely, including works by Dickens, Poe, Flaubert, Wilde, Chesterton and Buchan.

Head Of The Family

When Hitchcock was 14, his father died. He was forced to provide for his mother and himself with odd jobs. "I was dropped off the wagon and had to walk," Hitchcock said in "The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock," by Donald Spoto. "I was alone and practically penniless."

Hitchcock became a draftsman and advertising designer with a cable company, and took night classes to satisfy his artistic dreams. Hearing that Paramount's Players-Lasky studio was shooting a silent film in London, Hitchcock quickly read the novel on which it was based and drew a set of illustrative title cards for it. He delivered his work, but the studio had canceled the project.

Hitchcock refused to dwell on a missed opportunity. Instead, he drew cards for the studio's next film. The company rejected them, but studio bosses were so impressed with Hitchcock's initiative that he was offered work.

He wasted little time. As the rest of the crew whiled away evenings at local clubs, Hitchcock ventured off to the cinema to learn about moviemaking. He mastered scripting, editing and art direction, and rose to assistant director in 1922.

In 1925, he directed his first film, "The Pleasure Garden," at Ufa Studios in Germany. It bombed and threatened to level his promising career. Two years later, Hitchcock scored a commercial and critical success with "The Lodger."

In 1929, Hitchcock was working on "Blackmail," begun as a silent film. By then, audiences were eager to see talking films, so the producers decided to insert a few lines of dialogue into the last reel. Hitchcock secretly shot additional scenes in sound. His gamble impressed producers, and the entire film was reshot with sound. It was Britain's first all-talking film.

Hitchcock's reputation grew with back-to-back successes, "The Man Who Knew too Much" (1934) and "The 39 Steps" (1935).

The latter was also one of the first films to introduce what Hitchcock called the MacGuffin, a plot device around which a whole story would revolve; for example, a stolen set of blueprints in "The 39 Steps" and a woman's disappearance in "The Lady Vanishes" (1938).

By the end of the 1930s, Hitchcock headed to Hollywood and signed on with legendary producer David Selznick to direct "Rebecca" in 1940. Hitchcock's demands for creative control led to friction with Selznick, but Hitchcock's vision prevailed. "Rebecca" won Selznick the Academy Award for best picture and garnered Hitchcock his first of six nominations for best director.

It also turned Hitchcock into one of Hollywood's top money directors. He would eventually receive the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award at the Oscars in 1968.

Hitchcock knew his audience.

"The man who understands the psychology of the public better than anybody else today is the editor of the successful, popular modern newspaper," he wrote in 1936. "If the filmmakers understood the public as newspapers do, they might hit the mark more often."

By carefully controlling shots, Hitchcock was able to guide the audience's reactions. To set the mood, he would begin with an early thrill — a gunshot through a crowded club in "The 39 Steps" or an attack of sea gulls in "The Birds" (1963).

Hitchcock also considered self-promotion a key to success. His brief cameos became a trademark.

"(The directors) make a film succeed," Hitchcock said. "Actors come and actors go, but the name of the director should stay clearly in the mind of the audience."

In the late 1940s, he formed Transatlantic Pictures and produced his first Technicolor film, "Rope." It and "Under Capricorn" were not commercial successes, and Transatlantic soon folded.

Undaunted, Hitchcock went to work for Universal in the 1950s and, with help from Music Corp. of America chief Lew Wasserman, received much creative freedom — and substantial financial rewards. He successfully turned his talents to television with "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" while churning out blockbusters such as "North by Northwest" and "Vertigo."

Director Martin Scorsese, who won his first best director Oscar for "The Departed" at this year's Academy Awards, wrote of "Vertigo" that it is "essential . . . because it has a hero driven purely by obsession. I've always been attracted in my own work to heroes motivated by obsession, and on that level 'Vertigo' strikes a deep chord in me every time I see it."

Big Money

Even though "Psycho" was one of Hitchcock's most memorable films, it got mixed reviews. "Hitchcock seems to have been more interested in shocking his audience with the bloodiest bathtub murder in screen history, and in photographing Janet Leigh in various stages of undress, than in observing the ordinary rules of good film construction," Moira Walsh wrote in America magazine.

"Psycho" cost $800,000 to make. Hitchcock deferred his standard $250,000 salary in lieu of 60% of the film's net profit. His personal earnings from the film exceeded $15 million. That amounts to $150 million in today's dollars.

By the early 1970s, Hitchcock's career was winding down. He returned to London to film "Frenzy," his last major success, in 1972. "Family Plot" (1976) was his final film. He received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1979 and died the next year.
BY CHRIS BORDEN