India, April 25 -- * Alfred Hitchcock was born above his father's greengrocer shop in London, in 1899. The third of three children, he was his father's favourite.

* When he was five, his father sent him to the local police station with a note. The policeman on duty read it and locked the boy in a cell for a few minutes, telling him "This is what we do to naughty boys," an incident that left him with a lifelong fear of the police.

* His time at London's Jesuit school, St Ignatius College, taught him, he would later say, the power of suspense. It was a school noted for strict discipline. Punishment by caning was common, but was administered only at the end of the day, forcing errant students to spend all day fretting over the pain and hum...