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Post by dem bones on Nov 14, 2010 19:30:10 GMT
I haven't been able to find a heading for "The Hollywood Nightmare" which was the first Peter Haining book I ever read, and was responsible for introducing me to J G Ballard. Peter Haining (ed.) – The Hollywood Nightmare: Tales of fantasy and horror from the film world (MacDonald, 1970: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1973) Peter Goodfellow Preface – Peter Haining Introduction – Christopher Lee
Ray Bradbury – The Prehistoric Producer Henry Kuttner – The Shadow On The Screen Robert Bloch – Return To The Sabbath August Derleth – A Wig For Miss DeVore William F. Nolan – Death Double Boris Karloff – The Hollywood Horror Man Fritz Leiber – The Casket Demon John Collier – Gavin O’Leary Avram Davidson – Faed-Out Richard Matheson – Mantage Chad Oliver – Technical Adviser J. G. Ballard – The Screen Game Ray Bradbury – Death Warmed Over
One for you, Morgan. It's been such an age since I read this that I've only the vaguest memories of everything bar Bloch's Return To The Sabbath (which seemed to resurface in every third Haining anthology) and, for some bizarre reason, Derleth's A Wig For Miss Devore.
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Post by morganscorpion on Nov 14, 2010 20:11:17 GMT
Thanks!
It is true that few of the stories were memorable, but the volume itself struck in my mind, for it was not only my first ever Peter Haining, but one of the first books I ever bought.
(I started young).
I must dig it out for the Kuttner story (lack of storage space means that a lot of my books are in boxes), and to remind myself what the Bloch story was actually about.
I remember being particularly impressed by the Christopher Lee introduction and the essay by Boris Karloff. Those two men were like gods to me back then.
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Post by sadako on Jan 22, 2011 19:37:51 GMT
Crumbs. This means I was into horror stories at the age of 11!
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Post by dem bones on Feb 23, 2012 9:24:16 GMT
Matt Fox ( Weird Tales, May 1943) August Derleth - A Wig For Miss De Vore: ( Weird Tales, May 1943). "Four dead men, a leg show for the jury, and acquittal". Obnoxious Hollywood diva Sheila De Vore (or Maggie Mutz to her late mother), lands the female lead in Soho Meg, The Titian Murderess, a true story based on the exploits of Meg Peyton, an inoffensive young woman who inexplicably turned killer, tore the hearts from her victims and ate them. Miss De Vore, who labours under the delusion that she is truly an actress, has her people procure Soho Meg's wig, which she'll wear for the duration of the shoot to get in character ... William F. Nolan – Death Double: ( Impact-20, 1963). Stuntman Gayton Webber takes the bruises for 'fearless' Claude Morell aka 'The Yellowstone Kid' in Courage At Cougar's Canyon. Weber makes for the perfect body-double as he bears more than a passing facial resemblance to the lead man, and so he should; he is Morell's doppelgänger, and mightily pissed at the bed-hopping star over his ill treatment of latest conquest. Boris Karloff - The Hollywood Horror Man: Non-fiction. Boris recalls his career as a Bogeyman, cuts to the true ghost story involving Shelley's unhappy wife Harriet Westbrook, and throws in an amusing anecdote relating to a charity baseball match when he turned out to bat in his full Frankenstein's monster regalia. Two I made earlier but have tarted up a bit for the occasion though you'd never notice. Robert Bloch - Return To The Sabbath: ( Weird Tales, July 1938). The brief rise and gruesome fall of Austrian horror actor and black magician Karl Jorla. His first film, Return To The Sabbath, made as a favour to a director friend, is not intended for release, but somehow finds its way to LA where its shown in a burlesque fleapit. Jorla’s stunning turn as a reanimated corpse decides aspiring producer Les Kincaid to sign him up for a Hollywood remake and Jorla jumps at the chance to get out of Austria. His fellow diabolists are furious because Return’s authentic resurrection ceremony exposes secrets of their craft. The director is ritualistically murdered in a Paris hotel and now several shadowy figures show up on set. Jorla see’s the filming through way beyond the call of duty …. Ray Bradbury – The Prehistoric Producer: ( Saturday Evening Post, June 23, 1962). Better known as Tyrannosaurus Rex. Weedy tale of Terwilliger, a put-upon stop-motion animator who subconsciously grafts the face of his despised producer onto the dinosaur lead in Prehistoric Monster.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 7, 2020 19:10:43 GMT
The original hardback runs to eighteen stories (note entirely gratuitous inclusion of Dracula's Guest). Back cover gets my vote for one of the all-time top five coolest photo's of Peter Haining in action. Peter Haining - The Hollywood Nightmare (MacDonald 1970) Preface – Peter Haining Introduction – Christopher Lee
Ray Bradbury – The Prehistoric ProducerRobert Bloch - The Plot is the ThingHenry Kuttner – The Shadow On The Screen Tarleton Fiske [Robert Bloch] – Return To The Sabbath August Derleth – A Wig For Miss DeVoreJohn Jakes - The Man Who Wanted To Be In the Movies Frank Fenton - The Perfect PlotWilliam F. Nolan – Death DoubleRay Russell - Booked Solid Bram Stoker - Dracula's Guest Winston K. Marks - Double Take Charles Beaumont - The New PeopleJohn Collier – Gavin O’Leary Avram Davidson – Faed-Out Richard Matheson – Mantage Chad Oliver – Technical Adviser J. G. Ballard – The Screen Game Ray Bradbury – Death Warmed OverBlurb: As many readers of horror and fantasy fiction will know, Hollywood has in recent years taken many of the top authors in this genre to be scenario and script writers. Some of these have remained in the territory they know best, creating horror films, others have struck out into other fields; all have retained their love for the macabre, for the genre in which they started their writing careers. And not a few have occasionally taken time off from the screen to produce short horror stories set against the Hollywood background which they know so well.
That is the theme of this unique anthology. It is a collection of fantasy and horror stories all with a film background. The contributors, among them Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Avram Davidson and J. G. Ballard, are among the best known in the genre, and not only have most of their stories not been anthologized before, but many of them have never even been published in Britain. All are quite different in approach and plot, but have some startling and chilling things to say about the film business. No doubt they will appeal as much to the film fan as to the devotee of fantasy and horror. Christopher Lee, the doyen of horror film actors, contributes an Introduction.Fritz Leiber's The Casket Demon and Boris Karloff's The Hollywood Horror Man appear in the paperback but not the original hardback edition. According to the editor's story note, The Hollywood Horror Man was "written by Karloff shortly before his death and subsequently only printed in a specialist publication." Can confirm that it first appeared as Houses I Have Haunted in Liberty Magazine, 4th October 1941.
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Post by helrunar on Feb 7, 2020 21:15:56 GMT
I'm ridiculously fond of the dramatization of "A Wig for Miss DeVore" presented on Boris Karloff's Thriller series--it's great fun.
And that jacket photo of the great Mr H is certainly something else. Looks like a snap from Mr H practicing his Las Vegas stand-up act. I can just hear it now: "Folks, lemme tell ya, I don't get no respect..."
H.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 11, 2020 7:36:22 GMT
Jim Mooney Henry Kuttner – The Shadow On The Screen: ( Weird Tales, March 1938). A weird story of Hollywood, and the grisly horror that cast its dreadful shadow across the silver screen as an incredible motion picture was run-off. It is genius director Arnold Keene's ambition to create a masterpiece of weird cinema, no matter that a first attempt, Ape of God, almost finished his career. Now horror hack Pete Haviland learns via 'Hollywood's dirtiest columnist' that Keene is nearing completion of his greatest, most frightening work to date, The Nameless, featuring a cast of unknowns and .... a shadow. The latter is cast by the idol Keene liberated from the ruins of an Aztec Temple, a tentacled monstrosity with an insatiable appetite for human blood. Haviland and girlfriend Ann Howard (female lead in box office smash, Torture Master) are treated to a private screening .... Robert Bloch - The Plot is the Thing: ( MFSF, July 1966: The Living Demons, 1967). There are certainly worse ways to spend a rainy Saturday than to watch a re-run of, say, 'The Wolf Man,' starring Lon Chaney, jr., Bela Lugosi and Maria Ouspenskaya (right! — the old gypsy fortune teller). We suspected all along that horror films are best consumed in moderation, but not for the horrible reason suggested in the story below. Mr. Bloch is the author of a contemporary horror classic, PSYCHO, and we don't doubt that he knows what he's talking about. The perils of Peggy, trapped inside a horror movie, at the mercy of the all-time greatest Hollywood screen monsters. Having narrowly escaped the clutches of Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera, Jack the Ripper & Co., our heroine boards a ship bound for a remote island .... Ray Russell - Booked Solid: ( Rogue, Nov 1961 [as by 'Roger Thorne' ]. Sardonicus and Other Stories, 1961). Lilith Kane's rise to global stardom is meticulously plotted by her mentor, Joe Dunn, the most diabolical agent in Hollywood. As is so often the case, fame comes at the most dreadful price. Winston K. Marks - Double Take: ( Science Fiction Adventures, Dec 1953, as by 'Ken Winney'). They were called the 'double-takes' and the 'horrid-torrids,' the whole country went mad for them. They were more than plain motion pictures - they were a new way of looking at things. After 3D, smell-o-vision, vom-o-rama, the fear flasher & Co., a new gimmick. Spectacles which enable the viewer to experience a movie from the perspective of either the male or female lead, according to their gender. Screen legends Paul Conrad and Gloria Breen, Hollywoods #1 manufactured couple, strike an early blow for Gay rights. John Jakes - The Man Who Wanted To Be In the Movies: (August Derleth [ed.] Dark Mind, Dark Heart, 1962). Suffice to say, with the dubious help of a witchy pal, lovestruck George Rollo gets his wish. A lot of good it does him.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 12, 2020 20:12:11 GMT
Lee Brown Coye Fritz Leiber – The Casket Demon: ( Fantastic, April 1963). When Nordic screen goddess Vividy Sheer spits at Max Rath, her producer: "For me, being in the headlines every day is a matter of life or death," she is not exaggerating. The Rune in the Doomsbook of the Von Sheer's clearly states; "When the world has nothing more to say, the last of the Sheers will fade away" - and it is true. The recent lack of media exposure has already taken a toll - only steel-heeled shoes prevent Vividy floating off into the ether. It is imperative that scandalous front page revelations concerning her love life, addictions, and fashion sense resume immediately. The alternative is unthinkable. A confrontation with the Von Sheer's nemesis - the shape-shifting, soul-stealing casket demon. Frank Fenton - The Perfect Plot: (Haining gives date as 1955, but no clue as to where published). As Joe McCarthy declares open season on Commie sympathisers in the movie industry, Francis Cary is concerned his mildly subversive, zero sales first novel may come back to haunt him. Psychiatrist Davidson Funck has the solution. A pill to purge him of intellectualism, that his future screenplays can't fail but to provide the safe, conservative mediocrity the public (allegedly) desire. The prescription works. Cary's next movie, The Fall of Carthage, mauled by know-it-all critics as banal, maudlin, historically inaccurate garbage, breaks box office records, the first of his several smash hits. Meanwhile his gal, actress Arod Summers, wonders where the man she loved got to - who's this phony plastic replica? John Collier – Gavin O’Leary: ( Fancies and Goodnights, 1951). Cartoon feature. Amazing adventures of a flea actor as he pursues stardom and romance in Hollywood. Richard Matheson – Mantage: (Mary Kornbluth [ed.], Science Fiction Showcase, 1959). Aspiring Hollywood screenwriter Owen Crowley wishes life were more like the movies, "a montage - a series of quickly paced scenes," with all the drudgery consigned to the cutting room floor. Then, a big break. His career takes off. Too late Crowley realises his wish came true, he is living only the edited highlights of an existence, crammed into a slick 85 minutes.
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