MOVIE MONSTERS
By Dennis Gifford
Studio Vista/Dutton Pictureback.
$2.25
We shall write few words about this paperback (Pictureback) book. There are few (albeit well-chosen) words in it. What the author has to say about the dozens upon dozens of horror and monster films is always brief and to the point. Almost epigrammatic. Almost as if he were writing commercials for TV. Or copy for THE MONSTER TIMES.
Example:
“Zombies make good soldiers: a platoon of Cambodian dead marched through shellfire to victory in REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES, and John Drew Barrymore’s army of Roman corpses was interestingly if incompetently superimposed in slow motion in WAR OF THE ZOMBIES. Jayne Eyre in the West Indies’ was how Val Lewton described his production of I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, based on factual articles by Inez Wallace. Frances Dee nursed the somnambulistic wife of planter Tom Conway, and a tall black zombie called Carre Four (Darby Jones) chased James Ellison into the sea. The scientific creation of zombies loses the charm of a voodoo ceremony, but substitutes the cinematic apparatus of a laboratory. John Carradine killed Veda Ann Borg, then revived her as a corpse in REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES: only Monogram (Pictures) aficionados could tell the difference…” And so on. This amounts to one whole fifth of the chapter on The Zombie. If you wonder why we quoted so much, it’s to set you up for the next issue of THE MONSTER TIMES…an ALL-ZOMBIE ish.
The best part of the Gifford book (in fact the most of its total 160 pages), is the picture selection. At quick count – 160 pictures! Everyone is well-selected and very well printed. Every category of monster is represented. From the first version of FRANKENSTEIN and DER GOLEM and NOSFERATU and DRACULA to pretty rare and seldom-printed gems like John Barrymore’s 1920 version of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Or THE FLY. Or one of the ALLIGATOR PEOPLE. Or the BLOOD BEAST TERROR. Or the animal-made men who constituted the LOST SOULS on THE ISLAND OF. Or the famous censored scene of the FRANKENSTEIN monster hanging Dwight Frye.
A really good picture book is a bargain at most (we won’t be so crass as to say ANY) price(s). But $2.25 is a Pretty Fair deal.
A note of warning though: The publishers set out to produce a terrific pix-book … and so used heavy glossy stock for EACH PAGE… paper that is heavier and sturdier and more receptive of photogravure than most American magazine cover paper. Sadly, the book’s COVER is only pasted to the stitched page folds, and has a tendency to fall off upon the third opening of the book. But the book’s so good, you’ll open it a thousand times … so it’s bound to fall apart. So, if you’re a serious collector and horror film freak, best buy two. One for you to dismantle… and one for your children or grandchildren to someday enjoy asunder.
C. M. Richards.