Alfred Hitchcock Called One of His Masterpieces a "Nonsensical" and "Unreal" Stunt

Few directors are held in higher regard than Alfred Hitchcock. In an era long before the auteur theory, Hitchcock managed to make his signature style — a tight combination of suspense and thrills — a brand. Even before his hit anthology series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, premiered in 1955, the director had become an above-the-title marketing tool. After a string of pot-boiler successes in his native England, Hitchcock made an immediate splash in the United States when his very first American film,Rebecca, won the Best Picture Academy Award.