From Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, nine of his earliest films presented together for the first time, running from the silent film era to the invention of talkies. Hitchcock’s silent films such as The Ring(1928), The Farmer’s Wife(1929) and Champagne(1928) were greeted with great enthusiasm by critics, and, at a time of expansion and increasing optimism for the British film industry, they were heralded as evidence that British films had reached an international standard of artistry. Hitchcock’s final silent film The Manxman(1930) was also a considerable commercial success. In 1929, Hitchcock directed Blackmail, hailed as a film which used sound and dialogue with more flair and imagination than any Hollywood or European film of the time. In particular, Hitchcock’s inventive and expressionist use of sound demonstrated that the new technology opened a new realm of possibilities. In the wake of Blackmail, there were searches for new challenges. These included an adaptation of a high profile West End play, The Skin Game(1931), two more thrillers Murder! (1930), Number Seventeen(1932), and an intriguingly odd marital drama, the appropriately titled Rich and Strange(1932).