Ken Mogg passed away in early February this year (2023). His friends and colleagues thought this web site should be preserved as a memorial to Ken’s extensive study and writings on Alfred Hitchcock. I have attempted to rationalise this site, while preserving it in a way that Ken intended. More of Ken’s writings will be added to this site as they are collated. (AF)
Welcome to the Alfred Hitchcock Scholars/'MacGuffin' website!
The 'MacGuffin' Web Pages ... will undoubtedly be a great meeting place for Hitchcock lovers worldwide.
- Sidney Gottlieb, editor of 'Alfred Hitchcock Interviews' (2003) and 'Hitchcock on Hitchcock' (1995)
This site is an extension of the Alfred Hitchcock journal called 'The MacGuffin' which ran for 29 issues from 1990.
Our regular visitors may prefer to start on our 'Editor's Week' or 'News & Comment' pages - see links above.
A lengthy profile of Hitchcock's life and work by the 'MacGuffin' editor has been published elsewhere on the Web.
To visit it, click here: Great Directors - Hitchcock
Also, still a valued and comprehensive, and splendidly illustrated, critical introduction to Hitchcock and his 50+ films is 'The Alfred Hitchcock Story' (Ken Mogg, Titan Books, London, 1999 and 2008). It contains much information on Hitchcock's films not available elsewhere.The Alfred Hitchcock Story
This site supports the film (not one by Hitchcock, though he would surely have approved), Earthlings (2005). If you have the fortitude to watch a film that is essentially about inordinate cruelty, go here for information: Earthlings. Actress Linda Blair called Earthings 'the Citizen Kane of documentary films'.
Our regular visitors may prefer to start on our 'Editor's Week' or 'News & Comment' pages - see links above.
A lengthy profile of Hitchcock's life and work by the 'MacGuffin' editor has been published elsewhere on the Web.
To visit it, click here: Great Directors - Hitchcock
Also, still a valued and comprehensive, and splendidly illustrated, critical introduction to Hitchcock and his 50+ films is 'The Alfred Hitchcock Story' (Ken Mogg, Titan Books, London, 1999 and 2008). It contains much information on Hitchcock's films not available elsewhere.The Alfred Hitchcock Story
This site supports the film (not one by Hitchcock, though he would surely have approved), Earthlings (2005). If you have the fortitude to watch a film that is essentially about inordinate cruelty, go here for information: Earthlings. Actress Linda Blair called Earthings 'the Citizen Kane of documentary films'.
There have been four major Hitchcock biographies to date;
Peter Ackroyd's 'Alfred Hitchcock' (2015) deftly surveys the life and work, making many shrewd connections between them and the English style and culture on which Ackroyd is an expert. (Also, Ackroyd provides a comprehensive, up-to-date listing of English-language books on Hitchcock.)
Patrick McGilligan's 'Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light' (2003) is more than twice the length of the Ackroyd book, a must-read for scholars and fans who want detail, much of it based on first-hand interviews with people who worked with Hitchcock.
Donald Spoto's 'Alfred Hitchcock: The Dark Side of Genius' (1983) is also authoritative, with special attention to the individual films as well as to Hitchcock's 'dark' psychology.
John Russell Taylor's 'Hitch' (1978) was published in Hitchcock's lifetime, and is relatively short - but, like Ackroyd's book, is full of solid insights.
Of course, François Truffaut's book-length interview with Hitchcock (English version, 1967) is a classic that has never been out of print (and is now complemented by Kent Jones's highly-praised film Hitchcock/Truffaut).
Peter Ackroyd's 'Alfred Hitchcock' (2015) deftly surveys the life and work, making many shrewd connections between them and the English style and culture on which Ackroyd is an expert. (Also, Ackroyd provides a comprehensive, up-to-date listing of English-language books on Hitchcock.)
Patrick McGilligan's 'Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light' (2003) is more than twice the length of the Ackroyd book, a must-read for scholars and fans who want detail, much of it based on first-hand interviews with people who worked with Hitchcock.
Donald Spoto's 'Alfred Hitchcock: The Dark Side of Genius' (1983) is also authoritative, with special attention to the individual films as well as to Hitchcock's 'dark' psychology.
John Russell Taylor's 'Hitch' (1978) was published in Hitchcock's lifetime, and is relatively short - but, like Ackroyd's book, is full of solid insights.
Of course, François Truffaut's book-length interview with Hitchcock (English version, 1967) is a classic that has never been out of print (and is now complemented by Kent Jones's highly-praised film Hitchcock/Truffaut).
A note on this site: quite deliberately, it tends to exclude much of the generally-known, already-available things on Hitch. But new material is added on a regular basis, and our 'Main Page' (News and Comment page) is updated at least once a week.