Background
He was born in London and educated at Westminster School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he studied English and edited Granta.
He was born in London and educated at Westminster School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he studied English and edited Granta.
Trinity Hall.
He first worked in the film business in 1926 writing subtitles for silent films. He then began writing his own scenarios for Gaumont British Studios and later Ealing Studios under Sir Michael Balcon. During World World War II he made films for the Ministry of Information.
One of Alfred Hitchcock’s favourite devices for driving the plots of his stories and creating suspense was what he called the MacGuffin.
Ivor Montagu, who worked with Hitchcock on several of his British films, attributes the coining of the term to MacPhail.
