Birthday:
06-29-1911
Deathday:
12-24-1975 (64 years)
Birthplace:
New York City, New York, USA
Biography
Bernard Herrmann (born Max Herman; June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an American composer best known for his work in composing for motion pictures. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers.
An Academy Award-winner (for The Devil and Daniel Webster, 1941; later renamed All That Money Can Buy), Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo. He also composed scores for many other movies, including Citizen Kane, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Cape Fear, and Taxi Driver. He worked extensively in radio drama (composing for Orson Welles), composed the scores for several fantasy films by Ray Harryhausen, and many TV programs, including Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone and Have Gun–Will Travel.
An Academy Award-winner (for The Devil and Daniel Webster, 1941; later renamed All That Money Can Buy), Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo. He also composed scores for many other movies, including Citizen Kane, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Cape Fear, and Taxi Driver. He worked extensively in radio drama (composing for Orson Welles), composed the scores for several fantasy films by Ray Harryhausen, and many TV programs, including Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone and Have Gun–Will Travel.
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The Man Who Knew Too Much
Act like Conductor at Albert Hall
event1956 star_border 7.5
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A couple vacationing in Morocco with their young son accidentally stumble upon an assassination plot. When the child is kidnapped to ensure their silence, they have to take matters into their own hands to save him.
The Wrong Man
Act like Stork Club Piano Player (uncredited)
event1956 star_border 7.1
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In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist
Act like Self (archive footage)
event2023 star_border 7.3
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A lyrical and spiritual cinematic essay on The Exorcist, the last film of Alexandre O. Philippe explores the uncharted depths of William Friedkin’s mind’s eye, the nuances of his filmmaking process, and the mysteries of faith and fate that have shaped his life and filmography.
A Talk with Hitchcock
Act like Self
event1964 star_border 6.5
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"Master of Suspense" Alfred Hitchcock speaks candidly in this one-on-one interview with director and host Fletcher Markle, filmed in 1964 for the television documentary series "Telescope." During the discussion, Hitchcock talks about his early career as a silent-film editor, offers his take on the building blocks of his works and relates his theories on the impact of horror films on society and human behavior.
20th Century Greats
Act like Self (archive footage) (4 ep.)
event2004
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Howard Goodall examines the work of The Beatles, Cole Porter, Bernard Herrmann and Leonard Bernstein.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Act like Conductor (archive footage) (uncredited) (1 ep.)
event1955 star_border 7.7
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A television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries.
Citizen Kane
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1941 star_border 8
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Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.
Taxi Driver
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1976 star_border 8.1
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A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feed his urge for violent action.
North by Northwest
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1959 star_border 8
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Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
The Magnificent Ambersons
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1942 star_border 7.3
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The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
Vertigo
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1958 star_border 8.2
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A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.
Marnie
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1964 star_border 7.1
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Marnie is a thief, a liar, and a cheat. When her new boss, Mark Rutland, catches on to her routine kleptomania, she finds herself being blackmailed.
Psycho
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1960 star_border 8.4
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When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates cares for his housebound mother.
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1951 star_border 7.4
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An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.
The Bride Wore Black
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1968 star_border 7.1
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Julie Kohler is prevented from suicide by her mother. She leaves the town. She will track down, charm and kill five men who do not know her. What is her goal? What is her purpose?
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1952 star_border 5.9
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Writer Harry Street reflects on his life as he lies dying from an infection while on safari in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Obsession
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1976 star_border 6.6
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A wealthy New Orleans businessman becomes obsessed with a young woman who resembles his late wife.
The Trouble with Harry
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1955 star_border 7
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When a local man's corpse appears on a nearby hillside, no one is quite sure what happened to him. Many of the town's residents secretly wonder if they are responsible, including the man's ex-wife, Jennifer, and Capt. Albert Wiles, a retired seaman who was hunting in the woods where the body was found. As the no-nonsense sheriff gets involved and local artist Sam Marlowe offers his help, the community slowly unravels the mystery.
Psycho
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1998 star_border 5.1
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A young female embezzler arrives at the Bates Motel, which has terrible secrets of its own.
The Key to Reserva
Music (1 ep.)
event2007 star_border 7.2
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Finding an unfinished script written by Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese attempts to recreate it himself as Hitchcock would have.
Cape Fear
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1962 star_border 7.4
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Sam Bowden witnesses a rape committed by Max Cady and testifies against him. When released after 8 years in prison, Cady begins stalking Bowden and his family but is always clever enough not to violate the law.
Jane Eyre
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1943 star_border 6.9
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After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meet the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Mr. Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Mr. Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
Sisters
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1973 star_border 6.7
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Inquisitive journalist Grace Collier is horrified when she witnesses her neighbor, fashion model Danielle Breton, violently murder a man. Panicking, she calls the police. But when the detective arrives at the scene and finds nothing amiss, Grace is forced to take matters into her own hands. Her first move is to recruit private investigator Joseph Larch, who helps her to uncover a secret about Danielle's past that has them both seeing double.
Jason and the Argonauts
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1963 star_border 7.2
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Jason, a fearless sailor and explorer, returns to his home land of Thessaly after a long voyage to claim his rightful throne. He learns, however, that he must first find the magical Golden Fleece. To do so, he must embark on an epic quest fraught with fantastic monsters and terrible perils.
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1959 star_border 6.9
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An Edinburgh professor and assorted colleagues follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the earth's center.
On Dangerous Ground
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1951 star_border 6.6
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A big-city cop is reassigned to the country after his superiors find him too angry to be an effective policeman. While on his temporary assignment he assists in a manhunt of a suspected murderer.
Garden of Evil
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1954 star_border 6.1
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A trio of American adventurers marooned in rural Mexico are recruited by a beautiful woman to rescue her husband from Apaches.
Hangover Square
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1945 star_border 6.8
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When composer George Harvey Bone wakes with no memory of the previous night and a bloody knife in his pocket, he worries that he has committed a crime. On the advice of Dr. Middleton, Bone agrees to relax, going to a music performance by singer Netta Longdon. Riveted by Netta, Bone agrees to write songs for her rather than his own concerto. However, Bone soon grows jealous of Netta and worries about controlling himself during his spells.
A Hatful of Rain
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1957 star_border 6.8
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A Korean War veteran's morphine addiction wreaks havoc upon his family.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1958 star_border 6.9
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When a princess is shrunken by an evil wizard, Sinbad must undertake a quest to an island of monsters to cure her and prevent a war.
King of the Khyber Rifles
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1953 star_border 5.7
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Freshly arrived Sandhurst-trained Captain Alan King, better versed in Pashtun then any of the veterans and born locally as army brat, survives an attack on his escort to his Northwest Frontier province garrison near the Khyber pass because of Ahmed, a native Afridi deserter from the Muslim fanatic rebel Karram Khan's forces. As soon as his fellow officers learn his mother was a native Muslim which got his parents disowned even by their own families, he falls prey to stubborn prejudiced discrimination, Lieutenant Geoffrey Heath even moves out of their quarters, except from half-Irish Lt. Ben Baird.
Twisted Nerve
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1968 star_border 6.8
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Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession.
The Egg
Music (1 ep.)
event1993 star_border 7
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The shower scene from Psycho reenacted with an egg.
The Naked and the Dead
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1958 star_border 5.9
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Fighting men in World War II learn the value of courage and quickness at the risk of losing their lives.
5 Fingers
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1952 star_border 7.6
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During WWII, the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.
Psycho Shampoo
Music (1 ep.)
event1979
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A short parody of the iconic shower murder scene from Hitchcock's "Psycho" framed as a shampoo commercial. This short was produced for the LA-based comedy theater group Our Lady of Laughter and used as part of their show "Rabies!" in 1979.
White Witch Doctor
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1953 star_border 6.3
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Ellen Burton arrives in Africa to join Dr. Mary as her nurse, bringing modern medicine to the native peoples. Lonni Douglas, an animal wrangler and fortune hunter, agrees to take her upriver, despite his misgivings about her suitability for Africa. They battle escaped gorillas, hostile natives, infected lion wounds, and hostile witch doctors to reach their destination and on the way, they fall in love. Will their contrasting interests doom their romance?
The Morricone Duel: The Most Dangerous Concert Ever
Music (1 ep.)
event2018 star_border 8.3
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The ruthless gangsters of New York and the rough cowboys of the dusty prairie; the magic of cinema and the rich sound of a symphony orchestra. The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sarah Hicks, performs masterful pieces by legendary film composer Ennio Morricone, accompanied by Sonny Bono, Bernard Herrmann and Nino Rota.
Mysterious Island
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1961 star_border 6.5
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During the US Civil War, Union POWs escape in a balloon and end up stranded on a South Pacific island, inhabited by giant plants and animals. They must use their ingenuity to survive the dangers, and to devise a way to return home. Sequel to '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' .
The 3 Worlds of Gulliver
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1960 star_border 6.5
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Doctor Gulliver is poor, so nothing - not even his charming fiancée Elisabeth - keeps him in the town he lives. He signs on to a ship to India, but in a storm he's washed off the ship and ends up on an island, which is inhibitated by very tiny people. After he managed to convince them he's harmless and is accepted as one of their citizens, their king wants to use him in war against a people of giants. Compared to them, even Gulliver is a gnome.
God Told Me To
In Memory Of (1 ep.)
event1976 star_border 5.8
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A repressed Catholic NYPD detective uncovers a netherworld of deranged faith, alien insemination and his own unholy connection to a homicidal messiah with a perverse plan for the soul of mankind.
All That Money Can Buy
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1941 star_border 7
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Farmer Jabez Stone, about to lose his land, agrees to sell his soul to the devil, known as Mr. Scratch, who gives Jabez seven years to enjoy the fruits of his sale before he collects. Over that time, Jabez pays off his debts and helps many neighboring farmers, then becomes an advocate for the upstanding Sen. Daniel Webster. When Jabez's contract with Mr. Scratch concludes, he desperately turns to Webster to represent him in a trial for his soul.
The Road Builder
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1971 star_border 6.3
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The dreary existence of middle-aged spinster Maura Prince takes an unexpected turn with the arrival of young handyman Billy Jarvis, but there is more to Billy than meets the eye.
Cada ver es...
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1983 star_border 6.1
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The life and thoughts of Juan Manuel Espada, keeper in charge of the morgue sited at the Medicine University of Valencia.
A Christmas Carol
Songs (1 ep.)
event1954 star_border 6.3
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Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1947 star_border 7.5
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A young British widow rents a seaside cottage and soon becomes haunted by the ghost of its former owner.
The Birds
Music Consultant (1 ep.)
event1963 star_border 7.5
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Thousands of birds flock into a seaside town and terrorize the residents in a series of deadly attacks.
Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot
Music (1 ep.)
event1957
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Williamsburg: the Story of a Patriot tells the story of Virginia's role in American Independence (up to the point of voting to propose independence at the Second Continental Congress), from the point of view of John Fry (played by a young Jack Lord), a fictional Virginia planter elected to the House of Burgesses.
The Egyptian
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1954 star_border 6.4
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In eighteenth-dynasty Egypt, Sinuhe, a poor orphan, becomes a brilliant physician and with his friend Horemheb is appointed to the service of the new Pharoah. Sinuhe's personal triumphs and tragedies are played against the larger canvas of the turbulent events of the 18th dynasty. As Sinuhe is drawn into court intrigues he learns the answers to the questions he has sought since his birth.
Companions in Nightmare
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1968 star_border 5.5
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One of the patients in a group-therapy session conducted by a famous psychiatrist is a murderer.
The Kentuckian
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1955 star_border 5.7
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A frontiersman and his son fight to build a new home in Texas.
The Twilight Zone: A 60th Anniversary Celebration
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event2019 star_border 10
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Six episodes of the original series, restored and on the big screen for the first time, and a special retrospective documentary encompass this Fathom Event.
Blue Denim
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1959 star_border 5.2
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Two naive high-school students must deal with the unexpected consequences after a night of passion.
Cape Fear
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1991 star_border 7.3
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Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.
Creepover
Music (1 ep.)
event2023 star_border 10
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After being released from prison, Bogart is invited to a sleepover at his friend Dex's house. Little do they know that there's an uninvited guest in their presence.
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1953 star_border 5.8
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Mike and Tony Petrakis are a Greek father and son team who dive for sponges off the coast of Florida. After they are robbed by crooks, Arnold and the Rhys brothers, Mike decides to take his men to the dangerous 12-mile reef to dive for more sponges. Mike suffers a fatal accident when he falls from the reef leaving Tony to carry on the business. But now he has a companion, Gwyneth Rhys.
Anna and the King of Siam
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1946 star_border 6.1
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In 1862, a young Englishwoman becomes royal tutor in Siam and befriends the King.
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1956 star_border 6.8
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Tom Rath is a suburban father and husband haunted by his memories of World War II, including a wartime romance with Italian village girl Maria, which resulted in an illegitimate son he's never seen. Pressed by his unhappy wife to get a higher-paying job, Rath goes to work as a public relations man for television network president Ralph Hopkins. Drawn into poisonous office politics, Tom finds he must choose his career or his family.
Obsessions
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1969 star_border 4.3
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A young medical student observes his neighbour's love life through a hole in his apartment wall.
Prince of Players
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1955 star_border 4.7
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Prince of Players is a biographical film about the 19th century American actor Edwin Booth.
Psycho IV: The Beginning
Music (1 ep.)
event1990 star_border 5.7
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When he hears talk radio host Fran Ambrose discussing the topic of matricide, Norman calls in under a false name to tell his story.
It's Alive
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1974 star_border 6
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Lenore and Frank Davis are about to have their second child. As Lenore gives birth, the newborn vanishes and leaves behind five dead bodies. It's up to the police and Frank to figure out where their mutated child has gone.
It Lives Again
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1978 star_border 5.4
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Maternity wards echo with the patter of tiny claws as more murderous baby-faced monsters are born. But rather than kill their monstrous off-spring during delivery, cursed parents flee to secret incubation hide-outs.
Endless Night
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1972 star_border 6.2
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Shiftless dreamer Michael Rogers fantasizes about a lifestyle above his means and marries a wealthy, young girl who just came of age. They hire a famous architect to build their dream home amidst a series of suspicious incidents. The spouse has dark intentions toward his naive, inexperienced bride. Secrets from his past and sinister ties to their house guest Greta lead to a terrible turn of unexpected events.
Tender Is the Night
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1962 star_border 5.2
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Against the counsel of his friends, psychiatrist Dick Diver marries Nicole Warren, a beautiful but unstable young woman from a moneyed family. Thoroughly enraptured, he forsakes his career in medicine for life as a playboy, until one day Dick is charmed by Rosemary Hoyt, an American traveling abroad. The thought of Dick possibly being attracted to someone else sends Nicole on an emotional downward spiral that threatens to consume them both.
Fahrenheit 451
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1966 star_border 7.1
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In the future, the government maintains control of public opinion by outlawing literature and maintaining a group of enforcers, known as “firemen,” to perform the necessary book burnings. Fireman Montag begins to question the morality of his vocation…
Death in the Afternoon
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1968 star_border 5.3
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A man stabbed to death is haunted by his memories and fantasies while dying alone.
Bon week-end Monsieur Bennett !
Music (1 ep.)
event1994
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Mr. Bennett is a model citizen, a tender father and an irreproachable husband, he yearns for a quiet life. On a weekend he receives a visit from a strange man called Pédro Juarez. Mr. Bennett’s past suddenly resurfaces and his peaceful existence is turned upside down ...
Matthew Bourne's The Red Shoes
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event2020 star_border 7
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The Red Shoes is a tale of obsession, possession and one girl's dream to be the greatest dancer in the world. Victoria Page lives to dance but her ambitions become a battleground between the two men who inspire her passion. Matthew Bourne’s magical adaptation of the classic Powell and Pressburger film is set to the achingly romantic music of golden-age Hollywood composer Bernard Herrmann, the production is orchestrated by Terry Davies, with stunning designs by Lez Brotherston, lighting by Paule Constable, sound by Paul Groothuis and projection design by Duncan McLean. Filmed live at Sadler’s Wells in London especially for cinemas.
Back to Room 666
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event2008 star_border 5.5
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What is the future of cinema? In 1982, in Cannes, Wim Wenders invited many movie makers to answer this question. 26 years later, the question remains, but Wenders is now on the other side of the camera.
Psycho Path
Musical (1 ep.)
event2000 star_border 6.7
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Documentary on the making of Gus Van Sant's "Psycho."
Lost in Space
Music (1 ep.)
event1965 star_border 7.1
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The space family Robinson is sent on a five-year mission to find a new planet to colonise. The voyage is sabotaged time and again by an inept stowaway, Dr. Zachary Smith. The family's spaceship, Jupiter II, also carries a friendly robot who endures an endless stream of abuse from Dr. Smith, but is a trusted companion of young Will Robinson
The Twilight Zone
Original Music Composer (2 ep.)
event1959 star_border 8.4
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A series of unrelated stories containing drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and/or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist.
Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis
Main Title Theme Composer (21 ep.)
event2008 star_border 7.5
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Host Zach Galifianakis conducts celebrity interviews sitting with his guests between two potted ferns.
Have Gun, Will Travel
Original Music Composer (1 ep.)
event1957 star_border 7.4
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Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958.
The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel.
Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series, 24 written by Gene Roddenberry. Other contributors included Bruce Geller, Harry Julian Fink, Don Brinkley and Irving Wallace. Andrew McLaglen directed 101 episodes and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.
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