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Post by manitoudoll on Jun 24, 2008 3:36:48 GMT
Alan Frank did a "Horror Movies" and "Horror Films". Gifford did "Horror Movies". I had all these growing up. Still do.
I also picked up the US "From Scream To Screen" by Ed Naha.
I always found the stills from "The Mutations" (aka "The Freakmaker") extremely compelling.
These images had the same effect on me as Smith's books -- I wanted to live in that world.
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Post by killercrab on Jun 24, 2008 4:13:11 GMT
The Movie Treasury series! That brings back memories... did you have them too? >>
Actually no - not at the time. I've picked up quite a few vintage movie books in the last few years - the Gangster one mentioned for instance. I also really like the Lorrimer series of books - I've two copies of the Hammer Films one - with different covers. Also got The Seal Of Dracula by Barrie Patterson that was part of the series - excellent - just like David Pirie's Vampire Cinema published by Hamlyn.
Back when I first started getting into horror films ( my first Hammer was Taste The Blood Of Dracula ) - I only had two books - Gifford's Horror Movies and Frank's Monsters And Vampires . Every weekend when the double bills rolled by - I'd consult my *bibles* for advance information. Hard to believe in this internet environment - but that's all I had and I felt knowledgable too ! If it wasn't in either of these two books I went in blind which was exciting in many ways...
ade
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Post by jkdunham on Jun 24, 2008 12:27:33 GMT
Dennis Gifford also did a little thing called Monsters Of The Movies. A slim volume, presumably aimed at the younger reader - the great monsters of filmland each get one page of text and a full page B&W photo. The text is often something akin to a blurb but I used to love looking at the pictures (not much has changed really). Some nice choices too, Dr. Phibes gets his own page as I recall. I also really like the Lorrimer series of books... If we're talking bibles, mine at the time was Lorrimer's Italian Western: The Opera of Violence by Laurence Staig and Tony Williams, 1975. Much as I adored horror films, and all manner of genre cinema, my first love was the Spaghetti Western. Lorrimer Publishing was an absolute godsend for maladjusted youngsters like myself. They had The House Of Horror and The Seal Of Dracula, as mentioned by Ade above (or mentioned above by Ade - 'Ade above' sounds a bit like 'Ade almighty'...). There was also Zombie: The Living Dead, one about King Kong and Apes movies and something called Freaks: Cinema of the Bizarre. And did anyone have Savage Cinema, 1975, by Rick Trader Witcombe (always liked that name), which was all about ultraviolence in the movies and banned films such as A Clockwork Orange. I think the cover had a picture of Faye Dunaway getting gunned down in full glorious colour in Bonnie & Clyde. My other big favourite, after the blessed Opera Of Violence, was Kung Fu: Cinema of Vengeance, 1974, by Verina Glaessner which, as the titles fairly screams out, was my introduction to the world of Old-School Chop-Socky bashers. I'm forever grateful to the writers and publishers of all the books mentioned here for giving the young me chance to read about, digest, and gaze awestruck at stills from a whole range of films - many of which I wouldn't actually get to see until years later (some of which I still haven't seen) and certainly at the time wouldn't have had a hope in hell of seeing. Growing up in deepest rural Cheshire, with 3 channels on the telly, not even an 8mm movie projector let alone a video player, where was I going to catch Kung Fu The Headcrusher, The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue, or Django The Bastard? The nearest we had to a grindhouse was an old shed with a mangle in it. Thankfully at some point, someone had thought to invent the printing press, and the human imagination did the rest. Sorry for taking this thread about Blood Summer even further off-topic. Mind you, Ade never liked the book anyway...
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jun 24, 2008 12:47:36 GMT
Go Ade and S!
I still have The House Of Horror (The Story Of Hammer Films) with the ol' Twins Of Evil cover, and, of course, Savage Cinema. For years RTW's piece on Straw Dogs in there was the only positive press this film seemed to receive.
Speed : Cinema Of Motion and Ape : The Kingdom Of Kong weren't quite up to scratch, but Cut : The Unseen Cinema was an eye-opener. Cinema Of Mystery, dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe stays in my mind for Arthur Rackham's fantastic picture of the Red Death claiming Prince Prospero - sheer genius!
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jun 24, 2008 12:50:30 GMT
Was there one about Rock 'N' Roll in the cinema too?
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Post by jkdunham on Jun 24, 2008 13:51:10 GMT
Was there one about Rock 'N' Roll in the cinema too? Indeed there was, Celluloid Rock: Twenty Years of Movie Rock by Philip Jenkinson & Alan Warner, 1974... Blackboard Jungle, the Elvis movies, The Beatles films, Woodstock, That'll Be The Day, all good stuff. Speed: Cinema Of Motion never really appealed to me either, wasn't really that fussed about means of transport in the movies (now if it had been completely devoted to Biker movies that would have been another matter entirely). Agree with you on the Cinema of Mystery. Great Rackham cover, I think I've got that same picture on a cheap Wordsworth edition of Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination. It's a beauty. I'd forgotten all about Cut - maybe I had it partly mixed up in my mind with Savage Cinema. You know, in some ways I feel a bit sorry for the younger generation of maladjusted youth. OK, you can get pretty much anything uncut on DVD now but, in our day, we had Leone, Peckinpah, Kubrick... who have they got? Quentin bloody Tarantino. Talking of films with biker gangs, was it the Movie Treasury Science Fiction Movies, or another one, that had some lovely stills in from No Blade Of Grass? I did manage to see that one on late night TV way back but have never seen it since. Love to see it again.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jun 24, 2008 14:04:04 GMT
[ Talking of films with biker gangs, was it the Movie Treasury Science Fiction Movies, or another one, that had some lovely stills in from No Blade Of Grass? I did manage to see that one on late night TV way back but have never seen it since. Love to see it again. Huzzah! My bro had Celluloid Rock too. A weightier tome than some of the others. I'll try and get covers up later. It certainly was the Movie Treasury of SF movies with those gun-totin' bikers with horned crash helmets - as briefly mentioned in the John Christopher - Pendulum thread in the SF bit. Seen once years ago ...ah well....we'll wait for the DVD.
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Post by jkdunham on Jun 24, 2008 14:30:09 GMT
No Blade Of Grass... Saw this once on ITV years ago (why does stuff like this never seem to get shown?) - couldn't wait to see it as a result of a still, possibly in Philip Strick's The Movie Treasury - Science Fiction Movies, depicting a group of rifle-totin' angry bikers, some with horns on their crash helmets. Great maladjusted minds think alike, FM... I think it was the horns that clinched it for me too.
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Post by killercrab on Jun 24, 2008 14:32:54 GMT
Sorry for taking this thread about Blood Summer even further off-topic. Mind you, Ade never liked the book anyway... >>
Strikes me we should rename the thread , Bloody Summers Of Our Youth...
I pal lent me the Spaghetti Western Lorrimer awhile back - brilliant book actually. One thing that I really like about vintage film books is the stills - the huge variety avaliable back then. These days it's a coup if a film book gets a rare shot or two. I find these books as important visually as they are written documents.
Another book worth mentioning is David Pirie's Heritage of Horror. When you realise he was in his late teens when he wrote his synopsis of British gothic cinema and it's so bang on - it blows your mind. The fact he's *still* right suggests this was the most important book on the subject published back then ( possibly ever) , and I still re read his thoughts on Mike Reeves and the (then) new guard of horror cinema plus his appreciation of Terence Fisher before any critics gave a damn...
ade
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jun 24, 2008 14:52:53 GMT
The Lorrimer's were certainly visual Ade. Wish I still had Cut for the still of 'The skinheads confront the Guards in The Breaking Of Bumbo. Probably the reason I bought the book.
I've an original Heritage of Horror - brilliant brilliant book. Anyone got the recent updated version?
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Post by killercrab on Jun 24, 2008 15:16:22 GMT
I've an original Heritage of Horror - brilliant brilliant book. Anyone got the recent updated version? >>
Yes I've got both copies . The revision uses the original as basis - but covers the later period in more detail. Quite alot is basically the same though. Quite alot of typos too - copy editor needed ! If I had to choose - I'd go with the original , but maybe that's sentiment talking.
ade
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jun 24, 2008 16:19:15 GMT
I had the Alan Frank Monsters & Vampires, Horror Movies & Horror Films, and the Gifford Pictorial History, which talked for 99.9999% of the book about black and white movies and then said 'Oh & there's Hammer but they are shit' on the last page, before having that odd couple of double page spreads of obscure stills that his publisher probably made him put in (with stuff I STILL haven't seen - The Murder Clinic? The Phantom of Soho? The Black Cat with that axe in the head shot?).
So Alan Frank became God for a bit, certainly for the entire time that the BBC did their double bills when the books were obsessively thumbed and the pictures gloated over. I would have killed for a copy of Walt Lee's legendary 3 volume Reference Guide to Fantastic Films and to this day I have not seen a copy.
When I got older Phil Hardy's Aurum Encyclopedia was a book I could spend days reading. Most recently my favourite horror film book (and very much a comfort read) is the FAB Press book Ten Years of Terror - British Horror Films of the Seventies.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jun 25, 2008 8:07:04 GMT
, and the Gifford Pictorial History, which talked for 99.9999% of the book about black and white movies and then said 'Oh & there's Hammer but they are shit' on the last page, 'In quantity Hammer are fast approaching Universal, but in quality they have yet to reach Monogram' or some such. Funny how certain things stick in your head, isn't it? Old Denis was a barrel of laughs, but did include those two pictures of Christopher Lee meeting his end (oo-er) in Dracula - Prince Of Darkness and Dracula Has Risen From The Grave - possibly the greatest catalyst ever in making me vow 'one day I will see these films!'
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Post by Jaqhama on Sept 4, 2008 18:28:01 GMT
I always like Blood Summer.
Possibly because I bought and read it in Cornwall, where the story was based. I thought the story was quite good. More eerie than outright horror.
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Post by killercrab on Sept 4, 2008 21:50:38 GMT
and read it in Cornwall >> As did I - still didn't float my boat. ade
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