Related Research Articles
A plot device or plot mechanism is any technique in a narrative used to move the plot forward. A clichéd plot device may annoy the reader and a contrived or arbitrary device may confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelief. However, a well-crafted plot device, or one that emerges naturally from the setting or characters of the story, may be entirely accepted, or may even be unnoticed by the audience.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, airing on CBS and NBC, alternately, between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965, it was renamed The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Hitchcock himself directed only 18 episodes during its run.
John Henry Noyes Collier was a British-born writer and screenwriter best known for his short stories, many of which appeared in The New Yorker from the 1930s to the '50s. Most were collected in The John Collier Reader ; earlier collections include a 1951 volume, Fancies and Goodnights, which won the International Fantasy Award and remains in print. Individual stories are frequently anthologized in fantasy collections. John Collier's writing has been praised by authors such as Anthony Burgess, Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, Neil Gaiman, Michael Chabon, Wyndham Lewis, and Paul Theroux. He appears to have given few interviews in his life; those include conversations with biographer Betty Richardson, Tom Milne, and Max Wilk.
"The Visitor" is a 1965 short story by British writer Roald Dahl, centered on the fictional Uncle Oswald and the lurid adventures he describes in his elaborate diaries. In this story, set in 1946, Oswald has amorous designs on his Syrian host's wife and teenage daughter, with unfortunate and unexpected consequences.
Switch Bitch (1974) is a book of adult short stories by British writer Roald Dahl. Four stories, originally published in Playboy between 1965 and 1974, are collected. They are linked by themes of rape by deception: in each one, some major act of cunning, cruelty, or hedonism underpins the sexuality.
Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected is a collection of 16 short stories written by British author Roald Dahl and first published in 1979. All of the stories were earlier published in various magazines, and then in the collections Someone Like You and Kiss Kiss.
"Lamb to the Slaughter" is a 1953 short story by Roald Dahl. It was initially rejected, along with four other stories, by The New Yorker, but was published in Harper's Magazine in September 1953. It was adapted for an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (AHP) that starred Barbara Bel Geddes and Harold J. Stone. Originally broadcast on April 13, 1958, this was one of only 17 AHP episodes directed by Hitchcock. The episode was ranked #59 of the Top 100 Episodes by TV Guide in 2009. The story was adapted for Dahl's British TV series Tales of the Unexpected. Dahl included it in his short story compilation Someone Like You. The narrative element of the housewife killing her husband and letting the policemen eat the evidence was used by Pedro Almodóvar in his 1984 movie What Have I Done to Deserve This?, with a leg of mutton.
Jamaica Inn is a 1939 British adventure thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and adapted from Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel of the same name. It is the first of three of du Maurier's works that Hitchcock adapted. It stars Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara in her first major screen role. It is the last film Hitchcock made in the United Kingdom before he moved to the United States.
"The Voice in the Night" is a short story by English writer William Hope Hodgson, first published in the November 1907 edition of Blue Book Magazine. The story has been adapted a number of times, most prominently in the 1963 Japanese film Matango.
Henry Slesar was an American author and playwright. He is famous for his use of irony and twist endings. After reading Slesar's "M Is for the Many" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock bought it for adaptation and they began many successful collaborations. Slesar wrote hundreds of scripts for television series and soap operas, leading TV Guide to call him "the writer with the largest audience in America."
Stanley Bernard Ellin was an American mystery writer. Ellin was born in Brooklyn, New York. After a brief tenure in the Army, at the insistence of his wife, Ellin began writing full time. While his novels are acclaimed, he is best known for his short stories. In May 1948, his first sale, and one of Ellin's most famous short stories, "The Specialty of the House", appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
"Man from the South" is a short story by Roald Dahl originally published as "Collector's Item" in Collier's in September 1948. It has been adapted several times for television and film, including a 1960 version that aired as an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and starred Steve McQueen, Neile Adams, and Peter Lorre.
Seven Waves Away is a 1957 British adventure film directed by Richard Sale and starring Tyrone Power, Mai Zetterling, Lloyd Nolan, and Stephen Boyd. After his cruise ship hits a mine and with the captain dead, an officer has to make an agonizing decision on an overcrowded lifeboat.
"The Hitch-Hiker" is a short story by Roald Dahl that was originally published in July 1977 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, and later included in Dahl's short story collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More. The story is about a man who picks up a hitch-hiker whilst driving to London. The pick-pocketing of a policeman's notebook during a traffic stop closely follows "Hitch-Hike", a 1960 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents based on a short story by Ed Lacy.
Poison is a short story written by Roald Dahl that was originally published in June 1950 in Collier's.
Ralph Woodward Clanton was an American character actor of film, stage, and television. His most seen performance was Comte De Guiche in the 1950 film Cyrano de Bergerac, the first sound version in English of Edmond Rostand's play, and the film for which José Ferrer won his only Academy Award for Best Actor. Besides Ferrer as Cyrano, Clanton was the only holdover from the cast of the 1946 Broadway revival of the play, and would play the role of De Guiche opposite him once more, in a New York City Center production in 1953.
"Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" is a short story by Roald Dahl that first appeared in the 1959 issue of Nugget. The story is Dahl's variation on a popular anecdote dating back at least to 1939: a married woman receives a glamorous mink coat from a man with whom she had an affair. She hopes to sneak the coat into her home without arousing her husband's suspicions, but soon discovers her husband has his own plans.
"Mr. Botibol" is a short story by Roald Dahl, first collected in 1980 in the short story collection More Tales of the Unexpected by Penguin.
On 22 March 2011, English Disney Wonder crew member Rebecca Coriam disappeared from the ship while it was at port off the Pacific coast of Mexico. She was captured by CCTV in the crew lounge earlier that morning, having a phone conversation with a woman that appeared to be causing her emotional stress. Several hours later, she missed her shift and could not be found anywhere on the ship. Her disappearance was the first such incident in the history of Disney Cruise Line.
SS Margaret Olwill was a shipping vessel originally constructed in 1887 to transport goods on Lake Erie. It was rebuilt twice to new specifications. It was wrecked in 1899 in an unexpected June storm with the loss of at least eight lives.
References
- ↑ Emmott, Catherine (2003). "Reading for pleasure: a cognitive poetic analysis of 'twists in the tale' and other plot reversals in narrative texts". In Gavins, Joanna; Steen, Gerard (eds.). Cognitive Poetics in Practice. London: Routledge. pp. 150–151. ISBN 9780415277983 . Retrieved 28 December 2015.
- ↑ "Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Dip in the Pool (1958)". Internet Movie Database.
- ↑ DVDs of the week: Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season 3, Rescue Dawn and more, by Philip Horne, at the Daily Telegraph , published 12 April 2008; retrieved 18 May 2014
- ↑ "Tales of the Unexpected: A Dip in the Pool (1979)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 26 December 2015.