From the page to the screen: Hitchcock’s Sabotage

Of the 53 feature films directed by Alfred Hitchcock over his remarkable half-century career (1926-1976), just over half were adapted from novels (25) or short stories (2). Their authors ranged from paperback thriller writers like Robert Bloch (Psycho) and Vincent Canning (The Rainbird Pattern, filmed as Family Plot) – through more distinguished suspense and adventure novelists like Patricia Highsmith (Strangers …

The Phantom of the Opera – missing from the box set

For the better part of a century, the ghoulish mugs of Universal Studios’ Rushmore of classic monsters have been plastered across lunch boxes, transmogrified into Halloween costumes, and stuck on cheap collector’s cups. The lineup is legend: Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, and The Creature (from the Black Lagoon); but almost always absent, even …

The Wizard of Oz: the American Fairy Tale

1939 is considered by many film historians to be the greatest year in American movie history. Gone with The Wind, Stagecoach, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, to name just three, all belong in the pantheon, but it is MGM’s The Wizard of Oz that holds a place in the hearts of generations of moviegoers. It could be the unforgettable …