Alfred Hitchcock

A devout Catholic who attended church regularly throughout his life, Hitchcock was the son of greengrocers William and Emma Hitchcock and grew up with his older siblings, William and Ellen Kathleen in Leytonstone, part of London's East End. Fascinated by numbers and technology, Alfred was educated at the Jesuits' St. Ignatius College, but left school at 16 to study engineering and navigation at the University of London. Three years later, he started work as an estimator at Henley Telegraph Company. Hitchcock moved into the advertising department shortly after. Hitchcock's keen interest in cinema and art happily coincided with a job opening at Paramount studios in London as a title designer for silent films. He worked his way up to assistant director and in 1922, at the age of 22, started work on the filmNo. 13. While the film was never finished, Hitchcock met his future wife, Alma Reville during production, and married her in December of 1926. He and Alma would go on to collaborate on all his projects, including Hitchcock's own personal favorite, Shadow of a Doubt. (Their daughter Patricia worked as an actress, and had parts in Psycho and Strangers on a Train). With The Pleasure Garden (1925), Hitchcock debuted as a director. His next film, The Lodger(1926), was a success and launched his career in England. He soon became the most successful and highest-paid director in England. As the onset of World War II loomed over Europe, Hitchcock emigrated to the U.S. to direct Rebecca (1940). While the film won an Oscar, Hitchcock did not win for Best Director (and never would, although he would receive honorary Oscars.) 1950-1960 was an amazingly productive decade for Hitchcock. He made several films that would become minor classics (Dial "M" for Murder, To Catch a Thief, Strangers on a Train) and four masterpieces: Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho. 1955 was an auspicious year for Alfred Hitchcock-- he became a U.S. citizen and launched Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the TV show that catapulted him from lauded director and celebrity to icon. His visibility was increased by the uproar over Psycho, which upon its initial release sparked endless debate about the film's onscreen violence. Hitchcock wrote, produced and directed films up until 1979. His best-known later works includeThe Birds, Marnie, and Family Plot. Despite his penchant for murder, mayhem and shock, Alfred Hitchcock and his family led a quiet and instantaneous life, preferring the comforts of home to the Hollywood milieu around them. In the last year of his life, Hitchcock received the American Film Institute's lifetime achievement award and was knighted in England. He died in 1980 in Los Angeles.

Alfred Hitchcock is a well know film maker, his movies are timeless. Film makers now aspire to be like Hitchcck remaking movies based on his trying to give it a modern day spin. even though they are entertaining Hitchcock's movies and original.

The Crime of the Century

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two uncommonly matched friends with a high intellectual perspective. Paired these two boys thought that their high IQs were no match to the common folk they lived amongst. So they decided to play games to prove what they could get away with.

Over the course of the next four years, they committed robbery, vandalism, arson and petty theft, but this was not enough for Loeb. He dreamed of something bigger. A murder, he convinced his friend, would be their greatest intellectual challenge. They worked out a plan during the next seven months. For a victim, they chose a 14 year old boy named Bobby Franks. He was the son of the millionaire Jacob Franks, and a distant cousin of Loeb. They were already acquainted with the boy and he went happily with them on that May afternoon. They drove him to within a few blocks of the Franks residence in Hyde Park then suddenly grabbed him, stuffed a gag in his mouth and smashed his skull four times with a chisel. He fell to the floor and bled to death in the car.When the brief bit of excitement was over, Leopold and Loeb casually drove away, stopped for lunch and then ended up near a culvert along the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks. After dunking the boy’s head underwater to make sure that he was dead, they poured acid on his face (so that he would be hard to identify) then stuffed his body into a drainpipe.

http://www.prairieghosts.com/leopold.html

Although their plans to conceal their identities and collect a large ransom were elaborate and intricate, Leopold and Loeb were caught almost immediately because Nathan Leopold dropped a pair of glasses near to where the body of Bobby Franks had been left. The glasses had a special patented spring for the expensive horned rim frame which had been sold in only one place in Chicago, and purchased by only three people, including Nathan Leopold. Once in custody, both Leopold and Loeb showed no remorse and confessed in great detail to the crime, both to the authorities and to the press.

Their friendship had been marked by fantasies and delusions of grandeur, highly ritualized games with elaborate plots and counterplots, and the planning and carrying out of previous criminal activities together. Their friendship also had overtones of homosexuality. Several books have been written about the case, and at least four feature films have been based on the circumstances of the crime.

http://homicide.northwestern.edu/crimes/leopold1/

Life in Prison:

Richard Loeb was himself murdered by fellow prisoners in 1936. Nathan Leopold appealed for parole in 1955, represented by attorney Elmer Gertz, and left prison in 1958.

http://www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org/?section=RecArchivePage&RecArchivePage=leopold_and_loeb

Movies:

Never the Sinner.

Rope

Murder by Numbers

Swoon

Funny Games

Off Broadway Production Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story.

All the films use different names and ways that the victim were killed, but the plot and the motive are kept the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_and_Loeb#Impact_on_popular_culture

Flight Plan

Based off The Lady Vanishes, A Jody Foster movie about her daughter disappearing on a plane when she is sleeping. And while looking for her no one claims she ever came on this plane, and was eveer registered for a ticket. But with the twist and turns of the movie, Kyle has the advantage, she knows the plane..she designed it so any spot they could possibly hide her she knows how to get there. So having the whole crew look for her daughter, she is the only one who looks fully, everyone is half heartingly looking not really caring. Trying to prove she isnt delusional she pretends to give up and accept it.
Saving the final last action scene for the end finding out a twist you would of never expected.

The Lady Vanishes

A women gets hit on the head, and this old woman takes care of her while she is hurt. But when she wakes up, no one has seen this lady the main character is asking for. Searching for this women with her friend, they find out secrets that shouldn't of been revealed.
The old woman they were looking for was a goverment spy and was trying to cross the boarder before the germans could capture her and kill her because she had goverment informant that they didnt her want her to know.
Classic chase scenes and well thought out fight, this movie for an old film was quite thrilling.

#10 Surfs Up

Surf's Up (2007)

• Directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck.
• Written by Don Phymer, Ash Brannon, Chris Buck, and Chris Jenkins.
• Cinematography by none.
• Produced by Chris Jenkins, Lydia Bottegoni.
• Distributed by Colombia Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment.
• Actors, Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, James Woods, Diedrich Bader.

• A documentary crew follows the events of Cody Maverick a small rockhopper penguin residing in Shiverpool, Antarctica. After a childhood visit from surf legend Zeke "Big Z" Topanga, Cody aspires to emulate the renowned legend by becoming a famous and respected surfer.Eventually, talent scout Mikey Abromowitz arrives in Shiverpool scouting for surfers to compete in the Big Z Memorial Surf Contest. Cody joins the group of surfers, once he's proven himself to Mikey, and quickly befriends Chicken Joe, an easy-going surfer from Wisconsin. Quickly having his eye caught by Lani Aliikai (Big Z's niece). Cody will be mentored by Geek until you find out that he is Big Z and he goes through trials and tribulations to prove to Z and to the beach that he is good enough to defend Z's title and crush Tank Evans. A sweet movie with a killer ending, this movie will definitely make you smile.

#9 Saw

Saw (2004)

• Directed by James Wan.
• Written by (Screenplay) Leigh Whannell (Story) James Wan and Leigh Whannell.
• Cinematography by David A. Armstrong.
• Produced by Greagg Hoffman, Oren Koules, Mark Burg.
• Distributed by Lions Gate.
• Actors, Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Monica Potter, MIchael Emerson, Shawnee Smith, Tobin Beu, Bina Meyer.
• A horror film based on finding this Psycho Murder called Jigsaw. He puts troubled people through tests to see if they deserve another chance at the life they messed up. If they fail to succeed they die and get burned with a Jigsaw puzzle letting the police know who did it. A suspenseful horror movie that makes you think who is justified in these obstacle for life. It keeps you on your toes and you will never know they ending.

#8 V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta (2005)

• Directed by James McTeigue.
• Written by (Screenplay) Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski. (Graphic Novel) Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
• Cinematography by Adrian Biddle.
• Produced by Joel Silver, Larry and ANdy Wachowski, Grant Hill.
• Distributed by Warner Bros.
• Actors, Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, John Hurt.
• In 2034, Britain has become totalitarian and is ruled by the Fascist Norsefire regime. The story follows Evey Hammond, a young woman who is rescued from state police by a Guy Fawkes-masked vigilante known as "V". After rescuing her, they witness V's destruction of the Old Bailey. The regime explains the incident to the public as an emergency demolition, but this is shown to be a lie when V takes over the state-run British Television Network (BTN) the same day. He broadcasts a message urging the people of Britain to rise up against the oppressive government on the fifth of November; one year from that day, when V will destroy the Houses of Parliament. Evey helps V escape, but is put in danger. V saves Evey from being captured and interrogated by officials and brings her to his lair, where she is told that she must stay in hiding with him. Evey is about to send the train down the track, when she is discovered by Inspector Finch. Finch, who has been investigating V and thereby learned much about the corruption of the Norsefire regime, allows Evey to proceed. Meanwhile, thousands of Londoners, all wearing Guy Fawkes masks, march on Parliament to watch the event. Among these Londoners, we see the faces of those who have died, including a little girl shot by the police for wearing the mask; a pair of gay men seen in Valerie's flashback; Evey's parents; Valerie, the lesbian prisoner in the cell next to V's whose words had given him his drive; Ruth, Valerie's partner; and Gordon Deitrich. Because Creedy and the Chancellor are dead, the British Army stands down in the face of a civil rebellion. Parliament is destroyed by the explosion, accompanied by the 1812 Overture. On a nearby rooftop, Evey and Finch watch the scene together, as she answers his question of who V was by stating he was "all of us". "Only when you have no fear are you free"