Joseph Stefano Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Originally a composer of pop music in the 1940s, Joseph Stefano began writing movie scripts in the late 1950s, beginning with Martin Ritt's The Black Orchid (1958). In 1960, Stefano was tapped by Alfred Hitchcock to adapt Robert Bloch's smarmy pulp novel Psycho for the screen. The result was not only better than its source, it resulted in one of Hitchcock's most fascinating films, accurately recognized as a horror classic (though arguably overlooked as a queasily riotous comedy of very bad manners). Stefano was offered the job of scripting Hitchcock's Marnie (1964) but opted out to produce and write for friend Leslie Stevens' science fiction television project The Outer Limits. Hitchcock's loss (over which he was reportedly furious) was TV's gain - the series was, and remains, a heady combination of art, philosophy, and pure entertainment.After leaving the series due to network intereference and exhaustion, Stefano wrote and directed The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (1964; AKA The Haunted), a difficult-to-find film utilizing many of the creative crew responsible for The Outer Limits. The engaging thriller Eye of the Cat (1969) and the dreary comedy Futz! (1969) (dealing with, ahem, pig infatuation; co-written by Rochelle Owens) were Stefano's last big-screen jobs for many years. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, he wrote many made-for-televison films, some interesting (Home for the Holidays, 1972), some inexplicably conventional (Snowbeast, 1977). In 1990, he revisited the characters from Psycho with the TV movie script for the last sequel in what had become an increasingly disappointing series of films. Psycho IV: The Beginning (1991) posits the origins of Norman Bates' destructive mother-love; while intermittently striking, and featuring a good perfomance by Olivia Hussey as crazy-making Mrs. Bates, the demystifyication of Norman's obsessions and impulses ultimately disappoints. Stefano wrote and executive produced the Al Pacino drama Two Bits (1995; AKA A Day to Remember), a personal project that fared poorly at the box-office and with critics, leaving Stefano less than enthusiastic about continuing to write for action-pandering modern Hollywood. Gus Van Sant's wildly over-criticized remake of Psycho (1998) followed Stefano's script, including anachronistic dialogue that somehow added to the enjoyable perversity of the project.
Stefano lives in Southern California, tending his roses with wife Marilyn. He is, for those who continue to hold The Outer Limits as a high-point for television, an icon.
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