CHECK IT OUT:Look for the telltale signs of Hitchcock

A biplane appears from out of a cloudless blue sky and pursues a lone, helpless man through cornfields.

Birds — millions of birds — gather on the phone wires behind a pretty blond woman.

Blood spirals down a bathtub drain as the shower curtain rings are pulled down one by one.

A man carries a poisoned woman down an elaborate staircase past the Nazis who are trying to kill her.

There will be no prizes for anyone who can name the source of these suspenseful movie scenes. The answers are just too easy.

Alfred Hitchcock’s films have been, and continue to be, masterpieces of thrills and suspense. “North by Northwest,” “The Birds,” “Psycho,” and “Notorious” are among the best known films of all time.

Sir Alfred (he was knighted just months before he died in 1980) never received the full acclaim he deserved in his lifetime. His films were often nominated, but only “Rebecca” won an Oscar for best picture. He never won one as director. Like his knighthood, the Irving Thalberg Oscar for Lifetime Achievement came late in his career.

Hitchcock began his career in London, where he was born on Aug. 13, 1899. “The Pleasure Garden,” a silent, was his first film, but it was with the silent, serial-killer-thriller “The Lodger,” starring Ivor Novello, that success — both box office and critical — was accorded to him.

After talkies came in, Hitchcock continued to direct hits, most notably “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “The Lady Vanishes,” and one of his best films, “The 39 Steps.” It was after this period that David O. Selznick lured the suspense master to Hollywood.

It wasn’t until the French New Wave of directors began to assert the preeminence of the director over the producer that he gained true critical success.

And if there was ever a director who had absolute control over his films, it was Hitchcock.

With his writers, he story-boarded every frame of his movies down to the last detail. Actually shooting the films was a boring exercise to him. In his mind, he had already made the film.

It might be noted here that Hitchcock was famous for a remark about actors being cattle. He later quipped that the quote was wrong. “Actors should be treated like cattle” was his correction.

In fact, he got along terrifically with actors. An essential element of his films was to have a recognizable actor in the lead role in order to create instant empathy. It was method actors who drove him crazy.

In films that depend on exactness in order to create and build suspense, it really doesn’t do to have actors wandering all over the set at will because it “feels right.”

Suspense is, of course, the most important element in any Hitchcock film. Suspense results when the audience is given information that the characters do not know. Tension is created, then, as we watch our innocent hero (often a case of mistaken identity) head directly toward danger.

There are other odd elements that are common to most, if not all, the films. The leading ladies are usually blond — beautiful, cool, and seemingly innocent (“To Catch a Thief”).

Domineering or sarcastic mothers figure prominently in many of the films (“Strangers on a Train”).

Monuments are often backgrounds, or set pieces — the British Museum, the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore (“Vertigo”).

Staircases are pervasive. Not just for Martin Green to fall down or for Cary Grant to walk down cradling Ingrid Bergman (“Foreign Correspondent”).

Less well-known recurrences include brandy or cognac (“Torn Curtain”).

And there is the number 13. Hitchcock loved the number. It was his birthday, but it also has dire connotations — so many of the films have numbers that add up to 13 placed in them as a sort of an inside joke.

Dates, addresses, license plates, the Bates Motel log book are places to look for these.

And, of course, one of the most famous recurring items in Hitchcock films is a brief shot of Hitchcock himself. So if you decide to revisit a Hitchcock film, don’t forget to look for staircases, brandy, and the number 13 while you are looking for Hitchcock. (A hint: You won’t find Hitch in “The Wrong Man.” It was his only film based on a true story, and he felt it too serious to treat so lightly with his famous gallows sense of humor.)

For humor, see “The Trouble with Harry.”