AustLit

According to contemporary television guides:

'Charles Dance plays a film critic who spots something nasty in a rear window in The McGuffin, an affectionate tribute to the thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock, based on the novel by John Bowen.'

(The Times, 11 January 1986, p.36)

Contemporary reviews were not all positive. One review, covering the films entered into that year's Mythfest, notes that

'Unfortunatly [sic] the film (made for BBC Television) wanders off into in-jokes about films and festivals which must be incomprehensible to most of the audience and for the others embarrassing in their film-school naivety.'

('Half a Century's Inspiration', The Times, 22 July 1986, p.15)