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"

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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."