Herbert J. Leder
Writing
Biography
Herbert J. Leder was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter, recognized for his work in the horror and thriller genres during the 1960s. Born in New York City, Leder began his career in television, producing shows such as Captain Video, The Loretta Young Show, and Meet the Press. He transitioned to film direction and writing, with notable works including Fiend Without a Face (1958), Pretty Boy Floyd (1960), The Frozen Dead (1966), and It! (1967). Leder's films often explored themes of horror and suspense, contributing to the genre's development during that era. In addition to his filmmaking career, he taught Cinematography and Film Theory at Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University), influencing a generation of aspiring filmmakers.
Known For
An American airbase in Canada provokes resentment from the nearby residents after fallout from nuclear experiments at the base are blamed for a recent spate of disappearances. A captain from the airbase is assigned to investigate, and begins to suspect that an elderly British scientist who lives near the base and conducts research in the field of mind over matter knows more than he is letting on..
Fiend Without a Face
After a warehouse fire, museum director Grove and assistant Pimm find everything destroyed, only one statue withstood the fire mysteriously undamaged. Suddenly Grove is lying dead on the ground, killed by the statue? Pimm finds out that the cursed statue has been created by Rabbi Loew in 16th century and will withstand every human attempt to destroy it. Pimm decides to use it to his own advantage.
It!
A crazed scientist keeps the heads of Nazi war criminals alive until he can find appropriate bodies on which to attach them so he can revive the Third Reich.
The Frozen Dead
Trying to shake his troubled past and start a new honest life, Floyd loses his job because of that past. With nowhere to go but back home in Oklahoma he gets news that his father's been murdered and the local sheriff lets the killer off with a self-defense plea. Bent on revenge, Floyd does what he must which leads him down a dark road littered with robbing banks and loose women. Floyd's final days are anything BUT pretty!
Pretty Boy Floyd
An American actress travels to Mexico to make a movie and brings her daughter with her. Upon arriving in Mexico, she is spotted by a drug dealer who also heads a kidnapping ring. He plants one of his drug-addicted "customers" with the actress as her nanny in order to be kidnap the child for ransom, but things don't work out as planned.
The Candy Man
This film details the techniques used by amateur and professional shoplifters to steal over $6 billion in merchandise annually. Emphasizing how much of this stealing could be prevented ... A convicted shoplifter displays stealing methods under actual conditions and explains how employees could have prevented the thefts.
The Shoplifter
Following the discovery of a doomsday machine capable of destroying Earth, the launch of a US space mission to Venus is taken over by the military.
Doomsday Machine
Produced by the Highway Safety Foundation in 1964, this shocking film deals with a subject quite taboo for its time. The short serves as a dramatized warning, ending with graphic case studies.
The Child Molester
A boy is coerced into a murder plot to kill his step-dad, unaware that the conspirator is his real father.