Angus MacPhail

Angus MacPhail
Born	April 8, 1903 London, England, United Kingdom
Died	Sussex, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Screenwriter
Alma mater	Westminster School Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Genre	Screenwriting, film

Angus MacPhail (8 April 1903 – 22 April 1962) was an English screenwriter, active from the late 1920s, who is best remembered for his work with Alfred Hitchcock.

He was born in London and educated at Westminster School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he studied English and edited Granta. 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 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.

Filmography

• Balaclava (1928)
• A Light Woman (1928)
• A South Sea Bubble (1928)
• The Return of the Rat (1929)
• The Crooked Billet (1929)
• The Wrecker (1929)
• Taxi for Two (1929)
• City of Play (1929)
• Their Son (1929)
• Symphony in Two Flats (1930)
• A Warm Corner (1930)
• The Sport of Kings (1931)
• Third Time Lucky (1931)
• The Ringer (1931)
• Night in Montmartre (1931)
• The Man They Couldn't Arrest (1931)
• Hindle Wakes (1931)
• The Ghost Train (1931)
• The Calendar (1931)
• Michael and Mary (1931)
• Sunshine Susie (1931)
• Love on Wheels (1932)
• Marry Me (1932)
• Lord Babs (1932)
• The Frightened Lady (1932)
• White Face (1932)
• The Faithful Heart (1932)
• Love on Wheels (1932)
• Channel Crossing (1933)
• The Good Companions (1933)
• I Was a Spy (1933)
• A Yank at Oxford (1938)
• Kicking the Moon Around (1938)
• Trouble Brewing (1939)
• The Four Just Men (1939)
• Return to Yesterday (1940)
• Busman's Honeymoon (1940)
• Let George Do It! (1940)
• Saloon Bar (1940)
• Sailors Three (1940)
• The Ghost of St. Michael's (1941)
• The Big Blockade (1942)
• The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942)
• The Next of Kin (1942)
• The Foreman Went to France (1942)
• The Goose Steps Out (1942)
• Went the Day Well? (1942)
• Go to Blazes (1942, short)
• My Learned Friend (1943)
• Bon Voyage (1944, short)
• Aventure Malgache (1944, short)
• The Halfway House (1944)
• Fiddlers Three (1944)
• Champagne Charlie (1944)
• Dead of Night (1945)
• Spellbound (1945)
• The Captive Heart (1946)
• The Loves of Joanna Godden (1947)
• Frieda (1947)
• It Always Rains on Sunday (1947)
• Whisky Galore! (1949)
• Train of Events (1949)
• The Wrong Man (1956)

External links

• Angus MacPhail at the Internet Movie Database
• Angus MacPhail at the British Film Institute's Screenonline