TIME (18/Dec/1944) - Bourgeoisie
(c) Time (1944)
- keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, MacGuffin, Rebecca (1940), The 39 Steps (1935)
- Jack Moffitt of Warner Bros. responded by letter the following month stating the term was "wenie" rather than "McGuffin"
Bourgeoisie
Alfred Hitchcock, round, restless British cinema director, famed for his movie chillers (The 39 Steps, Rebecca, etc.), revealed that their audience-paralyzing secret was a thing called "the McGuffin."† Said he: "The McGuffin is the thing the hero chases, the thing the picture is all about ... it is very necessary."
† By no means original with Hitchcock, the McGuffin is a hoary British joke about a parcel-toting man on a train meeting another man, who inquires:
- "What's in the parcel?"
- "A McGuffin."
- "What's a McGuffin?"
- "A McGuffin is a small animal with a long, yellow, spotted tail, used for hunting tigers in New York."
- "But there aren't any tigers in New York."
- "Ah, but this isn't a real McGuffin."