Screenwriter Charles Bennett was Alfred Hitchcock''s inspiration and mentor. Between 1929-1940 Bennett wrote seven scripts establishing Hitchcock''s reputation as the "Master of Suspense." The first was Bennett''s 1928 play "Blackmail" (1929) adapted as Britain''s first "full length all-talkie super-film." This was followed by Hitch''s adaptation of "Bulldog Drummond''s Baby" (1931) as "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934). Then came "The 39 Steps," "Secret Agent," "Sabotage," "Young and Innocent," and "Foreign Correspondent." But because Hitchcock did not want his reliance known, he crafted a "Lie of Omission" to misdirect attention away from Bennett''s influence, successfully misleading journalists, critics, and historians to consider the director as the "auteur" (author), while Bennett became critically maligned, insulted, and disregarded. Part One of this study, "The Rise of the Modern Thriller: "The Partnership," corrects the film history by walking the reader through Hitchcock''s obfuscations to reveal how Bennett created the technically "Modern" mystery thriller and "hero''s Journey" construction. It explains that Bennett''s "one story" derived from his love of Jules Verne''s novels, coupled with theatrical knowledge accumulated through twenty years experience as a stage actor.

After a successful start as an innovative London playwright (five plays produced before 1930), Bennett brought his Modern thriller into film by a set of experimental "quota quickies." In 1931 John Maxwell, Chairman of British International Pictures, contracted Bennett to write the "Bulldog Drummond" screenplay under Hitchcock''s supervision. There now came a chapter unknown to film history when Hitchcock was fired from B.I.P. owing to his too whimsical camera direction applied to a Bennett screenplay. And in a stroke of deception, Hitchcock denied Bennett a screenplay credit for its adaptation, "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934). When Bennett''s "wrong man" scenario became acclaimed in "The 39 Steps," Hitchcock countered he adapted the Buchan-inspired film.

And though after the release of "Secret Agent," Bennett was designated as England''s top scenarist, film history mischaracterized him as Hitch''s stenographer. In two 1938 interviews Hitchcock undermined Bennett''s reputation, claiming responsibility for 99.44% of his films'' content, misappropriating Bennett''s journey construction as his own, and explaining how he preferred to work with inexperienced writers amenable to his instruction. Then, in 1940, the director misattributed Bennett''s Oscar-nominated screenplay "Foreign Correspondent" to his wife Alma and secretary Joan Harrison. Where Part One challenges scholars to correct the history, Parts Two and Three--"Hero''s Journey" and "Story Closeups"--drill deeply into Bennett''s narrative constructions. The volume explains how Bennett''s influential hero''s journey construction predated Joseph Campbell''s scholarship by twenty years. Analyses are made of Bennett''s stories, themes, and dramatic ideas, his contributions to the thriller subgenres (mystery, crime, terror, romance, comedy), and his character types and thriller motifs including: false accusation, forewarning, MacGuffin, time limit, double jeopardy and double chase, theme of the couple, joint quest, partners-on-the-run, doubt, and suspense. The study concludes on a study of the partners'' dialectic, exposing the director''s terror that his reliance on Bennett would be found out.

In 1995 the Writer''s Guild of America-West honored Bennett with its Screen Laurel Award for lifetime achievement, particularly for the Hitchcock films; but his historic role as author of the technically Modern mystery thriller and hero''s journey construction remained undisclosed. "The Rise of the Modern Thriller" reveals the breadth of Bennett''s achievements, and answers a great many questions that have confounded Hitchcock Studies. The study is available in two separate volumes or in a single volume edition.