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Old 09-17-2008, 09:17 AM
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For Vendetta
 
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ADRIENNE BARBEAU





SIR ALFRED HITCHCOCK



"Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980)

What do you say about this man, that hasn’t been said a thousand times before. The “Master of Suspense”, as he will always be known, created the templates for the crime and thriller genres. He made the first successful entry into the “Slasher” genre. Perfected the espionage genre. Devoted husband and father. A 52 film career (with more films on the burner before his death). A career that spanned silents, the fortification of British cinema and the golden age of Hollywood. A director of diverse interests - making suspense, comedy, satire, horror, and even documentary films.

I prefer to think of him as the frightened little boy, incarcerated by his father (as a way of teaching him a lesson for some minor infraction). Fear seemed to follow him his whole life, most notably, the fear of authority. And of women. But he seemed to fight that fear with a quiet tenacity, preferring to appease his aggressions and demons on the silver screen. Perhaps, that is what gave him the ability to paint his imagery in such broad strokes. Of course, his preferred brush was the knife, the gun….and always red paint.

His experiences with women really began (he never spoke much of his mother) with meeting his future wife Alma Reville (who later became his film editor, and is often referred to by the motto “The Hitchcock touch had four hands”). Too timid, it took years before he could even speak to her. The charisma he lacked with women, in real life, he more than made up for in his films, though. Some of the richest female roles ever seen in cinema performed by some of the most storied actresses ever. Actresses have never had it so good since.

Psycho, North by Northwest, The Birds, Rear Window, Strangers on a Train, Shadow of a Doubt, Vertigo, The 39 Steps, Suspicion, Notorious, Spellbound, Rope, Dial “M” for Murder, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Frenzy ……sometimes it seemed the man never made a bad movie.

Though never fully respected in his own time (not 1 Oscar for directing), he is now a God of filmdom and directors constantly try to steal from him. But they’ll never get it right. There is and always will be only one - and that is Sir Alfred Hitchcock. " - Festered


ANGUS SCRIMM





ANTHONY PERKINS



""I'm Norman Bates."

Sometimes even the greatest of roles becomes a curse for the actor portraying it, and later they start accepting their identity with that celluloid character that they gave life to, and became a stereotype of, in their cinematic careers.

Anthony Perkins is a glaring example of this group. He was an overnight star, created by the master of suspense Sir Alfred Hitchcock's 1960's sensational classic "Psycho" through the role of Norman Bates, the shy & soft spoken psychopath, but seemingly a harmless boy next door, Norman Bates - one of the most unforgettable characters in the history of cinema.

Anthony Perkins began his career as Hollywood's next teen idol in the early 50's but his gripping performance as the mentally disturbed baseball star Jim Piersall in "Fear Strikes Out" (1957) probably made him a suitable choice for what would become his signature role, the mother-fixated Norman Bates. With his nervous tickings and an amazing portrayal of charm and threat, Perkins inhabited more than the soul of his character. He remarkably presented the deranged, loyal Norman Bates who ran the Bates Motel, practiced taxidermy and lived with his 'mother' in the picturesque Victorian house on the hill. He sinks deep into Norman's soul, and brings out the hidden terrors and malice in an amazingly and frighteningly real portrayal. An incredible subtle performance, that has had universal appeal in cinema for all time for the movie lovers around the globe.

Perkins went on to appear in a number of other interesting works, including Orson Welles' adaptation of Kafka's "The Trial" (1962), but could never quite shake the "Psycho" mantle, Norman Bates always lurking behind him in the public's eye. He was always acknowledged with the knife wielding, cross-dressing, and highly strung Norman in the mind of his audiences. So after several attempts in European films to escape Norman Bates, he was back into Psycho territory in Pretty Poison for a while. This 1968 underrated film has him playing a disturbed young man recently released from an institution where he was sent to, after killing his aunt.

If his performance in the granddaddy of slashers was his only contribution to the cinema, Anthony Perkins could still rightfully claim a respected place in the Hollywood celluloid history. Hitchcock clearly captured that pulsating dark and edgy element in Perkins' on-screen persona and he fully exploited it in Psycho. His role in Psycho has become a part of American Iconography…one that no one, even himself, was able to compete with as an actor, and one that he returned to again - near about a quarter of a century later, in the first of three progressively campy sequels.

With the direction of Richard Franklin and supported from a clever screenplay by Tom Holland, Psycho II (1983) is still treated as one of the best sequels by ardent horror fans. But its success also seemed to strengthen the belief that Perkins and Norman Bates were one and the same - inseparable. So Universal called Perkins for Psycho III in 1986 again which also marked his directorial debut. Other actors could portray other legendary characters like James Bond, Dracula or Sherlock Holmes and still get the viewers' acceptance in other roles, but Norman Bates was a totally different and impossible image to shake off from, as Vince Vaughn surely experienced while playing the same role in the terrible 1998 remake, which failed miserably to shake off the Anthony Perkins image of Norman Bates in the viewers' minds.

Before the curtain came down on Anthony Perkins's career, he delivered a disturbingly effective (or effectively disturbing) performance in 1989's Edge of Sanity which was a reintroduction of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But as Norman Bates and Perkins were synonymous in his fans' minds, the film did not enjoy much critical success. This legendary actor once said in an interview "Norman appears on request, I would even say on demand. I can dial my own personal 800 number and Norman will reply back." " - Roshiq



ARCH OBOLER



"In the days before television, the home entertainment device of choice was the radio. It kept you connected to the world and it provided countless hours of entertainment free of charge. Live broadcasts of band concerts were very popular, as were variety programs featuring musical acts, comedians and even dramatic actors. Every genre of program seen on television today (with the exception of so-called "reality" shows) had its start on radio - police dramas, sitcoms, soap operas (in fact the term "soap opera" was coined to describe these domestic dramas on radio because they were most often sponsored by soap companies), and others. Some of the most popular shows were the mystery, suspense and horror programs.

Old Time Radio has come to be known as "theatre of the imagination," and that's a very apt designation as the absence of any visual component forced the listener to fill the pictures in with his or her own imagination. A clever writer and director of radio shows could use sound effects and vivid descriptions combined with exceptional vocal talent to produced frightening images in the mind of the listener that could not be matched by any other medium.

Arch Oboler was one such clever writer, working first on the horror program "Lights Out," which first aired in 1933. When Oboler took over the writing and hosting chores in 1936 he initiated the spine tingling opening intoning the words "IT... IS... LATER... THAN... YOU... THINK..." one at a time, scaring the bejeebers out of listeners right from the start. Many of Oboler's scripts featured gruesome sound effects such as bones breaking, hatchets being embedded into skulls and one memorable script, "The Dark" which featured the sound of people being turned inside out.

Lights Out was a hugely popular show and Oboler was the reason why. His scripts often tackled social issues in addition to scaring the daylights out of listeners. One of his scripts, "The Chicken Heart" is considered by many to be the quintessential example of the theatre of the imagination as it details the growth of a mutated chicken heart to fantastic proportions and eventually engulfing the entire world.

Arch Oboler scared people on a weekly basis for decades, and for his continual and tireless efforts, is a well-respected icon of horror today." - NeverEnding
__________________
"If you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Last edited by _____V_____; 10-19-2008 at 11:24 AM.
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