Movies Books

Donald F. Glut is the author of "The Frankenstein Legend: A Tribute to Mary Shelley and Boris Karloff" (1973) and "The Frankenstein Catalog: Being a Comprehensive Listing of Novels, Translations, Adaptations, Stories, Critical Works, Popular Articles, Series, Fumetti, Verse, Stage Plays, Films, Cartoons, Puppetry, Radio & Television Programs, Comics, Satire & Humor, Spoken & Musical Recordings, Tape, and Sheet Music Featuring Frankenstein's Monster and/or Descended from Mary Shelley's Novel" (1984). Consequently, there is every reason to believe that he knows the subject matter of "The Frankenstein Archive: Essays on the Monster, the Myth, the Movies, and More."

The topic of these essays is not so much Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's classic novel "Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus," but the phenomenon that was started by the 1818 novel. The 15 essays collected here cover a diverse range of topics from the pop culture perspective: (1) "Frankenstein: The (Untold) True Story" sets the tone by following up on the mistakes and inconsistencies in the Universal films; (2) "The 'Strange' Frankenstein Monster" is a celebration of Glenn Strange, who surpassed Boris Karloff as the most exploited and recognizable movie Frankenstein Monster of them all; (3) "A Forgotten Frankenstein?" is an obituary for the stuntman Dale Van Sickle; (4) "Peter Cushing: 'Dr. Frankenstein, I Presume,'" is a profile of the English actors roles as Baron/Dr. Frankenstein in the Hammer film; (5) "'Young Frankenstein'--Classic in the Making" is an enjoyable look at the wonderful film by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder; (6) "Super Heroes vs. Frankenstein (and Company)" is about the battles between the Mexican superhero Santo and the Monster in a series of Sixties films and similar examples; (7) "'What's Up, Doc Frankenstein (Jekyll and Fu Manchu)?'" is about the Monster and other such characters appearing in animated cartoons; (8) "The Beatles Meet Frankenstein" is about the encounters of the cartoon Fab Four with various monsters; (9) "A Score of Frankenstein Misconceptions" is exactly what the title promises (e.g., whether the seen of the Monster drowning the child Maria in the original "Frankenstein" movie ever shown in prints released theatrically in the U.S.); (10) "Frankenstein on the Home-Movie Screen" is actually about amateur back yard productions, including one made by Glut with Glenn Strange; (11) "'This is your Life, Frankenstein's Monster" is about Boris Karloff's 1957 appearance on the famous surprise biography show; (12) "Frankenstein Sings--And Dances, Too" is about the musical "I'm Sorry, the Bridge Is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night"; "Frankenstein in Four Colors" covers comic book appearances by the Monster; (13) "'The Monster of Frankenstein' (Almost) Returns" continues in a similar vein regarding comic book; and (14) "The New Adventures of Frankenstein" is the history of a series of novels written by Glut.

As Glut observes in his Preface, this book is assembled and stitched together from various places they had been published. There is no clear argumentative structure to the arrangement, just the common denominator of the Frankenstein phenomenon. However, Glut is clearly knowledgeable about that subject and able to bring a critical eye to the discussions even though he is obviously a fan of all things Frankenstein. The first and ninth essays are the one that will be of most interest to "scholars" interested in this topic area. My only complaint is that there was not more about the "Frankenstein" comic books that Mike Ploog drew for Marvel in 1972. But I still have all of those, so that is a minor issue. Consequently, "The Frankenstein Archive" might not be on the level of academic scholarship, but from a fanzine perspective it is solid journalism.

Decent overviews but... A lot of pages devoted Bruce Lee and Japanese Samuri stuff. Goodly amount of pictures and info but I found lots of mistakes and the literary emphasis is on cinematic development rather than who is in what and when. This book is more for the person interested in the Martial Arts movie as an art form rather than someone who wants to know what is good to rent.

Edited by Peter Haining.

Whenever I come across a book with the name Peter Haining, I know that it's a collection worth considering. Haining has edited dozens of anthologies on horror, crime and fantasy and his selections are usually preceded with a knowledgeable introduction informing the reader about the author and the background to the story.

This collection, originally called "Ghost Movies," but also published as "Classics of the Supernatural," follows his usual high standard and authors include James Herbert, M.R. James, John Carpenter, Robert Bloch, Daphne Du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Nigel Kneale and others.

The premise of this collection is to present original stories on which famous motion pictures are based. Similar to "Reel Movies," a collection by Sebastian Wolfe. Unfortunately, the volume is soured by the fact that he hasn't been able to obtain all the original source material. Some movies were based on novels or scripts, so they are not reproduced here. Instead, he's substituted a similar story by the same author to represent the omission.

So you don't really get the original stories for "Haunted," "The Old Dark House," "The Uninvited," "The Haunting" and "Beetlejuice." This may dissuade some readers from the collection. The "Ghost Movie" title is also a bit misleading as many stories don't feature ghosts.
The ratings below are out of five.

"Halloween's Child" by James Herbert.
A substitute story for the film "Haunted." A driver encounters a strange creature on a lonely road on Halloween night. Gripping little chiller. (5/5)

"Night Sequence" by J.B. Priestly.
A substitute story, with a similar premise, for the film "The Old Dark House." A couple seek refuge in an old house when their car breaks down at night. Dated but amusing ghost story. (3/5)

"Sir Tristram Goes West" by Eric Keown.
Original story for the movie "The Ghost Goes West." A stowaway ghost causes mischief. Disappointing. (2/5)

"A Smoky Lady in Knickers" by Thorne Smith.
An early Topper story to represent the film "Topper." Light, amusing fluff about a couple of ghosts who are husband and wife. (3/5)

"Samhain" by Dorothy Macardle.
A substitute story for the movie "The Uninvited." Atmospheric, creepy story about the festival of the dead. (4/5)

"The Extraordinary, Horrible Dummy" by Gerald Kersh.
Original story for one part of the anthology film "Dead of Night." The segment about a ventriloquist and his dummy. Surprisingly ordinary. (3/5)

"Casting the Runes" by M.R. James.
Original story for "Night of the Demon." Two men are brought together by supernatural occurrences. Dated. (2/5)

"The Bus" by Shirley Jackson
Substitute story for "The Haunting." An elderly woman's bus journey takes some strange turns. Memorable chiller. (4/5)

"The Trespassers" by Nigel Kneale.
The BBC television production "The Stone Tape" was a screenplay but it's concepts were first explored in this short story by the same author. Unspectacular poltergeist-in-the-house tale. (2/5)

"Lucy Comes to Stay" by Robert Bloch
Filmed as a segment for the movie "Asylum." Classic psycho-thriller that plays with reality (5/5)

"Don't Look Now" by Daphne Du Maurier.
Original story for the Nicholas Roeg feature film of the same name. Visually and psychological treat. (5/5)

"Harlequin" by John Carpenter.
Original story from which "Halloween" was devised. Very different from what you'd expect but satisfying in its own right. A rare gem. (5/5)

"Halley's Passing" by Michael McDowell
Substitute story for "Beetlejuice." A cold, calculated serial killer has a hidden secret. Original and surprising. (5/5)

Overall, a solid collection weakened by some lesser stories but worth purchasing for those rated 5/5.

I first read this book as an jr high schooler. I was able to find it used later and recently read it again. It is a wonderful story of a young boy coming of age. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes books like Huck Finn, Where the Red Fern Grows, or anything written by Gary Paulsen.

At nearly 25 years old, you may not find most of your favorite movies listed, but this is a good resource book and it does also cover animals on television.

Staci Layne Wilson

GREAT MOVIES YOU'VE PROBABLY MISSED is a movie reference book put together by Ardis Sillick and Michael McCormick. The book is aimed at people who enjoy watching good movies. It is basically a personal recommendation of good films that a casual film-goer might have missed seeing and/or have never heard of. The book is divided into genres: action/adventure, comedy, documentary, drama, family, fantasy/sci-fi, horror, musicals, mystery/suspense, and westerns. The films are listed in each genre by alphabetical order. Each film is listed with its director, screenwriter, and major cast members, as well as a short synopsis of each film and comments on why they should be seen. As a film lover, I enjoyed pursuing this book. It has become a go-to reference tool when I want to rent a movie and am unsure as to what to rent.

This is a well-researched look at Hollywood's never-ending fascination with moonshine, country bumpkins, and what goes on up there in the hills beyond Beverly. In the early 1920s as more people moved to the cities, Hollywood found it could make money telling audiences about the places they'd left behind. Lurid tales of sex and debauchery, such as 1950's "Tobacco Road," undercut the good-hearted goofiness of the Ma and Pa Kettle series of the 1940s. By the 1990s, the Coen brothers' "Raising Arizona" was a hit on the strength of Nicolas Cage's ironic portrayal of a lovable yokel (an updated edition of this book would have to include the current TV show "My Name Is Earl," proving this archetype isn't dead by a long shot).

Williamson covers a lot of ground here, from "The Andy Griffith Show" to John Boorman's "Deliverance," and his conclusions are fairly broad ones. His best writing narrows focus on a specific film or theme: the on-location making of the log-cabin potboiler "Stark Love" (1926) is wildly detailed, with newspaper reporting and interviews with local extras who made appearances in the film as members of an "authentic" mountain family. Lots of movie stills, contemporary cartoons, and detailed captions accompany the text. At times the book reads like a college course -- Williamson is a professor at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, and acknowledges the input of several students -- but for film buffs and general readers, "Hillbillyland" is an entertaining look at how the film industry exploits one facet of American culture.

`Hollywood Goes to War" is the biography of a federal government agency, the Office of War Information (1942-45.) The OWI - not to be confused with the OSS, OGR, OCD or any other agency in that alphabet-soup happy era - was a creation of the Roosevelt Administration whose purpose was to control the message contained in American movies during the duration. In other words, it was a propaganda agency which, as authors Koppes and Black explain in the preface, issued instruction manuals to the studios, sat in on story conferences, reviewed screenplays, pressured studios to change scripts and even scrap pictures, and sometimes even wrote dialogue for key speeches. Politicians, even in a democracy that prides itself on its tolerance of free speech, aren't above trying to spin a message now and then. Spinning is usually done as covertly as possible. World War II was seen as a `total' war, though, and controlling the content of Hollywood movies (employing , as they put it, a `strategy of truth') was seen as a necessity. One of the chapter titles phrase the problem succinctly enough; Will this movie help us win the war? OWI was created to arbitrate and answer that question.

Of course, the demands of propaganda are different than those of mass entertainment, and HGtW offers a few surprising battles. None more so, perhaps, than OWI's strong reaction against Preston Sturges' frothy screwball masterpiece, 1942's Palm Beach Story, a movie HGtW quotes an OWI reviewer characterizing as "a fine example of what should not be made in the way of escape pictures." Palm Beach Story's transgression seems to have been that it didn't take the war quite seriously enough. The idle rich spent money with frivolous abandon, distressed lovers ignored the war and its issues. It seems reasonable enough that OWI would squash movies verging too close to such socially realistic topics as gangsterism, draft dodging, labor unrest, racial conflict, and any number of other ills. It's the inoffensive domestic movies that OWI objected to that make HGtW so fascinating. Still, there was a war to be won and movies were a great medium for getting The Message out. That the heavy, heavy hand of a governmental agency might kill whatever value the messenger had seemed to have been ignored now and then. Another area of burning interest to OWI was the depiction of our allies. Not surprisingly OWI loved the movie `Mission to Moscow' ("...the most notorious example of propaganda in the guise of entertainment ever produced by Hollywood ") and Keys to the Kingdom, a movie which, as Koppes and Black put it, "reflected the Roosevelt administration's propaganda needs, which in turns were based on a blend of ignorance, apathy, and optimism about the real situation." The critics hated them, too. Besides movies about our allies, the home front and combat war movies, OWI worried over the depiction of the enemy. In this case the Germans and the Japanese. With an eye to the post-war world OWI preferred that the typical German was seen as a separate entity from the German ruling elite. The Japanese, the beast in the jungle, were more or less a lost cause. OWI loved Darryl Zanuck's ambitious and expensive `Wilson,' which presented a glowing and humanizing portrait of Woodrow Wilson, the martyr to the dream of the League of Nations. The message in this case was the need for a league of nations in the post-war world. The result was an expensively mounted yawn fest that is practically unwatchable.

As someone who watches a lot of old movies, I enjoyed Hollywood Goes to War quite a bit. Any book about managed information in the form of government propaganda is bound to raise disturbing issues, and to their credit Koppes and Black present their story clearly without undue editorializing. Anyone who's a fan of American movies made during World War II will find this book educational and entertaining.

I liked this book mainly because it gives a lot of information on early horror films, such as Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Since it was written in 1986, it isn't very modern, but I personally don't like modern horror movies. It does however talk about films like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween, which are sort of modern.

"Jack Lemmon" by Will Holtzman (1977) is one of the best volumes of the PYRAMID seríes about the history of the movies. It contains at the same time a fine biography as well as a solid description of Lemmons films from "It should happen to you" to "Airport 77". Richly illustrated on nearly every page with portraits, film and private photos, this volume contains many anecdotes and citations as well. In short: this book offers everything that can be expected of a paperback with 155 pages. Still entertaining and informative.
(Recommandations: The most thorough biography about Lemmon is by Don Widener, and the most detailed book about his films is by Joe Baltake. Michael Freedmans biography is superficial, and his latest update, 2002, is a sheer insult for every fan of Lemmon. Avoid if you can).