London-born Angus MacPhail worked as a screenwriter for many years with producer 'Michael Balcon' . MacPhail had a reputation as one of the British film industry's best collaborators and "script doctors", and in fact of his 23 scripts for Ealing Studios, he had sole credit on only one.
McPhail is reputed to have introduced the term "McGuffin" to Alfred Hitchcock during the production of "The 39 Steps".
