Editing MacGuffin (section)

===Alfred Hitchcock===
Director and producer Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term MacGuffin and the technique with his 1935 film ''[[The 39 Steps (1935 film)|The 39 Steps]]'', in which the MacGuffin is some otherwise incidental military secrets.<ref name=deutelbaum>{{harvtxt|Deutelbaum|2009|page=114}}</ref><ref name=digou>{{harvtxt|Digou|2003}}</ref> Hitchcock explained the term MacGuffin in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University in New York City:

<blockquote>It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men on a train. One man says, "What's that package up there in the baggage rack?" And the other answers, "Oh, that's a MacGuffin." The first one asks, "What's a MacGuffin?" "Well," the other man says, "it's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands." The first man says, "But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands," and the other one answers, "Well then, that's no MacGuffin!" So you see that a MacGuffin is actually nothing at all.</blockquote>

In a 1966 interview with [[François Truffaut]], Hitchcock explained the term using the same story.<ref name=truffaut>{{harvtxt|Truffaut|1985}}</ref><ref name=gottlieb>{{harvtxt|Gottlieb|2002|pages=47-48}}</ref> He also related this anecdote in a television interview for [[Richard Schickel]]'s documentary ''The Men Who Made the Movies'', and in an interview with [[Dick Cavett]].<ref>{{cite interview |author1=Alfred Hitchcock |author2=cavettbiter (uploader) |interviewer=Dick Cavett |title=Alfred Hitchcock Was Confused by a Laxative Commercial |date=October 22, 2007<!--Date the clip was uploaded--> |orig-date=Aired on television c. 1970<!--The exact air date is unknown; this is a guess based on Hitchcock saying Psycho was released 10 years ago --> |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBRZ6GEFjG4 |access-date=September 3, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503122702/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBRZ6GEFjG4 |archive-date=May 3, 2015 |work=The Dick Cavett Show |via=Youtube |time=0:00-1:36 |time-caption=Relevant portion from}}</ref>

Hitchcock also said, "The MacGuffin is the thing that the spies are after, but the audience doesn't care."<ref name=boyd>{{harvtxt|Boyd|1995|page=31}}</ref>

In [[Mel Brooks]]'s parody of Hitchcock films, ''[[High Anxiety]]'' (1977), Brooks's character's hotel room is moved from the 2nd to the 17th floor at the request of ''a Mr. MacGuffin,'' a recognition by name of Hitchcock's use of the device.<ref name=humphries>{{harvtxt|Humphries|1986|page=188}}</ref>