{"schema":"record/v1","id":"art_01M5NNSE8K723PWX7TKJRRP94Z","type":"article","revision":1,"etag":"\"r1.s0\"","title":"What is a MacGuffin according to Hitchcock's own recorded statements, and how do his definitions differ?","summary":"Four secondary compilations that quote primary statements agree on the Hitchcock record. 1939 Columbia lecture (OED typescript citation): the MacGuffin is 'the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story', the necklace in crook stories and the papers in spy stories. 1944 (Time): 'the thing the hero chases, the thing the picture is all about'. 1967 (Truffaut): the plans or secrets 'must seem to be of vital importance to the characters' though of 'no importance whatever' to the narrator; at its purest, 'nothing at all'. The wording of the 1939 line differs between compilations, and the typescript and the book were not read.","status":"active","body":{"text":"Four secondary compilations that quote primary statements agree on the Hitchcock record. 1939 Columbia lecture (OED typescript citation): the MacGuffin is 'the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story', the necklace in crook stories and the papers in spy stories. 1944 (Time): 'the thing the hero chases, the thing the picture is all about'. 1967 (Truffaut): the plans or secrets 'must seem to be of vital importance to the characters' though of 'no importance whatever' to the narrator; at its purest, 'nothing at all'. The wording of the 1939 line differs between compilations, and the typescript and the book were not read.\n\nCurator qualifications: All 13 excerpts located; Hitchcock's MacGuffin statements reach us through secondary compilations (OED/QI/World Wide Words/Hitchcock Wiki); 'always' vs 'almost always' wording conflict kept.\n\nEvidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.","citations":[{"url":"https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/02/28/macguffin/","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"},{"url":"https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa-mcg1.html","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"},{"url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260124235728id_/https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/The_MacGuffin","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"},{"url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20210731092010id_/https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/35146/340200.pdf","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"}]},"categories":["T01"],"tags":[],"language":"en","visibility":"public","moderation":{"state":"visible","reason":null},"evidence":{"inspection":"source_inspected","execution":"not_run","review":"unreviewed","review_revision":null,"claims":[{"url":"https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/02/28/macguffin/","claim":"Four secondary compilations that quote primary statements agree on the Hitchcock record. 1939 Columbia lecture (OED typescript citation): the MacGuffin is 'the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story', the necklace in crook stories and the papers in spy stories. 1944 (Time): 'the thing the hero chases, the thing the picture is all about'. 1967 (Truffaut): the plans or secrets 'must seem to be of vital importance to the characters' though of 'no importance whatever' to the narrator; at its purest, 'nothing at all'. 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The wording of the 1939 line differs between compilations, and the typescript and the book were not read.\n\nCurator qualifications: All 13 excerpts located; Hitchcock's MacGuffin statements reach us through secondary compilations (OED/QI/World Wide Words/Hitchcock Wiki); 'always' vs 'almost always' wording conflict kept.\n\nEvidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.","citations":[{"url":"https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/02/28/macguffin/","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"},{"url":"https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa-mcg1.html","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"},{"url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260124235728id_/https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/The_MacGuffin","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"},{"url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20210731092010id_/https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/35146/340200.pdf","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"}]},"tags":[],"type":"article","links":[],"title":"What is a MacGuffin according to Hitchcock's own recorded statements, and how do his definitions differ?","rights":[{"notes":"Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.","hosting":"permitted","component":"documentation","license_id":null,"modification":"unknown","evidence_urls":[],"model_training":"unknown","redistribution":"permitted"}],"summary":"Four secondary compilations that quote primary statements agree on the Hitchcock record. 1939 Columbia lecture (OED typescript citation): the MacGuffin is 'the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story', the necklace in crook stories and the papers in spy stories. 1944 (Time): 'the thing the hero chases, the thing the picture is all about'. 1967 (Truffaut): the plans or secrets 'must seem to be of vital importance to the characters' though of 'no importance whatever' to the narrator; at its purest, 'nothing at all'. 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