Angus MacPhail

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Angus MacPhail (born April 8, 1903 in London , † April 22, 1962 in Sussex , United Kingdom ) was a British screenwriter.

Live and act

MacPhail first attended Westminster School and then went to Trinity Hall in Cambridge, where he studied English. His first professional activities were articles he wrote for the literary magazine Granta . The Londoner joined the film industry in 1926; his first activities here were subtitling for silent films. Angus MacPhail began writing scripts before the age of talkies. He began to write inexpensive horror, thriller and comedy material for Gainsborough Pictures and Gaumont-British, later also for Ealing Studios under the direction of Michael Balcon . During World War II, MacPhail authored a wealth of manuscripts on British propaganda films such as The Blockade, The Next of Kin, and A Dangerous Enterprise ; For the British Ministry of Information he provided the scripts for Gute Reise and Aventure Malgache , two short film documentaries directed by Alfred Hitchcock .

As a result, there were further collaborations with Hitchcock, beginning in the same year 1944 when Hitchcock asked MacPhail to revise Ben Hecht's script for the US thriller I Fight for You . At this time, the principle of MacGuffin , the development of which is attributed to MacPhail, also developed. The author remained active on the film until the end of the decade, during which time MacPhail's best manuscripts fall: he wrote the book for the film noir Whitechapel and that for the production The Whiskey Ship , which is considered one of the most successful ealing comedies of all. At the beginning of the 1950s, MacPhail largely withdrew from film work; on his last cinema production, the semi-documentary crime thriller The Wrong Man , there was a renewed collaboration with Hitchcock.

Filmography

  • 1928: balaclava
  • 1928: A Light Woman
  • 1928: A South Sea Bubble
  • 1929: The strangler
  • 1929: Taxi for Two
  • 1929: City of Play
  • 1929: Their Son
  • 1930: Symphony in Two Flats
  • 1930: A Warm Corner
  • 1931: Third Time Lucky
  • 1931: The strangler arrives at midnight (The Ringer)
  • 1931: Night in Montmartre
  • 1931: Hindle Wakes
  • 1931: The Ghost Train
  • 1931: Michael and Mary
  • 1931: Sunshine Susie
  • 1932: Marry Me
  • 1932: Lord Babs
  • 1932: White Face
  • 1932: Love on Wheels
  • 1932: The Good Companions
  • 1933: A Cuckoo in the Nest (production only)
  • 1933: Channel Crossing (co-production only)
  • 1938: The rascal from America (A Yank at Oxford) (anonymous)
  • 1938: Kicking the Moon Around
  • 1939: Trouble Brewing
  • 1939: The Four Just Men
  • 1940: Busman's Honeymoon
  • 1940: Saloon Bar
  • 1940: Sailors Three
  • 1941: The Ghost of St. Michael's
  • 1942: The Big Blockade
  • 1942: The Next of Kin
  • 1942: A Dangerous Business (The Foreman Went to France)
  • 1942: Went the Day Well?
  • 1942: Go to Blazes
  • 1943: My Learned Friend
  • 1944: Bon Voyage (Bon Voyage) (Short)
  • 1944: Aventure Malgache (short film)
  • 1944: The Halfway House
  • 1944: Fiddlers Three
  • 1944: Champagne Charlie
  • 1945: Dream without End (Dead of Night)
  • 1945: I fight for you (Spellbound)
  • 1946: The Captive Heart (The Captive Heart)
  • 1946: The Loves of Joanna Godden
  • 1947: Frieda
  • 1947: Whitechapel (It Always Rains on Sunday)
  • 1948: The Whiskey Ship (Whiskey Galore!)
  • 1949: Train of Events
  • 1956: The Scarlet Pimpernel (TV series)
  • 1956: The Wrong Man (The Wrong Man)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME MacPhail, Angus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1962
Place of death Sussex , UK