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Joseph Stefano
Joseph William Stefano (May 5, 1922 – August 25, 2006) was an American screenwriter, known for adapting Robert Bloch's novel as the script for Alfred Hitchcock's film '' Psycho'', and for being the producer and co-writer of the original ''The Outer Limits'' television series. Early years Stefano was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a father who was a tailor and a mother who made silk flowers. As a teenager, Stefano was so keen to become an actor that he dropped out of high school two weeks before graduation and traveled to New York City. In Manhattan he adopted the stage name Jerry Stevens. Stefano's initial career was as a composer of pop music in the 1940s, writing songs for Las Vegas showman Donn Arden. In possession of a large collection of sheet music, he once spent five hours challenging pianist Michael Feinstein on the titles of obscure Tin Pan Alley songs. Career as screenwriter, producer and director Stefano began writing movie scripts in the late 1950s, first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psycho (1960 Film)
''Psycho'' is a 1960 American horror film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay, written by Joseph Stefano, was based on the 1959 Psycho (novel), novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin and Martin Balsam. The plot centers on an encounter between on-the-run embezzler Marion Crane (Leigh) and shy motel proprietor Norman Bates (Perkins) and its aftermath, in which a private investigator (Balsam), Marion's lover Sam Loomis (Gavin) and her sister Lila Crane, Lila (Miles) investigate her disappearance. ''Psycho'' was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous film, ''North by Northwest'' (1959), as it was filmed on a small budget in black-and-white by the crew of his television series ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents''. Initially, the film divided critics due to its controversial subject matter, but audience interest and outstanding box-office returns prompted a major critical re-evaluation. ''Psycho' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 1,603,797 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is the urban core of the Philadelphia metropolitan area (sometimes called the Delaware Valley), the nation's Metropolitan statistical area, seventh-largest metropolitan area and ninth-largest combined statistical area with 6.245 million residents and 7.379 million residents, respectively. Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Americans, English Quakers, Quaker and advocate of Freedom of religion, religious freedom, and served as the capital of the Colonial history of the United States, colonial era Province of Pennsylvania. It then played a historic and vital role during the American Revolution and American Revolutionary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psycho (novel)
''Psycho'' is a 1959 horror novel by American writer Robert Bloch. The novel tells the story of Norman Bates, a caretaker at an isolated motel who struggles under his domineering mother and becomes embroiled in a series of murders. The novel is considered Bloch's most enduring work and one of the most influential horror novels of the 20th century. The story was adapted into Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film of the same name, and adapted into the television series '' Bates Motel'' (2013–2017). Bloch later wrote two sequels, which are unrelated to any of the film sequels. Plot Norman Bates, a middle-aged bachelor, is dominated by his mother, an old woman who forbids him to have a life outside of her. They run a small motel together in the town of Fairvale, but business has suffered since the state relocated the highway. Meanwhile, a young woman named Mary Crane is on the run after stealing $40,000 from a client of the real estate company where she works. She stole the money s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Film
The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the oldest genres in film, and it is derived from classical comedy in theatre. Some of the earliest silent films were slapstick comedies, which often relied on visual depictions, such as sight gags and pratfalls, so they could be enjoyed without requiring sound. To provide drama and excitement to silent movies, live music was played in sync with the action on the screen, on pianos, organs, and other instruments. When sound films became more prevalent during the 1920s, comedy films grew in popularity, as laughter could result from both burlesque situations but also from humorous dialogue. Comedy, compared with other film genres, places more focus on individual star actors, with many former stand-up comics transitioning to the film industry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eye Of The Cat
''Eye of the Cat'' is a 1969 American horror film directed by David Lowell Rich and starring Michael Sarrazin, Gayle Hunnicutt, and Eleanor Parker. The screenplay is by Joseph Stefano, best known as the co-creator and writer for the tv-series ''The Outer Limits'', and who wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's '' Psycho''. Plot Danielle, a rich, elderly woman, accompanied by her nephew, Luke, goes to a beauty parlor to get her hair done. While she is there, she begins to struggle breathing, due to two-thirds of her lungs being missing. When Danielle's beauty girl, Kassia Lancaster, sees this, she calls Danielle's other nephew, Wylie, who is with a girl when she comes to pick him up. Kassia takes Wylie to her parlor and explains that after she saw Danielle, or Danny as Wylie calls her, collapse, she got the idea to kill Aunt Danny by shutting off the oxygen supply in the oxygen tent she uses every night. Wylie agrees to do it, and then he hears a cat. He has an intense fear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thriller Film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. Tension is created by delaying what the audience sees as inevitable, and is built through situations that are menacing or where escape seems impossible. The cover-up of important information from the viewer, and fight and chase scenes are common methods. Life is typically threatened in a thriller film, such as when the protagonist does not realize that they are entering a dangerous situation. Thriller films' characters conflict with each other or with an outside force, which can sometimes be abstract. The protagonist is usually set against a problem, such as an escape, a goal, mission, or a mystery. Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identifies thriller films as one of eleven super-genres in his Screenwriters Taxonomy, screenwriter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ghost Of Sierra De Cobre
''The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre'' is a 1964 American made-for-television horror–thriller film starring Martin Landau, Judith Anderson and Diane Baker. It was written, produced and directed by Joseph Stefano, author of the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 thriller '' Psycho'', and he cast actors who had been in Hitchcock's films. Landau was in ''North by Northwest'' (1959), Anderson was in ''Rebecca'', and Baker was in ''Marnie'' (1964). Four of the cast members appeared in episodes of ''The Outer Limits'' during Stefano's Season 1 tenure: Landau, Burt, Stone, and Morrill. The film was a pilot for a proposed supernatural anthology series for CBS called ''The Haunted''. The series was not picked up after CBS president James T. Aubrey left but some additional footage was filmed and it was released as a standalone film. Plot Nelson Orion (Martin Landau) is an architect by profession and paranormal investigator by choice. He is engaged by heiress Vivia Mandore (Diane Baker) w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Television
Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality. Visual production process and methods The need to portray imaginary settings or characters with properties and abilities beyond the reach of current reality obliges producers to make extensive use of specialized techniques of television production. Through most of the 20th century, many of these techniques were expensive and involved a small number of dedicated craft practitioners, while the reusability of props, models, effects, or animation techniques made it easier to keep using them. The combination of high initial cost and lower maintenance cost pushed producers into building these techniques into the basic concept of a series, influencing all the artistic choices. By the late 199 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Stevens
Leslie Clark Stevens IV (February 3, 1924 – April 24, 1998) was an American producer, writer, and director. He created two television series for the ABC network, '' The Outer Limits'' (1963–1965) and '' Stoney Burke'' (1962–63), and ''Search'' (1972–73) for NBC. Stevens was the director of the horror film ''Incubus'' (1966), which stars William Shatner, and was the second film to use the Esperanto language. He wrote an early work of New Age philosophy, '' est: The Steersman Handbook'' (1970). Biography Stevens was born in Washington, D.C. His interest in science was sparked when he studied for the United States Naval Academy at the behest of his father, Leslie Clark Stevens III, an admiral in the United States Navy. But the Broadway theater intrigued him more than a military career, and he headed for New York as a fledgling writer. He sold his play ''The Mechanical Rat'', to Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre and ran away from home to join the troupe before being returned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marnie (film)
''Marnie'' is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock from a screenplay by Jay Presson Allen, based on the 1961 Marnie (novel), novel of the same name by Winston Graham. The film stars Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery. ''Marnie'' became a milestone for several reasons. It was the last time a "Hitchcock blonde" would have a central role in one of his films. It also marked the end of Hitchcock's collaborations with cinematographer Robert Burks, who died in 1968; editor George Tomasini, who died soon after ''Marnie'' release; and composer Bernard Herrmann, who was fired during Hitchcock's next film, ''Torn Curtain'' (1966), when Hitchcock and Universal Pictures, Universal studio executives wanted a pop-and-jazz-influenced score for the film. Plot Margaret "Marnie" Edgar, posing under the identity Marion Holland, flees with nearly $10,000 that she stole from the company safe of her employer, Sidney Strutt. Strutt is the head of a Tax advisor, tax consu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Birds (film)
''The Birds'' is a 1963 American natural horror-thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, released by Universal Pictures and starring Jessica Tandy, Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, and introducing Tippi Hedren in her film debut. Loosely based on the 1952 short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, it focuses on a series of sudden and unexplained violent bird attacks on the people of Bodega Bay, California, over the course of a few days. The screenplay is by Evan Hunter, who was told by Hitchcock to develop new characters and a more elaborate plot while keeping du Maurier's title and concept of unexplained bird attacks. While it initially received mixed reviews when originally released, its reputation improved over time and it has since been considered to be one of the greatest horror films of all time. At the 36th Academy Awards, Ub Iwerks was nominated for Best Special Effects for his work on the film. The award, however, went to the only other n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003 Film)
''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Marcus Nispel (in his feature directorial debut), written by Scott Kosar, and starring Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Erica Leerhsen, Mike Vogel, Eric Balfour, and R. Lee Ermey. Its plot follows a group of young adults traveling through rural Texas who encounter Leatherface and his murderous family. It is a remake of Tobe Hooper's 1974 film '' The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'', and the fifth installment in ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' franchise. Several crew members of the original film were involved with the project: Hooper and writer Kim Henkel served as co-producers, Daniel Pearl returned as cinematographer, and John Larroquette reprised his voice narration for the opening intertitles. The film was released in the United States on October 17, 2003, received mostly negative reviews from critics, and grossed $107 million at the box office on a budget of $9.5 million. A prequel was released in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
