century, with more than fifty feature films to his credit, Hitchcock was (and remains) the originator and master of a kind of mystery thriller no one has been able to duplicate. Hitchcock himself considers his films as "melodrama". "What is melodrama? If I admit I prefer to make films that may be so classified I must first define it. One man's drama is another man's melodramaà.My own greatest desire is for realism. Therefore I employ what is called melodrama- but which might as well be called ultra-realism" (Hitchcock, 1936, p. 2).
His first film that he actually received directorial credit for was "Pleasure Garden", an Anglo-German production filmed in Munich.
This experience, plus a sting at Germany's UFA studios as an assistant director, help account for the Expressionistic character of his films, both in their visual schemes and thematic concerns (Needham, 2001, p. 1).
His first "breakthrough" film was "The
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