10 Fun Facts About Alfred Hitchcock Films

In Psycho (1960), what crime has Marion Crane committed before her fateful stop at the Bates Motel?

Shot cheaply in black-and-white by the crew of Hitchcock's TV series for under $810,000, the film went on to earn about $50 million worldwide.

In which film is a retired detective hired to follow a woman and then becomes obsessed with her?

It was the first film to use the dolly zoom, the in-camera effect that warps perspective to convey Scottie's fear of heights, a trick still nicknamed after the film.

In which film does a photographer with a broken leg believe he witnesses a murder in the apartment opposite?

Shot almost entirely from a single room, it cost $1 million and grossed $27 million on first release; Grace Kelly and Raymond Burr co-star with James Stewart.

In which film is a man mistaken for a government agent, pursued across the country and chased over Mount Rushmore?

Ernest Lehman wrote it as 'the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures', and Saul Bass's opening credits were the first to make extended use of kinetic typography.

In which 1963 film, based on a du Maurier story, is Bodega Bay attacked from the sky?

It marked Tippi Hedren's screen debut, and Ub Iwerks, the animator who co-created Mickey Mouse, was Oscar-nominated for its special effects.

Which of Hitchcock's films won the Academy Award for Best Picture?

Rebecca herself, the first Mrs de Winter, is never seen on screen, and Joan Fontaine's heroine is never given a name.

In which 1951 film do two men who have just met agree, in theory, to swap murders?

Raymond Chandler co-wrote the screenplay from Patricia Highsmith's debut novel; Hitchcock's cameo has him wrestling a double bass aboard.

In which 1954 3D film does a former tennis pro plot to kill his wealthy wife, played by Grace Kelly?

Frederick Knott's play was first seen on BBC Television in 1952; the film mostly played in ordinary 2D because cinemas had already tired of the fiddly 3D process.

Which film stars Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as agents uncovering a post-war Nazi conspiracy in Brazil?

Claude Rains plays the IG Farben executive Bergman must seduce; the film was shot in late 1945 and early 1946, months after the war ended.

Which instrument does Hitchcock wrestle aboard in his cameo at the start of Strangers on a Train?

He told Truffaut the gag had become 'troublesome' because audiences were distracted hunting for him, so he took to getting his cameo done in the first five minutes.