Stranger Than Fiction (Mason)

“The Birds” was different from most of Hitchcock's work. For admirers of Hitchcock, “The Birds” also raises disturbing questions about the director as a person. He was a complex and confusing character in many ways, and perhaps it's not surprising that someone who built a career out of creating suspense and fear on-screen might also have had some darker sides to his personal life. Beyond the details of the story and how it came to be filmed, though, one of the most interesting questions about “The Birds” is why Hitchcock made it in the first place. It took its title from a short story by English author Daphne du Maurier, but beyond the basic idea of people being attacked by birds, it didn't take much else from it. The storyline was pure Hitchcock. So where did it come from? It turns out that his inspiration was a strange and alarming incident that happened just a few miles from his home in California. This book uncovers the truth behind the plot as well as other factoids that fascinate any fan of the film.

The truth is stranger than fiction! In October 1962 it looked to millions of people like the politicians of the United States and Russia were determined to push the other across the fatal line of launching a nuclear strike. The fate of the world hung on Cuba, a troubled island state in the Caribbean. Woven through the dramatic events in and around Cuba was a quieter but perhaps equally dangerous scandal — an enormous, deeply embedded network of Soviet spies at the heart of the NATO alliance. A senior KGB defector had revealed that his agency had penetrated the highest levels of the French government, military, and intelligence services — but when a French agent tried to act, he found himself blocked at every turn by his own superiors. Alfred Hitchcock was so impressed by the fictional novel about the events (Topaz by Leon Uris) that he decided to adapt it into a movie. But fiction, as is often the case, only got half of the story. This book tells the remarkable true account of one of the greatest espionage scandals to rock the Cold War.

Real crimes are stranger than fiction! Leopold and Loeb were two wealthy law students who could buy anything. But they wanted the one thing that no amount of money could buy: life. They wanted to create the Perfect Crime, to kidnap and murder a 14-year-old boy for the thrill of getting away with murder. The crime was so horrifying that even legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock took notice and directed his version of the story: Rope. But the real story of the Rope is much more brutal and suspenseful than even Hitchcock could do justice to. Read the real history in this thrilling true crime book.

Read the shocking real story behind Hitchcock's classic film! “The Wrong Man” tells the incredible tale of an innocent man falsely accused of a crime. That in itself is hardly an unusual story, but in this case, a string of unlikely coincidences and sheer bad luck built a seemingly airtight case against him. It seemed that the entire justice system was deaf to his pleas and all too willing to ignore the evidence his defenders had worked so hard to unearth. In the end, it was only a slip by the real perpetrator that proved his innocence. While the movie certainly had its share of truth, it was still a movie, and parts were fabricated. This book tells the real story behind the movie.

Don't believe everything you watch Hitchcock knew the popular saying: truth is stranger than fiction. He believed it and in fact based almost all of his most famous works on real-life stories. Inside this book, you will find the chilling true accounts behind the following movies: “Rope”, “The Wrong Man”, “Topaz”, “Frenzy”, “Psycho”, and “The Birds”.