The History of Thrillers

By Joe Leah, Mary Mather and Connor Lovatt

The Very First Thrillers O Alfred Hitchcock was one of the first

directors to produce a thriller, which was a silent movie called The Lodger (1926). This was followed by his film Blackmail (1929).

O The earliest spy film ever to be made was in 1928 called Fritz Lang's Spies, it was also made by the directors very first independent production.

O Notable British directors in the 1920s to 30s include Walter Forde, Victor Saville, George A. Cooper.

Thrillers In The 1940s O Throughout the 1940’s Hitchcock grew

in success and continued to make award winning thrillers including the Oscar winning film in 1940 called Rebecca.

O The other top 5 films produced in the 1940s include Double Indemnity by Billy Wilder 1944, The Third Man 1949, Shadow Of Doubt 1943, Rebecca 1940, Notorious 1946.

O A Spy film of the 1940s included Fritz Lang's post-war spy melodrama called Cloak and Dagger in 1946.

Thrillers In The 1950s O Again Hitchcock continued to be the

most dominant maker of thrillers in the 30s 40s and 50s with Strangers on a Train 1951 and Vertigo (1958).

O Other directors during the 1950s include Niagara (1953) by Henry Hathaways and Robert Aldrich's violent film Kiss Me Deadly (1955) along with The Night of the Hunter by Charles Laughton in the same year.

O As we are looking towards doing a spy thriller Henry Hathaway's Diplomatic Courier (1952) may have some stylistic influences and techniques we would like to use in our thriller opening.

Thrillers In The 1960sO Noticeable films during the 1960s

include Goldfinger (1964), Night Of The Living Dead (1963) and Peeping Tom (1960).

O One of the most famous of Hitchcocks films were produced in 1960 being called Psycho after he moved away from the more classic thrilers.

O The 007 James bond films had now inspired other spy films such as Harry Palmer

Thrillers In The 1970s and 80s

O This is where the violent films started to become a main sub-genre of thrillers, one being Frenzy by Hitchcock (1972).

O Steven Spielberg also produced a low-budget TV movie called Duel in 1971.

O Francis Ford Coppola produced a study/spy thriller, The Conversation (1974).

O Spy and thriller films were around throughout both decades with many being produced.

O Noticeable directors through the 70s and 80s include Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski and John Carpenter.

Thrillers In The 1990s To The Present Day

O One of the most common genre of thrillers throughout the 90s to the present day are detectives/FBI films.

O This is shown with the award winning film Silence of the Lambs 1991. Along with David Fincher's crime thriller Se7en.

O In the present day one of the most successful film series is still running with the recent addition of Skyfall (2012) directed by Sam Mendes.