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Ripped from the headlines! : the shocking true stories behind the movies' most memorable crimes

by Schechter, Harold,

Format: Print Book 2020
Availability: Available at 8 Libraries 8 of 9 copies

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CLP - Carrick Non-Fiction Collection PN1995.9.C66 S34 2020x
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Call Number  PN1995.9.C66 S34 2020x
 
 
CLP - Main Library Second Floor - Non-fiction PN1995.9.C66 S34 2020x
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Collection  Second Floor - Non-fiction
 
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CLP - Squirrel Hill Non-Fiction Collection PN1995.9.C66 S34 2020x
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Northern Tier Regional Library Nonfiction 364.1523 SCHEC
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Northland Public Library Nonfiction 791.436 SCH2
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Sewickley Public Library Nonfiction 364.1523 SCH 2020
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Upper St. Clair Township Library Non-fiction 364.15 SCH
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Whitehall Public Library Nonfiction Collection NF 364.1523 Sch21
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Summary

Bestselling true-crime master Harold Schechter explores the real-life headline-making psychos, serial murderers, thrill-hungry couples, and lady-killers who inspired a century of classic films.

The necktie murders in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy ; Chicago 's Jazz Age crime of passion; the fatal hookup in Looking for Mr. Goodbar ; the high school horrors committed by the costumed slasher in Scream . These and other cinematic crimes have become part of pop-culture history. And each found inspiration in true events that provided the raw material for our greatest blockbusters, indie art films, black comedies, Hollywood classics, and grindhouse horrors.

So what's the reality behind Psycho , Badlands , The Hills Have Eyes , A Place in the Sun , Arsenic and Old Lace , and Dirty Harry ? How did such tabloid-ready killers as Bonnie and Clyde, body snatchers Burke and Hare, Texas sniper Charles Whitman Jr., nurse-slayer Richard Speck, and Leopold and Loeb exert their power on the public imagination and become the stuff of movie lore?

In this collection of revelatory essays, true-crime historian Harold Schechter takes a fascinating trip down the crossroads of fact and fiction to reveal the sensational real-life stories that are more shocking, taboo, and fantastic than even the most imaginative screenwriter can dream up.

Contents
Alpha dog
Anatomy of a murder
Arsenic and old lace
Badlands
Blood & orchids
Body snatcher
Butterfield 8
Chicago and Roxie Hart
Child 44
Dirty Harry
Eaten alive!
Elephant
Five star final
Frenzy
Fugitive
Fury
High Sierra
Hills have eyes
Hitch-hiker
Honeymoon killers
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
M
Monsieur Verdoux
Murder on the Orient Express
Night of the hunter
Phenix City story
Place in the sun
Psycho
Rope
Scream
Shadow of a doubt
Strangers
Targets
10 to midnight
To die for
While the city sleeps
Woman's vengeance
You only live once
Young savages.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Educational and engrossing, true-crime author Schechter's latest (after Hell's Princess, 2018) is a collection of essays that pull back the curtain on Hollywood to explain the real stories that inspired movies such as Chicago, Dirty Harry, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Each essay begins with a brief synopsis of the movie before delving into details from the real-life events that inspired it. Schechter also includes an assessment of how well the movie stayed true to the story, and images of movie posters are sprinkled throughout. Several movie genres are represented, but the focus is mostly on horror or crime movies that span decades, from pre-code Hollywood to the 1990s. Schechter also includes previous versions of movies in his write-ups, which may net those older movies some new fans. In many cases, as readers will see, the true stories eclipse the movies in terms of how bizarre, scandalous, and in some ways unbelievable they were. Fascinating, intriguing, and difficult to put down, Ripped from the Headlines! is a must for movie buffs and true-crime fans alike."
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "In this fascinating survey, Schechter (Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men) details the links between more than 40 movies and the real-life crimes that inspired them. Many of Alfred Hitchcock's films were based on real incidents, in particular 1960's Psycho, which drew on the hideous crimes of Ed Gein, who, after his mother's death, robbed graves and murdered two women and kept their body parts in his farmhouse. (Hitchcock's Frenzy and Rope also merit chapters.) The author brings his erudition to bear on other classics including Arsenic and Old Lace (a late 19th-century female series poisoner), Dirty Harry (San Francisco's Zodiac killer), and Murder on the Orient Express (the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case). Lesser known films get fair treatment, such as 1976's cheesy Eaten Alive! about a man who kills women and feeds their bodies to his pet alligator, which was based on the story of Texan Joe Ball, who kept alligators in a pond behind his tavern and murdered women. True crime fans and movie trivia buffs will devour this one like popcorn. (July)"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Motion picture authorship -- History.
Motion pictures -- History.
True crime stories -- History.
True crime stories.
Essays.
Publisher New York :Little A,2020
Edition First edition.
Language English
Description xix, 352 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Bibliography Notes Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-337) and index.
ISBN 9781542041829
1542041821
9781542041805
1542041805
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