London-born Angus MacPhail worked as a screenwriter for many years with producer Michael Balcon, but he wrote for many of Britain's most prestigious studios, such as Gainsborugh, Gaumont-British and Ealing. He is probably best known for his script for the classic British feature Au coeur de la nuit (1945), but also worked for Alfred Hitchcock, writing Le faux coupable (1956). 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.